English Festival songs

Tomorrow is the English Festival! During the festival, students will be able to do some karaoke with a few select songs. To help you prepare, below are links to the lyrics of the songs that will be available. Warm your voices up so that tomorrow you'll be ready to sing your hearts out!

Roar (Katy Perry)

Steal My Girl (One Direction)

Shake it off (Taylor Swift)

Saturday I'm in Love (Auryn)

Animals (Maroon 5)

Let it Be (Beatles)

Really Don't Care (Demi Lovato)

I'm Yours (Jason Mraz)

Wake Me Up (Avicii)

Moves Like Jagger (Maroon 5)

Lips are Moving (Meghan Trainor)

Uptown Funk (Bruno Mars)

Shaolin Warriors and their 5 Styles

Shaolin monks divided kung fu into five different syles which were based on the movements of animals. Here are two vidos to help you understand the basics behind the 5 syles as well as a demonstration by the Shaloin Warriors themselves while they were on tour in the United States a few years ago. Enjoy!

The 5 Animal Form Basics

Los Angeles Shaolin Warrior Demonstration

Past Simple, Past Continuous and While

This week we are working on the past simple and present progressive sentence structures. What happens when an action is interrupted in the past? Read the description below and try the exercises for more practice.  Good luck!

Remember- the simple past talks about something that happened before. It happened and it finished. Some words are regular and just have -ed added at the end like walked, helped, and played. Others are irregular and have many variations like ate (to eat), began (to begin), and slept (to sleep).

The past progressive (past continuous) talks about something that was happening before, but for a period of time. It uses was or were + verb-ing like was eating or were playing. It gives a background for something that was happening while a different event happened.

Example: While I was eating, the telephone rang.

Warm-up

A variety of activities

A bit more difficult

Quiz Time!

The Apostrophe with its vs. it's

Its or It's?

Many people--both native speakers of English and learnersof the language--are confused by it's and its. These twoshort words sound exactly the same, but their meanings and uses are quite different. It's means either it is or it has. To know whether the "-'s" means is or has, look at the words which follow.

Its is the possessive pronoun; it modifies a noun.

It's is a contraction of it is or it has.

Incorrect: The cat carried it's kitten in it's mouth. (Possessive pronoun, no apostrophe) 

          Incorrect: Its 9:00 in the morning, so school is starting. (Needs to be a contraction of it is)

Correct: The cat carried its kitten in its mouth. (Possessive pronoun)

Correct: I think it's going to rain today. (Contraction of it is)

Correct: It's been a very long time. (Contraction of it has)

It's

 

It's going to rain, I think. ( 's = is )

It's time to leave. Hurry up! ( 's = is )

It's cold in here! ( 's =is )

It's my turn to wash the dishes, isn't it? ( 's = is )

It's quite difficult to get a high TOEFL score. ( 's = is )

It's easy to lose track of the time. ( 's = is )

This isn't my book. It's Fernando's. ( 's = is )

When's his birthday? It's November 1st, isn't it? ( 's = is )

It's 10:15. We have a meeting soon. ( 's = is )

It's felt by many that English spelling is crazy. ( 's = is )

It's been a long day! ( 's = has )

It's taken Bill a long time to fix his car. ( 's = has )

It's gotten cooler in the last hour. ( 's = has )

It's been raining most of the day. ( 's = has )

Oh, no! Look at my bicycle! It's got a flat tire! ( 's = has )

______________________________________________

Its

 

We're reading a story by Shakespeare. Its title is
Romeo and Juliet.

I really like the way that car looks, but its price is
more than I want to pay.

Have you tried the new restaurant on Elm Street?

Its name is "Marco's" and it serves Italian food. 

Passive Voice

This unit focus' on active and passive voices.  To help you better understand them, we have included some extra practice in this blog post.  Try the exercises, and while you're working, don't forget to have fun!

Active or Passive?
Rewrite the sentences using Passive voice
Using "by" (2 objects in a passive sentence)
Forming questions using the passive voice
Passive voice in the simple past
Passive Exam

Money, Money, Money

Unit 7 in English talks about money. Here is a link to the song Money, Money, Money by ABBA. This is also a famous song from the musical Mama Mia. Have fun singing along at home!! Be sure to practice the lyrics.

Pen Pal Letters

We have finally mailed our pen-pal letters! They will soon arrive in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We are excited to wait for another letter from our American friends at Manchester Academic Charter School. We should have enough time to send them one more letter this year and learn a little more about their culture, as well as share our Spanish culture with them.

Write soon,

The Future

In English we have been learning vocabulary about fêtes and grammar about the future tense. We can use:
1. to be + going to
2. will + infinitive
But do you know when to use going to and when to use will?
Check out this game to practice your skills!

The Beatles

In Unit 7 we talked about our favourite bands. The Beatles is one of the most famous groups ever. Click here for a link to their song "Yellow Submarine." Do you know all the words?

Modal verbs of deduction

Since there is an English TEST  on Friday, here is some grammar practice:
In this unit, we have learned about "modal verbs"--must, might, may, could, can't.
This is a very easy exercise. Did you get 100%? Here is another quiz.
Extra: Do you remember what the word "disappointed" means? It's part of this lesson!

World Book Day

Today, April 23rd, is World Book Day. This is the 16th annual World Book Day and it is celebrated in over 100 countries. On this date, two famous authors, Shakespeare and Cervantes, died in 1616. Today is also St. George's Day--people often celebrate the patron saint of England by exchanging books. Want to learn more about St. George? Click here or try this link for something more challenging.

We celebrated at school by reading books, exchanging books, and doing a fun wordsearch. Want to listen/watch more stories? Click on the link and you'll find many options to choose from. Which story did you like best? Why?

Spring Break!

During Spring Break we celebrate Easter. In the United States, we celebrate the holiday in different ways. One famous tradition is the Easter Bunny.

This rabbit comes early on Easter morning and hides colorful eggs around the garden. The eggs are filled with candy or small toys or coins. Then, children must run and look for all the eggs. They collect them in a basket.

After the Easter egg hunt, many families have a big brunch together. One popular food is a honey-baked ham. Does this sound like a fun way to celebrate Easter? What do you and your family do? Leave an answer in the comments!

Click if you want to learn more by watching a video about Easter at the White House (where the American President lives). Easter has a long history. If you want to learn more about that watch this video. There are some questions you can answer afterwards to make sure you understood the video. Wach this video to learn how chocolate Easter eggs are made! There are also some good activities to do before and after watching.

Spring Break is also the perfect time to study English! If you do, you'll come back to school ready to get 10s on all your exams! Practice giving directions with this activity or this one. How did you do?

EXTRA: Watch some of these funny videos. Did they make you laugh?

English Comparatives, Superlatives, and MORE

 This week, you have an English test and you'll need to know all about comparative and superlative adjectives. Check out this website to review how you form these adjectives and do some exercises to make sure you understand! Did you get every question correct? Here you can find more to practice. Review when we use the present simple and when we use the present continuous. Make sure you understand the difference (Jorge is wearing trousers vs. Jorge wears glasses) by doing this practice.