PUPPETS IN ENGLISH

Last Tuesday and Thursday, our 1st ESO students had the opportunity to learn and have fun in English attending a puppet workshop at school. This workshop is one of the activities offered by our local council and it has already become a tradition among our students.  As we can see on these photos, they must have

had a whale of a time!!!

TV HIGHLIGHTS (3rd ESO Group B)

Two wonderful examples of students' writings about TV highlights:

Víctor Vilar Arias

The highlights of this week's TV were Channel 5's talent show "The Voice". In this programme some people have to sing in front of some judges and they select some people for their teams. The captains of the teams are famous singers.

Channel 3's drama series "Tiempo entre costuras" is a drama series about a dressmaker who works for the German spy service while she does her job in Madrid.

Something that caught my eye was a story on the news about a statue that turns around alone. It always happens at peak time and it is because of the vibrations of traffic and people.

Channel 3's talent show "Tu cara me suena" is about famous people that have to dress up mimicking famous singers. In this week's programme Florentino Fernández won.

Finally, my favourite programme was "Top chef". It's about some professional cooks and they have to make the best plate for the judge. Last week Jesús Almagro won doing a very good porridge. 

Ezequiel Álvarez Fernández

The highlight of this week's TV was absolutely the last Formula 1 race of the year in the circuit of Interlagos, Brazil. Vettel won again (the same old story...) and he was very rude because his team colleague, Mark Webber, was racing his last race and Vettel didn't let him win. Very rude indeed!

"Ridiculousness", a programme of MTV was also worth watching. "Ridiculousness" gathers videos from the Internet and shows them in the programme. Every programme, a famous person comes. In the programme of yesterday, Lil Jon, a hip-hop singer came. The presenter, Rob Dyrdek is very funny and shows the best videos of the Internet. Very funny programme!

Finally, something which also caught my eye was "La que se avecina", a sitcom. In yesterday's programme the community of Mirador de Montepinar wanted to steal the satellite signal of Antonio Recio, another character. Amador Rivas, the president of the community had to apologize to him when he noticed. It is the funniest sitcom!!

(late) Thanksgiving

Yesterday, Thanksgiving was celebrated in many English speaking countries. It's a very important holiday, especially in the USA. Nithin, our language assistant, has helped us today to know a little bit more about this day by showing us a video and answering students' questions about it. 

Here's the video in case some of you want to watch it again: 

TELEVISION SERIES: LOST

 

How observant are you?

1. The first image we see is Jack's right eye.
2. The dog came from Jack's left.
3. Jack took a bottle out of his left pocket.

4. The man with the trapped leg was wearing a grey shirt.
5. Jack tied his tie round the injured man's right leg.
6. The pregnant woman was not wearing a necklace.

My best friend (3rd ESO)

According to Merriam Webster Dictionary a friend is a person who you like being with, a person who helps or supports someone or something and one attached to another by affection or esteem. 

Have you got many friends? I'm not talking about Facebook friends, I'm talking about real, close friends. If you have many friends you should feel the luckiest person in the world. Quoting Robert Louis Stevenson "a friend is a gift you give yourself". 

So let's talk about friends. Students from 3rd ESO had to write a composition whose topic was "My best friend". Some of them followed the writing guide from the SB but some others simply felt free to speak about their closest pals. These are some of the compositions they handed me over last Monday. Well done guys!!

My best friend
by Martín Muñoz, 3rd ESO Group A

Bruno is my best friend, he's amazing. 

He lives in Santa Cruz, so far from where I live. He isn't very tall, he has got brown eyes and black hair. He is thin and active. 

He is friendly, funny and he always smiles. He loves playing the PS3 and going to the cinema with me. He's an excellent person and I can tell him everything. He likes video bames, football and cars. 

I love staying with him and everyday we chat on our mobile-phones and speak with a microphone in the PS3. 

His best thing is his personality. We always smile and spend a lot of time playing video games. His worst thing is his house, because he lives far from me and we don't see each other everyday.

My best friend
by Irene Medina, 3rd ESO Group A

My friend's name is Iria. She lives in Ourense and she goes to my school. She is 14 years old. She is tall, with green eyes and long, blond hair. Iria is a very positive person and she is very nice.

She likes doing gymnastics and meeting her friends and she loves music. When we are together we like to go to the shopping centre, we talk about music  or we go for a walk.

My best friend
by Selva Barrios, 3rd ESO Group B

Ana Belén and I are friends. Ana Belén lives in Benavente. She lives in a duplex penthouse. We don't go to the same school. 

Ana Belén is fourteen years old. She's tall and thin. She has got short brown hair. She's very funny and friendly and she is a good person.

Ana Belén is happiest when we go to the shopping centre. She likes meeting other people and she likes going to parties.

My best friend
by Yago Cruz, 3rd ESO Group B

My best friend is Alba Areas. She is 13 years old. Her birthday is 29th November. She was born in 1998.

She lives far from me, about 14 km, but we go to the same school, "Santo Angel". She has got straight blonde hair, green eyes and her face is normal. Her fingers are thin and large and she has got long legs. She's tall and thin.

She has got a lot of positive sides in her personality but some are her sincerity, friendliness, sympathy and her joy. I've never found a negative side in her personality. If you found one, tell me and we can talk about it. 

My friend is happy when she stays with me and we can have fun. We watch a lot of films because we love watching films; she likes playing volleyball and playing with her computer.We go to a lot of places, to the park, to the cinema, to our house, to church and sometimes we go to the bowling alley. 

I love her :)

ALTER EGO

AMIGO

BUDDY

CHUM

COMPADRE

CRONY

MATE

PAL

ADJECTIVES + PREPOSITIONS

I've always thought prepositions are brain teasers. You never know if you're using the correct one. Even for advanced learners it's always a difficult issue, since for one of our Spanish prepositions, there are usually more than one possibility in English. What can we do then?? The best option, in my opinion, is to read a lot. Reading is the only natural way we have to get to know which prepositions are used in any given expression. The problem comes when we find out that our students are not exactly eager readers of literature in English. Let's face it, even though they are surrounded and constantly in contact with English, it's not enough.

Our 4th ESO students have just seen in class a list of some common adjectives and the prepositions which usually follow them. For those of you who weren't in class today, here is a list of the adjectives + prepositions we will be working with.  

Here are some examples of the use of adjectives + prepositions:

"I'm tired of bad news"

He's bored of watching TV. 

He's worried about the bill.

They were shocked at his strength. 

They are different from the others.

For more practise on adjectives + prepositions you can visit the following sites:

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/grammar-reference/adjectives-prepositions

http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/adjectives-and-prepositions-exercise-1.html

 

 

Dinosaur stories

Last Friday, our new native assistant, Nithin, helped 4th ESO students with the pronunciation of the -ed past endings. For this purpose, they invented a story about dinosaurs in which each student had to say one sentence using a regular verb in the past. Students learned a lot and we all had fun. Here is the result:

4th ESO Group A

First we talked to a T-Rex. The T-Rex was dangerous. The T-rex worked in the jungle. We cooked breakfast for the T-Rex. We asked the T-rex, “What is your name?” The T-rex said my name is Eustaquio. Eustaquio liked to play tennis. After, Eustaquio watched a piece of meat. We waited for the bus with him. In the movie Jurassic Park, they filmed velociraptors. He invited me to his house. We watched a film on the TV. Eustaquio ate us. But we killed him from the inside. Then he smiled. But then we found another T-Rex. And he was called Gervasio. We invented fire and burned him. The other dinosaurs traveled to the future with us. In the future, we killed all the dinosaurs and we cooked them. In the future, we cooked a barbecue. 

4th ESO Group B

One day the dinosaurs started to destroy the universe. The dinosaurs invented the work. The dinosaurs were pink. The dinosaurs watched TV. The dinosaurs were very dangerous and they liked to destroy the University of Ourense. All the class traveled to the past to save the universe. The dinosaurs listened to music, hard rock. They invited some aliens. The dinosaurs talked English. The dinosaurs cooked the cookies for the mermaids. The dinosaurs traveled on the bus. A dinosaur married another dinosaur. People wanted to do something to save the universe. The whole class that went to save the universe died because of an atomic bomb. The dinosaurs tattooed the young people. A dinosaur survived and he killed a lot of people. I played football with Tommy, he was a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Rex cleaned the universe. I went to the wedding between the dinosaurs where everybody danced. The class rose from the dead and wished they were back in Santo Angel.