American English

Another day with a few minutes spare to try and clean out and organise my email inbox.  (Some days because of (lack of) time, all I can do is read the emails that come in.)  

While re-reading one email, I checked out a useful resource I'd been sent by the local Teachers' Centre.

http://www.americanenglish.state.gov/

I haven't had time to try out all the resources yet, but I did download the Sing Out Loud Traditional Songs mp3 file and liked what I heard (and sang along!).

I have also downloaded the pdf. document of the book:

I shall continue to check out more resources, but thought I would make a move and share this site with you asap.

Tomorrow, I'm off to Alcalá de Henares, to the

4th Cambridge English Iberian CEM Conference, Centenary Reunion, 2013

I'll be meeting up with my seminar presenter team, with centre managers, team leaders, inspectors, people from the Cambridge ESOL Madrid office and from Cambridge ESOL UK too.  I hope to come back with lots of ideas and inspiration!!

Speak to you next week!

Pictures of Christmas

Hello again!
Just got back from London, where I spent the long holiday weekend.

I love this city at all times of the year, but in December, even more so.  The streets are busy with shoppers and party goers.

And wherever you look, you will see decorations.  There are some fantastic ones around this year.

This giant reindeer is at Covent Garden.

Inside, you can see some topiary candy rock:

and some giant baubles:

And outside again, a tree:

For me, a tree and baubles are an essential part of Christmas.

So, maybe I agree with the people who are protesting about the abstract tree in the Grand Place in Brussels.

For such an old square, the modern tree is certainly a contrast to the 17th century buildings around it.

I have added a new board to my pinterest account.  I have found and pinned some photos of different things and food associated with Christmas onto the board.

I have prepared some definitions for the things in these pictures.  You can either read them out and students point to the picture for the word, or print them out and do as a reading activity.

Definitions

1      You wrap these with paper and give them to your friends and family.

2      You make this with fruit, flour, eggs, etc.  You add marzipan and icing to the outside.  It’s delicious!

3      Two people open this by pulling on each end.  Inside, you will find a paper hat, a joke and a gift.

4      Some people buy a natural one, and others have an artificial one.  They are tall and you put them in a room and then you decorate them.

5      In some homes, people hang this from the ceiling.  When two people ‘meet’ under it, they have to kiss!

6      People put these on Christmas trees.  They are shiny and metallic and in bright colours usually.

7      People put these on Christmas trees.  Then they plug them in and turn them on.

8      This is metallic and shiny and bright.  It is very light and people put it round the branches of Christmas trees or hang it from the ceiling.

9      In some homes, people cook this bird in the oven for Christmas lunch.

10  People put these on tables, then they light them.

Key

1      presents

2      Christmas cake

3      crackers

4      Christmas tree

5      mistletoe

6      baubles

7      Christmas lights

8      tinsel

9      turkey

10  candles

I'm off to put up my tree now!!

Coping with cold weather

While I was checking my emails, I was listening to Sky News and in the review of the paper, they were discussing the impact of cold weather and snow.

Here in Cantabria, the temperature dropped by 10º(C) yesterday.  Brr!!!!  Many places both in Spain and the UK have had their first snow falls.

http://www.picturesofwinter.net/snow_pictures.html

(There are some great photos of winter on the website I downloaded the above photo)

This reminded me of an article I had saved to share with you via this blog.  I came across it back in September and thought it would make great classroom material.

How does the chef at the British Antarctic Station feed 90 people when the nearest supermarket is 4,000 miles away?


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-2195789/British-Antarctic-Station-How-does-chef-feed-90-people-nearest-supermarket-4-000-miles-away.html

I suggest that you could start off by showing students the following subheading:

Antony Dubber works in one of the most remote, dangerous and beautiful places on Earth

Ask them to suggest where Antony works.  
Which remote places can they think of?  
Why might this place be dangerous and beautiful?  
What job does Antony do there?

Then, show them this photo and discuss whether they guessed this place:

Next, they could read the article and find out what makes the South Pole beautiful and dangerous, and why Antony's work as a chef there is challenging.

To follow up and focus on language, I thought students could look at the combinations of adjectives and nouns in the text.  (You could give them a list of adjectives used in the text and  they look for which nouns they describe).

For example:
a varied  (menu)
leading (centre)
fresh (fruit and vegetables) (herbs)
spectacular (night sky)
the nearest (supermarket)
the closest (supermarket)
the most popular (treats)
huge (freezers)

Well, I'd better wrap up because I have to pop out now!  Have a great teaching week!




 

Painting

One of the first things I came across when I switched on my computer this morning was this:  

I like it, so I shared it on Facebook and now I'm sharing it with you via this blog!

And here is an activity based around the subject of paintings:

The two paintings below have something in common.
What?

- Can you see them in the same museum?  
- Are they the same style?
- Were they painted by the same person?  

Click on the link below to find out!!!

ABC News Article

The paintings in this article could be used in class.

Each student (or group or pair of students, depending on the number of students in your group) could read about a different painting and note the following information:

Who painted the painting?
Where was it stolen from?
How much is the painting worth?

Students can then discuss which of the 7 paintings they like or dislike and why and whether they think it's right that a painting or violin should be worth so much money.

If you want to continue with this debate, you could also show students pictures of the most expensive works of art sold at auction here.

Olympic sports

If like me, you like interesting facts that you can share with your students, then I think you will also like the Olympic Sports page of the London 2012 website.

You can click on any of the sports listed on the left or on the blue icon for it.  This will take you to a new page where you can read about the dates the event will take place in London, the venue.  There is a video illustrating figures about the number of players taking part, etc.

For example, for Table Tennis:

Key facts

Venue: ExCeL

Dates: Saturday 28 July – Wednesday 8 August

Medal events: 4

Athletes: 172 (86 men, 86 women)

I particularly liked the 'Did you know?' box on the page.

Other names for Table Tennis include ‘Ping Pong’, ‘Whiff Waff’ and ‘Flim Flam’, reflecting the sound of the ball being struck and bouncing off the table.

There is lots of material here for all levels, including lower level classes.  And as sport usually features in most coursebooks and on most syllabuses, it should fit in - especially this year of the Olympics.