1s.8 Avatars

Did you forget to create your avatars? Use these ones!

              Indiana Jones                                                                  Ally McBeal

1s.7 Can you spot it?

Exercise 1 - Easier

Spycat is looking for lost pets. Listen to the descriptions. Can you spot the pets? Click here.

Exercise 2 - Harder

A dragon is a fantastic creature. Some have wings, some have horns and claws and some breathe fire. Listen to the descriptions. Can you spot the dragon? Click here.

10 ideas for using songs in the classroom

Prepare any two of the following activities based on the lyrics of a song you like. When you finish, send the worksheet to raulmas.english@gmail.com to get feedback from me. Originality and attractive presentation will be rewarded!

1. Predicting words. Give students a song title and ask them to predict ten words from it. Students listen and check how many they guessed correctly.
2. Mistakes. Give students the lyrics of the song with mistakes (e.g. replace some words with their opposites). Students listen, identify them and correct them.
3. Complete the rhymes. Delete the last word of the second rhyming couplets in the lyrics. Students guess the missing word, then listen and check.
4. Scrambled lyrics. Cut the lyrics into paper strips. Students order them while they listen.
5. Missing lines. Delete some lines in the lyrics. Then scramble them in a box. Students listen and write them back in the correct place.
6. Gap fill. Leave gaps in the text. Concentrate on the language point you want to highlight: semantic fields, prepositions, verb forms, etc.
7. Pictures for words. Replace some words with pictures. Students guess the pictured words, then listen and check.
8. Picture story. If the song has a storyline, give students pictures and ask them to put them in order or on a timeline.
9. Slang. Students identify slang, colloquialisms, examples of varieties of English (e.g. American English).
10. Discussing issues. After listening to the song, the students discuss questions related to the main theme (e.g. racism, cultural differences, etc.)

3s.3 Get ready for a great show: the Eurovision Song Contest 2013

The 58th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest is near and it's high time we got ready for it!

The contest is a good opportunity for you to discover new music every year and have fun at the same time while you practise your English, since most countries decide to send in the contributions in English. It's also helpful to keep up with the European music scene. Many countries decide to send some of their best artists every year. For example, this year the well-known Eurodance act Cascada will represent Germany and the unforgettable Bonnie Tyler, who sang famous hits in the 80s such as Total eclipse of the heart, will be flying the flag for the United Kingdom.

You are going to listen to some of the songs participating in this year's competition. Discuss these questions with your partner before:

1. Why do you think many countries give up their languages and send their songs in English? Do you think it's a good idea? In your opinion, should Spain do the same? Why (not)?
2. What do you think most songs taking part in the contest are about?

Here are some of the top favourites to win the competition. Download the activities, put on your headphones, lay back and... place your bets!

Who do you think will win? Who do you think will get the worst place? What do you think their performances will be like? Write your comments below!

1. GERMANY - Cascada / "Glorious" 

 2. SWEDEN - Robin Stjernberg / "You"

3. DENMARK - Emmelie de Forest / "Only teardrops"

4. FINLAND - Krista Siegfrid / "Marry me"

5. GEORGIA - Nodi Tatishvili and Sopho Gelovani / "Waterfall"

6. NORWAY - Margaret Berger / "I feed you my love"

7. IRELAND - Ryan Dolan / "Only love survives"

8. UNITED KINGDOM - Bonnie Tyler / "Believe in me"

9. RUSSIA - Dina Garipova / "What if"

 

 10. UKRAINE - Zlata Ognevich - "Gravity"

11. MALTA - Gianluca Bezinna / "Tomorrow"

12. SPAIN - El Sueño de Morfeo - "Contigo hasta el final"

Worksheets

Eurovision 2013 from theflyingbeetle



 

2x.3 The best job in the world

1. Watch this YouTube video called "Where the hell is Matt?" What do you think his job is?

2. The following video is about a real job offer available which was available back in 2009. What job is on offer? What does it involve? What type of person would you hire for this job? Discuss in groups.

3. Watch the videos of the five candidates below. In groups, give them scores based on the criteria you decide are important and discuss what you think are their strongest and weakest points.


1. Anjaan (India)

2. Ben (UK)

3. Magali (The Netherlands)

4. Clare (Taiwan)

5. Juweon (South Korea)

4. Who is your winner? Decide and watch the video below to check if you guessed right!

3s.2 Final frontiers: about metorites and asteroids

Watch this video. This happened in Russia last Friday. What can you see? 

Read this piece of news and answer the questions below on the blog: Asteroid zooms safely past Earth (CBBC Newsround)

1. Is this news story about the same event you saw in the video? Why (not)?
2. How fast did the asteroid fly?
3. Who discovered it? When was it observed for the first time?
4. Will this asteroid crash against the Earth soon? Why (not)?
5. Find out about the difference between an asteroid and a meteorite on the internet.

1s.5 Song: "Sports balls"

Listen to the song "Sports balls" and do the exercises below. Can you learn the lyrics by heart? Enjoy!

1s.4 Olympic bodies

Last summer London hosted the 30th modern Olympic Games.

Click on the link below to see and read about some of the sportsmen and women that participated in the event. Choose your favourite!

The read the information, click on him / her to watch a short video and complete the chart you have.

The Guardian - Interactive Olympic bodies

Imagine you are this person. Talk to your classmates about what you can / can't do. What is your daily routine? How do you train every day?

1s.3 Jobs

In this unit we are reviewing and learning new jobs and work activities.

What do these people do at work?
 
LIFEGUARD
TV HOST
SINGER
MOUNTAINEER
CYCLIST
LORRY DRIVER


Can you name these people's jobs? What do they do at work?