LEFT: Learn English with Fine Tunes - eTwinning project 17/18

Students of class II G of the school "L. Da Vinci - O. Nucula" in Terni are working at a new etwinning project this year. 

In this project they will work on songs and will create language activities together with their friends from France and Portugal. 

The main aims are: 

use English as a means of communication among teenagers; 

develop the competence in communicating in a foreign language; 

develop the digital competence with the ICT tools and apps; 

create language activities; 

know more about music styles and genres;

learn to work collaboratively;

know more about other cultures in Europe; 

realize we are part of the EU;

broaden cultural horizon; 

making European friends.

This is the map of our project

After having introduced themselves in a padlet (an online billboard), the students started listening to songs and created activities on them as in the examples below.

Galway girl by Ed Sheeran

Language activities by Italian students

French students worked on the song "My name is Luka" by Suzane Vega and here are their activities.







So all the students of the partner schools will do the activities they prepared for each other.
They will also discuss about their favourite songs and singers, choose and listen to other songs and create more language activities together.

Stay tuned to know more!

The Blues Brothers: "On a Mission from God"

Monday 18th January 2016 3rd year students of the school "I.C. B. Brin" are going to the theatre to see "On a Mission from God" a show based on the movie "The Blues Brothers" (1980).

In this thinglink below there are some songs, info on the Blues Brothers, videos and activities to know more about it.

What will school be like in 50/100 years time? And what about our towns?

Last two weeks students of  classes 3E and 3As have been studying the future forms in English and we focused on the future form with will.

I created some padlets for them and they wrote their ideas, opinions and wishes on them.
There are some mistakes but never mind, the most important aspect in this moment is to communicate what is in their and our mind about school and towns in the future.

Some of the things they said are already reality somewhere both in Italy and in other countries, some other will come true, at least we hope so, and some others ... hope not!

Here are the padlets of class 3As

Created with Padlet

Created with Padlet

Here are the padlets of class 3E

Created with Padlet

Created with Padlet

To carry out this activities the students brainstormed at school and shared ideas, then, at home, they wrote posts n the padltes I had created for them and shared in edmodo.


After having let them exercise with "will" I gave them a photocopy of a song and we listened to it, they carried out the tasks on it and we enjoyed singing it!

Where are you from? (1st year students 15-16)

Students of classes I As and I Bs studied countries and nationalities and played games to learn how to pronounce these new words.

Here are some exercises and games to practice a bit more.

http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=2398





And now a video to have fun and try to sing along!

What are you going to ... ? (3rd year students 15-16)

3rd year students of classes III As and III E studied "to be going to" and here are some online exercises to practice.

So ... let's exercise!

http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=2792

http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=10536

https://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/future-1-going-to



We also listened to this song .

Students or teachers?

Last Wednesday some students of the third class in the school of Guardea prepared a very nice lesson on the song "Beat it" by Michael Jackson.
We listened to the song and watched the video once first,

then we listened to it again and filled in the gaps in the text we had on the photocopy they had prepared.

 We really enjoyed the activity and learned new words. Then for homework the students wrote sentences using the words they already knew.

We want to say a big 

to Riccardo, Bruno and Andrea! 

Lessons with peculiar teachers!

Last and this week I could attended very special lessons in my classes! In fact some of the students became teachers and I enjoyed being a student!

Students from III A started last week with a lesson on the song "Shake it off" by Taylor Swift.



In fact Marta C., Caterina, Sara and Aurora prepared some exercises for all students who followed their instructions. First we watched the video and listened to the song without having the lyrics in front of us.

Then we were shown an exercise on the IWB and we had to fill in the blanks while listening to the song again.

After that the "teachers" asked some questions about the song and we answered to them orally.

This week I relaxed a lot because I had three lessons by my students!

The girls of class III G made a lesson on the song "Thinking out loud" by Ed Sheeran



First we listened to the song and watched the video without having the words of the song and while listening the students of both classes III G and I G carried out an activity I prepared for them: take the words they heard while listening.

The "teachers" Giorgia, Chiara, Aurora and Francesca gave us photocopy with a fill in the blanks exercises to do while listening to the song again an the they corrected it.

At the end of the lesson they also gave us homework!

In class III D Emily prepared a presentation on Walt Disney after having read a book on him.
She told us a bit of life and career,

she showed us one of first cartoons he invented



so we could learn about Mickey Mouse and Scrooge McDuck,
we talked about Disneyland and the other Disney movies such as Snow White, Alice in Wonderland and so on.





The students were really very interested and asked a lot of questions, we made connections with History, Geography and Literature referring to the I and II World War, the 1929 economic crisis, the U.S.A., Charles Dickens and much more.

Yesterday in class II A Natalia told us about a story she read of the Famous Five series written by the English writer Enid Blyton. Even though I was among the students I helped all of them understand it as much as possible reformulating some sentences and translating some words.

Here is the first part of the story audiobook.



It was really a great experience having my students turned into teachers both for me and for the other students. I think this motivated the ones who prepared the lessons and their mates to do the same in some days time.
I was proud of all of them and happy of the "adventure" and work we did together so far.

THANKS A LOT TO ALL OF YOU!

Hero

This morning in class II G we listened to the song "Hero" and we had a fun activity while listening.

The activity:

1. students work in pairs 

2. each pair has some words from the song

3. while they listen they pick up the words they hear

4. the one with more words is the winner 

After the game we listened to the song again and the students had the handout so that they could sing it too. 

Preparing the traditional Christmas celebration at school

As every year we will celebrate Christmas at school singing and playing some songs.
here are the songs we are going to sing in English.

Listen to them and try to sing along.

Jingle bells



White Christmas



We are the world

Diamonds ...

Some weeks ago first and second year students of Guardea welcomed me singing this song



I was really happy of this warm welcome and let them sing it another time. Then I asked them if they knew other songs with the words "diamonds" and "sky" and as they didn't they wanted to surf the net and the first song they found was this one



After that I asked them what the word "Lucy" recalled to their minds and they answered: "Lucy, the Australopithecus afarensis" discovered in 1974 in Ethiopia. 

This was a very nice start for our lessons because it began with a "present" that gave us the chance of talking about both music and history and moreover it was my students initiative and not mine! 
I liked it a lot and I hope they won't stop surprising me with their wonderful "gifts".

The Beatles 50 years ago!

50 years ago The Beatles released their first song "love me do". This pop group changed the way of playing and singing music all over Europe and ... more!
Today in Liverpool people gathered together to sing the song" Love me do".

Here is a video of today event.

And here is an article about it http://gu.com/p/3aq9d.

If you want to know more about The Beatles you can click here: http://www.biography.com/people/groups/the-beatles-20550291

And here is "Love me do".

Love, love me doYou know I love youI'll always be trueSo please, love me doWhoa, love me do
Love, love me doYou know I love youI'll always be trueSo please, love me doOh, love me do
Someone to loveSomebody newSomeone to loveSomeone like you
Love, love me doYou know I love youI'll always be trueSo please, love me doOh, love me do
Love, love me doYou know I love youI'll always be trueSo please, love me doWhoa, love me doYeah, love me doWhoa, love me do

London town: a song

Listen to this song and watch the video.

Then answer these simple questions:

1. What is Paul McCartney eating?

2. What famous places of London can you see? Name at least five of them.

3. Would you like to go to London? Why?

4. Choose 4 words you didn't know and make four sentences. 

(You can answer these questions and post a comment, or you can send me a message on facebook).

London Town
Paul McCartney & Wings

Walking down the sidewalk on a purple afternoon
I was accosted by a barker playing a simple tune
Upon his flute - toot toot toot toot

Silver rain was falling down
Upon the dirty ground of London Town

People pass me by on my imaginary street
Ordinary people it's impossible to meet
Holding conversations that are always incomplete
Well, I don't know
Oh, where are there places to go
Someone somewhere has to know
I don't know

Out of work again the actor entertains his wife
With the same old stories of his ordinary life
Maybe he exaggerates the trouble and the strife
Well, I don't know
Oh, where are there places to go
Someone somewhere has to know

Crawling down the pavement on a Sunday afternoon
I was arrested by a rozzer wearing a pink balloon
About his foot - toot toot toot toot

Silver rain was falling down
Upon the dirty ground of London Town

Someone somewhere has to know
Silver rain was falling down
Upon the dirty ground of London Town 

Happy Easter 2012

HAPPY 

EASTER

This is a very nice traditional Easter song.

Clicking here you find some info on the Easter Bunny tradition.

There's a hole in the bucket!

Some days ago, in class ID, we carried our a filling in activity on the traditional song "There's a hole in the bucket". The students liked it so much they wanted to act it our. So they brought to school a bucket, some straw and a stone, I brought the axe!
Here there is the first video where the students sing the song with their books.



These second and third videos were made some days later and the students were able to sing the song by heart: well done!





We really had a lot of fun singing and acting this song and .... cleaning up the classroom from all the straw on the floor!

Finally here is a video made up with pictures I took. I was able to make it with Animoto, a new tool I've just learnt.


Make your own slideshow with music at Animoto.

Happy New Year

I want to wish you all a Happy 2012!







I wish you that your dreams will come true!

Your teacher Chiara

Happy Christmas

Here is another very nice Christmas song and it is by John Lennon.
Enjoy it and have a nice Christmas time.

Christmas songs

Listen and try to sing these nice Christmas songs.

Jingle bells.

Santa Claus is coming to town.

Up on the housetop.

And here is my favourite: Rudolph the red nosed reindeer.

They don't care about us!

In class III B we listened to the song "They don't really care about us".



We didn't have much time to talk about it but I left you some questions:
1. Who are the people Michel Jackson refers to using "they"?
2. Who are the people he refers to using "us"?
3. Why does he say that if Roosevelt and Martin Luther King were here things would have been different?
4. Who was Roosevelt?
5. Who was Martin Luther King?

To answer question 3 and 4 you can click here for the Italian version and here for the English version
and watch this video

To answer question 5 click here

Talking to the moon

A beautiful song for the girls of III A.

Listen, watch the video, have fun and ... try to learn some new words!

And here is the text too.

Talking To The Moon

by Bruno Mars
I know you're somewhere out there
Somewhere far away
I want you back
I want you back
My neighbors think
I'm crazy
But they don't understand
You're all I have
You're all I have

Chorus:

At night when the stars
light up my room
I sit by myself

Talking to the Moon
Trying to get to You
In hopes you're on
the other side
Talking to me too
Or am I a fool
who sits alone
Talking to the moon

I'm feeling like I'm famous
The talk of the town
They say
I've gone mad
Yeah
I've gone mad
But they don't know
what I know

Cause when the
sun goes down
someone's talking back
Yeah
They're talking back

Chorus:

At night when the stars
light up my room
I sit by myself
Talking to the Moon
Trying to get to You
In hopes you're on
the other side
Talking to me too
Or am I a fool
who sits alone
Talking to the moon

Ahh Ahh,
Ahh Ahh,

Do you ever hear me calling?
Cause every night
I'm talking to the moon
Still trying to get to you

In hopes you're on
the other side
Talking to me too
Or am I a fool
who sits alone
Talking to the moon

I know you're somewhere out there
Somewhere far away

Ordinary girl

Here is the video and the lyrics of the song we listened some days ago together with students of class II A. Check the words and use them in your homework!