Halloween y el Día de los Santos

The biscuits and cake were yummy!!!

It seems Halloween is here to stay.
I obviously deal with it in my lessons, since it is a festival concerning the English speaking
countries.
Some facts I would like to deal with:


1. Halloween is not from the USA. 
2. Halloween dates back to the Celtic festival known as Samhain.
3. The main city to celebrate Halloween is Londonderry (or Derry), in Northern Ireland, the place which claims to be the area where it started to be celebrated
4. I was lucky enough as to live an hour away from Derry, therefore my two and only
Halloween parties took place there. I don´t believe in it outside Ireland, and, therefore I am not in the mood for it if I am not in that country. So, it is time to deal with this Celtic based festival, bearing in mind that I don´t think
it looks real if not in Ireland, since it is there where it makes sense.
I still prefer eating some buñuelos on 1November, I guess it is the tradition I always
kept at home.

 

 

 

Happy Halloween (Video)

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To the 80s kids

So finally the day has come.
We are dealing with TV in 5° this week.
We will be learning a few words about that field and I couldn't miss the chance to post this video.
We,the 80s kids...were definitely lucky to live in a world of no internet, in which a ticket to the cinema

 or renting a Beta or VHS film was the best present or time spent ever.
"Back to the Future", together with "Young Sherlock Holmes", "The Goonies", "The Gremlins" and "The Changeling" (I got nightmares about it for a long time...) were those films you would rent once and over 

again if you were lucky enough as to be able to get them.They were always booked by some other families!
So today is the day Marty McFly gets to his future life.I'm still looking up to try and see him arrive on his hoverboard...I'll just keep dreaming!
When I lived in Omagh I realised that the Omagh Courthouse keeps some resemblance with the Clock

 Tower in the film.Do you agree?
Enjoy the video! (Click)
And another video (click)

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What are you doing?

Good afternoon!
Here we have some videos some of our kids decided to film at home to practise the -ing structure.
What are you doing?
What is she doing?
What is he doing?
Let´s wait and see!!!
It is so good to see our kids trying to do their best in the videos!
Well done, girls! El primer video me da error y sólo he podido recortar un fragmento.
Por su peso no puedo colgarlo íntegro en Blogger. Sorry!

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Wordsearch

Good evening everyone!
There are three students who fulfilled the task about the wordsearch this morning.
They show their scary wordsearches in this video.
If you want to find numbers from 1 to 10 in them, just check the column on the right side
of this blog. Look for GAMES and then you´ll see "Wordsearch. Numbers 1, 2, 3".
I hope you find them all!!!
Good luck!

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Video about our Wordsearch and the way we are coping with the project.

Good morning.
Please find attached some videos about how the wordsearch project is going today in one of our classes.
Have a great weekend!

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Video about our Weekly Project (Wordsearch about numbers)

Good afternoon.

Here you have some videos about our Wordsearch project in class.

The idea is that we can upload those pastimes to our blog so that anyone 

can try and find those hidden numbers...

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Project and dictionaries

Good evening.
As your kids must have told you, there will be a project day every week.
Depending on the class your kids are in, it will be done either every Thursday or Friday.
The aim is to make them realise how English becomes a powerful tool to cope with our own reality, far beyond our own school walls.
I am sure they will learn to love our weekly project and to work in their teams, pursuing the same targets in learning.
I'll send you some information in PASEN in a few weeks time.
I will leave the summer decoration until Autumn comes. It sort of "breaks my heart" to leave those pools and ice cream icons behind (young at heart, so they say!)
About the dictionary, it's fine to bring any bilingual dictionary, though I particularly prefer My World Learner's Dictionary (Dayton Publishing).
Enjoy the remains of the day.

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Welcome Back, my young fellas!

Good evening, my dear fellas.
Sorry for the mistakes you 
might come across in this post.
Writing it using my mobile
phone is giving me quite a hard time.Anyway...
I'm sure your kids must have talked about our new companions at school for the whole year.
As you know, there are several kids from other countries and who will try their best to communicate in Spanish in due time. Your kids have been really
"cool" (as our new students would say).They've tried their best to make them feel at home all the time, making it so nice to stare at them all playing in the playground and making good friends from the very start of the school year!
So far so good and still counting. 
Let's call it a day!
Sleep tight and see you tomorrow.

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Farewell, teacher Carmen

Hola a todos.
Hace unos años que soy tutora de alumnos de prácticas de Magisterio ( Lengua Extranjera ). Este año he tenido la suerte de tener conmigo a Carmen. Llegó en el segundo trimestre. Desde el primer día, se ha convertido en un gran apoyo en las clases, con una implicación total. Ha sido la lucecita que alumbra el camino de los que se encontraban un tanto desorientados y les ha ayudado a no perderse. Los niños han valorado su trabajo y atención constantes.Le han querido regalar algunas cosas (incluso ha habido alguna que otra lágrima).Carmen me ha regalado estas dos manualidades tan bonitas (hechas por ella) para las clases:

 Me alegra mucho saber que ya es maestra, mucho más allá de la espera de un título. La vocación no se consigue a golpe de títulos sino que es algo innato.Carmen ha demostrado a diario que tiene vocación, un nivel lingüístico que le permite transmitir perfectamente lo que queremos enseñar y comunicar y una experiencia personal y profesional previas: lo que llamamos: "tener tablas".
Por eso sé que la querrán donde trabaje,porque alguien con tanto entusiasmo por lo que hace no se merece otro trato.

Como dicen por Irlanda...
"May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and the rain fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand."

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A Scrapbook for Our Mate Overseas .Week 7

Good evening.

Here I submit a video about how our our Scrapbook is going.

 

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Publicadas las "notas" de 2ºB,3ºA,3ºB,4ºA y 4ºB en PASEN

Estimadas familias,
Os informo de que ya he colgado las notas del control de 2ºB,3ºA, 3ºB , 4ºA y 4ºB en PASEN.
Recuerdo que para 2ºB, 3º y 4º, al no ser determinante para la nota global de la evaluación, la nota de este
control es cualitativa.
La correspondencia sería:
-Excelente: notable alto/sobresaliente.
-Bueno: bien/notable
-Adecuado: suficiente
-Regular: Insuficiente

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Videos of 1ºbachillerato, with the voices of some students in 4ºPrimaria

Good morning.
I got one of the videos that teacher María recorded in 1ºBachillerato.
The dialogue was made by some students in 4ºPrimaria.
It was an activity promoted by Carmen, the trainee who is working with me until next week.
I´ll upload some more once I get them.
Enjoy!

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A Scrapbook for Our Mate Overseas.Weeks 4,5,6.

Good evening!
So, as every Tuesday, we deal with our Scrapbook 

Project.
This week we did as usual 

(we wrote about our planning) and the kids kept on sticking those items

 they think suit their memories best.
We could see those T-shirts

 they were wearing for their match 

today and Elena was really proud to say it was her mum the one in charge of

 getting them ready. They look great!
Here I upload some photos

 of our work.

Have a great evening!

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Iniciativa solidaria.Omagh.

Hola de nuevo.
Como ya sabéis, tengo un segundo hogar (Omagh).
Los colegios, bares, pubs y demás instituciones de Omagh están inmersos en una campaña de toma de conciencia sobre el impacto del cáncer a nivel local, ya que los casos van en aumento en estos años.
A pesar de que está la tienda de Cancer Research en Market Street, que obtiene fondos con bancos de ropa de segunda mano, necesitan conseguir los fondos necesarios para que pueda haber caravanas de información, prevención y detección precoz en las calles de Omagh. En los últimos años, el hospital (County Tyrone Hospital),  a pesar de ser Omagh la capital del County Tyrone, ha visto mermadas sus competencias y no recibe fondos suficientes de la administración.
Por eso los comercios y centros cívicos están lanzando esta campaña.Les quedan 17 días para conseguir lo necesario para que se pueda contar con esas caravanas en la ciudad.
Cada persona que se registra puede dar sus 10 votos a esta iniciativa.
Uno de los pubs, McCann's, es uno de los pubs de referencia en cuanto a sesiones de música tradicional y, su dueño era muy respetado en la comunidad.Murió de cáncer hace un par de años.Han publicado la iniciativa en el Facebook del pub y yo la comparto con vosotros para que, entre los habitantes de Irlanda del Norte y los que alguna vez hemos vivido en Omagh podamos conseguir que se materialice algo tan importante para ellos.

Consultad el enlace:
Cancer (Aviva)

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Taller de guitarra eléctrica

Buenos días.
Un amigo mío, Manu Durán, guitarrista y músico profesional me ha comentado que dará un taller de guitarra eléctrica a niños de entre 9 y 17 años en varias sesiones del mes que viene en una Asociación Cultural. 
Os adjunto la fotografía del cartel que me ha dado y que ya he puesto en el tablón de la entrada.
Os animo a que participen vuestros hijos. Manu es un gran músico, con experiencia.Su próxima cita profesional será tocar con una cantante israelí en el Festival de la Guitarra de Córdoba. Es un placer escucharle tocar, sobre todo si os gusta la guitarra de los 70 (Pink Floyd).
También participa en Jam Sessions semanales en La Chistera, Monachil.
Que tengáis un gran día.

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New Things We Are Learning These Days...

Good morning!

I hope you had a really memorable bank holiday.

All right, folks...!

Here I am, back after the holiday and taking the most of some free minutes I have now. That´s a great chance to have my blog updated, in fact!

I´d like to comment on some issues we are dealing with in class in the past and next few weeks:

In 2º, we have already dealt with talking about a few places in town, like buildings and shops.

Now we are revising how to talk about clothes and how to describe our own appearance, trying

to be as accurate as possible. 

In 3º, we have gone through "directions", bearing in mind how to talk about places in town. We

ended up so "exhausted" that we have decided to learn how to talk about "feeling sick"and all the remedies we need when we have a back-ache, stomach-ache, a temperature... 

We learnt some questions to show that we care for our friends and family, such as "What´s wrong?" "What´s the matter?" "Are you okay?" and what we "must", "mustn´t"/don´t have to...

or "can/can´t" do when feeling sick.

In 4º, we have learnt about events in the past, such as those deeds some explorers carried out.

We enjoyed our trip on Cousteau´s Calypso (Nice childhood memories to me!) and now we are revising how to talk about pasta events, as well 
as how to compare using "-er  than..." and "more ...than..."

 

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BOOK DAY. These are some of my favourite novels ever. What about you?

Good evening!
Happy Book Day!
Please feel free to leave some comments below!
So, then...
What´s your favourite book? That book you could read once and over again?
The book which means childhood to you?
To me they were, among many...
- "Hombrecitos" (Louise May Alcott)
- "Viaje al Centro de la Tierra" (Julio Verne)
- "Cuentos que mi madre nunca me contó" (Alfred Hitchcock)
- Toda la colección de Los Cinco (en especial el primero: "Los Cinco y el Tesoro de la Isla") de Enid Blyton...

We have already dealt with this nice topic of books in several lessons.

In 2ºB, we got the chance today to see an old book. It is so old that it does not even have a

copyright. We do not have a clue about the year it was published so our students in 2ºB and

in 4º are trying to find out that information (they will try and do some research in the internet).

It is a task I like doing with my kids every year since they realise books are more related to

personal experiences and  unveiled stories than to the mere fact of reading.

We learnt some questions such as:
1. When was it written or published?
2. Who was the author?

Some students in 4º have interviewed some other students at school and even some teachers.
We recorded their voices (as well as Carmen´s voice. She is our trainee teacher until May)
as they were chatting to some students in ESO and Bachillerato:

They´ve asked some questions, such as:

1. How often do you read?
2. What do you prefer? Books or films about books?
3. Why is it good to read books?

Some students in 4ºA and 4ºB have prepared some dialogues (Trainee Carmen´s project) that will
 be filmed by students in 1ºBachillerato.
Once we get the videos (thanks to teacher María), we will upload them in this blog.

JULES VERNE´S " VIAJE AL CENTRO DE LA TIERRA"

J.R.R TOLKIEN´S " THE LORD OF THE RINGS"

Mary Shelley´s "FRANKENSTEIN"


AND "ANNE OF GREEN GABLES" by Lucy Maud Montgomery.
I bought most of these novels in a second hand bookshop abroad. It´s a good way to get the "classics".

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A Scrapbook for Our Mate Overseas. WEEKS 4 and 5

Good evening!

Here I submit two brief videos about how the scrapbook is going,

as well as some photos of the ideas we got this morning (after

carrying out our weekly brainstorming) and about how our weeks

develop themselves.

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Control 2°B,3°B y 4°B (18 mayo); 4°A (21 mayo); 3°A (22 mayo)

Hola a todos.
De cara al control del 18 de mayo de 2°B,3°B y 4°B, de 4°A (21 de mayo) y 3°A (22 de mayo):
Como sé que se sienten muy realizados con la opción de "la hoja comodín", además del control que les prepararé, podrán demostrar lo que se han aprendido y la forma en que lo han hecho (vuestros trucos caseros, etc...) ese día.
Así tenemos el objetivo claro de cara a este mes de mayo en el que seguramente estaremos de comuniones algún fin de semana.Os resultará más fácil gestionar vuestro tiempo si ya conocéis la fecha clave del control.
Lo que tenemos que repasar en cada curso es:

2°B

Como hemos copiado esta mañana, los deberes hasta el 18 de mayo consisten en repasar los animales del tema 7 (hablados y escritos), junto con preguntas y respuestas generales sobre ellos (las que llevábamos de deberes para hoy sobre nuestro animal favorito).
También repasaremos I love/I like/I don't like...
Y el "So do I"/"Neither do I".
Por último, ubicaremos animales con las preposiciones que ya hemos aprendido durante el curso (next to/opposite/in front of.../behind/in/on/between).

3°A y 3°B

Para el control repasaremos un mínimo de 20 lugares de la ciudad (de los que se aprendieron para hoy), imprescindible saberse los que aparecen en el tema.
Además repasaremos lo que se debe hacer o no en cada sitio público (You must.../you mustn't...) y las instrucciones para entender una dirección (las copiamos la semana pasada en la libreta: Where's the...?
go straight on; turn left/right; take the first/second/third street on the left/right; turn around the corner; go over the bridge).

4°A y 4°B
Para el control repasaremos:
Los verbos en infinitivo y en pasado del tema 4 (repaso).
La salud.
Los ordinales desde 1st a 20th.
Los días de la semana,las asignaturas y los lugares que frecuentamos.

Un saludo.

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What 's your favourite animal?

Good evening!
In 2° we are learning how to talk about animals, where they live, about their habits...
This is my mum's cat. My nephew found it when it was less than a month old. It was alone, in the street. So we decided to keep it.
I had my first cat when I was 11.
It was like Garfield and as naughty as it was!
My cat liked eating its cat food but it loved ham and crisps!
My mum's cat is a Siamese.
It is eight years old.
It likes cat food.
It loves jumping on the wardrobes!
It is naughty sometimes.
It hides under the bed and it loves sleeping on my mum's lap!
Here I show you some pics of it (
when it was just two months old and a pic I took some months ago).
Do you have a pet?
What's your favourite animal?
What does it eat?

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