Bye 2014! Welcome New Year!!!

Hi guys!

How are your holidays going?

Did you have time to rest? Are you bored? Or are you getting ready for a New Year’s Eve party?   Are you going out on New Year’s Eve (31^st December)? Will you have the ‘Lucky grapes’ at home? In ‘Puerta del Sol’, any other place? You can write something on the blog telling us how you are spending these days… Did you decorate your houses? I did.

This is what I’ve done so far (for the moment).I went to my parents’ house in the village to spend Christmas Eve (24^th December) and Christmas Day (25^th December). I went by train on 23^rd December.

It was foggy and chilly in the village. 2 degrees Celsius!!

 I set ‘The crib’ or ‘Manger’ (this is the Nativity Scene; typical Spanish decorations at Christmas).

Here is a picture.

Do you like it? Do you set ‘The Crib’ in your houses? Post a picture and show it to me! And tell me what you are doing these holidays!

 On New Year’s Eve (31^st December) I’m going to the village again. I’m going to have dinner with my parents and my partner. After dinner, we’ll have the grapes at home and then, we’ll go out for a drink with some friends.

What about you? What are your plans for the last night of the year?

On this video you can see some Christmas traditions in the UK!

On this one you can see some Christmas traditions in the USA!

I would like to remember what we did in our last class of the year.

We listened to the song that Natalia had prepared previously. ‘You’re gonna miss me when I’m gone’. Natalia chose this song because we were talking about trips and transport. In her opinion, the song was connected to our topic because it was about a girl setting off (starting a trip) to change her life.

Very good, Natalia.

Then, we went on (continue) with our end of term project.

We had a ‘Quiz Show’ competition. We had to make some changes as (because) neither Paula - our presenter - nor Rodrigo - one of our contestants- didn’t come to class. We also missed the questions related to geography and food, because they were Paula and Rodrigo’s commission.

It ended up like this: Almudena was the presenter. She read the questions and checked the answers so as to give the points. Our contestants were Team1 formed by Jorge and Natalia; and Team2, Noelia and Laura.

It was a close contest (similar forces) but in the end (finally), Team 1 won the quiz!!!

 But the winner of our Academy Games’ Awards was… Almudena!!! Congratulations!!! Well done!!!

And… that was all! Enjoy the rest of your holidays! Don’t choke with the grapes and … I’ll see you on 7^th January! Just after Twelfth Night (Reyes)

Have Fun!!!

On Second Thoughts...

Wednesday 10^th December,

Hello everybody!

Have you finished your exams yet? I hope so because I’d like to see you before this year is over and next week, Wednesday 17^th is our last day of class for this year!

I also hope you to look on the blog, although I’m not sure if you ever do!

The title of this blog entry is ‘On second thoughts’; why? Because I had planned a class and I had to think again and do it in a different way.

  At first, only Natalia was present, she prepared a song. By the way, we decided to leave it for next class, as (because) nobody was coming.

Later, Laura arrived and the three of us started talking about music. They told me what kind of music they like; what their favourite singers or groups are; which concerts they’ve been to and which ones they would like to go. We also found out (learnt) about Laura’s connection with ‘El Canto del Loco’.

  As Laura hadn’t attended the previous class, we helped her to find the words in the weather word search and to fill in the gaps in the lyrics from ‘It’s raining men’.

  Then, Jorge came along! Good! There are four of us now!

We did a communication exercise that consisted in asking questions about different means of transport to find out (discover) how long it takes to go from London to different British cities by plane, coach or car.

How long does it take to get from London to Dublin by plane? It takes …
Do you know how long it takes to...

   ...to dry your wet iPhone?

...get to Mars

                         



                      

..to look like Miss World?.

  Find some more 'How long does it take...?'  
    answers and post them on the blog!

And to end the class, as I had promised to Natalia, we listened to ‘Firework’ by Kate Perry.

As I told you before, next Wednesday is our last class before Christmas and we are supposed to present our project. This quiz that you have, presumably, prepared. Don’t forget to bring your questions written on different cards (pieces of paper).

And we’ll also have our ‘Games Awards’

For the last game of this year I’ve decided to give a 7 to the three students who attended to class; same as the previous week.

GAME 11                   

Player 1	7
Player 2	---
Player 3	7
Player 4	---
Player 5	---
Player 6	---
Player 7	7

    Have a nice weekend!

    See you next Wednesday! All of you, I hope!

Weather & Transport

Wednesday3^rd December

Hi guys! How are you?

It seems you are very busy because three of you were absent last class.

Good luck with your exams to you all.

In our last class, we continued with comparisons.

We checked the exercises and we talked about different topics involving superlatives.You told me what you think are the best and the worst places to live in Leganés.

The best places to live in Leganés, in your opinion, are ‘Campo de Tiro’ or ‘Quinto Centenario’. On the contrary, the worst places to live are in Leganés Norte or the area near the bullring, ‘La Cubierta’

The oldest part of town – the same as in every town or city – is the centre.

As for what’s the easiest way of moving around, there was some disagreement. For some of you the easiest way is by bus; for others, it’s by underground.

And, talking about Spain, the best time to visit Spain is…all the year round! Depending if you want to go to the beach or enjoy the Christmas lights in the capital.

Opinions were very varied when it came to the most beautiful place in Spain. For me, it’s Seville, for Jorge is Madrid and for the rest, Almería, Galicia …

Click on this link to do the exercise

Exercise

We also watched a video on transport. The video had been posted on the blog but I noticed that nobody had watched it. I would like you to write on the blog. I’d like you to continue the story that Noelia started a thousand years ago!!!! But you are too lazy! At least, you could have a look and watch the videos or do the exercises that are posted there!

Then we did a word search with vocabulary related to the weather.

There was a word that we couldn’t find. Try to find it at home.

 And finally, we listened to the song by Geri Halliwell. ‘It’s raining men’

For homework, complete the glossary on the photocopy and make questions for the underlined answers.

This is the paragraph:

 “This song was originally recorded by The Weather Girls. It was late re-recorded by Geri Halliwell, the ex-Spice Girl, and her version was used on the soundtrack of the film Bridget Jones’ Diary. The song became a number one hit.”

I gave you a general mark of 7 for performance in class.

GAME 10                   

Player 1	7
Player 2	7
Player 3	---
Player 4	7
Player 5	---
Player 6	---
Player 7	7

Have a nice weekend!

Study and also enjoy your free time!

C.U.

Travel and Transport. Comparative Adjectives and Adverbs.

Wednesday 26^th November,

How’s everybody? Yes, I know: very busy, with a lot of exams.

Cheer up! There’s little left for Christmas holidays and we have a long weekend before.

And talking about the long weekend in December, are you going to go away (to travel)?

• If you travelled abroad you could practice the dialogues we did in our last class. Or maybe, if you are at the station or in downtown (the city centre) you may be asked questions by tourists, who knows!
• Customer: Good morning. I’d like a ticket to Victoria station, London.
• Train company worker: Single or return?
• Customer: return, please. Is it a direct train?
• Train company worker: yes, it is.
• Customer: Is there a special discount for students?
• Train company worker: yes,a 20% off. Can I see your student's card, please?

• Customer: here you are. How much is the    ticket?
• Train company worker: £40.60 with the discount.
• Customer: Can I pay by credit card?
• Train company worker: of course. Your ticket. Enter your PIN (Personal Identification Number) please. Thank you.
• Customer: What time does the      train leave?
• Train company worker: At 10.35 Platform   6.
• Customer: Thank you. Good bye.
• Train company worker: Have a nice trip! Bye!

Remember that in English it’s very rude to say “Give me a ticket to…” or “I want …”. Use “Can I have a ticket to…?” or “I would like…(I’d like)”

 We had two great teachers…or didn’t we?

Rodrigo & Jorge explained to us how to form the comparative of adjectives and adverbs. They started by drawing a chart on the board. Then, Natalia & Almudena clarified the boys’ explanation. And finally, Noelia and Laura summarised the lesson. It was a good thing to have substitute teachers. We have to do it more often!

Remember:		ADJECTIVE	COMPARATIVE	SUPERLATIVE
1-Syllable		hot long	hotter longer	the hottest  the longest
2 -syllable ended in “y”		dirty	dirtier	the dirtiest
	REST OF ADJECTIVES
1-syllable not ended in “y”		violent	more violent	the most violent
More than  2- syllable adj.		expensive	more expensive	the most expensive
		IRREGULAR
		good	better	the best
		bad	worse	the worst

And the same rule applies to adverbs.		ADVERB	COMPARATIVE	SUPERLATIVE
1-Syllable		fast near	faster nearer	the fastest  the nearest
	REST OF ADJECTIVES
More than  2- syllable		slowly	more slowly	the most slowly
		IRREGULAR
		much / many	more	the most
		little/few	less	the least
		far	further/farther	the furthest /the farthest

Now you can 

practise comparative adjectives in real dialogues with Real English!

We revised the questions for the quiz and did a trial test. Our presenter was absent, so I had to take her place. I must admit that Rodrigo was right! I told him his questions were a bit too easy but he asked the first question and nobody knew the answer!

 For homework, do exercises Grammar, A and Speaking, A. Photocopy page 83

And write your questions separate pieces of paper.(without the answers)

We revised the questions for the quiz and did a trial test. Our presenter was absent, so I had to take her place. I must admit that Rodrigo was right! I told him his questions were a bit too easy but he asked the first question and nobody knew the answer!

 For homework, do exercises Grammar, A and Speaking, A. Photocopy page 83

And write your questions separate pieces of paper.(without the answers)

     GAME 9                    

Player 1	8
Player 2	10
Player 3	8
Player 4	10
Player 5	---
Player 6	8
Player 7	8

I am quite generous with your score today because you fully participated in class. But, what about the story? Five points to the person who continues the story on the blog (not Noelia. Because she started it)

Enjoy your weekend!!!!