Let's Talk about Television!

Tuesday 24^th February, 2015

Hello everybody! How are you?

Are you happy? I guess so, (I think so) because today is Friday and the weekend is here! Anyway (apart from that), if you aren’t happy we can make you smile, can’t we? …because this is our project for the term!

Well, everybody did homework! Wonderful!

 But it seems to me (I think) that you still don’t use the present perfect tense, properly (appropriately).

Remember: 

Question ?	Affirmative +	Negative −
Has the teacher been late for school?	The teacher’s been late for school.	The teacher hasn’t been late for school.
Have you ever found any money on the street?	I’ve found some money in the street.	I haven’t found any money in the street.
Have the politicians ever broken their promises?	The politicians have broken their promises.	The politicians have never broken their promises.
Has the actress forgotten her lines?	The actress has forgotten her lines.	The actress hasn’t forgotten her lines.

After that, we started talking about television and TV programmes.

We started by telling the different types of programmes we can see on TV. We continued talking about the programmes we usually see. We said what channel they are on, what day they are on and what time they start. We also said why we like them.

After the break we discussed the details of our project.

Feel

We started writing on post-it cards things we didn’t like or that we wanted to change. There were things, many things!, we can’t do anything to change. But, the girls had an interesting idea. Alicia said that she didn’t like sad people or people who look angry. You agreed with her.

…but, we can’t do anything… “Yes!” you said. “We can! We can’t make people happy but we can make them smile.”

Imagine

“How can we make it?”

“We can go to the mall or to the street and find sad people. Then we can appear in front of them, dressed as clowns, and give them cards with pictures of ‘smileys’ (emoticons) or sweets.’

And … everybody agreed. WHAT A WONDERFUL IDEA!

What do we need?

We need to ask for permission to the director of the academy, to the shopping centre and to your parents.

We need to draw pictures or get the sweets.

We need to decide when and where!

We’ll continue next day!

This is your homework.

Write about your television habits. Write a paragraph. Use this cues: when you watch TV; how many hours you watch it; where you watch it, who with; what TV programmes you like;which ones you don’t like. What your favourite programme is; what it is about, when it’s on and what channel it’s on. ANSWER ALL OF THESE QUESTIONS IN YOUR PARAGRAPH.

           GAME 7

Player 1	5
Player 2	4
Player 3	8
Player 4	7
Player 5	----
Player 6	9
Player 7	5
Player 8	4

              Bye! Have a nice week!

An Interview: Find Somebody Who...

Tuesday 17^th February

Hi everybody! How’s everything?

Last Tuesday we started asking questions for an interview.

In fact, we started reviewing Present perfect because you had forgotten it and you didn’t look on the previous blogs.

Present perfect.

“Perfect” means that we use “have”. And “present” means we use the present tense: “I have, you have, he has etc.”

So, we use present of “have” + the verb ending in –ed (participle of regular verbs) or the third form of our list of irregular verbs.

To sum up:

Present perfect ------------------Have/has + -ed / or 3^rd form of the list

 Click here for more exercises.

 Present Perfect exercises  More  exercises

These are some of the questions we asked our classmates:

·         Have you moved to a new house recently?

·         Have you ever had a pet bird?

·         Have you ever met a famous person?

·         Have you ever swum in the ocean?

·         Alex has swum in the ocean.

·         Marcos has met a famous person.

·         Lucía hasn’t had a bird pet.

Please, do homework to revise this tense. Make the questions on the photocopy I gave you. ONLY THE QUESTIONS. There are nine of them.

Then, we went on (continued) with our project.

 We finished the first stage: Feel. We rearranged the ideas on the piece of cardboard and started to discuss what things we couldn’t change and how we could do it; Imagine

And the time flew and the class was over (finished)

             GAME 6

Player 1	8
Player 2	7
Player 3	8
Player 4	9
Player 5	7
Player 6	11
Player 7	4
Player 8	4

Bye! Have a nice week!

Flipped Class: Carnival & Saint Valentine's Day!

Tuesday February 10^th

Hello everybody! How’s your weekend going?

First of all, I’d like to wish ‘Happy Birthday’ to Marcos. So, you were your parent’s present on Saint Valentine’s.

We had a lot of work in our last class! First, we checked homework.

I can’t believe none of you were able to identify the story depictured (described with pictures) in the cartoons! There’s a boy with a long, long noise. Is it a boy or a puppet? There’s also a cricket (an insect which makes a funny noise when it rubs its legs)…but I’m not telling you what it is about. You’ll find it out (discover) next Tuesday.

We started reading a short text about ‘Matilda’ a book written by Roald Dahl. We’ll continue with this next Tuesday.

After that, we started with the first stage of our project: Feel. You wrote down your ideas on colour post-it cards. We didn’t have time for voting and/or debating. That’s what we are going to do next Tuesday.

And, after the break, we swapped classes. Gonzalo told us about the origin of Saint Valentine’s festivity. Remember that it’s important that you understand what you are writing or reading. Don’t just print it out from the net. Understand what you read. Tell about it using your own words! If you don’t understand, how do you expect little kids to do it?

Marcos explained some vocabulary related to Saint Valentine’s Day and played Pictionary using them. As for Alex, what did you do?

Guillermo collaborated with Marcos but…you could have made a bigger effort!

We had very few points, just for homework and planning ‘Flipped Class’. But you can make up for this (compensate) next Tuesday. You can get up to 16 points if all the questions on the photocopy are right. You can revise present perfect on our previous blog.

             GAME 5

Player 1	3
Player 2	4
Player 3	2
Player 4	2
Player 5	0
Player 6	4
Player 7	2
Player 8	6

 Enjoy your weekend!

Have Fun!!!

What Kind of Film is it? When is it On?

Tuesday 3^rd February, 2015

Hello Everybody! Here we are again!

We were very busy last Tuesday.

Marcos finished the story we started to write last year and the end was…unpredictable? Amazing? Predictable? Not very creative? What do you think? I liked it!

Sometimes I don’t feel happy with you when you misbehave (bad behavior, talking a lot, not paying attention, not listening to your classmates or the teacher) in class but I don’t want anything similar to what you wrote in your story happen to you!!! Of course, that’s FICTION!

After that, we revised ‘present perfect’. I could see that you have already forgotten what we studied last term. Here is a reminder (something to make you remember)

Present perfect.

“Perfect” means that we use “have”. And “present” means we use the present tense: “I have, you have, he has etc.”

So, we use present of “have” + the verb ending in –ed (participle of regular verbs) or the third form of our list of irregular verbs.

To sum up:

Present perfect ------------------Have/has + -ed / or 3^rd form of the list

AFFIRMATIVE	NEGATIVE	QUESTION	SHORT ANSWERS
I have cooked for a lot of people.	I haven’t cooked for a lot of people.	Have you cooked for a lot of people?	Yes, I have. No, I haven’t.
You have been near a dangerous animal.	You haven’t been near a dangerous animal.	Have you been near a dangerous animal?	Yes, you have. No, you haven’t.
He has won a cup.	He hasn’t won a cup.	Has he won a cup?	Yes, he has. No, he hasn’t.
She has slept in class.	She hasn’t slept in class.	Has she slept in class?	Yes, she has. No, she hasn’t.
We have been on TV.	We haven’t been on TV.	Have we been on TV.	Yes, we have. No, we haven’t.
You have bought a present.	You haven’t bought a present.	Have you bought a present?	Yes, you have. No, you haven’t.
They have lived in Italy.	They haven’t lived in Italy.	Have they ived in Italy?	Yes, they have. No, they haven’t.
I have ------ I’ve	I have not ------ I haven’t
He has ----- he’s	He has not ----- he hasn’t

You can do this exercise to help you. Exercise - Present Perfect

We talked about films.

·         Have you seen ‘Alice in Wonderland’?

·         What kind (type) of film is ‘The Princess and the frog’?

·         What time is ‘Twilight: New Moon’ on?

·         Is ‘Matilda’ a humour film?

Then, we talked about our ‘Flipped class’ for next week.

·         Lucía & Sara are going to prepare ‘Valentine’s cards’ for the class. (Pictures and text).

·         Marcos & Guille are going to prepare 
vocabulary about Saint Valentine’s (first, teach the vocabulary & later review it with games and/or questions)

·         María & Alicia are going to do the same as Marcos & Guille, but related to ‘Carnival’.

·         Alex & Gonzalo are going to prepare a short text or the story of Carnival & Saint Valentine’s. (Alex, Saint Valentine’s; Gonzalo, Carnival)

We finished the class with a song: ‘Steal my Girl’

Homework: Write the story following the pictures. Photocopy page 13.

- What type of story is it? Adventure, fairy tale, science fiction, fantasy etc.

- Have you ever heard that story?

GAME 4

Player 1	5
Player 2	7
Player 3	7
Player 4	6
Player 5	3
Player 6	9
Player 7	8
Player 8	5

  See you on Tuesday!

 Have a nice weekend!