BACK TO SCHOOL

                 Welcome back everybody!

It seems summer holidays always fly by, and here we are again in September with a new school year ahead. I'm sure we all come back very happy and with lots of energies to go on teaching and learning English.
I hope that this year will  be even better than the last one.To begin with,what about some very funny jokes ?

HAPPY SUMMER !

At last our deserved rest came. Now we can have the time to dedicate it to our beloved ones and ourselves.

I don´t know about you or the activities you are going to do during this period, but personally I can  summarize it in two important things I always love doing during my summers. On the one hand, I am  going to travel a lot, and on the other hand I want to unwind myself by reading many books which will take me to imaginary worlds, so what else can I ask to feel I am in Heaven!

                        Enjoy your summer holidays too!

LEARNING GAMES

 To end up this course some classes have been reviewing things they have been learning during the school year through games.

In 1º ESO A they enjoyed, not only designing their own games about London but playing with them!

And in 2 ESO B,  they were also learning while playing with questions and asnwers from the book All About Britain which they have already read this year.

No doubt all of them loved these classes thoroughly as you could see.

TELLING GOODBYE TO MADELINE IN 1º ESO A

Last week we were telling goodbye to Madeline, our Language Assistant this year.

As a nice gesture of their kindness, 1º ESO A students thanked her with a lovely dance of the song "Moving " by Macaco.They also draw things on their blackboard, designed cards from Málaga and wrote her many sweet little messages in Spanish or English, so she could remember them for life.

And these were her words as an answer to our blog:

.-.-.-.-.-

My name is Madeline and I've spent the last year working as a language assistant in IES Portada Alta. Spanish high school is very different from my experience growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, and I didn't expect all the laughs, occasional "enfados", and tons of learning during the year.
 I first met the 1A class in November when I spoke to them about Thanksgiving with their teacher of English. They were shy and nervous, and could barely pronounce "pumpkin pie". By the end of the year I had begun regular Math classes with them, and as we gained trust, they began to speak more English. The students laughed at my Spanish mistakes and we joked about their English pronunciation; they were competitive when we played games and patient when I didn't remember algebra. 
Now at the end of the school year, it's hard to believe these are the same shy students I first met; kids who once wouldn't say "hello, how are you?" now write "what's up?!" on Instagram.
 I'm sad to leave Portada Alta, but I'm so impressed with what the students have achieved and I know they will continue to improve with their teachers and next language assistant.

FINAL TESTS ARE COMING...JUST BREATH!

School is almost over... We've been working hard and now we need to relax for our final tests!

Watch this short film called " Just breath!" by Julie Bayer Salzma and Josh Salzman who  feature a bunch of kids sharing their thoughts on what it feels like to be stressed inside yourself.

Follow their advices before your exams, meanwhile you are in your classes or at home. Choose the right  moment to feel yourself calm, take some deep breaths and refocus again. Your brain will be thankful!

DO YOU KNOW TODAY WE CELEBRATE STAR WARS DAY?MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU

May 4 is Star Wars Day. Fans of the franchise greet each other with "May the Fourth be with you" all day in a nod to the classic movie line, "May the force be with you." The holiday has grassroots origins, thanks to the Internet allowing fans to unite and connect with each other.

 According to starwars.com, the earliest reference to May 4 actually comes from 1979, when author Alan Arnold was chronicling the making of the second film in the franchise (but, in order of the storyline, film 5), The Empire Strikes Back.

 Arnold wrote on May 4, 1979, "Margaret Thatcher has won the election and become Britain's first woman prime minister. To celebrate their victory her party took a half page of advertising space in the London Evening News. This message, referring to the day of victory, was 'May the Fourth Be With You, Maggie. Congratulations,' further proof of the extent to which Star Wars has influenced us all."

 

HOW MUCH / HOW MANY?

HAPPY EASTER!

During these days our 1º ESO  A bilingual students have been learning about the different celebrations of Easter and Holy Week both in The United Kingdom and Spain:

And here you can see some of their homework and tasks:

SAINT PATRICK´S DAY

If you'd like to know more about St. Patrick's Day, check out these activities by the British Council, read all about it in their magazine or  watch this video:

CELEBRATING SAINT DAVID-DATHLU CYMRU

Welsh people celebrate their National Day on the first of March amd this is the Day of Saint David , their Patron Saint.

As a university student and later on I used to go on holiday to Mumbles, quite near Swansea, in Southern Wales .That is why I will always have fond memories of wonderful sandy beaches and  Norman castles (as you can see in some of my pictures).Not to mention the excellent people I have found in this part of the world, in fact some of my relatives and best friends live there.

To find out  more about this lovely part of UK take a look around this site. Explore the brand new interactive map to see how Wales connects with the rest of the world in 2015, get inspired to try some traditional Welsh recipes and so much more!

PLURALS IN ENGLISH

LOVE IS IN THE AIR

WEBQUEST

Click here to see some of the cards with poems my 1º A students have decorated their class with.

ALL ABOUT BRITAIN

I hope that with this padlet about the book they have to read, my 2nd  ESO students can find more useful resources that will help to complete their final projects during this term.

Good luck guys! 

SHORT STORIES FOR BEGINNERS

Do you like listening to and reading stories in these winters evenings while you are warm at home?  If it is so, I share you these links where you can find lots of great stories for you to watch and listen to.

 You can also read from the Oxford Owl Ebooks collection or see some  the Stories playlist on YouTube for videos of some of the most popular short stories for kids.