"A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality" (John Lennon)

Friday, July 29, 2011

A fairytale wedding

Thirty years ago, 29th July 1981, Prince Charles and Lady Diana got married in Saint Paul's Cathedral in London. 

Saint's Paul Cathedral and the Millennium Bridge

The day was declared a public holiday and crowds of people went to see the big event and to wish the couple well.
Here you find an article and a video:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/29/newsid_2494000/2494949.stm

Unfortunately the wedding wasn't a happy one and the couple split up in 1996.
In 1997 Diana died in a car crash in Paris and her funeral was held in Westminster Abbey in London.

Westminster Abbey


During the ceremony Elton John sang 

Candle in the Wind 1997.


Goodbye England's rose
May you ever grow in our hearts
You were the grace that placed itself
Where lives were torn apart
You called out to our country
And you whispered to those in pain
Now you belong to heaven
And the stars spell out your name

And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never fading with the sunset
When the rain set in
And your footsteps will always fall here
Along England's greenest hills
Your candle's burned out long before
Your legend ever will

Loveliness we've lost
These empty days without your smile
This torch we'll always carry
For our nation's golden child
And even though we try
The truth brings us to tears
All our words cannot express
The joy you brought us through the years

And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never fading with the sunset
When the rain set in
And your footsteps will always fall here
Along England's greenest hills
Your candle's burned our long before
Your legend ever will

Goodbye England's rose
May you ever grow in our hearts
You were the grace that placed itself
Where lives were torn apart
Goodbye England's rose
From a country lost without your soul
Who'll miss the wings of your compassion
More than you'll ever know

And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never fading with the sunset
When the rain set in
And you footsteps will always fall here
Along England's greenest hills
Your candle's burned out long before
Your legend ever will 

Friday, July 22, 2011

Summer Nights, Summer Thoughts and ...

As it is summer and I have been boring you with a lot of homework in your books and here in the blog too, now I want to give you a rest. So I put here two songs I like a lot. They always make me thing about summer and holidays and ... all the wonderful adventures that happen in summer at your age!
 They are taken from a beautiful musical,Grease, that, in my opinion, is one of the best!
I hope you like them too!

Summer Nights


You are the one that I want

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Audio postcard!

Ragazzi ho scoperto un nuovo "gioco"! E' un programma troppo forte che permette di registrare la propria voce e così ho pensato di inviarvi una "audio-postcard"! Poi quando riprende la scuola ci inventiamo qualcosa di interessante da registrare e lo usiamo.

Hugs and kisses to you all from Senigallia


Per ascoltare la cartolina cliccate qui Greetings!

"Hi, my dear students, how are you?
I'm really great. I'm on holiday!
I hope you are ok too.
You know, last week I was on holiday at the seaside
and I watched very interesting films and
I listened to my favourite music and
I bought lots of souvenirs for my friends
and … a nice necklace for me!
At the moment I'm reading a
very interesting magazine
and I'm talking to you!
So, well, bye, bye.
Kisses to you all".


                                                      

 Chiara

Lemon Tree

As we also reviewed the Present Continuous ... here is a song to help you.
So, again, listen and .....

HAVE FUN!


Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Last Friday Night

Dear Students a song for you! A nice way to review the simple past and, above all, a nice way of having fun!

So here is "Last Friday Night" by Katy Perry.

Listen and enjoy!


What are you doing? 2

Watch this video then try to answer the questions aloud.


Look at the picture and make sentences on what they are doing.
Example: Paul is watering the flowers.
You can both write and speak

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

What are you doing?

2nd Year students


When you want to talk about an action that is taking place while you speak you use the Present Continuous (or Present progressive).

Present Continuous 
Affirmative form
I AM EATING

YOU ARE EATING
HE IS EATING
SHE IS EATING
IT IS EATING
WE ARE EATING
YOU ARE EATING
THEY ARE EATING
Affirmative contracted form
I'M EATING
YOU'RE EATING
HE'S EATING
SHE'IS EATING
IT'S EATING
WE'RE EATING
YOU'RE EATING
THEY'RE EATING
Negative form
I AM NOT EATING
YOU NOT ARE EATING
HE IS NOT EATING
SHE IS NOT EATING
IT IS NOT EATING
WE ARE NOT EATING
YOU ARE NOT EATING
THEY ARE NOT EATING
Negative contracted form
I'M NOT EATING
YOU AREN'T EATING
HE ISN'T EATING
SHE ISN'T EATING
IT ISN'T EATING
WE AREN'T EATING
YOU AREN'T EATING
THEY AREN'T EATING
Interrogative form and short answers
AM I EATING?                                          YES,YOU, WE, THEY ARE
ARE YOU EATING?                                YES, HE, SHE, IT IS
IS HE EATING?                                        NO, YOU, WE, THEY AREN'T 
IS SHE EATING?                                      NO, HE, SHE ISN'T
IS IT EATING?                                          YES, I AM
ARE WE EATING?                                   NO, I'M NOT
ARE YOU EATING?
ARE THEY EATING?

And now let's exercise!

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Let's talk about the past 2

2nd year students


Let's practice asking and answering these questions. remember to give long answers!
Example: Where did you go on holiday? I went to Rome, a beautiful and really big city.

1. Where did you go on holiday?
2. How long did you stay there?
3. How did you travel?
4. Who did you go with?
5. Where did you stay?
6. What did you do?
7. What did you visit?
8. Did you like it? Why?
9. What did you eat?
10. What did you buy?

Monday, July 11, 2011

Simple past: revision

2nd Year Students

Some weeks ago I already created a post with exercises on simple past that you can find following this link:
http://funwithenglishandmore.blogspot.com/2011/05/simple-past.html

Let's revise the grammar structure, now.


Affirmative from
Subject + verb in the past + .... + time.
Mary cooked pizza, baked a cake and prepared a wonderful picnic last week.

Negative form
Subject + did not (didn't) + verb base form + ... + time.
Mary didn't cook pizza, didn't bake a cake last wee.

Interrogative form
Did+ subject+ verb base form + ... + time?
Did Mary cook pizza yesterday?


 In English there are regular and irregular verbs.


Regular verbs form the past adding -ed, - d, ied, double consonant and -ed.
cook - cooked
If a verb ends with -e:     like - liked
If a verb ends with vowel + y: stay - stayed
If a verb end with consonant + y: study - studied
Verbs like stop, prefer, travel: stopped, preferred, travelled


Irregular verbs have their own form in the past.
Here you find a list of the most common irregular verbs.
Irregular verb list



More exercises
http://www.isabelperez.com/exer/pastmix.htm
http://www.isabelperez.com/happy/tenses/exercises/past_mistakes.htm
http://www.isabelperez.com/happy/tenses/exercises/past_quest1.htm
http://www.englishexercises.org/exercise.asp?id=3303
http://www.englishexercises.org/exercise.asp?id=475#a

Friday, July 8, 2011

Let's talk about the past 1

2nd Year students

Let's practice asking and answering these questions. Remember to give long answers!
Example: Where were you yesterday? I was at home with my sister Lucy who is 15 years old.



1. Where were you yesterday?
2. Who was your best friend when you were 5 years old?
3. Who was your first teacher of English?
4. Who were you with yesterday?
5. Who was William Shakespeare?
6. What was Michael Jackson's job?
7. Who was Columbus?
8. What was your first toy?
9. Why were you at home yesterday?
10. Who were the Beatles?

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Simple past: verb to be

2nd Year Students


Simple past: verb to be
Affirmative form
I was
You were
He was
She was
It was
We were
you were
They were

Subject I, he, she, it + was + ......

Subject you, we, they + were + .....

Negative form
I was not (wasn't)
You were not (weren't)
He was not (wasn't)
She was not (wasn't)
It was not (wasn't)
We were not (weren't)
You were not (weren't)
They were not (weren't)

Subject I, he, she, it + was + not (wasn't) + .....

Subject you, we, they + were + not (weren't) + ......


Interrogative form
Was I?
Were you?
Was he?
Was she?
Was it?
Were we?
Were you?
Were they?

Was + subject I, he, she, it + ....?

Were + subject you, we, they + ....?

And now exercise!



http://www.englishexercises.org/exercise.asp?id=5135#a
http://www.englishexercises.org/exercise.asp?id=562#a
http://englishexercises.org/exercise.asp?id=3509#a
http://www.isabelperez.com/was-were-2.htm
http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/simple-past/exercises?03

Monday, July 4, 2011

July 4th


American Independence Day is celebrated on July the 4th. It is a national holiday in the U. S. A. and commemorates the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
Before 1776, there were 13 colonies under the control of the English Crown. These colonies were not happy because they had to pay taxes to England without any representation in the English Parliament, so they decided to form the Continental Congress, where on 4th July 1776, they drafted a formal declaration of independence. 


The following year they started to celebrate this day and by the first years of the 1800s the tradition of picnics, parades and firework had become very common and it is still very common nowadays.


Firework at Washington Memorial - Washington DC  

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Adjectives to describe personality

Qualche anno fa, a Bruxelles, ho comprato una cartolina un po' buffa in cui viene fatta ironia sugli europei.
Ho pensato che fosse un'idea carina condividerla qui e potrebbe anche essere utile per imparare qualche aggettivo per descrivere il proprio carattere.

Enjoy and learn!

Solutions

Here are the solutions to yesterday exercise with the video "Zodiac"





Aries - kind
Taurus - stubborn
Gemini - talkative
Cancer - impulsive
Leo - fun
Virgo - easy going
Libra - well balanced
Scorpio - sexy
Sagittarius - athletic
Capricorn - quiet
Aquarius - happy
Pisces - calm

Friday, July 1, 2011

Describing people

Per mettere in pratica gli argomenti che abbiamo ripassato fino ad ora esercitiamoci a descrivere le persone.
Exercise describing people aloud and talk about:
yourself;
your best friend;
one of your teacher.

Before doing this exercise have a look at these useful pictures to revise the vocabulary you need for the descriptions:


I found this picture in this website where you can find a lot of nice and useful images.
Images

Here is an other page where you can find useful words for descriptions:
http://www.learnenglish.de/basics/appearances.htm

Some online exercises:
www.englishexercises.org/eercise.asp?id=1216#a
http://www.englishexercises.org/exercise.asp?id=1878#a
http://www.englishexercises.org/exercise.asp?id=3161#a

Now watch this video


Watch the video again and match each adjective to the right sign:

athletic - kind - talkative - easy going - happy - well balanced - impulsive - fun - sexy - quiet - stubborn - calm

Aries                                      
Taurus
Gemini
Cancer
Leo
Virgo
Libra
Scorpio
Sagittarius
Capricorn
Aquarius
Pisces