NEW YEAR´S RESOLUTIONS

A FUNNY CHRISTMAS STORY

SOUNDS OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

US INDEPENDENCE DAY

Fourth of July.
This day in history, America claimed its independence from Britain in 1776.
The presentation you are about to see shows you what Americans do to celebrate this event every year.

Fourth of July - US Independence Day

More presentations from stainly

GERUNDS AND INFINITIVES

You can watch the following video to revise the uses of Gerunds and Infinitives.


 Finally, here is a video with some songs lyrics showing the use of gerunds and infinitives.

HOW TO MAKE A TIME CAPSULE

COLLOQUIAL FORMS IN SONGS

Colloquial language can be defined as informal spoken language.
 Today we are learning to identify and use the colloquial contractions “wanna, gotta, and gonna.”and other informal words you can hear in some modern songs. You should definitely not use them in formal written English (reports, research papers, formal e-mails, etc), in which case, you need to spell them out in long form. But learning to use them correctly in your speaking and writing will make your communication much more effective.
Here is a short video that shows some colloquial forms in different songs:

                            As an extention activity, you can do more exercises about English informal language in the following link: English informal language

10 INVENTIONS QUIZ

As an extention activity, you are about to see a video about 10 inventions which will make your life easier. Watch the video and answer the questions proposed in the following link: 10 Inventions Quiz
Which one do you like the most? Why?.

BONFIRE NIGHT

This is a British festive day which is celebrated on November 5th. The tradition started to celebrate the failure of a plan to blow up King James I and the Houses of Parliament in 1605. Watch the following video  co-produced by the BBC and The British Council and find out all about it.
After watching the video, there are some suggested activities: reading comprehension and vocabulary exercises. Besides, the page provides you with worksheets and downloads together with the transcript. This is the link:  Bonfire night activities .

THE HISTORY OF HALLOWEEN

Today, we have seen the following video to talk about Halloween.
For further information about Halloween origins, traditions, superstitions...    I recommend seeing this link:
History of Halloween

VOCABULARY– WEATHER, CLIMATE AND NATURAL DISASTERS · engVid

Vocabulary – Weather, climate, and natural disasters · engVid: Worried about natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis? When we make small talk in English, we often talk about the weather and recent natural events on our planet. In this lesson, Ill teach you English vocabulary to talk about weather, climate, and natural disasters. Watch this lesson, and youll learn how to follow climate news, how to discuss weather trends, and much more. Take the quiz to test your understanding! When youre done, practice by posting a comment about a natural disaster in your country.

COMPARATIVES AND SUPERLATIVES

This post is devoted to showing the use and form of comparative and superlative adjectives by comparing the family members of the famous American TV series, The Simpsons.
Two presentations are used.
For further practice, you can visit the following link:
comparative and superlative exercises.

Simpsons comparatives from Jessica Orejuela Garcia

Comparative superlative from Fortuna Lu

COMPARATIVES

This post is devoted to the use of comparative adjectives in English. The video I am showing is for an elementary level, teaching how to compare two people, things or groups. I think my students from 1º ESO will find this video practical and enjoyable.
For futher information, you can visit the following links:
comparison as....as
Comparatives
Britishcouncilcomparatives

IDIOMS FOR THE NEW YEAR

January is a great month to concentrate on new goals for the year that has just started. So, I am devoting this post to learning new idioms related to new resolutions.
The video I am about to show was published on 31 December 2014. Let´s apply all the comments made to this new year 2016.

IDIOMS

The idiom I have chosen for this post is called: " to get the ball rolling "which means in Spanish  : "poner en marcha, empezar a hacer algo ".
I will include a video that explains its meaning in English:

REMEMBRANCE DAY

Florespedia.com

Armistice Day or Remembrance Day is celebrated on November 11th every year. It commemorates the end of World War I on 11th November 1918.
 Armistice Day is observed all over the world. In many countries, people stop what they are doing for a two-minute moment of silence at 11:00 a.m. This is a sign of respect for those who died. In Britain, there is another name for Armistice Day - Remembrance Sunday. In 1939, the British government moved Armistice Day to the Sunday nearest November 11. In America, the day is also called Veterans Day. Children in Commonwealth countries know these days by another name – Poppy Day. People wear poppies and donate money to charities for soldiers injured in wars. Poppies are a symbol of the blood that filled the trenches. Poppies also bloomed across some of the worst battlefields during the War. Source link: http://www.eslholidaylessons.com/11/armistice_day.html
 For further information you can visit the following links:
What is remembrance day ?
Armistice day in pictures.
ESL Holiday Lessons. This page contains activities you could do with students to practise vocabulary, listening and reading comprehension exercises about this topic.

Finally I will include a short video about Remembrance Day:

IDIOMS

The idiom I have chosen for this post is called: " don't look a gift horse in the mouth "which is translated into Spanish as : " a burro regalado no le mires el diente ".
I will include a video that explains its meaning in English:

IMAGINE LIFE

Attraction´s shadow Theatre Photo.

 This post is devoted to encouraging creativity by stimulating student´s imagination.
According to Fiona Mauchline, teacher, teacher trainer and materials writer, promoting creativity in the classroom resolves around emotional investment, engaging the senses, playing with language and conveying absolute personalisation in the outcome.
 The activity I have chosen is related to a video clip that deals with the Cycle of Life in a creative way. Every video tells a story so, as a warming up exercise, we could ask students to describe:

•  what they see 
• what they hear 
• how they feel
•  who they see 
• whether they like it or not and why?... 

Another activity we could do is to revise the vocabulary related to family and then to describe a favourite member of their family: their physical appearance and other aspects such as emotions, senses... This exercise could be also used to revise the present simple tense. We could ask questions such us:

• What colour of eyes, hair, skin has he/she got ?
•  What does his/ her voice sound like ? 
• What makes him/ her laugh ? 
• How does she /he walk?
• What do you have in common?... 

 Finally, students could write a short essay titled "Imagine Life " using the vocabulary and language  grammar used in the class.

This is the video clip. The show is perfomed by the Shadow Theatre Group.

IDIOMS

New English Centre.

"Beat around the bush" means "Andarse con rodeos"

 Idioms are words, phrases, or expressions that cannot be taken literally.  In other words, when used in everyday language, they have a meaning other than the basic one you would find in the dictionary.  Every language has its own idioms.  Learning them makes understanding and using a language a lot easier and more fun!

 For example the idiom " to run the show " is equivalent to the Spanish expression " tener la sartén por el mango", " to hit the ceiling " means " subirse a la parra ".

I recommend spending one minute a day to learn an English idiom and then try to use it in your everyday conversations.

This post is devoted to learning the idiom: "beat around the bush"

The following video will explain the idiom to be used in context, which is the best way of learning.

WORD CLOUDS

I will devote this post to talking about the uses of “word clouds” for teaching English.
But first, I will describe briefly how to create word clouds and cloud narratives.
You can use Wordle which is a programme for generating “word clouds” from any texts that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You just have to click on " create your own " section, paste the text you choose and then you can change the words in the clouds with different fonts, layouts, and colour hints. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to use as you wish.
Therefore, talking about some applications of word clouds for teaching English could be:
use them to introduce or revise vocabulary and grammar, to engage students to create and tell stories, and students can even create their own word cloud or cloud narrative to show and present in the class. In short, using word clouds in the classroom is a creative way of teaching which helps to motivate students to learn.
Finally, I will include an example of a word cloud I created from one of my texts: