The strangest laws around the world

In this post we will learn about the strangest laws around the world. Some of them are so crazy that you can think that they are fake.

Send a comment! Visit the following websites and post a comment with your ten top craziest rules around the world. Include their country, state or city. Use the modals: must / mustn’t / have to. Invent two more laws that are not true. We will have to guess if your rules or laws are true or false.

1. First website: 101 Strangest Laws from Around the World
2. Second website: Dumb Laws
3. Third website: Strange Laws

Interviews to tourists

After our interview to English and French tourist about the environment and the cinema, you will create a digital poster using the Internet tool Glogster in groups where you will insert images, videos and text explaining the questionnaire and analysing the results.

In your glogs you must include.

1. A title.
2. Questionnaire or survey in English about the environment and the cinema.
3. A text between 50-80 words describing the school trip (date, place) using the past simple.
4. A survey report with an introduction, a main body and a conclusion analysing the answers to your questionnaire. You can also include graphs and diagrams.
5. Photos and videos of the interviews.
6. Names of the members of the group and their tasks (cameraman, reporter, scriptwriter, etc.

To write your survey report here is a presentation with useful language:

Writing a survey report

Send a comment! Send the link to your digital poster via a comment to this post telling us your personal opinion about this project and school trip.

Love is the Only Way!

Here is a beautiful song in English and Spanish, “Love is the Only Way” by Macaco:

Send a comment! How about using this video for our end-of-the-year project? Everyone could make a poster with a sentence from the song and create an awesome lyrics video. Send a comment to tell us your opinion and ideas for this last project in common.

Here is the pdf document with the distribution of the lyrics of the song: LOVE IS THE ONLY WAY

IMPORTANT! Send your photo to the teacher via email and name the file with the number of your line, please! Deadline: Monday, 4th June 2012.

Playing with the Modals

In this post we will review the main modals with some interactive activities and videos:

Activity 1: Click on this link to learn about the different verb types. Copy the table in your notebook.

Activity 2: Play this game to review the modals we have learnt. In your notebook write a list with the possible functions for each modal:

Activity 3: Now pay attention to this video to learn the difference between “must” and “have to”:

Send a post! Can you find a video on the Internet about the use of modals? Maybe a song or a funny explanation?

Form and uses of the Present Perfect

In this unit we will learn how to form and use the present perfect tense in English.

Activity 1: Listen to the explanation about the present perfect and write down the three different uses with an example.

Activity 2: Listen to this interactive explanation about the form of the present perfect and complete the tasks on-line.

Activity 3: Complete this activity about the difference between the simple past and the present perfect tenses.

Activity 4: Now match these sentences.

Activity 5: Now complete with the correct participle BEEN (you have already come back) or GONE (you have gone but have not come back yet).

Activity 6: Complete with HAS or HAVE.

Activity 7: Put the words in order.

Activiy 8: Now complete with the adverbs SINCE (a point in time) or FOR (a period of time).

Activity 9: Now complete with the correct adverbial: FOR, SINCE, ALREADY, YET, EVER, STILL, AGO.

Activity 10: Finally practise the past simple and past participles of irregular verbs with this interesting on-line application.

Don’t forget to send a comment telling us your opinion about these activities!

More about the Present Perfect …

This “super Friday” we will  revise the present perfect, since it is a verb tense very used in English and it is not used in the same way as in Spanish.

Activity 1: Listen to this explanation on Youtube. Fill in the blanks. At the end of the video check the answers.

listen to some songs to revise the present perfect we have been studying for the last exam.

Activity 2: In the next video we will see the difference between the past simple and the present perfect. Write down the adverbs used for each tense. Then fill in the blanks and chech the answers.

Activity 3: Now it is time for music. Listen to my favourite song using the Present Perfect, “I haven’t met you yet” by Michael Bublé.

Send a comment! Do you know any other songs where the present perfect is used? Send us a comment with the link and write the sentences that appear in the song in this tense.

Our Students at the 10th “Feria de la Ciencia”

Our First Bachillerato Bilingual students were invited to go to the 10th “Feria de la Ciencia”. Tomorrow they will present an amazing project about how they learn in Englsh in the subject of Contemporary World Science.

This is the wonderful glog that they have created for this event:

We wish them all the best of luck!

More Lyrics Videos

Here are several more lyrics videos by an artist called Christina Perri, who has several videos like the one we are creating on the web. We can get ideas for our own future video.

“Distance”

“A Thousand Years”

“The Lonely”

“Arms”

“Dragedy”

“Penguin”

If you like this artist, here is the link to her official website: www.christinaperri.com

Send a comment! What is your opinion about Christina Perri, her lyrics videos and her music? Have you heard about this artist before? Do you know the song that made her famous? Share what you know about her with us!

The Tree of Life: a Film Provoking Deep Thought

For the last project we will see “The Tree of Life”, a philosophical film which make you think about metaphysical issues like the existence of God, the duality of man, and the real meaning of life.

Read the following review written by Wajahat Ali, so you can understand the film much better.

“THE TREE OF LIFE”: MOVIE REVIEW AND REFLECTION

Final Project: In a Google docs presentation find out the following information about the film. Create a slide for every question, including a title and images taken from the film. Choose ONLY five of the following questions:

1. What is the meaning of the shot of the light at the beginning and end of the film?
2. Describe the characters played by Sean Penn, Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain.
3. Choose a character in the film and write a diary entry for one day in your life.
4. What do you know about the director of the film Terrence Malick?
5. Why do you think the theory of evolution is included in the film? What is it the answer to?
6. Describe the main settings where the characters appear in the film: the urban jungle of imposing skyscrapers, the empty rocky terrain and the beach. Explain their metaphorical meaning.
7. Which are your favourtie quotes? Include the names of the characters.
8. Which are your favourite metaphors in the film? Explain their meaning.
9. What part of the film did you like best and worst?
10. What is your opinion about the different aspects of the film: director, soundtrack, images, actors …?

Watch the trailer! Here is the official trailer of the film with Spanish subtitles:

Listen to the soundtrack! Finally, here is the official soundtrack preview. Pay attention to the titles of the tracks. They are related to the main themes of the film.

Send a comment! Send the link to your Google docs presentation via a comment to this post with your name and short comment about the film.

I hope you enjoyed the film! 

Let’s create a lyrics video all together!

For the end of the year, we are planning to create a lyrics video. Every student will write a sentence in different places and formats, and we will all collaborate to create a super video together. This time we are not appearing in the video, only the sentences of the lyrics written on different places of our school: notebooks, computers, noticeboards, posters, blackboards, digital whiteboards, etc.

I suggest using some of these songs by Jason Mraz, which appear in his new album “A Four Letter Word”. You could make something similar, but in the school context. What do you think?

First video: This is my favourite song. It has a beautiful lyrics with meaning and good music too. Besides, freedom is so necessary.

Second video: Another song full of meaning and about the positive things in life. The refrain is really funny: la la la la …

Third video: Another original lyrics video so you can take some ideas for our future work of art.

Fourth video: This is the first video shown on youtube, a really beautiful song. Too romantic for an end-of-the-year lyrics video.

Send a comment! If you think you have the perfect song, send us a comment with the link to the lyrics video. Include the reasons why you think yours is the perfect song. Try to convince us all!