Holiday Activities
Senior 1 · English
Holiday Activities
Lesson 3 of 5
22 min
Let's begin
Not every holiday is a trip to a national park. Many students spend the holidays helping at home, on the farm, at a camp or with relatives, and those holidays make good stories too. For the school magazine, Ingabire interviewed three classmates. Her job depended on asking good questions about the past, and that is the grammar of this lesson.
UMUCYO NEWS · HOLIDAY SURVEY
What did S1 do in December? By Ingabire, S1 C1. Mutoni
Where did you spend the holidays? On my grandparents' farm in Nyagatare.
What did you do there? I helped with the maize harvest, and I milked the cows every morning at six. We took the milk to the collection centre on a bicycle.
Was it hard work? Yes, it was! My hands hurt after the first day. But I drank fresh milk every day, and my grandfather taught me the names of all forty cows.
2. Ntwari
Did you travel anywhere? No, I didn't. I stayed in Kigali.
So how did you spend your time? I joined a free coding camp at the youth centre in our sector. It lasted two weeks.
Who taught you? Two university students. They were volunteers.
What did you learn? We learned to make a simple game in Scratch. Mine was about a goat that jumps over rocks. My little brother played it for three hours!
3. Uwimana
Who did you visit? My grandmother in Huye.
How did you get there? By bus. The journey took about three hours.
What was the best part? The Ethnographic Museum. I saw old baskets, drums and the tools that people used long ago. Grandmother told me she used a clay pot like the one in the museum when she was a girl.
Did you do anything else? Yes. On the last Saturday of the month, we joined Umuganda in Grandmother's village. We cleaned the road to the market.
Ingabire's conclusion: Only one of the three people I interviewed went on a trip for fun, but all three learned something new. Maybe the best holiday is the one where you learn!
Your teacher reads the survey aloud with two classmates. Listen and complete the table; then read the text to check.
| Student | Where? | Main activity | One detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mutoni | … | … | … |
| Ntwari | … | … | … |
| Uwimana | … | … | … |
| Word | Meaning | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| harvest | to gather crops when they are ready; also the time of doing it | I helped with the maize harvest. |
| milk (verb) | to take milk from a cow or goat | I milked the cows every morning. |
| collection centre | a place where farmers bring milk or crops to sell | We took the milk to the collection centre. |
| camp | an organised programme of activities, often in the holidays | Ntwari joined a coding camp. |
| volunteer | a person who works without being paid | The teachers at the camp were volunteers. |
| last (verb) | to continue for a length of time | The camp lasted two weeks. |
| museum | a building where old or interesting objects are shown | We visited the Ethnographic Museum in Huye. |
| relatives | members of your family | Many students visit relatives in the holidays. |
| Umuganda | community work in Rwanda, on the last Saturday of each month | We cleaned the road during Umuganda. |
Definition
Yes-no question in the past: Did + subject + base verb: Did you travel anywhere? With the verb be: Was it hard work? Were they volunteers?
Subject question: a question in which who or what is the subject of the verb. It has no did: Who taught you? (Answer: Two students taught me.)
| Question word | Auxiliary | Subject | Base verb | Question from the survey |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| – | Did | you | travel | Did you travel anywhere? |
| Where | did | you | spend | Where did you spend the holidays? |
| What | did | you | do | What did you do there? |
| Who | did | you | visit | Who did you visit? |
| How | did | you | get | How did you get there? |
| How long | did | it | last | How long did it last? |
| Type | Pattern | Example | Short answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| With be | Was, Were + subject…? | Was it hard work? Were they volunteers? | Yes, it was. Yes, they were. |
| Subject question | Who, What + past verb…? | Who taught you? What happened next? | Two university students. |
| Asking for opinion | What was…? How was…? | What was the best part? How was the journey? | The museum. It was long but fun. |
Worked example
Build Ingabire's question for this answer: The camp lasted two weeks.
Compare the subject question: Two students taught Ntwari. Ask about the subject: Who taught Ntwari? No did, and the verb stays in the past.
Warning
Tip
Pronunciation: in natural speech Did you joins into one sound, "didja": Didja travel anywhere? Yes-no questions rise at the end ↗; wh-questions fall ↘: Where did you spend the holidays? ↘
Spelling: the question mark goes at the end of the question only, not after the short answer: Was it hard work? Yes, it was.
Easy English Conversations, Episode 13: talk about what you did last weekend, BBC Learning English (5 minutes). Write down every question the presenters ask, and mark each one as a yes-no question or a wh-question.
Interview three classmates about their last holidays. Ask at least five questions each, including one yes-no question, one question with was or were, and one subject question. Record the answers in a table like Ingabire's.
A: Where did you spend the holidays?
B: At home in Kayonza.
A: What did you do?
B: I sold mangoes at the market with my mother.
A: Was it busy?
B: Yes, it was, especially before Christmas.
A: Who helped you?
B: My cousin Aline.
A: What was the best part?
B: Counting the money at the end of the day!
Write a short report (80–100 words) for the school magazine about your survey. Say how many people you interviewed, what each did, and end with a conclusion, as Ingabire did. Use reported facts in the simple past; do not copy the questions.
I interviewed three students from S1 B about their December holidays. Kevin stayed at home in Kayonza and sold mangoes at the market with his mother; he said the busiest day was the day before Christmas. Aline travelled to Rusizi and helped her uncle, who is a fisherman on Lake Kivu. Didier joined a football camp in Nyamirambo, and his team won a small tournament. Two of the three students worked during the holidays, and all of them enjoyed it. Perhaps a holiday doesn't need to be a rest to be a good one.
Practice
Sources and credits
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
