Back to School in September

 Hello everybody!
after the summer holidays, it's time to come back to school.

ACTIVITY 1 - LISTENING AND UNDERSTANDING
Let's watch a subtitled video about Schools in Britain first:

 
WRITING EXERCISE:
Did you like it? ...................... Anything surprising for you? .............................
What are the main differences with the schools in your own country?
In the UK schools ........................................
In my own country schools ................

ACTIVITY 2 - SCHOOL VOCABULARY - LISTENING AND REPEATING
Now we are going to practise some school vocabulary using talking flashcards:

Any new words for you? Watch the video again and write them until you know them!
You can use this video with your children to learn English too!

Please write any comments and contact me if you have any questions.
Enjoy this back to school period! :-)

Halloween History vs. Halloween Stories

This weekend, the 31st of October, is Halloween.
But what is REALLY the Halloween festival?

We all know about dreadful and horrible Halloween stories like this:

Spooky pumpkins , killer clowns, monsters, witches, vampires, zombies, ghosts and ghouls...

And there are also some  funny stories or parodies about these spooky characters, such as this:

 

Count Duckula is a vegetarian vampire and he is also very polite and good!
Look at the intro of this TV Series. What words and expressions do you understand?

And now with the subtitles. It's really funny! :)

All these stories are horrible and spooky, funny and entertaining but...
do we know the real history of Halloween?
Let's have a look at it!

 

Una versión simplificada de lo que ocurre en  Halloween en español aquí:

Well, I think we all know more about the REAL Halloween festival now.
I hope you enjoyed this special Halloween post, my friends!

Happy Halloween to everybody! Be spooky and scary!
Good night out there, whatever you are!  3:)

P.S: We're going to a Halloween costume party! (Look below)
Have you already prepared your spooky toffee spider cakes? Terrifyingly Yummy! :-P

Colour Songs

Hello everybody!

We all know the basic colours in English, of course.
(Remember, 'colors' in American English!)

SPEAKING

1- What's your favourite colour? Why?
2- What's the colour you don't like? Why?

3- What are the colours of the rainbow?  

This is more difficult! Look at the picture below! :-)

LISTENING - SONGS

Today we listen to some songs to pracise the colours in English!
Let's start with this one:

   

And, to finish, a complete song about colours

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4txwNwz_MP8

Do you understand the chorus of the song?

'But I see your true colours
Shining through
I see your true colours
And that's why I love you
So don't be afraid to let them show
Just show your true colours,
True colors, ooh are beautiful like a rainbow...'

KARAOKE TIME! 

Listen to the song and sing!  <0:-P

Have a happy and colourful weekend, my friends! See you soon! ;)

Merry Christmas! Some songs for the Winter Season

MERY XMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR! LET'S LISTEN TO SOME POP CHRISTMAS SONGS! :)

    Season's greetings to all of you! Winter is here and Christmas time, too!
As some of you have told me,  I have not been publishing many posts in this blog lately.
Well, today this post is just to say thank you to all of you who are supporting me in my life and with my blogs and social networks AND, of course, to wish you a happy Christmas season to you all!

Here you have some good pop Christmas songs - old and new, with and without subtitles -
but... no classical carols this time, promised!
We have already sung many traditional carols in our English lessons, for sure! :)

Let's start with a the great Whitney Houston which also recorded a Christmas album.
Her voice was not at her best here, but this is a very nice Christmas song though:




Now we are going to see a different vision of Christmas; let's sing this song of Coldplay all together:

The last one is a current song (2013) but with some traditional arrangements.
I hope you enjoy it, no subtitles this time!
Can you understand any words and sentences here? Let's try!





And that is all for now! Which was your favourite song and why?

Feel free to tell us and to suggest me any other Christmas songs you like, as always.

Merry Christmas to you all!  Enjoy the winter holiday season!
o<|:-)

London 2012 Olympic Games (2) - Olympic Songs from Barcelona 1992 to London 2012

Olympic Songs from Barcelona 1992 to London 2012

Listen to all these Olympic songs and choose your favourite one! :)

1) Barcelona 1992:

Sarah Brightman and José Carreras: "Amigos Para Siempre" (Friends for Life)

 

 

Chorus
Amigos para siempre
Means you'll always be my friend
Amics per sempre
Means a love that cannot end
Friends for life
Not just a summer or a spring
Amigos para siempre

2) Atlanta 1996:

Gloria Stefan: "Reach"

3) Sydney 2000:

Magic Voices: "Australia"

4) Athens 2004

Giannis Kotsiras: "Pass the flame"

5) Beijing 2008

Sarah Brightman and Huan Liu: "You and Me"

 

 

6) London 2012

WRITING & SPEAKING Activity
Think about your dream London 2012 official song!

Now it's your turn to become a lyrics writer!  :)

1- What kind of official song would you like for London 2012?

__Slow and Classy    __Catchy and rhythmic  __Loud and wild

2- Who would be your favourite singer or singers for this song? .........................

Why? ......................................................................................................

Where are this singer or these singers from? .........................................

3- Which 4 words would you include in the lyrics?

Word 1- .............. Word 2- ............. Word 3-.......... Word 4-.............

4 - Write the Chorus of the song in 4 lines using at least one word in each line.

Line 1- ................................................................................ (word 1)

Line 2 - ................................................................................ (word 2)

Line 3 - ................................................................................ (word 3)

Line 4 - ................................................................................ (word 4)

I hope you enjoyed all the olympic songs and creating your own song too!
Write to you soon!   ^_^
 

One week for the London 2012 Olympics!
Countdown from 7 to 1!     7!..................

Coldplay - The Scientist

We have a "different" song today, it's a homemade animation video with subtitles in English.

 "The Scientist" is the second single from British alternative rock band Coldplay's second album, A Rush of Blood to the Head. The song was written collaboratively by all the band members for the album. It is built around a piano ballad, with its lyrics telling the story about a man's desire to love and an apology. The song was released in the United Kingdom as the second single from A Rush of Blood to the Head and reached number 10 in the UK Charts. It was released in the United States as the third single and reached number 18 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks.

The Scientist (Coldplay, UK 2002)

Come up to meet you
Tell you I'm sorry
You don't know how lovely you are
I had to find you
Tell you I need you
Tell you I set you apart

Tell me your secrets
And ask me your questions
Oh let's go back to the start
Running in circles; coming up tails
Heads on a silence apart

Nobody said it was easy
It's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be this hard
Oh take me back to the start

I was just guessing at numbers and figures
Pulling your puzzles apart
Questions of science; science and progress
Do not speak as loud as my heart

Tell me you love me
Come back and haunt me
Oh and I rush to the start
Running in circles, chasing our tails
Coming back as we are

Nobody said it was easy
Oh it's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be so hard
I'm going back to the start

Oh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
X4

I hope you like it!
KARAOKE TIME! :)

What a Wonderful World (BBC Commercial of a documentary)

A few months ago we watched the video and the lyrics of the song "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong in the post:

What a Wonderful World (Louis Armstrong)

 Do you remember it? Well, today we are going to watch a commercial of the BBC series "Frozen Planet" which will be released this Christmas. It is a BBC documentary with seven episodes presented by the famous British broadcaster and naturalist David Attenborough.
We can listen to him saying the lyrics of the song "Wonderful World". Enjoy the video and the voice too! :)

 

 

Lyrics "WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD"
(George Weiss / Bob Thiele)

 I see trees of green, red roses too
 I see them bloom for me and you
 And I think to myself, what a wonderful world

 I see skies of blue and clouds of white
 The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
 And I think to myself, what a wonderful world

 The colours of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
 Are also on the faces of people going by
 I see friends shakin' hands, sayin' "How do you do?"
 They're really saying "I love you"

 I hear babies cryin', I watch them grow
 They'll learn much more than I'll ever know
 And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
 Yes, I think to myself, what a wonderful world

 Oh yeah