I'm so proud of how conscientiously my students prepared their exams, with excellent results!

Tales and more tales

I have found some fairy tales and stories you may use for next class retelling. There are longer versions, I am posting the shorter ones.

Check this out!
Goldilocks and the Three Bears

The Elves and the Shoemaker and other stories

Little Red Riding Hood

Hansel and Gretel

Rapunzel

If you find any others, you may post them in the comments.

Going to the cinema

Extra Listening 1 

1. Listen to "The Flatmates" Episode 10. Two friends are deciding which movie to watch.

2. Check the "language point": you will find vocabulary related to films

3. Can you solve "the quiz"?

You may use the listening log to register the things you listen to on the internet.

Lemon Tree Song

Animated song: Lemon Tree

Watch the animation, it's beautiful!!

And please answer in a few lines in the "comments": What is the song about?

Get on / off + means of transport

Remember we were discussing GET ON & OFF? Check this out!

The rest are other phrasal verbs with get.

Daniel

Here's the link to a beautiful live version of Daniel by Elton John.

It's clear in this version that he says "heading FOR Spain" and not "to", so fix it in your books.

For those still wondering about the meaning of the song, read on!

The song*

Bernie Taupin wrote "Daniel" while inspired by the events of the Vietnam War. The lyrics (including a verse in the original draft that was cut from the final version) describe a fictional veteran who was blinded as a result of the war ("your eyes have died"/"but you see more than I") and travels to Spain to escape those around him back home ("do you still feel the pain"/"of the scars that won't heal?"), including his brother, from whose point of view the story is told.^[4]

"'Daniel' had been the most misinterpreted song that we'd ever written," explained Taupin, in the Two Rooms tribute project. "The story was about a guy that went back to a small town in Texas, returning from the Vietnam War. They'd lauded him when he came home and treated him like a hero. But, he just wanted to go home, go back to the farm, and try to get back to the life that he'd led before. I wanted to write something that was sympathetic to the people that came home."

*Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_(Elton_John_song), last visited 6th Septembre 2012

Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace

Here's the link to the article for those who don't have the copy.

Read it a couple of times and work on the gapped text.

Print outs & links for Level 2

Here are some docs we need for the term.

• The CALENDAR

• The Profile for your Portfolio

Other useful links

To get the book audio

• Student Book CD 2

• Workbook Audio CD

For revision and Extra practice

• NEW ENGLISH FILE ELEMENTARY

WELCOME TO LEVEL 2!

Here's the song we saw the other day in class so you may go on practising!

Nancy Sinatra Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) Lyrics

My Ideal Home by Eliana

My ideal home is in a neighbourhood of Capital City: Palermo. Palermo is a very beatiful neighbourhood. It has got lots of cinemas, shops, restaurants, bars, subways, parks.

This is an old house. It´s got a four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a living room, a playroom and a big kitchen. The matrimonial suite has got a big bathroom with a jacuzzi, a dressing room  and a big balcony with lots of flowers and plants.

The house has got a wonderful garden with a swimming pool, gym, trees, plants, grill broiler, chairs, tables and double garage.

This house is a very light, quiet and relaxing place and perfect for a big family. It´s about 5 minutes from The Palermo Lake. Here I can do sports, run and relax.

My family by Claudia

                           Claudia wrote about her real family

                         




































 This is my beautiful family.

The Nanny by Julieta

When we studied the family, students wrote about a family from a TV series or soap opera. This is Julieta's contribution.

The Nanny is an American sitcom.  The female protagonist is Francine Joy, played by Fran Drescher.   She´s a lovely girl from Queens, of Jewish origin who accidentally becomes a nanny of three high class children of New York.

Francine, her nickname`s Fran, starts to work at home the Sheffield family.

Maxwell Sheffield is the male protagonist, portrayed by actor Charles Shaughnessy.  He´s the father of three children, Maggi, Brighton and Grace.  He´s widower and a famous Broadway theatre producer.   

Max works a lot and hasn´t time to care their children therefore searches for a nanny.  When she knocks the door in his home, he confuses Fran, a seller of makeup with the nanny.  He hires her immediately.

The others members are Niles (by Daniel Davis), the butler and chauffeur for the Sheffield family, who hates CC (by Lauren Lane), the business partner of Max but she wants something more than that.  She´s in love with Max and she wants to marry him.  Obviously, she hates Fran, and always fights with Niles.

Fran is a funny nanny.  She has a particular voice and really loves Max´s children.    Maggi (by Nicholle Tom) is the eldest child, she´s shy and clumsy.    She fights with her brother Brighton because always call her "nerd".  Brighton (by Benjamin Salisbury) is the middle child.  Usually, he causes trouble to his sisters.  And Grace (by Madeline Zima) is the youngest.  She has an imaginary friend and she has a habit to use difficult words for to talk.

Sylvia is Fran´s mother, she´s played by Renée Taylor.  She´s a typical Jewish mother.  She´s tries to maintain an important role in Fran´s life.   Sylvia visits frequently the Sheffield home and she wants her daughter to marry.

Yetta Rosenberg (by Ann Morgan) is Fran´s grandmother and Sylvia´s mother. She´s a survivor of the Titanic.  She forgets things all the time.  She really believes the children are Fran´s children.

Finally, Val Torielo (by Rachel Chagal) is Fran´s best friend. She isn´t very smart, usually she makes stupid but very funny comments.

My Ideal Home by Vanesa

My ideal house is on the Beach of the Caribbean.  It`s a comfortable place. It`s a big and very luminous house.  I love my ideal house for its large windows and the sight.

There`s a green garden in front of the house.

There are two bedrooms and two bathrooms.  Also, there is a big living room and a beautiful American kitchen.

In the second floor there's a relax room with a warm jacuzzi next to the room of games. In this room there`s a big TV. There are two sofas and some puffs.

My house is near the small downtown.  It`s only about ten minutes. My family live three doors of my house. I`m lucky these are very big houses!  And my neighbors are my friends.

In the centre there is a cinema, there are some shops of clothes and a lot of bars to go out with my friends.

House on sale by Gerardo

This is a great house in Bariloche, Just outside town. It's very quiet and relaxing area, near mountains and lakes. You can feel the sound of nature.
Inside the house there is a beautiful fireplace in the living room. There are three bedrooms, two bathrooms and large kitchen ideal for food lovers. There is a big garden with flowers and trees.
The house is near the centre of ski, and about fifteen minutes from the commercial centre of Bariloche, where there are some shops, cinemas, restaurantes and all what you need for enjoy the life.

My Routine by Fernando

Now that students have finished the level 1 course, I have asked them to search in their writing portfolio for one piece to share. This is Fernando's choice.

Hello, my name is Fernando. I'm a lawyer and I am fifty five years old.  I have one child.  He lives  part of the week with me. His name is Guido, and he is  fourteen  years old. My all days routine is as following.

I wake up at quarter to seven in the morning. Then I have a shower and  awake  Guido. I get dressed, and  then I make a light breakfast. We have coffee with milk and toast with jam, and then we brush our teeth, and  we   leave. We go by car. First,  I take my son Guido to  his school.  Then, I go to work.  I get to the office about  8:30 am. I start to work inmediately. I make telephone calls, check the mails, and sign documentation. At 14:00 am I  have  lunch time. After lunch I come back to the office  and I start to work again.  I work until about 18:00. Then I go back home,  or sometimes I go to a friend’s house. Once a week I meet with them to play music because we have a rock band. I also study English. After dinner I often  study English.

My weekend routine is very different . I wake up never before  9:00 am. I get up about 9:30 am, and I have a long and slow  breakfast. Then I play tennis with my friends. Then I have a shower and after that  I cook lunch , most of the times barbaque, and I drink  a good red wine malbec.

I have a nap until  16:30 pm. Then  I get up and play table tennis with my son and their friends. In the night we watch tv or a movie. Then We have  dinner and  finally we go to sleep.

Revision Time...

Some ideas for revision...

• Listen to unit 3 dialogues with and without the script.
• Write only the answers of a dialogue and try to remember the questions and vice versa.
• Go to New English File and work on Grammar (file 1,2,3). Vocabulary (a to i), Games, Text builder (1 and 2), Audio Words, Practical English (File 1, 2, 3)
• Go to Headway Elementary Online Practise and keep up the revision.
• Work on the photocopies of the revision units I gave you. 
• Read The Daily Mirror or The Sun. These English newspapers are easier to read. They bring lots of pictures (like Crónica).

Ain't got no money....by Nina Simone

Singing challenge!!

Here's a very good version of the song we did in class: Ain't got no money

Sing! it's good practice for fluency and pronunciation.

Challenge: this version is different. See if you can understand the different words.

Learn English Apps

Dear Students!

Those who have mobiles with Android or an IPad, check the British Council Apps!
Learn English Apps for Android.

Try to get "My word book", Big City or Learn English Elementary

Extra Listening 2

Go to: I wanna talk about my son

Don't try to understand everything!! Circle what you here on the transcript. Do the suggested tasks.

Here's the link to the pdf with the tasks and transcript if you prefer not to work online: wanna talk about my son Tasks pdf

Listening Log

Do you remember I suggested including a Listening Log in your Portfolio?

Here's a Listening Log page. You can just download it from Google Docs.

Listening Log

Online extra practice

Hi, Let me recommend the New English File site to you. It has plenty of grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, listening and writing activities.
Go to New English File Website (files 1, 2 and 3 have the same topics you see in class)

Extra listening

Go to Meet Olivia and listen to her presentation.

1. Do the vocabulary exercise. You can use a dictionary.

2. Watch. Try to understand the idea with the pictures.

3. Read the transcript. Circle the words you hear.

4. Do the tasks.

You can repeat it as many times as you want!

Extra Listening-Introductions

Go to this link and listen from time 0:00 to 1.40 minutes. The radio hosts introduce themselves.

Elementary podcasts Episode 1

Here's the transcript

Section 1 - “Susan, this is Paul” – introducing your friends

Ravi: Hello, and welcome to LearnEnglish elementary podcast number one. My name’s Ravi…

Tess: … and I’m Tess. We’re your presenters and we’ve got lots of things for you to listen to today, but before we start, I think we should introduce ourselves. Ravi?

Ravi: OK … erm … I’m Ravi.

Tess: Or, I tell you what, I’ll introduce you and you can introduce me. How about that?

Ravi: Well, OK then. Erm, this is Tess. She’s from London. She’s … how old are you?

Tess: None of your business, Ravi!

Ravi: And she loves dancing and riding her mountain bike. OK?

Tess: OK. And this is Ravi. He comes from Manchester. He’s 23. Oh … aren’t you?

Ravi: Oh yes.

Tess: He likes football, and … he’s a great cook.

Ravi: Thanks! And there’s one more person for you to meet. I’d like to introduce our producer, Gordon. Say hello to everyone Gordon!

Gordon: Hello! Pleased to meet you!

Ravi and Tess: Hi Gordon

Tess: And how are you today?

Gordon: Very well thank you Tess.

This is the audio CD you need for the Workbook!

Wokbook CD download (New Framework 1)

Welcome 2012 Level 1 Students!


I'm really excited to start a new course with you.


Here's the link to download the book audio.
New Framework Audio Cd1


Remember to check your homework before coming to class on Wednesday.


Best regards,


Mariana