We resumed classes after a very nice holiday. Everybody in this group went somewhere. Students started the lesson asking each other:

Did you go anywhere for the holiday?

And they all answered: Yes, I went to... ( the beach, Granada,Toledo, my village, and so on).

We continued learning about jobs. First, students had 2 minutes to make a list of all the jobs they remembered. Next we were talking about jobs. First, we practiced the question: What do you do? to find out about somebody's job. The second question we learned was: What does a (secretary, mechanic, etc.) do?

Students picked a job and and had to find their job description. Then everybody had to interview everybody else and write the answers in a chart.

We learned the following verbs to describe jobs: cook, serve, shave, repair, teach, drive, help, manage, work.

Students held conversations like this:

What do you do?

I am a chef.

What does a chef do?

A chef cooks meals ( or food) in a restaurant.

The verb tense we are using is the Present Simple. When we ask questions we need to use the auxiliary do or when the subject is a 3^rd singular person: he, she or it, we use does. When we answer the question, if the the subject is a 3^rd singular person: he, she or it, we add an -s or sometimes -es.

Students did an excellent job is this activity.

Later they practiced job descriptions completing a worksheet. They had to match jobs with their descriptions.

Finally we were reading a play-script, but we agreed that it's a bit difficult so we are going to try another one.

Homework

Watch  the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORGLQudvMWE

Then, choose 4 jobs and explain what they do. Example:

The tailor makes trousers, suits and shirts.

Well, the term is coming to an end, like the movies. Remember to bring your contribution to our tea party.
Here is a little example:

Hard boiled egg and anchovy canapes:

Ingredients
 A hard boiled egg
4 pieces of toasted bread.
A can of anchovies.
Some olives.
Mayonnaise.

To make the canapés
Put the pieces of toasted bread on a plate.
Spread a bit of mayonnaise on them.
Put a slice of egg on top.
Spread a tiny bit of mayonnaise on the egg.
Put one anchovy and one olive on top. Hold the canapé together with a tooth pick.

Don´t worry, I will help you with your recipes in the first part of the class next Thursday.

Yesterday we continued studying how to describe people. We learned a few new word: height, weight, age, average, good looking, pretty, handsome, cute, middle aged.
Students had to describe a the picture of a person in this way:

It´s an old man. He is average height and average weight. He has got short dark hair.
Or
It´s a middle aged woman. She is tall and average weight. She has got long curly hair. She is pretty. 

Students had to talk to a classmate in this way:
Student A Tell me about the boy. Is he tall? Student B No, he isn´t, he is short.
Student A Is his hair long? Student B Yes, it is.

Then, we listened to a recording which described 4 different people students had to pick the right answer, they all did a good job.

We watched a video and practiced the song: What do you look like?  Students performed and sang the song.
We had time to play the game Who is who for a little why.

Homework
You know, cook something nice.

Were you born in 2013? No, yo were not. If you had, now you would be a baby and you are not a baby. You are all big kids now, you are 10 or 11. So you answered No, I wasn't, I was born in 2003 or 2002, which is a good answer.

And you all know how to say your email address in English, don't you?

In our last class we reviewed  the vocabulary introduced the week before: words to describe somebody's appearance and personality. And we played Around the World to reinforce it.
We talked about best friends and some of you were very clever and guessed which characters in the book were best friends: like Jessica and Steve, because they both looked shy. One character in the picture didn't have a best friend, but she had her own horse.
Everybody said who their best friends were and then each student said one sentence about them: he is thin,  she has got long hair, she has got brown eyes or he wears glasses.
By now, everybody knows when to use is or are or am and when to say has got or have got.

We made 2 teams and played the game Who is who. Students had to ask these type of questions:

1.Is it a man? or Is it a woman?
2.Does he/she wear glasses, a beard, a moustache, earrings, a hat?
3.Has she/he got black hair, long blond hair, gray hair?
4.Is he bold? Is he/she old?

The person who gave the answers could only say yes or no and had to answer like this to those questions:

1. Yes, it is. No, it isn't.
2. Yes he/she does. No, he/she doesn't.
3. Yes, he/she has. No, he/she hasn't. 
4. Yes, he/she is. No, he/she isn't.

Finally we had the Olympic Games to review what we had been practicing during the lesson. The first 5 questions students had to answer in that short way that is has just been described. The other 5 questions were a bit more difficult and some of the students did not understand what they had to do, but most of them did very well. Some words were given,like: Mary, blond, long, hair and they had to make a sentence: Mary has got long blond hair.

Homework
1.Answer this little quiz:

Is your mother bold?

Does your father wear a hat at home?

Have you got gray hair?

Has your cousin got brown eyes?

Does your best friend wear pig tails?

2. Make sentences with these words. Remember, when a noun is something we can count (1, 2, 3, etc.) and it is singular we must use the determiner a or an before it.

My dog/ long, tail.

I/ tall/ thin.

My best friend/ earrings.

Old/ man/ gray/long/beard.

The boy/long/ legs.

Today we started a new unit. In this unit we learn to describe people. 

In order to describe people we use adjectives with the verb to be.
We studied the following adjectives: tall, short, fat, thin, strong, weak, bold, fast, slow, friendly, unfriendly, shy, clever. We can say:

Mary is tall, thin and strong. And she is very friendly.

We also practiced describing some parts of the body. In order to do that we use the verb have got.
To talk about hair we learned:
For colour: blond, brown, red, dark or black.
For shape: straight, wavy, curly.
For length: short, long.
To talk about the shape of the face: round, long.
To talk ab out eyes: brown, black, green, blue, grey.
To talk about our nose: big, small, long.

We can say:
Mary has got a round face, long curly brown hair and blue eyes. 

There are other things that are less permanent and we can use the verb wear to talk about them:
glasses, earrings, a mustache, a beard, long side burns,a pony tail, pig tails, braids, a cap.

We can say::
Mary wears glasses and a pony tail.

When we describe a person we use all the three verbs. Example:

Mary is tall, thin and strong. She has got a round face, long curly brown hair and blue eyes and she wears glasses and a pony tail. She is very friendly.

In our class students listened to a recording about 6 different people and had to identify their pictures. Then they talked about each one of those people.
Finally, we played a board game to review the Present Simple and the Present Continuous.

Homework
Describe these 2 people: you can give them your own names:

This time I am not going to forget about you.

Yesterday was our last lesson on the Present Continuous. You have certaintly had the chance to practice it so I hope you don´t forget it in quite a while.

Yesterday, after our usual rounds of questions students were given a picture and asked to work with a partner. The pictures were similar but had some differences. In order to find out what their  partner´s picture was like sutdents had to ask questions like:
Is a man playing the piano in your picture?
or
Are two men talking in your picture?

Later students were told how to describe a picture: we start talking about the general picture and then we talk about the particular, we get into detail.
For example, in these pictures we could say:

In the back of the picture there is a man playing the piano and a woman singing. In the front part four people are sitting at a table. ( Then we can say what each one of those people are doing and finally what we see on the table).

The reason why we do this is because in this way the person who is listening to you can imagine the picture in his/her mind easily.

Each student then explained part of their picture aloud. We followed the order mentioned above.

Next, students listened to a recording: questions in the present continuosus. Some of them starting with Where, some with What, some with Who. After listening they ask each other the same type of questions about some pictures and answer them. We also listened to a short conversation. Students read it and role played it. Great Job, kiddos.
Finally students completed a worksheet (also about the Present Continuous). We read a text describing a picture and students needed to correct some sentences and write true sentences.

Homework
Do this exercise. Then, write all the sentences on a piece of paper.

I was a bit disappointed today that only one student had done his homeowork. Well, I know Silvia had done it too, but she had left it at home. Anyway, good for Saúl.

At the beginning of the lesson students said in what year they were born and reviewed a question we had not practiced for a long time:
  
How old is your brother, sister or parent? He is/She is .... years old.

We are studying the Present Continuous: to say what we are doing now, or today, or this week: but today we also practiced the Present Simple, just to see the difference and how we use it to talk about something different.

Present continuous: now, today, this month, at seven o´clock, etc.

Present Simple: every day, usually, every morning, every night, etc. (Routines!)
In order to learn about this tense we listened to a song called The Morning Rap. Students acted out all the actions and had a good time. There were many things to do: wake up, get up, get a wash, get dressed, run to the kitchen, sit down, have breakfast, get the bag, put on your shoes, say goodbye to Mum, say goodbye to Dad...

Uuups! Forgot to correct homework last class. It must be that were too busy last Wednesday. We'll do it next day.
But we continue practicing the Present Continuous. All the students could talk about actions in general, because we had been learning for a long time, so this time some new specific actions were introduced:
House chores: sweep the floor, mop the floor, vacuum the floor, make the bed, tidy up, set the table, do the laundry, fold the clothes, iron the clothes, wash up, cook, wash the windows, cut the grass, dust the furniture. 

Students wrote down and pronounced those new words. They acted out those actions. The other students had to guess what they were doing. We used this activity to practice asking questions in the present continuous. How do we ask a question in the present continuous? Very easy: we change the order of the words. Instead of saying:

He is sweeping the floor.

we put is first and say:

Is he sweeping the floor?

or are first:

Are Simon and Mary washing up the dishes?

Next students wrote some sentences in the present continuous. The had to write what the people in the pictures were doing.

For the Olympic games students had to answer 10 questions: some of them had to be answer in the present continuous, other ones were general questions that we had been practicing at the beginning of the lesson and that we repeat often, like address and year of birth. I must say they all did very well. What a smart group!

Homework

It is Monday, it's 8:00 o.c. in the evening. What's each member of your family doing and in which room are they? Example: My sister is doing her homework in her bedroom or My mother is writing an email in the living room. 

We have started a new topic: it is about Actions we are doing now. We also study how to tell the time in this topic. But we had already done that, so that I think everybody in this group can tell the time correctly.
We had also studied lots of verbs or actions, so what we need to do now is learn how to use those verbs in the Present Continuous.

You know how to do it:

The Present of To Be:

I am
you are
he is
she  is                                +  verbing      Example: eating.
it is
we are
you are
they are

When we ask questions we put the verb Be first, then the subject, finally the verbing.
Example: Are you eating a sandwich? Is Joe walking to school?

In our class, students chose a picture card of an action and they had to act out that action. Then they had to ask: What am I doing? The other students had to guess. We did it in different ways, sometimes students worked with a partner, so we could practice singular and plural forms and all the different persons: I, you, he/she, we, you, they.

We did 2 exercises from the book: students had to listen to a recording and match the actions with the pictures, then they wrote on their notebooks what each character in the exercise was doing at a particular moment.
Finally we had the Olympic Games: students had to answer the question What's is he/she doing? or What are they doing? about some picture cards.

Homework

Say what they are doing. Make 5 sentences. One of them, at least, has to be plural: about more than 1 person.

Yesterday we had our last lesson on the topic Towns, which includes cities, villages and resorts.
In the first part of the lesson students talked about different cities and towns and each one of them wrote a paragraph on one of them.

What we have learned is that we use the verb to be to talk about characteristics of a place:
It is a small and quiet town. It's freezing cold. 
We always say the adjectives before the noun: It is a crowded tourist city.
When we talk about places or things in the town we say:
There is a lake. ( for 1 thing).
There are many tall buildings. (for 2, 3 or more things.)

We were practicing questions in  the 3rd singular person, asking about a cousin, a grandmother or a grandfather.
Where does your grandmother live?
And the answer:
She lives in Leganes.

In the second part of the class we reviewed the Past Simple of the verb to be, which is not new, we had studied it when we studied the weather. Remember: What was the weather like yesterday? 
I was
You were
He was
She was
We were
You were
They were

We listened to a conversation between two young people: one a them was in San Francisco the week before. The other one asked: What was San Francisco like?
All the students read the conversation and then role played it. It was a bit difficult, but this is a group of clever kids and they did better than they expected. We'll keep practicing.
We had time to make a word puzzle about places in the city and then play the memory game like last week.

Homework
How many brothers and sisters does your mother ( or father) have?
Example: she has 2 sisters and 1 brother. Their names are Rosa, Ana and Antonio.
Then you ask the question: Where does Rosa live? She lives in Cuenca.
Where does Ana live? ......................
Where does Antonio live?.....................

Hello again!
Some students in this group say that they cannot see the blog, so they wrote down their homework on their notebooks.

This is the 3rd lesson on the topic of cities, towns, villages, resorts... that is, the place where we live.
We started the class practicing numbers, all kinds of numbers: hundred numbers, thousand numbers, million numbers.

We learned very few words today: haircut, skyscraper, wait for the bus, get your passport, etc., balcony.

I'm sure this time everybody is going to log in the blog without any problems.

We learned a little more about describing a city, a town or a village.

We practiced There is when we are talking about 1 thing and There are when we are talking about a number of things.
It was a fun activity and I noticed everybody at the end could ask the questions comfortably:
Where do you live?
What's .....(London, San Sebastian, Chicago,Tokyo, etc.) like?
And most of you could answer quite fluently things like: It's freezing, there are many skyscrapers and there is a lake. Or There are many lights in the streets, there are many people and tall modern buildings.
In this activity students picked a photograph of a town or village and the description of it, they got together with a partner and asked each other the questions above. Then they changed partners until everybody had worked with everybody else.

We were also listening to a recording where 3 people talked about their hometown. Then they had to fill in the gaps in a written transcription of the recording.

For the Olympic Games, students had to answer questions like: What can you do in a bakery?or What can you do in a restaurant?

Homework
Remember that some of you have to do last week's homework.
New homework: 
Write 5 questions like the ones I asked you for the Olympic Games: What can you do in a night club? And the answer: You can dance and have a drink.

We started the class with 2 questions: Where do you live? and What's your address? For the last question, remember we say the number first, and then the name of the street: My address is 5 Alamo Street.

Today we continued studying about cities, towns , villages and resorts. We were learning some new adjectives: interesting, boring, exciting, dirty, clean, dangerous, safe, expensive, inexpensive.

What's a dangerous town? Is this town dangerous or safe? Is Leganes a dangerous or a safe town?
 We reviewed the places in the city and played a memory game: students had to put together a picture of a place with a word sign.

We were studying other ways to describe a town besides using adjectives: for that we reviewed  the nouns: street, building and the adjectives: wide, narrow, tall, old so we could make sentences like: There are many wide streets and tall buildings or The streets are narrow and there are beautiful old buildings.
The teacher showed some photographs of real places and students practiced describing them.

The students were practicing answering this type of question:
Where do you buy bread? Where do you buy a table?
Where do you do exercise?
Where do you watch Superman?
Where do you live?
Where do you sleep when you go on vacation?
Where do you wait for the bus?
Where do you get money?
Where do you go dancing?

Grammar INFORMATION
This is the Present Simple, we studied it last term. It is very easy. All the persons are the same, except for the 3rd singular person: I buy, you buy, he/she/it buys, we buy, you buy, they buy.
To make questions, we must put the auxiliary verb do or does for he/she/it. Examples: Do you buy bread in the bakery? Does she live in an apartment building?
As you can see: first you put the auxiliary do or does, next the person: I, you, he/she/it,we,you, they or a name, or a noun like: my brother, my sister, a man, a boy, etc. finally, you put the verb: buy, live, sleep, watch.

Homework
What's Leganes like? Describe it. Say what there is in Leganes: Example: There are many parks in Leganes

Make 5 questions like this: Do you buy ice cream in a furniture shop? Use these verbs: buy, live, dance, sleep, have dinner.

          Make 3 questions like this: Does your grandmother live in Leganes? You may use the same verbs as before.

WELCOME TO THE NEW TERM

AND HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014

Yesterday we started a unit about towns and cities. Everybody in the group is from Leganés, so Leganés is their hometown. To make it more interesting and so everybody could say something different, students talked about the village where they usually spend their holidays. One of the students usually spend her holidays in Torrejón de Ardoz, which is not a real village, is big enough to be called a town. Another one usually goes to Daimiel , which, he says, is a small village.

Students learned some adjectives to describe towns, cities and villages: beautiful, crowded, empty, quiet, noisy, industrial, historic, modern, tourist, seaside. They had to make sentences like: Picture 1 is a modern crowded city. Remember that in English we place the adjectives before the noun. 

Students spend sometime pronouncing all the new words. 

We were also learning places in the city using flashcards. In order to practice them we play a card game. Students had to ask each other for cards to complete a group or family. And Miriam not only does very well with her English, she is also very LUCKY, she wan again.

Homework 

Find 5 pictures of towns, villages or cities in the Internet and describe them with adjectives.

Example: Vienna is a beautiful historic city.