THE GOLDEN BIRD BY GRIMMS BROTHERS

"The Golden Bird" is a Brothers Grimm fairy tale about the pursuit of a golden bird by a king's three sons. In this post you can find the recorded story and the tapescripts for checking pronunciation and understanding of spoken English.

A certain king had a beautiful garden, and in the garden stood a tree which bore golden apples. These apples were always counted, and about the time when they began to grow ripe it was found that every night one of them was gone...

For the audio, click on the following link: The Golden Bird

For the tapscripts, click on this one: The Golden Bird

For your students you can also f nd a website which checks understanding of the story with a quiz. Go to this link: Quiz on The Golden Bird

QUANTIFIERS WRITING

Many of you have been having problems with countable and uncountable nouns in class this week. At the same time I have noticed an English-language newspaper writing about ‘a large amount of people’. For the consolidation of this unit you must do a second writing with the decives we have seen in class. Remember! You must use There is /are and no possessive verbs instead. If you want to make it as a dialogue, it will be brilliant. You can also make it as a descriptive text

So here are the rules, taken from Engvid.com – there is a countable vs. uncountable test at the bottom of this page so test yourself if you like.To go to this page click on the link: countable and uncountable rules

CAMBRIDGE ENGLISH GAMES: FROM A1 TO B1

Visit Funland and play a range of classic fairground games to practise your English language. Control the ferris wheel, splash the clowns and collect prizes along the way.

PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES

Prefixes and suffixes are sets of letters that are added to the beginning or end of another word. They are not words in their own right and cannot stand on their own in a sentence: if they are printed on their own they have a hyphen before or after them.

Prefixes are added to the beginning of an existing word in order to create a new word with a different meaning. Suffixes are added to the end of an existing word.

In this marvellous Oxford blog you can analyse the different aspects of these set of words and get rid of the common problems you come up to when we deal with them.

To go to the main page of prefixes and suffixes in the blog: Prefixes and suffixes

For more particular aspects of prefixes and suffixes:

Do you know your -ibles from your -ables?

Who’s confident [confidant?] about using -ance, -ence, and similar suffixes?

If you want to practice with some exercises online: Prefixes and suffixes exercises

"Over the Rainbow" in Norwegian Lottery commercial

Great Norwegian commercial, which reflects on the value of friendship rather than the value of money. Opposite to what other lottery adverts show, money fails to generate happiness in those who surround you unless you use it wisely. And what a witty way of using it!!

Play the video and make a brief summary of what it's shown in this video which prioritizes love and note down some sentences of what you would have done with it or what you would do.

To see the video: Lotterry Norwegian commercial

EVERYDAY ACTIVITIES - VOCABULARY GAMES

What are some of the daily activities that you do at home?

I wake up at 7am every morning.
I press the snooze button five times every morning before I turn off the alarm and get up.
I have a cup of coffee and make breakfast. 

What are some other daily activities that you do?

I exercise at least three times a week.
I usually go to the gym before work, but sometimes I go after work.

Here you will find thousands of online English exercises created by teachers from all over the world. If you are learning vocabulary about everyday activities in thr English language you can use these exercises to improve your English. The exercises are categorized in different topics and levels.

To go to very interesting matching exercises or to practice with other activities, click on the right link.

COUNTABLE VS. UNCOUNTABLE. EXERCISES ONLINE

 Did you know that not all nouns are countable in English? Knowing the difference between countable and uncountable nouns can help you in many areas of English grammar. Countable nouns are nouns that can be counted. Most nouns in English are countable. Examples: I have two dogs.Sandra has three cars. Jessie has ten dollars.

Uncountable Nouns. Uncountable nouns are not counted in English. This usually has to do with the way English speakers think of these nouns. We often picture these nouns as a single concept or one big thing which is hard to divide. Many of these words are countable in other languages, but they ARE NOT countable in English. Generally, we do not use plural forms of these words; however some of these words do end in "s", so don't get confused.Examples: Mack drinks a lot of water. Cindy gives great advice. Paul enjoys politics (ends with "s" but uncountable)

Sometimes in English, we do use uncountable nouns in plural forms. This is most commonly done with liquids and substances. It usually takes on the meaning of "cups of", "bottles of" or "types of". Examples:  We'll have two coffees. (cups of coffee). I bought three waters (bottles of water). The company produces two leathers. (types of leather)

To work on the exercises online: Countable vs. Uncontable agendaweb
To download the Homework for Monday: Grammar Success exercises

For games on the same topic (we'll practice them next Monday, so don't look the web ahead): Countable vs. uncountable games

HALLOWEEN VIDEOS

Halloween is a holiday in many English speaking countries that is celebrated on the night of October 31st. Children wear costumes and they go to peoples' homes saying Trick or Treat! to ask for candy, sweets in the UK, or lollies in Australia, and then people give it to them. This practice originally involved a threat. A threat is when someone says that they will do something bad if they do not get what they want. In this case the threat could be explained as: "Give me a treat or I will play a trick on you." Children today usually do not play tricks if they do not get treats. However, some children still get up to mischief (pranks or things to make fun of people; like putting toilet paper in trees; writing on windows with soap or throwing eggs at peoples' houses). People sometimes dress up as ghosts, witches, gobins and other scary things for Halloween.





For more Halloween-related videos see this link: Halloween

TERROR AND WONDER. RECURRING THEMES FOR HALLOWEEN

From wild and remote landscapes to vulnerable heroines; from violent and erotic fantasies to supernatural and uncanny happenings; what were the key motifs of Gothic fiction, and how did these works reflect the political, social and cultural contexts in which they were written?

In this link you will find information related to the topics you have to work on for the following lesson. Click on Read More window you have at the end of each topic and you will get access to pictures and information for your writing tasks.

To get directed to the site: Discovering Literature. British library

This other website is for an activity which will take place in class. It's about a webquest. Don't go through it till your teacher tells you so: Halloween webquest

ADDING -ING: SPELLING RULES

The present continuous verb tense describes present actions happening at the moment of writing or a future plan. The formation of the tense mixes an auxiliary and the gerund form of the verb, that means, the verb ending in '-ing'. The following is a guide to the correct spelling of –ing forms of verbs and gerunds when you make present continuous tenses. The doc you can download is a spelling rules created by one of my ESO2 students.

Thanks a lot, Patricia.

Adding -ing Spelling rules

PRESENT PERFECT TENSE

Can you recall the spelling rules of regular verbs for past and participle? Not well? Okay then. Here you can download the extended rules we have seen in class and work with some activities to check your progress. Don't forget this list is important so that you can make good writing sentences and show you master something you should have already consolidated. Have fun!!
Spelling rules of regular verbs
Exercises spelling regular verbs

Here you can also find tons of exercises about PRESENT PERFECT (regular and irregular verbs, in case you want to practice.
Present Perfect and extension exercises

¿CÓMO PREPARAR LA ASIGNATURA DE INGLÉS?

Padres y madres, aquí dejo el guión de cómo preparar la asignatura de inglés en sencillos pasos y con estrategias, a mi entender, muy útiles.Vaya por delante que no son pautas milagrosas sino aquellas que nos permiten maximizar el tiempo de trabajo, pero sin olvidar que necesitamos precisamente eso, trabajo.

Dentro de las características de los alumnos también hay aquellos que tienen un talento innato para los idiomas y que estudiar e inglés no son palabras comunmente asociadas en su lenguaje. Pues bien, para estos alumnos también va dirigido este documento. Para que se puedan extender conocimientos y no quedarnos estancados.
Para descargar el guión ir a los siguientes enlaces:

Guión DOC

EXERCISES FOR REVISION, CONSOLIDATION AND EXTENSION

Do you want to practice your grammar? Do you think you can give it a hard push? You think you already master what you're doing in class? Try these activities. Find the exercises that best fit your level and you find them challenging. In these links you will find some activities to self-assess your performance and test your level. Do you think you're ready for the exam? Are you ready for a new unit? Have a go!!
Pre-intermediate exercises 1
Pre-intermediate exercises 2
Pre-intermediate exercises 3

HEARTWARMING THAI COMMERCIAL

There are benefits -- including intangible ones -- to doing good deeds.  The following life insurance ad from Thailand illustrates this fact wonderfully! We expect companies to go for the hard sell over the holidays—but sometimes they can surprise us. See this ad that gives us the warm and fuzzies.

To watch the commercial: Heartwarming Thai commercial

PARTS OF THE BODY WEBSITE

Very useful website to go through the vocabulary in UNIT 1 and to extend further the list of words. There are other online activities you can work with after this particular one.
For visiting this activity: parts of the body online game

Besides you can work and revise this vocabulary with similar pages where you can create your own avatars.
Mr. Picasso head
Face your manga

PLURAL NOUNS SHEETS

Here you can find what the 2nd of ESO students Olivia Moral and Patricia Lozano have bravely done about plurals. They voluntarily have created this revision sheet for their classmates.
It's an excellent review of the rules we have seen in class and highly recommendable for a worthwhile look. Download it and have it at hand for the following classes.


Click on it to download it: Plural forms
For the other sheet: Plural forms 2

HOMEWORK: PRESENT TENSE

Here you have your task for next week. Remember what we have done in class: the use of both present structures to talk about routines or actions which are being done at the moment.

Write some sentences in Present
Simple and Present Continuous about each character stating what you can see in the pictures.

TIP: If you place the cursor on the pictures you will make them bigger

The Always Like a girl campaign

You may know about the controversies around the Dove "Real Beauty" ad campaign and related videos. Now the Always product line has entered the fray, As MS magazine reports, "Last week, Always released a new commercial that challenges the notion that doing something “like a girl” means anything less than doing it well.The viewer's heart can't help but melt as the kids throw, run, and fight as fast and as fierce as they can, demolishing "like a girl" as a negative social myth.

watch the video

PRESENT PERFECT PRACTICE: EVER, NEVER, SINCE, FOR, JUST, ALREADY AND YET

We use the Present Perfect to say that an action happened at an unspecified time before now. The exact time is not important. You CANNOT use the Present Perfect with specific time expressions such as: yesterday, one year ago, last week, when I was a child, when I lived in Japan, at that moment, that day, one day, etc. We CAN use the Present Perfect with unspecific expressions such as: ever, never, once, many times, several times, before, so far, already, yet, etc.
In these websites you can find lots of online activities where you can have a good practice of this grammar
Present perfect websites

The cat's whiskers! Mustachioed moggy goes viral in hilarious new advert

Moustachioed cat storming the internet as the star of the new ad for mobile phone company Three is a
seven-month-old cat called Bronte. With her grey hair, moustache and unusual looks, she's not your typical star. The ad has been viewed millions of times after being launched a few days ago. The cute cat was teamed with five-year-old child model Jolie Forrest.
Read about it and watch the video on Daily Mail

World's Toughest Job Ad Goes Viral

24 applicants were in for a surprise for a job that listed no breaks and unlimited hours.Inhumane conditions, no vacation and no pay: Staged job interviews show how being a mom is the toughest position in the world. The actor playing the interviewee told applicants that the open position was for a 'director of operations' job. When he went into the demanding requirements of the job they all acted incredulous, rolling their eyes, frowning and scoffing. If you want to Read more about this issue or See the video, click on these previous links.

REVISION WEBSITES

For a good revision of the structures you're going through in the next exam I've posted some interesting websites you can go to. In this webs you'll have exercises of Future with WILL & GOING TO and other sites with FIRST & SECOND CONDITIONALS, and both mixed for practicing recognition. I highly recommend practicing these exercises. GOOD LUCK!!


Future WILL & GOING TO 1
Future WILL & GOING TO 2
FIRST CONDITIONAL
FIRST AND SECOND CONDITIONALS 1
FIRST AND SECOND CONDITIONALS 2
FIRST AND SECOND CONDITIONALS 3

CREATIVE WRITNG - LEAFLET

In this post you will find the activity we did in class about the environment vocabulary. Remember that you for the next session have to come up with the words you could work out in class. If you click on the link below you'll have the document downloaded in your computer.
Environment vocabulary sheet

I also leave this link for a very interesting resource about global warming and the coutries that are affected by the different effects of this continuous world-heating.
Climate hot Map

ARE YOU SUPERSTITOUS?

If you are spooked by Friday the 13th, you're in for one of your worst years in your life. Many superstitions stem from the same human trait that causes us to believe in monsters and ghosts: When our brains can't explain something, we make things up. In fact, a 2010 study found that superstitions can sometimes work, because believing in something can improve your performance on a task.

Here you can find the 10 most popular supertitions in Britain, ranked and with percentages of popularity. Good stuff for your class.

To download the activity on PDF click on the following link: The top 10 British People favourites superstitions

GLOBAL EXAM: REVISION ACTIVITIES ESO1

Here you can find the key for the voluntary activities I told you about in class. As I suggest do these exercises and check them later to see how you are doing for the exam. I also recommend you to carry on with the online activities you have done in the computers lab. Scroll down a little bit and you'll see the entry where the links are. There are lots of them so you can get good practice. Hope your performance is fine and you are ready to take the exam. GOOD LUCK!!



Activities: Workbook - Page 106 and 107; all. Page 108; 1-4. Page 109; all. Page 111; all.
Revision activities 1
Revision activities 2

PAST SIMPLE PRACTICE

In this entry you can practice Past Simple forms online. Thiese links are quite useful for revising for your exams. You can have a go to hte verb to Be in past as well as There was/were as we saw in unit 7. You can also have a look at the different activities you have of irregular verbs and past formation and spelling. All in all, a very compete website to succeed in your global exams
Click on the following links;
Past simple and irregular verbs (1)
Verb to Be + Past Simple formation
All forms (Questions, Negatives and Affirmatives)

WRITING WORKSHOP: GREEN LEAFLET

This is the leaflet I've shown you in class and an example you can use as a model for your incoming leaflets. As I said this is a real one from Rytland Council and gives some ideas of what you can do for your final project.

As I reminder: the more original and creative the better. You have to develop the ideas you have shaped in these sessions and find how you can carry them out in your little community . Furthermore, use Modal verbs and other tenses you consider appropriate for your tasks and connectors to give the text cohesion. You've also been working with useful vocabulary for this purpose.

Click on th following link to download the leaflet of Recycling in Rutland. You might also want to have a look at this other example: Protecting mother nature.

THE JOGGER AND THE WALLET

Here you havce the activity we've been working on in the Creative Writing Workshop. Juyst remind you that for next session you have to complete the story and enrich it with tools for descriptions, both adjectivas nad adverbs. We´ll go through it in next writing class. See you by then.

WORD BOARD. A great vocabulary game for revising words with your students.

This is an excellent vocabulary game created by MacMillan for revising words with your students and promoting oral expression in class. This video demonstrates how to play the vocabulary game 'Word board'. Great for revising and spelling words.

If you want to download the board for a Digital board or overhead projector, click on this link: Word Board chart

To see the video for the game explanations go to this one: Word Board Video