British Council Christmas Activities

Here is a Christmas True or False. Under the 'True or False' activity is a link to the British Council LearnEnglish Christmas pages!

1) True or False? Answer the questions below.

This is a useful website to help you: http://www.blogger.com/www.geocities.com/carolmdieter/xmas.htm

And if you'd like to print a copy of this British Council quiz, it's here!
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-print-winter-festivals.pdf

Now here are the questions:

1.Christmas has always been celebrated on December 25th

2. In Holland children put out their shoes to receive Christmas presents.

3. The Winter Solstice is celebrated on the longest day of the year.

4. A ‘Yule Log’ was burnt on a huge bonfire to celebrate the Winter
Solstice.

5. In Tibet there is a 4 day festival to celebrate the dying year, where
people dance around a magic pole.

6. In Italy the kind witch delivers presents to good children and coal to
bad children on the 1st January.


7. In Pakistan the Winter Solstice is celebrated with a festival of singing,
dancing, bonfires and feasting.

8. In Ethiopia a special game called ‘Ganna’ is played with sticks at
Christmas.

9. In England a game called ‘Snap Dragon’ (eating raisins on fire!) is still
popular.

10. In Oaxaca, Mexico on December 23rd there is a Festival of Radishes, where people carve pictures into radishes.

Ask me for the answers!

2) Now, if you want to do some more fun Christmas activities, look at the British Council LearnEnglish activities here!
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-topics-christmas.htm

ALL students, EnglishCLF AND Room of Eight MUST do the Saint Andrew's Day Questions.

Room of Eight Students - finish your school timetable and your ideal timetable on the Room of Eight wiki, AND DON'T FORGET YOUR GOOD WEEKEND THING!!

English CLF

Here's today's work for you to do on English CLF

On your pages, create 'Yourname's School Life'. For example, 'Antonio's School Life'. There, create these pages:

Myname's School Timetable. Here, copy your school timetable... in English!

Myname's Ideal School Timetable -the timetable you would LIKE to have. Here, answer the questions you did in class:

If I could choose my own school timetable..

1. I would start lessons at…
2. I would finish lessons at…
3. I would never study…
4. I would have lots of ……………. lessons
5. Lunchtime would be from …… to……. o’ clock
6. Breaks would be……………………
7. Students would be allowed to…
8. Students wouldn’t have to…..
9. Teachers would have to…
10. Teachers wouldn’t be allowed to…

When you've finished that, you can work on the 'Good Students, Good teachers' page on then 'School Life' section.

All Students: Homework 28th and 29th November

Room of Eight and English CLF, you have an activity on Saint Andrew's day underneath this post.

Breiner students (Room of Eight) please remember to post your 'good weekend things' this weekend!

I've also posted a link to the 'Grange Hill' video we saw in class, and the 'Grange Hill' website!

Have a nice weekend!

Saint Andrew's Day (CLF and Room of Eight Students)

November 30th is Saint Andrew’s Day. It is Scotland’s National day.

Look at this page and answer the questions:
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/months/andrew.html

1 Of which countries is Saint Andrew the patron saint?
2 Who was Saint Andrew?
3 Which flower is the emblem of Scotland?
4 What kind of markets open in Scotland on Saint Andrew’s Day?
5 What musical instrument is especially popular on Saint Andrew’s Day?

Now look at this page and answer the rest of the questions:
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/CUSTOMS/questions/britain/scotland.htm

6 How many islands has Scotland got? How many islands have people living on them?
7 What might you find if you go to Loch Ness?
8 What have Arthur Conan Doyle, Sean Connery and Annie Lennox got in common?
9 What did Edinburgh have before any other city in the world?
10 What have Edinburgh and Rome got in common?

Grange Hill

Here's the link to the episode of 'Grange Hill' we watched in class. If you found it difficult, watch again now you have the answers!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCGR9QzxpQo

And THIS is the official Grange Hill website.
http://www.grangehill.com/

School Words - CLF!

Here is the list of school words that the English CLF class thought of!

A	Art, apple, algebra, absence, (be absent), assembly
B	Biography, books, biology, Boys’ Toilet, break, bicycle shed
C	Computer room, classroom, coffee bar, canteen, corridor, copy, colour, chess
D	Desk, drama, diagram, date, diet, dine, dining room, difficult,
E	English, evaluation, exercise, extra point,
F	French, film, folder, fault, flute, free lessons
G	Gym, geography, geology, gymnastics,
H	History, Head-teacher, headmaster, headmistress, home-time, homework, Hitachi
I	Information technology, information, internet, I.T.,
J	Janitor
K	Key, keyboard,
L	Languages, Language Lab, Library, listening, laboratory,
M	Maths, map, meeting, music, music room, morning mass, morning assembly
N	Nurse, notebook, notepad,
O	Office, open day,
P	Prefect, playground, playtime, pencil, pen, punishment, pencil case, pencil sharpener, penalty, P.E., physics, private school, public school, principal, paper, pay, piano
Q	Quidditch, Queen’s Visit,
R	Rugby, rules, recorder, rubber, ruler, room, refill, read,
S	School, staffroom, science, study, state school, scissors, subjects, sick bay, Stanley knife
T	Teacher, toilet, technical drawing, table,
U	Uniform,
V	Violence,
W	Work, window, windows,
X	Xylophone,
Y	YL-Zone, yard, young people,
Z	zoology

School Words YA2.1-17TT

Here are all the words we thought of to do with school! I've put this on 'Room of Eight', too! If you think of more words to do with school, add them to the list on 'Room of Eight'!

A	ALGEBRA, ARITHMETIC,
B	B0OK, BAG, BIOLOGY, BREAK,
C	CHAIR, CHEMISTRY, CANTEEN, CHESS
D	DICTIONARY, DUMBLEDORE, DRAWERS (gavetas), DRAWING (desenho)
E	ENGLISH, ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE,
F	FRENCH, FORM TEACHER, FRIENDS
G	GEOGRAPHY, GARDEN
H	HISTORY, HEAD TEACHER
I	ITALIAN, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY,
J	JANITOR,
K	KITCHEN
L	LIBRARY, LANGUAGES, LITERATURE
M	MATHS, MUSIC, MUSIC ROOM
N	NOTEBOOK
O	O’ CLOCK, OLD STUDENTS,
P	PLAYGROUND, PHYSICAL EDUCATION (P.E.)
Q	QUEUES IN THE CANTEEN! QUIDDITCH, QUEEN’S VISIT
R	RUBBER, RULES, RULER, READ, RECORDER
S	SCIENCE, SPANISH, SPELLING, SCISSORS, STUDY, STUDY AREA,
T	TABLE, TECHNICAL DRAWING, TOURNAMENTS, TEACHERS,
U	URDU,
V	VISUAL EDUCATION, VOLLEYBALL,
W	WATER, WIFI ZONE
X	XYLOPHONE
Y	YAWN,
Z	ZOOLOGY, WIFI ZONE

Wallace and Gromit

Here are some of the words from 'A Close Shave'. Can you remember what they all mean? Use a dictionary to find out if you can't remember!

knitting
porridge
embarrassed
single file

We also learned two expressions to use instead of 'meu Deus'!

"Blimey!"
or, if you're a bit angry:
"For Heaven's sake!"

Surfing Dolphins

If you are enjoying the story 'Maisie and the Dolphin', or even if you just like dolphins, you will enjoy these two videos about Dolphins.

Surfing Dolphins

Deep Thinking Dolphins

Dolphins are cool!

Halloween!

Here's the link for today's lesson! If you didn't have time to do this in class, have a look at home.

http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-topics-halloween.htm

The story we watched in class was called 'Tell Tale Heart'. The sound wasn't very good, and it was quite difficult. If you want to watch it again, it's here.

The song was called 'Monster Mash'. The YouTube video is here. Remember to read the words while you listen to the song!

Enjoy!

Room of Eight - YA2.1 Homework

This weekend, FOUR things to do on Room of Eight! But they're all small things, so don't worry!

i) Finish the work you've started. You should have some basic info about yourself, a page about your room, and a page about your daily routine.

ii) In the page about your room, add some information about where things are. For example, 'In my room, there's a table, a chair, a wardrobe and a bed. There are some CDs and there's a computer. The table is in front of the window. The CDs are on the table.'

iii) Think of one or two questions to ask John Teesdale, the flight instructor. Add your questions to the page.

iv) Write down one good thing you did this weekend on the 'Good Weekend Things' page.

Room of Eight is working now!

Well done everyone for your work on Room of Eight on Thursday! Some of you had problems and your work wouldn't save. Don't worry, it wasn't your fault - there was a problem with the website. Everything is there now.

For homework...

i) Add a link to your home page called 'YOURNAME's room.' So if you're Pedro C, you call it, 'Pedro C's room' and if you're Mariana, you call it, 'Mariana's room'. (DON'T call it 'My Room' because if two people do that, you'll lose your work). Then, create the page and write a description of your bedroom. 'In my bedroom there are two beds, two chairs, a big wardrobe...' etc. If you want, you can add a picture of your room. If you prefer to do your living room, you can do that instead!

ii) On the front page, there is a link to a page called, 'Good Weekend Things'. At the end of the weekend, go to this page, click on 'edit' and write down one good or interesting thing that you did this weekend. This page is shared by everyone, so write your name at the end.

If you don't understand any of this, or you have a problem with the website, ask me next week.

English CLF

Here are links for today's class.

http://kids.discovery.com/fansites/tradingspaceskids/roommaker/roommaker.html

http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids

http://englishclf.pbworks.com/

YA2.1 - Dolphins

Last lesson we began reading a story called Masie and the Dolphin. Here's a website for children with lots of information about Dolphins. Have a look at this website. Try to read some of the pages, but you don't have to read everything! What do you find interesting? What do you like about the website? Is there anything you don't like? Is there anything you don't agree with?
Click here to look at the site.

Summer Website Links

I promised to put some links to useful websites you might like to look at this summer. Sorry it's taken me so long! I've been VEEEERY busy with summer school and other work things!

There are some websites listed in your Young Learner Notebook on page 10. As well as those websites, here are some more:

Reading

• Super Easy Reading
  http://www.rong-chang.com/supereasy/index.htm

• Wacky Web Tales
  http://www.eduplace.com/tales/

• Simple Story Books
  http://www.dandi.me.uk/Texts/COVER.htm

Games

• PBS Kids. Games, stories, music, and coloring.

• Space Place. NASA's Website for kids. Games, animations, projects, and fun facts about Earth, space and technology.

• Kids' Games. Learn English with some games from British Council.

• Kids' Writing Games. For kids to have fun and learn to write at the same time.

Children’s Literature

• International Children's Digital Library. The best in children's literature are made available online.

• Fairrosa Cyber Library of Children's Literature. A fairly big collection of classics, folk tales, and professional journals.

And…

• Room 108. A site for kids with lots of free online games but all with an educational focus.

Questions and Answers

As requested, here are the examples of questions and answers we did in class today.

What time does it open?

It opens at 9 o’ clock.

How much does a student ticket cost?

It costs £5.

How does he go to work?

He goes to work by bicycle.

Where do they meet every week?

They meet every week in the park.

When does she visit her grandmother?

How often does she visit her grandmother?

Who does she visit every Sunday?

She visits her grandmother every Sunday.

What does he drink in the morning?

In the morning he drinks a coffee.

When does he drink a coffee?

He drinks a coffee in the morning.

Where is the museum?

The museum is in Park Street.

Is it very hot?

Yes, it’s very hot.

Can you swim there?

Yes, you can swim there. .

When / What time can you swim there?

You can swim there between 2pm and 6pm.

What time can we go there?

You can go there from 3pm to 8pm.

When is he having the party?

He’s having the party tomorrow.

Why is he having the party?

He’s having a party because it’s his birthday.

Weekend Homework - May 23rd and 24th

Unit 14 Workbook, pages 82 and 83, Exercises a, b, c, and d.

And, of course, try to write something on 'Good Weekend Things' on the WIKI!

Present Perfect Continuous

Scribbles from our class...

Nuno has been doing his homework since ten o’ clock / for six hours.

Mark started teaching English in 1984.

It’s now 2009.

Mark has been teaching English since 1984 / for 25 years.

Barbara started ballet lessons five years ago.

Barbara has been doing ballet since 2004 / since five years ago / for five years.

Present Perfect Continuous

--------- has / have been -------ing for ---------

--------- has/have been --------ing since ------------

Inês has been doing karate for four years.

Jennifer Pike has been playing violin since she was five.

To emphasise continuity over a period of time up to now.

Mark has been working all day.

Maria has been studying all day.

Afonso has been making popping noises all class.

To talk about an action that has just stopped and has a result or effect now, in the present.

Mum: Catarina! You’re all wet!

Catarina: Yes, I know. It’s been raining!

Nuno: I’m soooo tired!

Dad: Why?

Nuno: I’ve been skateboarding all night!

Maria (in fnac): Oh, great! Look! Coldplay’s new album! I’ve been waiting for it all year!

Easter Homework

First of all, great work on the wiki everyone! Well done! It's really coming along nicely.

Easter Wikiwork:

i) Create an Easter page from your 'home' page. eg 'Inês's Easter Page'.

ii) THIS WEEKEND (27-29 March), write a paragraph about your plans for Easter. Remember to use the language for talking about plans:
going to
I'll probably...
I probably won't...
I might...
I'm sure I'll...
I'm sure I won't...
I'll definitely...
I definitely won't...

I've already put my Easter plans on my Easter page!

iii) On the weekend 10-12 April, write a paragraph about what you did and didn't do during the Easter holiday. Which of your plans did you do, and which didn't you do?

And have a Happy Easter!

Weekend Homework - March 6th

Two main homeworks for this weekend!

i) Answer the questions under 'More Questions on Disaster Area!' Remember, the website you need is here: http://www.fema.gov/kids/dizarea.htm

ii) Make a page on the wiki for your favourite actor or actress. Filipa has already done a very nice page, and I've done a page about my favourite actress, too. You can use the paragraph about «Macaulay Culkin on page 57 of the student's book as a model, and look at Filipa's page for ideas about what to write.

Also, do write something on 'Good Weekend Things'.

And finally, if you haven't already done it, you need to finish your 'home page' and add your 'hobby page'. Inês and Rita and Catarina P all need to work on this!

More Questions on Disaster Area!

1. It could the lightning be fatal ?

2. How often do tsunamis happen ?

3. What should we do whem our house is in a flood?

4. How many people are killed by building fires every year? How can the fires start? What should your house have to detect the fires?

5. Where are volcanos made? What can the eruptions cause?

6. How many people died in Mont St. in May 18, 1980?

7. How many people are killed by wildfires?

8. How many countries in the U.S. have active volcanos?

9. Can the tsunamis cause a lot of destruction on the shore?

10. What are the active volcanoes in the USA?

The Disaster Area

Go to this website:

http://www.fema.gov/kids/dizarea.htm

Answer the questions.

1. What it the name for a flood that happens very quickly?

2. Correct this sentence:

Hurricanes are severe tropical storms that form in the southern Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and in the western Pacific Ocean.

3. What is the minimum speed of a hurricane?

4. What is the maximum speed of a tornado?

5. Tornadoes only occur from March to April. T/F

6. What’s the most important thing to do if there is a tornado nearby?

7. How fast can a Tsunami wave travel? How high can it be?

8. Where shouldn’t you go if you are worried about Tsunamis? Why?

9. What’s more dangerous, thunder or lightning?

10. Approximately how many thunderstorms are happening now?

Now write some questions of your own about the other types of disaster for other students to try. Make sure you keep a note of the answers!

English is Cool!

Look at what another teacher in Portugal is doing with her students on their blog!

English is Cool!

Mark

KET EXAM!

First of all, it's good to see all the new work on the wiki! Well done everyone for the work you've done there.

If you're going to do the KET exam, please tell your parents that you have to register by Friday March 6th!

More information here.

Carnival Break Wikiwork

Here is this week's homework for the wiki.

1) Add a page to your wiki area about a hobby you have. For example, Nuno can make a page about skateboarding, Inês can make a page about Karate and so on.

Write a paragraph about your hobby. Here are some questions to help you. Try to answer as many of these questions as you can. You can include more information, too, if you like!

How long have you done this hobby?
When did you start doing it?
How often do you do it?
Who do you do it with?
Where do you do it?
What do you enjoy about it?
Is there anything you don't like about it?
What are your plans for your hobby in the future?

I've written a paragraph about one of my hobbies on my hobby page as an example.

2. It's Carnival! Go to the Carnival page, and write a short paragraph about what you did this weekend! Remember, to write what you did, click on 'Edit' at the top, add your paragraph, write your name (so we know who wrote it), and SAVE!

Last lesson you all did some good work, especially Inês and Rita, who wrote much better letters, and Filipa, who wrote a very good letter, too. Well done everyone for this class. If you work this well from now on, you will get much better results on your next assessment, AND you'll learn much better English!

Have a great Carnival!

Mark

WIKIWORK

Wikiwork for this weekend:

1 Your pages have very little information about you! This week, I want you to add information about yourself to your page. Include this information:

- How old are you? When's your birthday? What's your star sign?

- What are you good at and what are you not so good at? What would you like to be able to do better?

- What do you like and what don't you like at school?

- What's your favourite music? What's your fa vourite tv programme?

- What do you like doing in your free time? What do you hate doing in your free time?

Of course, you can write about more things if you want to!

Add a photo to your page if you like.

Catarina A, you already have some of this info on your page! You can just add the rest of the information.

Luis, I've moved all your videos to your new 'My Videos' page!

Remember, to add the information, click on 'Edit' and when you've finished, remember to save!

2 It's weekend two of 'Good Weekend Things'! EVERYBODY should write down one good thing they do or that happens to them this weekend!

3 (Optional)

Add these links your page. If you can't do this yourself, I'll show you next lesson.

My Hobby Page (eg Maria's Hobby Page)

My Trips ( eg Maria's Trips)

My Favourite Videos (eg Maria's Videos)

I have added these links to Rita's page as an example.

People who have nothing (Inês) or very little (Rita, Catarina P) on their wiki page, it is time for you to catch up now!

Finally, can everyone please put no more than a total of 10 videos on your wiki pages! You can change the videos as often and when you want. I will increase the limit of ten if I find I have no problem of storage space on my wiki pages.

Thanks!

ten lives

First of all, many apologies for the problems in the computer room earlier today. It was frustrating to have so few computers to use, I know. But at least we made a start. 'tenlives' is a brilliant name - let's make this into something good!

Please read all of this carefully.

Remember, the password and user name I gave you for Ten Lives is private! You should not share it with anyone else. You can show your parents what you are doing, though!

Homework this week is:

i) Create your page (if you haven't already), and put something on it. This should be be a few sentences about anything you find interesting. It can be a photo or a video with a comment. It should not be just a photo or a video. You should write two or three sentences about the photo or video as well. Three or four words is not enough! 'Hi =)' is not enough! Put something on your page which you find interesting!

If you put a video on the wiki in class with no comment, you should add a comment at home.

ii) I have added a page called 'Good Weekend Things'. Go to this page at the end of the weekend, and write two or three sentences about something good you did. I'll do this homework, too, even though I'm not one of the ten!

iii) I have added a page called 'Wikitalk'. Go to this page and add a question or a comment if you want to.

iii) Revise for the test. Units 4-8. We have done a lot over the last few weeks, so there's a lot to look at!

Homework January 29th

Your homework for this week is:

Student's book pages 46 and 47.

Type your email, which I corrected, on your computer at home. Bring it to class on a USB pendrive.

ARE YOU AN ADULT?

Last lesson we wrote questionnaires to find out if you are an adult. Click on 'comments' and look at our questionnaires!

Land Diving 2

For those of you that enjoyed the video, here it is again, along with the questions so you can test yourself!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=l0Mq6rCfYtU&feature=related

1 Land diving is described as ‘The _______________________ ________________________ test of faith in the world.

2 How old are the youngest boys who take part?

3 What do they risk, according to the video?

a) Their heads

b) Their necks

c) Their hair

4 They do this as a ________________________ to benefit the community.

5 The chief says that when the men and boys climb up the tower they have no

a) fear

b) beer

c) mind

6 How many centuries does land diving date back?

a) fifteen

b) fifty

c) five

7 How is the man in the video whose vine snaps?

8 Willy Warren is one of the __________________ land divers.

a) best

b) worst

c) bravest

9 Willy must jump as _____________ as he can to avoid impaling himself.

a) high

b) fast

c) far

10 Willy is _________________ enough to spring back to his feet after diving.

Land Diving

Watch this video clip and answer the questions below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdmbkeJe6zo

1.Which platform do the young boys dive from?
- The highest
- The lowest
- Either


2.Which diver goes last?
- The most experienced
- The youngest
- The oldest

3. What does your head have to do when you jump?

4. If the vines are too long, you will ___________________

5. How was the man in the video who smacked his head on the ground?


To understand the video better, look up these words in a dictionary:

yam

vine

dangle

yank

bless

Whales

Here's some information on National Whale day in Australia.

And here's the whale video we watched in class!

Present Perfect Examples

Mark: Nuno! Finish the exercise!

Nuno: I've already finished! I finished five minutes ago!

Filipa: Remember to tell Maria to bring her CD player.

Catarina: I've already told her. I told her this morning.

Mum: I haven't made the dinner yet. Nuno, you do your homework, and I'll start cooking.

Nuno: But Mum! I've already done my homework!

Belenenses hasn't won the championship... yet.

Nuno hasn't learned to do a double back-flip yet.

Mark: Inês! Have you finished copying yet?

Inês: Yes, I have.