BOOKR Class Holiday Calendar 2021

December tends to be a period of reflection, thinking about all the wonderful and/or sometimes challenging events that took place throughout the year. 

For us at BOOKR Class, 2021 was a special one: starting with the launch of a brand new version of our application. This year we were also delighted to partner with amazing new distributors across the globe and to start our first NGO projects in Guatemala and Lebanon, bringing joyful learning experiences to the lives of 300 underprivileged children. We were proud to win world recognized awards such as GESS Education in Dubai and the outstanding rating from the Educational Alliance Finland – the list goes on. 

Meanwhile the number of team members in our BOOKR family grew exponentially making our everyday work even more colourful and memorable. With all the changes and innovations of the past 11 months, we decided to end this year with a 24 day-long celebration of English teaching, education, literature, and most importantly, you. It is our community of teachers that finish what we start and bring BOOKR Class to life, one engaging lesson at a time.

Click on the image of a date to find that day’s gift. (It might open a document or redirect you to a different page.)

No peeking! You can only open the ‘windows’ of days that have already passed, as with a real-life Advent Calendar. Join us! Let us shower you with all kinds of goodies this holiday season!

Extra tip:  Follow the Holiday Calendar campaign on our social media channels as well to participate in all of the giveaways.

Click on the first image for today’s surprise and find the detailed description with links below!

Can you believe it’s winter already? 

Celebrate the beginning of a new season and learn about all 4 of them with your students. Find The Twelve Months on Level 4 – only during the period of advent free of charge. 

If you’re new here, you can request a free trial to check it out.

It’s giveaway time on Instagram! 

Win a Classroom License plan, which is a 12 months subscription for 30 students + 2 teachers, worth 1170 euros in total. The perfect choice for teachers and classes but even for private tutors as well. 

Good luck! 🙂

What do you wish to see under the tree? 

Use the worksheet that fits your class’s age group and level – one elicits the answers and guides the little ones while the other sheet allows them to free their mind, a great freer productive task for the advent period.

Do you use Flashcard teaching strategies in your class? They are a fun and effective way to learn and revise vocabulary, and it can even serve parents as an easy, at-home teaching method.

For the fourth day of advent, we’ve created this adorable set of cards for you to teach your students – or children at home –  the basic vocabulary of winter holidays.  

The second Sunday of Advent in 2021, another exciting book becomes available in the app for all users: Santas Around the World on Level 3.

Did you know that in Hawaii instead of reindeers, Santa has dolphins helping him? Or that in Russia, Santa travels with his granddaughter on Christmas Eve? 

Learn more about cultural diversity and how different nations celebrate Christmas with your students next week.

Saint Nicholas Day – when Santa Claus is coming to town!

Did you know that Saint Nicholas – who became an inspiration for the modern-day Santa Claus – is known for selling all his possessions and giving his money to poor children. Nicholas Day is celebrated greatly in the coastal regions of northwestern and central Europe. 

Children leave their shoes or stockings outside of their bedroom door or window and Saint Nicholas leaves them small treats. Sounds like fun, right? 

Well, you do not need to leave your shoes or stockings outside to receive treats from us today! We are surprising you with a sweet little poem about gifts, Santa and Christmas, written by our very own Educational Team. It’s great to practice Christmas related lexis and even the Present Simple with your students. We hope you’ll have a beautiful day!

Receive a 20% discount on any BOOKR Class subscription!

Christmas gift shopping can be overwhelming. Let us help you out! 

Purchase any BOOKR Class plan  in our webshop and use the coupon code HOLIDAYCALENDAR2021 to receive a 20% discount.

It’s time to decorate your classroom with our DIY Christmas Garland!

Do you usually follow seasonality when it comes to your classroom decor? This week, plan a fun activity at the end of a lesson to cool down: all you need is a piece of string that will give you the body of the garland, some glue, and BO bunny’s coloring worksheet with 6 different designs. Happy decorating!

When it comes to the Holidays, what is it that pops into your mind? Great food, Christmas lights and presents under the tree? Or maybe those heart-warming moments that we get to spend with our loved ones? 

Whether Christmas is part of your culture or not, here’s something we can all relate to: the importance of friends and family. Let’s dedicate an English lesson to talk about relationships and the lexis related to family. We got the perfect flashcard set to help you make this class engaging! 

Let’s get creative! These past few days we shared with you free materials to improve productive and receptive skills such as writing, listening, reading but even vocabulary and grammar as well. To cool down at the end of the week, we planned a creativity boost for your little ones in the classroom.

Do you know how to draw a reindeer? Now our amazing designers at BOOKR share their secret: how would they draw a reindeer in a BOOKR Class digital book? 

Let’s all become children’s book illustrators for the day! 

Follow the instructions presented in our video and share your students’ creations with us using the hashtag #bookrholidaycalendar. 

There are no worksheets, flashcard sets, books, or activity tips today. It’s Saturday! 

Let’s take a break from work and focus on your own well-being. 

Do you feel tired, overwhelmed, and less productive this time of year? Then you may be experiencing the so-called end-of-year fatigue. Why? Common contributors include impending deadlines as we rush to finish all the things we haven’t gotten around to.

Your students would want their favourite teacher to stay happy and healthy, you can only give them as much as you have within. Easier said than done, right? 

Let’s dive right in then, and see some practical ways of overcoming fatigue and avoiding burnout before Santa finally comes to town. 

It’s easy to over-commit when you have a long list of things that need doing, and that is not only mentally draining but also counterproductive. Try creating your to-do list the day before and stick to it! Keep it simple and realistic.

We know it’s easy to get caught up in your tasks in busy times, but sleep deprivation will only make it worse: it makes your mind foggy from weariness, it affects your mood and productivity. Create a cozy environment in your bedroom that will help you feel relaxed and sleepy: clear the clutter, have comfortable and warm bedding, and turn off your phone and TV.

If relaxation is your primary motivation for a mug of tea, start by choosing a caffeine-free herbal tea. The best herbs for a cozy feel-good moment are chamomile, lavender, peppermint, oat flower, or lemon balm. There is another amazing tea that we love – especially around the holidays – for not only its health benefits but the incredible fragrance that will fill your home as soon as you start preparing it. This delicious tea aids in digestion, strengthens the nervous system and gives you energy. It can support joint health, gut health and it’s a great preventative measure for colds, flu, and allergies. So why wait? Let’s look at our recipe!

Ingredients: 

• 5 Cloves
• 7 black peppercorns
• 1 sticks of cinnamon
• 7 whole cardamon pods (split pods first)
• 4 ginger slices
• Water

• Black tea (optional, not recommended before going to bed) 
• Honey (optional)

Bring it to boil, add all ingredients, and let it brew for about 20-30 minutes. Let it cool a bit before adding the honey if you like. Now all you need is a cozy blanket, a nice book, or your favourite TV series and you are good to go. Let the recharging begin!

You know that self-forgetting happiness that we experience when we do something we really enjoy? That is called the flow state: it’s the mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus. No room for stress, no mental planning for the next activity, just you and that task. Plan one thing a day that makes you happy: 30 minutes that is just about you. Yoga, running, a quick dance session to your favourite songs, coloring – anything that requires your undivided attention.

While we believe in quality screen time, a healthy balance is necessary. If you can’t do days, try tech-free hours when you do not go near your phone, tablet or computer – especially not your social media accounts.

Another free book in the app: My Grandparents are the Best

Last week we talked a lot about family and friends. Let’s continue with this sweet story about grandparents that is now available in the Library app for free! 

Find the book on Level 3 and plan a fun lesson practicing adverbs of frequency, superlatives and comparatives. 

Let’s see where we stand: the classroom is decorated, the letter is sent to Santa and hopefully you had a chance to recharge this weekend with our relaxation tips – what else could make this advent period more memorable?

That’s right, the amazing fragrance that lingers through the whole house after baking a batch of our favourite gingerbread cookies. 🍪Not so fast though, let’s make the most out of this topic and learn about different measurements in the US, the lexis of ingredients that we often use in the kitchen and some imperative for grammar. After a fun and effective English class, a delicious gingerbread treat will be well deserved. 

It’s giveaway time, again! 

This time we thought we’d surprise you, dear families because we are giving away a yearly Family plan with up to 3 children profiles that can be added to the system. What better gift for Christmas than 400 animated books and even more games? 

Another window in the Holiday Calendar, another exciting activity tip to use in your English lessons. This time, we wanted to make your students practice speaking and using Holiday-related lexis while getting to know one another a bit better.

There are two snowmen next to each other. Students work in pairs: they both complete how they celebrate Christmas by answering certain questions.

The list goes on – and of course, these can be adjusted to the level and age that you’re teaching. There will be answers that are different and there will be things that the two students have in common.

Download the worksheet and enjoy getting to know your class a little bit better 🙂

Join our ‘Draw this in your style’ challenge!

We love that our book illustrators and graphic designers have such unique talent and they give each and every book they illustrate a piece of their own personality.

The draw this in your style challenge is a great way of showing how every individual perceives the same concept differently. We asked our designers to draw BO bunny’s Christmas adventures – but to let their own personality shine through the artwork.

We hope you enjoy this little video and join the challenge with your children or students. 

Use the hashtag #dtiys and #dtiysbookrclass on Instagram or Facebook so that we can see your amazing drawings.

One week until Christmas!

From today until the big day, you can find another amazing book available in the app for anyone: Christmas Surprise

“It’s the best time of the year, when everybody is happy. Everyone gets presents too!” 

Find the book on Level 2 to read more 🎄

Getting closer and closer to the big day, we planned a relaxing activity to keep your students busy and calm your nerves, in case you needed it. 

Did you know that coloring has the ability to relax the fear center of your brain? It induces the same state as meditating by reducing the thoughts of a restless mind. This generates mindfulness and quietness and it allows your mind to get some rest after a long day at work – or during a long day at work. 

Free your mind and enjoy the last days with your students before winter break! 

Christmas is almost in town.

The fourth Sunday of the advent period is finally here, let’s celebrate with another free book in the BOOKR Class library. Meet Robin, Santa’s cutest elf who will show you how people get ready for the holiday season. It will put you in a Christmas mood in no time! 

Last days before winter break, hang in there, we got your back! 

A little bit of healthy competition can motivate children, making the class exciting. Divide your students into groups and have them take the Christmas Quiz we created for them. You can spice up some of the questions with follow-up conversations, songs and even movie clips or commercial videos. 

Go crazy with that last lesson before the well-deserved rest underneath the mistletoe. 

Spoiler alert, we are revealing the correct answers here: 1.A  2.C  3.C  4.B  5.C  6.A

The last chance to win a subscription this year, this time calling all private tutors!

Win a Mini Group Licence, the perfect plan for up to 10 students with unlimited access and a Teacher’s Dashboard account.

Find all the details on Instagram, comment there to play. Good luck!

After learning how to draw a reindeer, we are inviting you to spend another day as a book illustrator – but this time we are going to draw an elf. Let’s dive in!

This window hides an updated blog post that we originally published last Christmas. Its author, an amazing family psychologist, explains the ways Christmas has changed in the light of these past years and the meaning and benefits of a minimalist Christmas. This topic stands perfectly in 2021 – if not even more – which is why we decided to revisit the topic. We hope you’ll enjoy this short read!

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Well, maybe not the New Year yet, let’s not jump ahead 🙂 

In all seriousness, it’s time to open the last window of our Holiday Calendar this year, revealing the last surprise. We thought long and hard how to wish you an amazing, peaceful, heartfelt holiday season only to realize that no words can compare to a melody. 

Find a brand new karaoke song in the app and sing along with the whole family. It might be a new addition to our animated book collection, but it’s actually an all time favorite Christmas song.

‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’ can be found on Level 5. And we really do wish you a very Merry Christmas, our dear users, followers and visitors. Thank you for embarking on this Holiday journey with us these last 24 days.

See you in 2022!