Ice and Snow Festival
WORKSHEET
1. Suggested Use
Art and culture focus, followed by A1-level vocabulary and grammar activities.
2. Suggested Activities
A. Project-based learning
Students work in small groups to create a visitor guide for tourists arriving in Harbin for the festival. They use information from the videoscript and make notes of the most important information. They then do additional research online to make their visitor guide to present to the class.
B. Mediation task: Translating a written text
Students act as language helpers for classmates who don’t understand some of the higher-level words from the video. Have students look through the videoscript and identify words or phrases that are challenging or they don’t know, e.g. sculpture, sculptor, festival, melt, artist, tool, shape. Have students work in pairs to try and understand the meaning from context, and write a definition and example sentence in English. Have them use a dictionary if necessary.
C. Pronunciation task: Word stress in compound nouns
Elicit, practise and drill the stress pattern in two-word compounds (the first word stressed, second weaker), e.g. ICE festival, SNOW sculpture, ICE city, SNOW artist.
3. Vocabulary
Art
festival
artist
sculptor
sculpture
tool
shape
melt
shine
clear
Adjectives
melt
shine
clear
simple
beautiful
hard
short
Weather
cold
ice
melt
snow
4. Grammar
Subject-verb agreement:
Harbin is a city in the north of China; It is very cold; A sculpture is a kind of art; There are hundreds of snow sculptures at the festival.
Present Simple (for habits and general truths):
Artists come from around the world; They make snow and ice sculptures; He is happy that many people can see it.; The festival turns snow and ice into something beautiful.
Noun phrases with ‘of’:
the north of China; the city of Harbin; millions of people
Articles: a / an / the:
Harbin is a city in the north of China; There is a big festival in Harbin; A sculpture is a kind of art; The art melts after a short time; The festival turns snow and ice into something beautiful.
TRANSCRIPT
Ice and Snow Festival
NARRATOR:
Harbin is a city in the north of China. In winter, it is very cold. But the cold helps make something special: snow and ice art. There is a big festival in Harbin called the Ice and Snow Festival. Every year, artists from around the world come to the festival. They make snow and ice sculptures. A sculpture is a kind of art. People make it by cutting or shaping something, like ice. A sculptor is a person who makes this kind of art. The sculptors work for four days. They use simple tools to make beautiful snow sculptures. They work hard, but the art melts after a short time. Sculptor Morton Burke says it’s OK that the art melts. He is happy that many people can see it.
SOUNDBITE - Morton Burke:
"It doesn’t last, but it’s fast to do and it’s exciting to do, you know. When we are doing this work we are getting excited. And it’ll last a month. And here in Harbin, millions of people will see it. So that makes me happy.”
NARRATOR:
There are hundreds of snow sculptures at the festival. You can also see ice sculptures around the city. Ice sculptures are different from snow sculptures. They look clear, like glass. They shine in the sun. There are many shapes, all made of ice. The festival turns snow and ice into something beautiful.