I hope you enjoyed your graduation. And I also hope I see you some of you this afternoon. Not all of you, I know some students are gone for the summer or for a holiday.

Anyway, it was too bad about the play, because you were doing very well. Maybe next year you can
perform it.

Today we'll be watching stories and playing games.

What's your favorite fairy tale?  My favorite fairy tale is Pinocchio.  What's Pinocchio about?

It's about a wooden puppet.
There is an old man in the story.
The wooden puppet has many adventures.

Those are clues: they tell you a little bit about the story so you can guess the story.


HOMEWORK

Choose your own story and write 3 clues. 

There are many stories you can choose from: Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White and the 7 dwarfs, Hansel and Gretel, The Princess and the Pea, The Three Little Pigs, The Beauty and the Beast, and so on.

Here is a link to a video with fragments of fairy tales: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPc05lcrkdQ

Hello!

I hope you had a good time yesterday.

In our last class the students got together with a group of older students who had planned some activities related to the summer holidays. Summer is almost here. Well, it is so hot that it feels like summer already.  Chidren are very excited now they are getting to the end of the school year.

Here is a task for you. It will help you for next week´s test.

HOMEWORK:

Write about an imaginary family. (At least four people, parents and two children, a pet if you want).Say:

What do the parents do? What does each one do in his/her job? Where do they work? Do they like their jobs? What qualities do they need to do that job?

What are the children like? Talk about their qualities.

 Example

We are four in our family, my parents, my brother and I. And our cat Cookie, of course. 

My mother is a waitress at a restaurant. She serves dinners from Tuesday to Sunday. She works from five to ten in the evening. She is very fast and friendly and her customers like her very much.

 My  father is a factory worker. He works in a car factory. He is very patient, but he doesn´t like his job very much. He wants to have a shop.

My brother is ten years old. His name is Paul. He is strong and runs very fast. He likes sports, but he is not a very good student. 

And I am Amy, I am 12 years old. I am very nice and have many friends. People say I am clever and talkative. I like reading books and going out with my friends. 

Do you want to know about Cookie? He is lazy and unfriendly, he sleeps all day, but we like him because sometimes he is sweet and playful.

That is my family, is it very different from your family?   

Last Thursday we started a new unit about shopping. We listened to a recording and found out what 3 different characters bought.

These are some af the words you need to know how to spell for this unit:

boots
calculator
CD
clothes
sandals
shoes
shop
sunglasses
swimsuit
trainers
website

So, what clothes do you wear to go to the beach?
You probably wear a swimsuit, sandals or flip flops, a pair of shorts and a T-shirt.

We also practiced that kind of questions and corrected the homework.
Students had a bit of difficulty doing part of their homework, understanding the reading and deciding which question could be answer with the information given in the text.

The questions to choose from were:

1.What does he look like? 
2.What is he like?
3.What does he like?

A possible answer for 1.: He is tall and strong and he´s got blue eyes.
A possible answer for 2: He is clever, kind and friendly.
A possible answer for 3.: He likes reading and watching films.

HOMEWORK
1. Answer those 3 questions about 3 people: somebody in your family and 2 friends.
2.Read the passage and select the best the sentence that is true.

One of my favorite vacation places is Mexico. I really like the weather there because it never gets cold. The people are very nice too. They never laugh at my bad Spanish. The food is really good. Mexico City is a very interesting place to visit. It has some great museums and lots of fascinating old buildings. The hotels are too expensive to stay but there are more affordable options. For example, you can stay at one of the beach resorts like Acapulco. If you are planning to visit Mexico, you should definitely see the Mayan temples near Merida.

1.
Sam likes warm weather
Sam doesn't like warm weather at all
Sam hates warm water
Sam likes cold weather
2.
His Spanish is very good
He speaks Spanish very well
He is Spanish
He doesn't speak Spanish very well
3.
There's a lot to see and do in Mexico
There aren't a lof of beautiful places in Mexico
Mexico is a dirty place
Tourists never come to Mexico
4.
Hotels are very cheap in Mexico
The hotels aren't comfortable there
Hotels are all poor in Mexico
The hotels in Mexico are pretty expensive

Hello again!

Yesterday we checked the homework and then we continued with the unit on jobs and the qualities we need to have to do those jobs.

Teacher explained the questions:

What is he like? Possible answer: He is very tall and has got long hair. He is shy but very talented. He is a great singer.

What does he look like? Possible answer: He is very tall and has got long hair. He's got blue eyes. He is really good looking.

What does he like? Possible answer: He loves singing and he also like sports, particularly basketball.

We listened to a girl talk about the job she is going to do when she leaves school.

There were a couple of verbs in the listening we must learn:

leave left
pick up (regular)

Examples:

I leave home at 9:00 o'clock every morning.

She left Madrid and she never came back.

She picks up the animals in her arms.

I picked up my clothes and put them in the wardrobe.


Another thing we practiced and you must learn is I am afraid of. The girl in the listening is not afraid of picking up animals like dogs or cats.

Students said what they are going to be when they leave school. One student is going to be an architect, another one in going to be a vet, etc.

In the first part of the lesson we rehearsed the play. Students are working at learning their lines by heart.

HOMEWORK

What are you afraid of? 
Say 5 things you are afraid of. Examples:
I am afraid of rats.
I am afraid of making mistakes. (When you use a verb, the verb is in the -ing form).

http://www.rong-chang.com/easyread/es/easy135.htm

Read the passage and say: What question can we answer by reading this passage?

What is he like? 
What does he look like?
or
What does he like?

Last Thursday we continued studying adjectives to describe personality or character. We also explained why somebody is generous, hardworking, kind and so on.

We listened to a recording of 6 conversations and had to decide what adjective described best the person they were talking about.

But before that we rehearsed the play. Students are already learning their lines.

HOMEWORK

What qualities do you need to be a ....?

An acrobat

A clown

A vet

A waiter

A nurse

A teacher

A shop assistant.

A cook

A secretary

A dentist

Choose from these qualities: gentle, friendly, polite, patient, brave, funny, careful, kind, quick, organized, creative, outgoing, hardworking.
You don't need to use all of them and you can repeat them.
Make sentences like this example: A cook needs to be creative.

Hi again!

You already know what you have to do for homework so I wrote other blogs before yours this time.

You are doing a good job with the play. I must say you are the best pronouncing group that I have. Good Violeta: your reading was much better last week. It wasn't bad the first time, but I noticed you were applying the corrections I made.

Apart from that, last week we finished reading about some professions and then we listened to the recording.
Various people talk about their jobs and say what qualities are important to do those jobs. A vet, for instance, needs to be gentle, because animals are usually scared when they go to the surgery.
And acrobat needs to be brave. A shop assistant needs to be friendly. A security guard needs to be strong. A nurse needs to be kind. And a clown needs to be funny.

Those are some examples. So we could talk about more jobs we studied adjectives to describe personality.

We can ask:

What's your P.E. teacher like?

She is strong, fast and friendly.

But of course, we can use these adjectives just to talk about people and say what they are like. So, for homework you have to find a person who has one of those qualities. For instance, generous, Who do you know who is really generous? Your friend, your brother, your grandma...?
Say who is the person and then explain why you think that person has that quality.

Example  My neighbor is very kind. He always helps old people with the shopping bags.

I don't remember how many qualities you had to choose. I think I said 7 or 8.

See you next Thursday.

Hi!

Yesterday we checked the homework, which took quite a while, and then we continued with the lesson about jobs.

These are the questions we study how to answer in this unit:

What do you do? or What does he/she ( your father, your mother...) do?

Where does a vet ( or an acrobat or a teacher) work? 

Who works in a factory (or office, shop, school, etc)?

What does a firefighter (or a waiter, secretary, etc.) do?

Yesterday we started to study qualities people need to do a job.

You need to study the following adjectives:

strong/weak

fast or quick/slow

gentle

careful

brave

clever

friendly/unfriendly

HOMEWORK
Describe 3 people's personalities. Your father, mother, your brother or your sister, a friend.
Example:  
My sister is a hard-working and patient person. She likes teaching and she enjoys working with children. Yes, you are right, she is a teacher.

Hello!

The new play we started to read yesterday offers the opportunity to practice the Past Simple of verbs, either regular or irregular.

Live                  lived
Give                  gave
Can                   could
Come                came
Leave                left
Travel               traveled
Find                  found
Continue           continued
Hear                  heard
Turn around      turned around

Please, practice these verbs, and if you don't know what they mean, look them up in a dictionary.
You already know some of them, or most of them, but it will help you to go over them.

Yesterday we continued studying about jobs. We listened to a recording, completed the tasks on the work sheet - we had to find out what professions the speakers were talking about - and then each student had to concentrate on one of the jobs, take notes of what they heard and then explain to all of us as much as they could about what that person did in his/her job and how they liked it.

HOMEWORK

1.-MATCH THE DEFINITIONS AND THE WORDS,WRITE A NUMBER  IN THE BOXES.

1.-They serve drinks or food  in a bar, pub or restaurant .2.-they prepare and sell meat. 3.-They look after people's teeth 4.-They prepare and cook food. 5.-They cut and style people's hair. 6.-They look after patients . 7.-Look after people's eye sight. 8.-They look after people's health. 9.-They defend and prosecute people. 10.They look after passengers.

LAWYER                   WAITER                   BUTCHER           HOSTESS            DENTIST 

 NURSE                        DOCTOR      CHEF                           HAIRDRESSER   OPTICIAN

2. Write a paragraph talking about a job. Example:

I am a book translator. I translate children stories from English to Spanish. I like my job because I enjoy words and language. It's a comfortable job because I work at home and I can choose my working hours, but discipline is important. I work everyday from 9:00 to 12:00 in the morning and from 4:00 to 6:00 in the afternoon. 

Hello again!

Are you well rested? Ready to start again?

Last Thursday we started a new unit. The beginning of the unit is very easy. All you have to learn is the name of various jobs and answering a couple of simple questions about them. You knew most of the jobs  already.

When we want to know somebody's profession we ask:

What do you do? 
And the answer may be a sentence like this:

I am a vet.

Or

I am an architect.

Do notice the article a or an before the profession.

We also practiced this type of question: Where does a vet work? And the answer: A vet woks in a surgery.

We learned a few places where people work: surgery, circus, office, factory, bank.

Then students got some job cards and had to find its description. We practiced using relative sentences: A doctor is somebody who looks after sick people.
A chef is a person who cooks meals in a restaurant.

HOMEWORK

Use each of the following verbs to describe a job. Example:  play. A musician is a person who plays music.

fix, teach, drive, clean, put out, answer, sell, fly, write.
Remember that the 3rd singular person has an -s.

Hello!

It's been a long time that I haven't seen you. Two weeks ago I couldn't go because my car broke down. It has been fixed already. Last Thursday it was a holiday. I hoped you enjoyed it.

Chus told me you practiced conversations in a restaurant. Well, I'm sure little by little you are going to learn a lot of things about food.

Today I have a quiz for you. I know you may not know some of the words, so look them up in the dictionary.
IO know for some of you it may be late, so don't worry if you don't have the time to complete the quiz. We'll go over it in class.

By the way< I don't know what country Stilton cheese comes from, I suppose it's Great Britain.

Do you Know that next week we are having a Flea Market? If you want to participate you can bring some old things you had planned to throw away, like an old toy, a T-shirt that is too small for you or some of those colored bracelets you made yourselves last year. You can buy and you can sell. The money is for a charity organization. If you or your parents want more information, call the school, please.

HOMEWORK

Here is the link.http://www.allthetests.com/quiz26/quiz/1253627386/What-do-you-know-about-FOOD

Hi!

I have been looking for an exercise for you to practice the adjectives we studied in our last class and it has proved an impossible task. So I'll have to give you a different type of homework.

There are so many things we can say about food: we can say what we like, we can name what we had for a meal, we can learn how to order food in a restaurant, we can say how we cook something, what ingredients we put, and we can describe food using adjectives like the ones we studied in our last lesson.

HOMEWORK

1.To review those adjectives say 3 things that are or can be:

sweet
sour
tender
tough

Tell us about something you ate and you thought it was tasteless.. Ex:

Last week I bought some tangerines because I wanted to eat some fruit. I had a tangerine for dessert but it was tasteless. Fruit is often tasteless.

2. Say what you ate the last time you went to a restaurant. Ex:

Last Sunday I went to a restaurant for dinner. I had a vegetable soup as a starter. For the main course I had a steak with salad and for dessert I had some melon. The melon was a bit tasteless but the steak was tender and the lettuce was crisp. It was a good meal.

Last Thursday we continued studying food and meals. This is an easy lesson, as most students are quite familiar with the vocabulary. Next time we will practice conversations at a restaurant. Remember that the waitress or waiter usually asks:

Can I get you something to drink?

Are you ready to order?

What are you going to have as a starter?

What are you going to have as a main course?

Are you having a dessert?

Can I get you anything else?

Please, go over these questions ( study them) so we can use them next week.

We did a very easy listening, so everybody gave the right answers on their first attempt.

Later students worked on ideas for th
e project and they got very involved in their drawings, they did some very nice pictures.

HOMEWORK

Go to this link: http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening-skills-practice/ordering-food-cafe Listen to the conversation and do the first 2 exercises.

Then answer the questions on your notebook:

What does Andi choose for his main course?
What does Andi choose for his dessert?
What does Andi choose to drink?

Hopefully you'll still have time to do your homework in the weekend. Last Thursday we started studying meals and food. Now,all of you already know the names of many foods. What you did not know is that a dinner usually consists of 3 courses:

STARTER: soup, salad, noodles, vegetables, and so on.

MAIN COURSE: fish, meat, omelettes and so on.

DESSERT: fruit, yogurt, cakes, pies and so on.


HOMEWORK 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7GJgGLXyZI

Watch the video and answer these questions:

1.What exactly is Thenthuk?

2 Is there any lamb in Thenthuk?

3.What are the specials today?

4.Anything to drink?

5. Can I get you anything else? Dessert or coffee?

Hi!

Just in case you want to prepare some activities for Valentine's Day here are the links I told you about:

http://bogglesworldesl.com/valentines_day_worksheets.htm

There are some nice activities in that site. Check them. I liked Broken Hearts

Another link: http://www.anglomaniacy.pl/valentinesDayPrintables.htm

Apart from that, remember your homework this time is to write about your favorite sport answering all the questions you have on the paper I gave you. Most of you had already written a paragraph about that topic.

Last week we studied a few more things about sports. We studied the names of some of the places were we play sports:

pitch or field for football, baseball, rugby.

court for tennis, basketball, volleyball.

ice rink for ice skating and ice hockey.

If you are taking horseback riding lesson, you ride on the arena.

Make sure your sentences are clear. Do not forget that in English a sentence must always have a subject + a verb + an object. Ex: I (subject) play (verb) basketball Everything else must go before or after. Ex: in the afternoons with my friends. We do not put words in between, only adverbs like usually, often, sometimes, always, never, etc.

Yesterday students read the first part of their project about sports. Sara was missing and Natalia left before the break so it was not a good moment to prepare the rest of it. 

We practiced the questions:

What does a ______ (cyclist, basketball player, horse rider, etc.) wear?

And

What equipment does a  ______ (cyclist, basketball player, horse rider, etc.) use?

Remember: wear, when we are talking about clothes or objects (goggles, helmet, knee pad) we put on our body.
Use when we are talking about other things (bat, ball, stick, saddle) we need for that sport but we don't put on our body.

We continued practicing questions and answers about sports. We listened to a recording , practiced pronunciation and intonation, read a conversation and role played it. Students are very good at this, I must say.

In this unit we are using the Present Simple a lot because we talk about sports in general or we talk about a sport that we do or play regularly.

HOMEWORK

1.Write the questions for these answers:

a. I wear a coat, a scarf and gloves.

b. They use a racket and a net.

c. He/She uses a sword.


d. Yes, I can. I go skiing every winter.

e. We play basketball twice a week.

2. Think about your town, your neighborhood or your school. Is there anything that you don't like and you think it must improve? Improve = get better.

Example:
I like painting pictures and making small animals with clay. There isn't an art room in my school and my parents say that painting at home is very messy. It would be nice to have an art room in my school.

How often do you do sport?

I write this question first because you must remember it. When somebody asks this question you must answer things like everyday, sometimes, once a week, twice a week, 7 times a year, etc.

Some new words we studied yesterday are: helmet, mask and hat. You wear a mask when you are doing fencing. You wear a helmet when you are playing ice hockey or you are riding a bike. You wear a swimming hat when you are swimming. 

Somebody who practices a specific sport is called

swimmer

football player

basketball player

rider (horse)

cyclist

skater

etc.

We studied the verb must. It's a special verb, like can. We don't use an auxiliary (such as do) when we ask questions or make a negative sentence. 

You must wear a swimming hat in the swimming pool.

Must I hit the ball with my hands?

You must not touch the ball with your hands.

It is always followed by another verb: In the examples the verbs are: wear, hit, touch.

We read about things we must do or not do when we play football. And about things we can do.

Must: obligation to do. You must have 11 players in a team.

Must not: obligation not to do. You must not touch the ball with your hands.

Can do: have permission to do it. You can touch the ball with your feet and your head.

Then, students got together with a partner and wrote the rules for a sport of their choice.

They wrote about volleyball, basketball and tennis. They all did a good job.

Verbs we used to talk about sports you play are: hit, kick, pass, throw.

HOMEWORK 

A. Answer the questions:

1. What do swimmers wear?

2. What do football players wear?

3. What do horse riders wear?

4. What do skiers wear?

5. What clothes do you wear in the summer?

B. Choose a sport you enjoy doing.(volleyball, tennis, cycling, swimming, horseback riding, any sport is good).

Write about the sport. Say: how often you practice it, equipment you need to practice it, who you do it with (by yourself, on a team, with a friend, in a school or class), 2 rules:

you must...   you mustn't.

Find a picture of the sport and the equipment.

Happy new year and welcome back to class!

Last Thursday we started a new unit on the topic Sports. This is a topic the teacher doesn't like too much, but students do.

We started by studying the names of a number of sports and the equipment used in that sport.

When we are talking about a sport that use a ball or something similar we use the verb play when we talk about it. We say:

I play football or basketball or baseball or hockey, etc.

For other sports we use the verb do:

I do judo or yoga or aerobics., 

Finally, some other sports take the verb go:

I go swimming or cycling or horseback riding.

Equipment that we studied:

Bat, stick, club, racket, football, ball, helmet, boots, goggles, snorkel, saddle, arrows and bow, ice skates, roller blades, skies, snowboard.

We practiced asking and answering the question: How often do you ... (go swimming, play volleyball, do judo...)?

Possible answers to that question:

Once (a week, a month, a year)
Twice (a week, a month, a year)
Three,four or more times (a week, a month, a year).
Everyday, sometimes, never.

We use the Simple Present of the verb to ask and answer that question because we are talking about actions that are done regularly.

HOMEWORK

Answer the questions:

1.How often do you play basketball or football or volleyball or tennis? (Choose 2 of those sports)

2. How often do you go swimming or running or cycling or skiing or rollerblading or horseback riding? (Choose 2 of those sports).

3. How often do you do aerobics or fencing or judo? (Choose 1)

Ask somebody in your family the same questions and then write the answers. Example:

My father goes cycling twice a month.