The Last Blog of the Course 2014-2015

Wednesday 9^th July

Hello Everybody!

This is the last blog for the course 2013-2014

I guess (I think) you are on holiday now!

Nacho will be enjoying in England. Manuel will be in France, having a good time with his family. Andrea will go to France, too. María is going to the Canary Islands and to her grandparents’ villages in central Spain. A nice mix of different climates and regions in Spain. And, what about Almudena? I know you went on an outing (excursion) to Toledo. The trip was a prize you had won. Well done! I couldn’t wish you a nice summer personally but I hope your mum told you.

To María and Andrea, thanks for coming to class on the last day of June. On that day we talked about the different topics we had treated during the course. We listened to the song “The hall of fame” and watched the video. And we played scrabble, a game where you have to make words across or down as in a crossword, using the letters provided. Andrea didn’t like it because she wasn’t very lucky with the letters she was given and couldn’t make many words.

At least I could say “see you next course” because after the theatre everything was a bit confusing with so many people around. Well done in the play but it was a pity we couldn’t hear you because you spoke in such a low voice…

Well done and thanks for taking part in it!

And the medal for the last games went to…

… ANDREA! Congratulations to our winner!

This is what we learnt in this term.

VOCABULARY
Shopping
Ways of shopping		Shops			Describing purchases			Money
Internet shopping Street market Supermarket High street shops Department store Shopping centre		Greengrocer’s Baker’s/bakery Butcher’s Stationer’s Confectioner’s Fishmonger’s Chemist’s Shoe shop Books shop Newsagent’s Hairdresser’s			A fountain pen High-heel shoes A silk dress Travel bags A pearl necklace A solar powered calculator A bunch of roses			45$ forty-five dollars £5.30 Five pounds thirty 13c thirteen cents 56p Fifty-six ‘p’ €19 nineteen euros
Reason		Quality, price, choice, convenience, distance from home, cost
Connectors: sequence						First, next, then, after, finally
Clothes
On your top half	On your bottom half			On your top & bottom half			On your feet			Patterns
Anorak Blouse Cardigan Sweater Shirt Vest	Trousers Skirt Tights Stockings Shorts Jeans underwear			Dress Apron Coat Suit Tracksuit			Trainers Boots Wellies Shoes Socks			Striped Checked Flowery Plain Patterned Spotted
In class
Subjects			Adjectives			Regular verbs			Irregular verbs
I.T: Studies Maths Physics Chemistry Science English Spanish Business studies History Geography P.E.(Physical Education)			Tall /short Fat/thin Easy /hard/difficult Quick/slow High/low Deep/shallow Green Dry/wet Big/small Cheap/expensive Dangerous/safe Un/comfortable			Play Travel Study Listen Paint Talk Watch Count Need Wait Work Stop live			Put Learn Think Teach Swim Have Do Go Come Eat Drink Read write

GRAMMAR
Present simple
What shops do you like? Where do you go shopping? When do you go shopping?			I like buying clothes. I go shopping to the shopping centre. I go shopping at the weekend.		He doesn’t like buying Cd s. She buys things on the net. He doesn’t buy things at department stores.
Sequencing
First, she goes into a site and sees a list of items she can buy.			After that, she touches the icons of the items she wants to buy		Next, she goes into dance music and finds the names of bands.
Then, she watches videos and listens to sound clips.				Finally, she downloads the music onto her phone.
PAST SIMPLE
Regular verbs
When did your grandfather study at school?			He studied Latin and Greek.				He didn’t study German.
Irregular verbs
What did you buy yesterday?		I bought a T-shirt and a swimming suit.				I didn’t buy a dress.
COMPARISONS
Comparative adjectives
Which subject is harder, maths or geography? Which is deeper, an ocean or the sea?	I.T. is more interesting than history. A hill is lower than a mountain.					Big classes are noisier than small classes. The country is better than the city.
Superlative adjectives
What do you like most about your school?		The most interesting subject is chemistry.				The healthiest subject is P.E.

Cultural notes: At a shop. Describing ways of shopping and giving reasons. Comparing schools yesterday and today.

Songs: Imagine, The hall of fame.

Theatre Play: Island for sale.

ENJOY YOUR SUMMER, HAVE FUN AND …SEE YOU NEXT COURSE!!!

This is All, Folks!!!

Monday 16^th June

Hello again!

 Last day of class for Manuel and Nacho! They are starting their holiday. The rest of us will have to wait for another week!

Hi, Almudena. It was a pity we didn’t see you on Monday! I know you may go on an outing (excursion) to Toledo and it’s possible you can’t come to our play. It’s a shame, but enjoy in Toledo. You need a bit of relax after the course and the exams!

Remember that we are performing together with another group (as our actors were slowly dropping out of the play- they were not coming-). The play is on Thursday 26^th. Venue: José Saramago Library. Time: 10-12 a.m. Be punctual and try to arrive at least 10 minutes earlier, that is 9.50.

María and Andrea, I trust you. I know you’re going to learn your parts for the play very well! Study them this weekend!

If you want to see the rest of the plays your classmates are performing, you can do it. They are on Tuesday 24^th .Same place, same time.

Enough of the play! What did we do on our last ordinary class?

We talked about holidays!!! We learnt types of holidays and accommodation.

·         We can go on a beach holiday, on a safari, on a skiing holiday, on a sightseeing tour, on a backpacking holiday, camping or on a cruise – and if the ship is smaller, on a sailing holiday!

·         We can stay at a hotel, in an apartment, in a bed and breakfast, at a relative or a friend’s house, in a hostel…

Let’s talk about past and future holidays:

What kind of holidays do you usually have?

Where do you usually stay?

Where did you go on your last holiday?

Did you stay in a hotel or at a friend’s house?

What was the weather like?

Did you have a good time?

Who did you go with?

How did you get there?

What did you do?

What did you see?
Where are you going to go this summer?

Where are you going to stay?

Do you think you are going to have good weather?

Are you going to enjoy?

Who are you going to go with?

How are you going to get there?

What are you going to do?

What are you going to see?

We played a holiday game.

 

We had to pick out a card from a three different piles of cards: types of holidays, letters and numbers. We match the letter with the number so as to find out which object –from a list- it refers to and we make a sentence like this:

We are going on a ________  (beach holiday) and we’re taking ___________ (thread and needle) because ______________ (if our swimming costumes tear, we can sew it)

And of course, we rehearsed the play for the last time before the performance. The prizes for our games will be given on 26^th after the show! See you then!

GAME 10

Player 1	6
Player 2	9
Player 3	----
Player 4	8
Player 5	5

Remember that instead of our class on Monday we will have the class on 26^th with the end of term activity; as we told you in the note we gave you for your parents three weeks ago!

Nacho, Almudena and Manuel, have a nice summer holidays. Andrea and María, see you on Thursday 26^th!

My Grandparents' School!

Monday 9^th June

Hello again!

So, it seems that next Monday it will be the last day of class for Manuel and Nacho!

I hope you behave better than in our last class!

I know you aren’t coming to the play because you are going to be on holiday, but your classmates are performing in the play. You were playing, talking and laughing all the time. It was a lack of respect to the rest of us, especially to your classmates who were trying to act out the play!

Before the rehearsal, we continued with our last lesson of this course!

Last week we compared school subjects. This week we compared schools in the past with schools in the present.

We listened to the teacher’s father telling us what differences there are between his school days and schools now.

·         In his days, there were more children in each class and they were separated in big groups.

·         The kids didn’t sit around tables. They sat in long rows of wooden desks.

·         There weren’t pictures painted by the children on the wall. There were only photos of horrible head teachers.

·         They didn’t write with pens or had paints, They only used pencil.

·         They didn’t have computers or calculators.

·         Their subjects were different. They studied a lot of Latin and Greek.

·         Teachers were stricter.

·         They couldn’t speak in class. They had to be quiet.

Look at this chart and compare:

	PRESENT	PAST
Affirmative	He studies maths and Spanish at school.	He studied Latin and Greek.
Negative	She doesn’t study maths or Spanish at school.	He didn’t study Latin and Greek.
Question form	Does she study maths and Spanish at school?	Did she study Latin and Greek?
Short answers	Yes, he does. No, he doesn’t.	Yes, he did. No, he didn’t.

We make the past simple of regular verbs by adding “- ed”. We only use the verb ended in “-ed” in affirmative sentences. In negative sentences and questions we use “didn’t” or “did”. So, the verb doesn’t change. It’s always in infinitive.

And we learnt how to pronounce the past of regular verbs, that is the group “-ed”

DON’T PRONOUNCE “e”, ONLY AFTER “t” OR “d”

Want   wanted         end     ended           wait    waited

                   /ɪd/                           /ɪd/                            /ɪd/

When the verb does not end in “t” or “d”, “e” is never pronounced. Sometimes it sounds like “d”; sometimes it sounds like “t”. Don’t be lazy and try to read it in Spanish because native people won’t understand you and it sounds awful (terrible!)

If you want to practise pronunciation, follow this link.

Pronunciation of Regular Verbs

Remember the past of to be:

Present                     Past

I am                            I was

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

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

Homework: I know I didn’t give you homework! Revise everything we have learnt because next day we are going to have a games competition for our last games!!!

But this was the result for last week’s games

GAME 9

Player 1	4
Player 2	6
Player 3	6
Player 4	4
Player 5	2

Have a nice weekend! Perfect weather to go to the swimming pool!!!