Our Last lessons in 2013

Week 17^th- 19^th December

Word building.

Verb/ noun                                     Noun    

Invent                                              inventor

Write                                                writer

Politics                                            politician

Compose                                       composer

Science                                          scientist           

Rembrandt was a painter. The Wright brothers were inventors.

Ghandi was a leader. Nelson was a sailor.      

As it was our last week of class for this year and Christmas were getting closer, we read about Christmas traditions in Britain.

Do you remember the answers to these questions?

Why do the people of Norway give the city of London a Christmas tree as a present every year?

         ·            When did the first Christmas cards start in Britain?

         ·            Who brought the first Christmas tree in Britain?

         ·            What is mistletoe like? What does it mean?

         ·            What’s the British name for 24^th December? And for 31^st ?

         ·            What’s the British name for 5^th January?

         ·            What are Christmas carols?

         ·            How is 26^th December called? Why?

         ·            Why do Scots take a piece of coal with them when they visit their neighbours on 31^st December?

If you can’t remember the answers, you should read the text again!

What about writing an essay telling about Spanish Christmas Traditions?

Lottery tickets, grapes, Kings’ Parade…

And of course, New Year’s Resolutions. “We are going to speak more English next year,” for example!!

Anyway, I’ll see you on 7^th January 2014.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Merry Christmas

Our Last lessons in 2013

Week 10^th- 12^th  December

This week we went on a tour to Mount Rushmore.

It’s the mount where the heads of four famous presidents are. We listened to the guide and learnt to pronounce the names and surnames of the presidents properly (correctly).

 We also learnt that Jefferson bought the state of Louisiana from Napoleon and that he was the president who wrote the Declaration of Independence.

We reviewed adjectives to describe places.

Do you remember the opposite of these adjectives?

Exciting- dangerous – small- modern – clean –quiet- empty- narrow –low

And from the USA we travelled to Stratford upon Avon, the town where Shakespeare was born.

Did you know that “Avon” isn’t only a cosmetics firm, but also a river? That’s why this town is called like that.

Mt. Rushmore National Memorial

US Symbols

Mt. Rushmore National Memorial is a huge mountain sculpture of four US Presidents, located near Keystone, in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The Presidents depicted are: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. These four Presidents were chosen to represent the founding, growth and preservation of the United States. The work was designed by the sculptor John Gutzon Borglum (March 25, 1871- March 6, 1941). The Construction of Mt. Rushmore: The monument was sculpted by Borglum and about 400 stone workers. Construction began on August 10, 1927 (President Coolidge attended the dedication that day). Funding was provided by private donations and the Federal Government. The sculpting was done by first blasting away tons of rock with dynamite. Workers then sat in hanging "swing seats," and used jackhammers, drills, hammers, and other tools to do the finishing work. Bad weather and a lack of funding slowed work; although it took 14 years to finish the project, work was done for only about 6 of those years. After Borglum's death, soon before the sculpture was done, the completion of the giant sculpture was overseen by his son, Lincoln Borglum. The monument was completed in 1941 (after Borglum's death).

Facts and Figures about Mt. Rushmore:

Sculptor	John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum
Presidents depicted	George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln
Height of the faces	60 feet from chin to forehead (as tall as a 6-floor building)
Width of an eye	11 feet
Elevation of Mt. Rushmore	5,725 feet
Dates of Construction	From 1927 to 1941
Location	The Black Hills of South Dakota (near Keystone SD)

Stratford upon Avon- images

Presidents of the USA

Week 3^rd-5^th December

Nuria, Javier and Juan, thank you for coming to class!

On Tuesday, we revised the past of the verb to be.

Remember:

Present                                           Past

I am                                                 I was

s/he/it is                                          s/he/it was       

we/you / they are                          we/you / they were

We continued talking about when and where we were born.

We reviewed how to say dates and years in English and which prepositions to use.

Don’t forget to use ordinal numbers for the dates.

1^st first                     4^th fourth          7^th seventh      10^th tenth

2^nd second              5^th fifth              8^th eighth        11^th eleventh

3^rd third                    6^th sixth            9^th ninth          12^th twelfth    etc.

20^th twentieth         21^st twenty-first      22^nd twenty-second    23^rd twenty-third etc.

       21^st     December 1984                           or December      21^st 1984

(the)      (of)                (nineteen eighty-four)                      (the)

And we found out (discovered) information about three presidents of the USA.

·         What was Roosevelt’s first name?

·         Which president was Lincoln?

·         Where were Washington’s parents from?

·         Where was Lincoln born?

·         When was Roosevelt born?

On Thursday, we talked and talked, until the cows came home. (it means that we talked for a long time).

Because there was only Juan and me…

We learnt a lot about each other…

Cities and towns

Week 26th -28^th November

Last week we spied on our neighbours!!

·          Granny is looking at the neighbours.

·          Mrs Jackson is watching T.V.

·          Some people are arriving.

·          They’re having a party.

We learnt compass points:

In the north / in the west but on the north coast / on the west coast

Where’s Galicia? On the north- west coast of Spain.

Where’s Gerona? In the east of Spain.

And we learnt some adjectives to describe cities and towns.

Mamen told us about the village of her granny on her father’s side.

It’s a small beautiful and quiet village in the north of Spain. It’s in Leon. It’s surrounded by mountains. It’s very green. There’s a river where you can fish trout. The houses are made of stone and slate. There are narrow roads. It’s very cold in winter and it snows a lot.

We ended the week talking about when and where we were born.

Where were you born? Were you born in Madrid?

When were you born? Were you born in May? In the 1980s? On 4^th? On a Monday?

Description of a city