Little by little the interviews are taking shape. Don't forget to practice at home so you don't forget the questions and the answers.

Yesterday we learned some new verbs we can use when talking about holidays or vacations. We studied the past forms:

Verb                          Past

Arrive                       Arrived

Take (photos)           Took

Come                        Came
          
Rent                          Rented

Visit                          Visited

Stay                           Stayed


Which verbs are irregular?

We practiced the question in the past What did they do then? and students answered with sentences in the past: they arrived... , they rented a car or they ate in a restaurant. 

We listened to 4 people talked about their holidays and completed and exercise.

Later we rehearsed the interviews.

HOMEWORK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da1FN3Br2k4

Watch the video and say:

5 boring  things people did on vacation.
5 fun things people did on vacation.
3 sentences you can use to say that you liked your vacation.

Yesterday we started a new unit about holidays.

First we talked about holiday places: we can have a holiday at the beach, in the mountains, in a city, at a ski resort, in the countryside, in a village, etc.

Then, we talked about the activities we can do in those places.

At the beach or at the seaside:

We can swim
We can sunbathe
We can make sandcastles
We can play
We can fish (in the sea)
We can walk
We can surf
We can practice other water sports
We can relax

In the mountains:

We can climb
We can hike
We can enjoy nature

In the countryside:

We can walk and hike.
We can swim or swim in a river.
We can go for a picnic.
We can look at birds and other animals.
We can enjoy nature.

In the city:

We can go sightseeing.
We can take photos.
We can go to museums.
We can go to an amusement park.
We can eat in restaurants.

During the second part of the class we were rehearsing the interviews. Students had done a good job making up their characters so things went quite well. We have some high school students, a police woman, 2 beggars, a mother and a daughter, some university students, we are going to have a married couple, but they are not ready yet. Let's hope they are for next week.

HOMEWORK

Write a paragraph about your last holiday. Use the Simple Past.

Ex:

Last summer I went to my grandparents' house. They live at the seaside. Every morning, my brother and I went to the beach with my grandmother. My grandmother sunbathed and my brother and I swam and made sandcastles. 
In the evenings we went walking with my grandfather. He likes to walk around the beach and the port and talk to everybody. Then, my grandfather sat at a cafe to drink a beer with some friends and my brother and I played with other children. 
We enjoyed our holidays a lot.

Last Thursday we started working on our project. Where were you, Laura? I hope you read the blog and keep up to date.

First we watched one of those Real English videos that we are going to try to imitate in our project. This one was about astrological signs. It was fun. The main questions were:

What's your astrological sign?
And
What are Capricorns (or Taurus, or Aries, or any other sign)  like?

Students wrote down questions to ask in the interviews. They wrote a bunch of them:

What's your name?

What's your surname?

Aye you married?

Do yo have children?

What's your astrological sign?

Etc.

We also planned the characters students will play in the interviews. We are going to have some high school students, a mother and a daughter, a mother and a baby, some university students, 2 beggars ( that is very original, etc.

HOMEWORK

1/This time homework is very easy. You only have to invent your character's biography.

Imagine you are a high school student. You have to think of:

Your name.
Your last name.
Your age.
City where you live.
Name of your school.
Your astrological sign.
Your favorite subject.
What you like to do in your free time.
Your best friend's name.
Etc.


2/ Last week's irregular verbs in the past.

eat - ate
write - wrote
read - read (/ri:d/ - /red/)
do - did
make - made
sleep - slept
say - said
go - went
have - had
buy - bought

This week's irregular verbs in the past.

sell - sold
come - came
see - saw
hear - heard
leave - left
speak - spoke
pay - paid
ride - rode
drive - drove
sing - sang

My homework:
My favorite hobby is ride a horse. I ride a horse in the Hippic Club of Leganes, on saturdays, With my friends.

I see Sara has not been in the blog. Or anybody else.

Come on, students, just give it a try! Maybe you'll be able to log on.

Last week we did some more talking about hobbies and free time activities. We listened to some young people talk about theirs and say what's their hobby or favorite free time activity, when and how often they spend time on it, who they share it with,  how they started, where they do it.

We also studied the Simple Past and how to make it and use it. We divided verbs into regular and irregular verbs.

Regular verbs: you make the past form by adding -ed or -d to the infinitive. The pronunciation depends on the ending sound of the infinitive. We have 3 groups:

Verbs ending with a voiced sound:

-ed is pronounced /d/

Ex: played, lived, cleaned.

Verbs ending with a voiceless sound 

-ed is pronounced  /t/

Ex: talked, liked, washed, danced.

Verbs ending with the sounds /d/ or /t/ 

-ed is pronounced /id/

Ex: wanted, decided, started.

We practiced the pronunciation of verbs from those 3 groups. If you want a little more practice go to the link:http://www.englishw.com/PastPronunciation.php  You must click on the Listen bubble next to each group of verbs.

Irregular verbs: we need to learn the past form for each individual verb.
Some past forms you must study:

eat - ate
write - wrote
read - read (/ri:d/ - /red/)
do - did
make - made
sleep - slept
say - said
go - went
have - had
buy - bought

I'll ask you next Thursday.

HOMEWORK
You already know what you have to do. Write about your hobby or one of your favorite free time activities. Answer all the questions above: what, when, how often, how, where, who... with. You don't need to write down the questions, only the answers as if you were talking to a friend about that topic. Illustrate it with a picture or two: it may be a photo from the Internet, a magazine or your own drawing if you want.

Do your best!

I hope I am still in time. It's been a hard week for me.

Anyway, last week was a bit different because it was Halloween. During the first hour we continued with our topic: free time activities. Students had to listen to a recording: several people  talked about what they did when they had free time. Students had to choose the right answer in their worksheet.

We practiced the following questions:

What do you like doing in your spare time?

What do you do in your free time?

How often do you ... (play basketball)?

To answer the last question we learned the words: once, twice, 3, 4, 5, 6 and so on times.  You can say once a day, or once a week, once a month, once a year. Twice a day, twice a week, etc.

Students had to fill in a chart about their free time activities naming the activity, how often they did it, and who they did it with. Then they had to interview a partner and answer the partner's questions.

HOMEWORK

Ask your family: parents and brother or sister if you have them:

What do you do in your free time?
How often do you...?  Ex: How often do you read books? Every weekend.
Who do you ... with?  Ex: Who do you go shopping with? With my sister.

Just write about 1 or 2 activities each person of your family does.