B1 – Christmas mystery (modal verbs of speculation)

Forget the usual Christmas lesson plans where you talk about your favorite and least favorite gifts🎁, what you enjoy about holiday meals🍴, and all those holiday clichés🎅🏽. Try this Christmas ESL mystery lesson instead – check out a fun Waitrose ad and dive into solving the mystery of the missing Christmas pudding, all while picking up some modal verbs of speculation along the way.

Just one more week of classes until Christmas! I know a lot of you are probably on the hunt for fun and memorable lessons for your students. I was in the same boat, searching for a cool video or audio that would get everyone in the holiday spirit when I stumbled upon the perfect find. Actually, make that two perfect finds! Waitrose put together some awesome, authentic content that’s holiday-themed, super fun, and perfect for teaching modal verbs of speculation.

If you’re interested in this lesson plan, check it out below. You can also scroll to the end of the post to grab the PDF version of the presentation, plus get the worksheet and teacher’s notes for any in-person classes.

Warmer: What might be going on?

Even though the first picture doesn’t really connect to the rest of the lesson, I decided to include it because I want students to use the speculation phrases they already know. They’ll look at a picture of an upset woman in a Christmas outfit and use phrases like I think that…, I believe that…, or It looks like she… to guess what might have happened to her.

Let’s start by chatting about any mysterious stuff that’s happened to students during Christmas. Pair up with someone and swap your best stories. Once everyone’s done, we can share some of the coolest ones from different pairs and see how they compare.

Listening for Gist: Sweet Suspicion – The Waitrose Mystery

Check out the Sweet Suspicion: The Waitrose Mystery video where a family gets together to celebrate Christmas. But things take a turn when something suspicious goes down during the party. This Christmas ESL mystery lesson uses the video to spark discussion and speculation. After watching, let’s chat about what went down. (Spoiler alert: someone steals the Christmas pudding!)🍮

Listening for Detail: Matching Alibis

I’d recommend checking out the video once without any subtitles first. The accent might be a little tricky at times, so it could be helpful to give it another watch, this time paying attention to the vocabulary. Show students a picture of all the family members along with their alibis, like peeling parsnips or making cranberry sauce. Watch the video again and see if they can match the people to what they were doing. To wrap it up, have them say the answers in full sentences, like, The grandmother was making the cranberry sauce.

Grammar Focus: Modal Verbs of Speculation

Let’s talk about modal verbs of speculation for a minute. Since I’m planning this class for B1-level students, I’m keeping it simple and focusing on how to use these verbs in the present tense only. But if you’re working with higher-level students, feel free to throw in some past tense examples! When we’re speculating about the present, we’ve got a few modal verbs to choose from: must tells us there’s a really high chance something is true (like 90-100% certainty), while might, may, or could suggest there’s a possibility (think 30-70%). And if you want to say something definitely isn’t true, you can use can’t, which also gives us that strong negative certainty (90-100%). Just remember, after these modal verbs, you need to follow up with a verb in its infinitive form. To wrap this up, let’s have the students read and fill in three sentences with the right modal verbs of speculation, and place them in the correct parts of the table.

Speaking: Who took the pudding?

Let’s go back to the Christmas video. Use what we just learned to talk about who the pudding thief might be. Students should write six sentences like, It can’t be the grandmother because she was busy making the cranberry sauce. I thought it would be better to use the present tense here to tie in with the modal verbs of speculation we discussed earlier. If you want to switch it up for past tense, just ask, Who stole the Christmas pudding?

Video Reveal: Watch the Mystery Get Solved!

Once you gather all the answers and pick who you think the suspect is, check out the second part of the video, A Waitrose Mystery: Solved, and find out if you were right! It’s a good idea to chat about whether everyone expected that kind of ending and if it surprised them at all. (No spoilers here – just watch it yourself!)

Speaking Game: The Christmas Chameleon

I’ve been thinking about how to wrap up this class in a cool way that brings everything together, and I finally came up with the idea – The Christmas Chameleon! Everyone except one student gets the same prompt to respond to with just one word. The one student is the chameleon, meaning they get a similar question and have to answer it, plus be ready to back it up. Check out the answer below to get the hang of the rules for this game:

• Majority: What is your favourite part of Christmas dinner?
• Chameleon: What is your favourite Christmas dessert?

Each student answers the question in a natural way, trying not to spoil the prompt. The chameleon listens in and tries to fit in without letting anyone know they have a different question. After everyone talks, they take a guess at who the chameleon is, using modal verbs.

• It can’t be Maria because she mentioned turkey, and that’s part of the main course.
• It might be Pablo because his answer was too general.

I totally think this Christmas ESL mystery lesson is one I’ll want to come back to every holiday season. It’s super flexible for different skill levels and can easily be done online or in-person! If you’re not sure how to play The Christmas Chameleon online, it’s really simple. Just shoot private messages to all your students, and you’re good to go!

Tired of the same old repetitive Christmas lesson plans? What creative activities do you incorporate into your lessons to bring the holiday spirit to life?

B1 – Christmas mystery