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!!!

Let's Compare School Subjects! & ... A Geography Quiz

Monday 2^nd June

Hi again!

What’s happening? Neither Almudena nor Manuel came to class! I know. You have exams and it’s nearly the end of the course and of course, you have to make the last effort before the summer holidays!

All of you did your homework! Well done!

We continued comparing people.

·         Nacho is shorter than María.

·         Andrea is taller than María.

·         Nacho is younger than Andrea.

·         María is older than Nacho.

·         Nacho is noisier than the girls.

·         The girls are quieter than Nacho.

And we also have a ‘Geography’ competition.

Our two teams had to guess the right answer.

·         Which country’s population is bigger, Brazil or Bangladesh?

·         Which mountain is lower, Annapurna or Makalu?

·         Which city is more crowded, Mexico City or Brazil?

·         Which is smaller, North America or South America?

·         Which river is longer, the Yangtze or the Nile?

Can you remember the words which match these definitions?

It’s a body of water narrower than a river.

It’s higher than a hill and has a pointed end.

It’s bigger than the sea.

It’s like a mountain but the temperature is much hotter because it’s got fire inside.

It’s a shallow place between two or more mountains.

It’s a place hotter than a valley or a mountain and with no vegetation.

We talked about your school timetable and school subjects.

Let’s talk about your timetable (during the course. I know that this month it’s a bit different)

·         How often do you have maths?

·         How many times a week do you have P.E.?

·         Do you study ‘Business’ at school?

·         Which subjects do you study at school?

·         Which year do you study I.T. in?

·         What does I.T. stand for?

·         What does P. E. stand for?

·         What’s your favourite subject?

Let’s compare subjects:

·         Which subject is more useful?

·         Which one is easier?

·         Which subject is more difficult?

·         Which subject is more interesting? And more boring?

Then we play ‘Guess the movie’, ‘Hangman’ and ‘Trivia’ online.

We didn’t rehearse for our play. In fact, it’s getting really difficult to have our play organized with the absences of two of our characters and the indecisiveness (he/she can’t decide) of another one and now with Almudena missing …

Ok! The date is 26^th of June. Time: 10 – 12. And that’s definite! I’d like to know who I can count on because we may have to make some changes.

Don’t forget to do homework! Write five sentences related to ‘school subjects’. You can write which one is your favourite subject. You can compare subjects and you can say how often or how many times a week you have that subject.

      
            GAME 8

                                                         School Subjects

Player 1	7
Player 2	10
Player 3	-----
Player 4	8
Player 5	-----

       More Exercises on School Subjects

      See you on Monday!