ESTV eTwinning project: Skype session!

Today we finally succeed in having a Skype session with our Croatian friends of ESTV eTwinning project.
It was an amazing experience and we really enjoyed it a lot. We were all happy about it also because it is not easy to find some time to talk together due to the different timetables each school has.

Students of both countries asked and answered very simple questions and were able to communicate with their peers, with real people!

Among the questions there were:

What's your name?
How old are you?
What are your hobbies?
What do you do in your free time?
What's your favourite subject at school?
What time does your school start/finish?

Thanks again dear friends! 

Talking about problems and giving advice

Students of class 3 E are studying should and could too just like their friends of class 3 As and we thought of creating two padlets where they can share their problems and give advice to their friends.
They can use their real names, nicknames or invented names.


The activity is as follow:
- students think about 2-3 issues each;
- they write the issues on the padlet called "Teen issues" that is both here and in "edmodo";
- they can use their real names or they can use a nickname or an invented name.

Created with Padlet

After finishing writing all the posts:
- all the students read the issues their mates wrote
- try to find a solution to at least 2-3 issues each
- post their solutions in the padlet called "Teen advice column"

Created with Padlet

At the end of this activity students will discuss in groups about the advice and decide if they agree or disagree with the replies.

Teens issues and advice

3rd year students are studying how to ask for and give advice using the structures should and could.
So this morning we had the idea of creating a teen column similar to the one you find in magazines and we also imagined that in their ideal school there is a place where to talk about teen issues and discuss about their solutions.

The activity is as follow:
- students think about 2-3 issues each;
- they write the issues on the padlet called "Teen issues" that is both here and in "edmodo";
- they can use their real names or they can use a nickname or an invented name.

Created with Padlet

After finishing writing all the posts:
- all the students read the issues their mates wrote
- try to find a solution to at least 2-3 issues each
- post their solutions in the padlet called "Teen advice column"

Created with Padlet

At the end of this activity students will discuss in groups about the advice and decide if they agree or disagree with the replies.

My summer holidays

Students of classes II As and II Bs are still studying the past tense and we are now focusing on holidays.

Here is a mind map on summer holidays that can be useful to put some ideas together and tell the class about your adventures!


Together we students of classes III As and III E we started talking about Topics both for the Trinity exams (GESE 4) and for the end of year exams and this map can be used by those who would like to talk about their holidays.

After having had a look at the map try to answer all the questions without writing them down. We'll also practice in class.

What have you got?

Students of class I As and I Bs here are some useful exercises to help you review the last things we studied before Christmas holidays.

Watch this simple video and then



try these exercises.

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/tenses/have_got.htm
http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=3170
http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=8413

Now think about three things you have got and three things you haven't got and exercise aloud:

Ex: I have got a piano, a guitar and a flute but I haven't got a dog, a cat or a hamster.

When we come back to school you will tell the class.

Talking about friends and best friends

These last days before Christmas holidays 3rd year students have started studying how to describe people's personality.

Here are two mind maps that can be useful to organize your presentation. Have a look at them and try to describe and important person for you in 3 minutes saying the most relevant things.

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!

My summer holidays: a mind map

Second year students have started studying the past.

A couple of weeks ago the students of Guardea created this map on the blackboard joining together the ideas of all the classmates. 

Then I used the same questions and info to create the following mind map using cmap.

This way the students are helped to keep in mind all the meaningful info to tell the class while talking about their holidays.

Here is a link to an older post in this blog with exercises on simple past

http://www.funwithenglishandmore.blogspot.it/2015/02/where-were-you-yesterday-what-did-you.html

A special guest in Lugnano: our friend Dawn!

This morning students of the school in Lugnano had very special guest in class, in fact Dawn came to talk with all of them. She is our American friend and since last year help our students to improve their English speaking skills for free.

When she arrived she was immediately welcomed by some students and then we started the activity asking her questions on her life. 

The students were all very curious, willing to talk with Dawn and all of them asked a lot of questions such as:

Where were you born?

Do you like school?

Have you ever flown a plane?

Why did you decide to live in Italy?

What do you like most about Lugnano?

What's your favourite book, film, actor ...?

What do you do in your free time?

Do you like cooking?

Have you got pets?

What did you study at university?

What was your job?

Where did you work?

Where did you live before coming here?

... and many others! 

Dawn also brought a pleasant surprise for all of us: gingerbread cookies with a delicious icing 

 and we loved them! 

We were very happy and glad because she came to spend some of her time in our school, her presence among us is really  extraordinary and invaluable and for this reason we want to say a huge and sparkling

Alastair and Helen: special guests in Giove

This morning 3rd year students of the school in Giove had very special guests in class, in fact Alastair and Helen came to talk with all of them. They are now our British friends and since last year help our students to improve their English speaking skills for free.

When they arrived they immediately introduced themselves and the students started to ask questions to get to know the two of them better.

Some of the questions were:

What Italian city do you like most?

What do you like most in Italy?

What is your favourite food?

Where were you born?

Who is your favuorite poet?

Which school did you go to?

What languages can you speak?

Where did you like in England?

The questions allowed the students to know more about our two guests. We talked about poetry, history, art, languages, food and much more.

Next meeting will be in February!

A big

to Alastair and Helen for their extraordinary, incomparable presence among us.

My favourite film: a mind map

Here is the mind map we created at school and that the students used to describe their favourite film.


If you loose the photocopy you can print it from here whenever you want to!

London and New York

This is for 3rd year students!

Here are the presentations on London and New York you have the handouts of.
Have a look and choose 4 places you would like to visit in London and 4 in New York, then get ready to talk about them in class after your Easter holidays.

London from Chiara Sabatini

Questions Trinity GESE 3 and 4: conversation practice

Dear 3rd year students here are some questions that can be useful for your Trinity exams GESE 3 and 4 and for the end of year exam too.
You can practice them at home with your friends in pairs or in small groups just like we do at school.
Of course you can print the questions and keep the handouts in your English folder.

Flat Stanley fashion show part two

Here is the second part of Flat Stanley Fashion Show.

We went on a school trip last week!

Second year students went on a school trip last week and this week they told us some of the activities they did. They saw interesting tourist attraction and visited beautiful places. They also had fun on the bus and i the hotel!
Here you find some verbs you can use to describe your school trip. They are in the past simple tense and ...

I challenge you to this contest:
write all the base forms of the verbs you find in this word cloud and write them as a comment. The ones who write all of them correctly will get a prize!!!

Exercising for GESE 3

This week students of class III A, D, G worked on creating questions to ask each other following the conversation areas for the Trinity Exams GESE 3.

After having created some questions they asked them to their mates and had a conversation either in pairs or in small groups.

Here are all the questions they could think of.