Last lessons

Since we have almost reached our last lessons, today and next Monday we will see a comedy film together- The Gods must be crazy...

Enjoy it!

2 activities from British Council

Here are 2 activities from the "British Council" that we can use as lesson starters

https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/video-zone/diy-pranks-fool-your-friends

What is your best prank? Who did you prank and how did they react?
or

https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/video-zone/change-the-world-five-minutes

Would any of these examples be good for your school?  Why not test them out!!

Do you have any other examples?

Today's theme- My special place

Watch the film and fill in the worksheets.

Then look at the clip:

What special places do the people refer to in the book?

Write down the answers....

And you?

Write and tell me about your special place?

(Don't have any? Then write about a special person!)

Just write some English!!!!

To finish off we'll do some grammar and vocabulary exercises

HERE

Welcome back after the Easter holidays

Well, we're finally back in the classroom.

There was no lesson last Monday since our 8th graders were on work experience and we had to cancel the lesson...

So today we will start off by talking about your Easter holidays- where you went and what you did...

Our 8th grade students can tell us a little bit about their work experience...

After that we are going to watch one of our videos and the theme today is:-

Dear Diary

Have you ever kept a diary? Remember the correct spelling.. Lots of people spell it "dairy"- That's the place where milk gets processed (mejeri)....

We'll start off by answering some questions based on the beginning of the film...

What advice would you give to Suzy or Fat Mike to get into shape?

Now we will see the rest of the film!
When we watch it the second time you can fill in the correct order for the photos... 

What excuses does Suzy give to NOT follow her exercise rota?

We will listen a third and final time...

Now complete the email she writes to her friend...

Do you have any good excuses you use for not doing things???

Now write  a short note to Suzy and tell her what you think she should do to get a bit fitter or maybe you think it's pretty vain "fåfängt" to do like she does... Mail your answers to me..

A bit of language work...
Here is an exercise to see if you know words which are easily misspelt...

Good luck!

Horror stories and news items

Based on what we discussed last time you have today's lesson to either:-

Do a horror story or do a news item

Remember the links?

Here is a better one for the news item

Check through the list of resources and then decide what your news item will look like.

You can either write it or record it!

Next Monday we will have a short lesson...

I need to finish by 4 o'clock....

We will get the chance to present your news item or horror story...

Back on track?

Hopefully today we will be back on track with more than three students in the class!!

What did we do last week?

We talked about the difference between the English used in the US and UK. In both versions there are a lot of words which are different to describe things.. Some words even have different meanings depending on what side of the Pond you live...
Some examples could be "pants", "torch", "bonnet" or "chips"..
If you would like to see the film the link is on last week's blog.

Today we start off with some exercises to check your knowledge of American and British English.
We can try one of the tests together and then you can do the other two on your own..
Here is the link.

Well, how did you get on?

Last week we also discussed what topics we can work with until Easter (today and next Monday).

Here are some suggestions from our NE website:-

• Music
• Horror
• How we interact with technology
• Sporting Life

Or

• Easter around the world
• How to write a news report BBC

So, talk with a friend and let us pick one subject for today and next week..

Your heart is pounding so loud you can hear it. The palms of your hands are sweaty and your head feels light and giddy. You are breathing quickly and your body is shaking. 

What is happening?

It’s called a fear response.

Your fear responses are located in the amygdala area of the brain. The amygdala consists of two very small almond shaped areas between your ears and over your eyes. The amygdala processes information from sound, sight, touch and pain. This information tells the body how to react and gets it ready for action. Stress hormones such as adrenaline are pumped through the body; your heart rate and blood pressure rise and your breathing gets quicker. This is the ‘fight or flight’ response. Is it better to run away or to stay and fight in this situation? How best will I survive? This is seen as one of the most primary survival instincts and has helped us through the evolution process. Without this response our species could have died out.

Sarah	So, hi Andy, and thanks for agreeing to be interviewed about horror.
Andy	I’m looking forward to it. It’s normally me asking the questions, so to be the interviewee for once and not the interviewer is a nice change.
Sarah	OK. I’ll go easy on you!
Andy	(laughs) That’s very kind of you.
Sarah	I know you’ve published four horror books. Did you always want to write horror?
Andy	I’m not sure. I mean, I loved it when I was a kid – you know Doctor Who and scary stuff on TV and I read Dracula when I was eleven or so. I know it always interested me.
Sarah	What’s your favourite type of horror?
Andy	What do you mean?
Sarah	I mean like ghosts or monsters. The Walking Dead or Friday 13th?
Andy	Well, I’m not really into serial killers. I don’t really find that scary just kind of a bit sad and sick. But monsters are great and I’m all for a good ghost story. I like stuff with a twist in it – you know something that makes you think. And I like stuff that makes you question things as well.
Sarah	What like?
Andy	I wrote a story called Snowfall a couple of years ago. It tells a story of when snow starts falling all over the world and in the snow there is something really bad. It kind of takes away people’s identity. They forget who they are and everything around them. They get really frightened and scared like a child lost in a mall.
Sarah	What does that question?
Andy	Right. Yes. I mean, for me, why I wrote that was, I was trying to think about what’s really scary. Not monsters under the bed type of scary, but the kind of fear that keeps you lying in bed with your eyes open staring at the black ceiling and holding back the tears kind of scary.
Sarah	Sounds like a lot of fun!
Andy	(laughs) Right. But it’s what interests me. And, I thought that losing who we are is scary. You know it’s an infinite dark universe out there and what if that infinite darkness fills us up and we become nothing. Like death.
Sarah	OK. This isn’t the most cheerful interview, is it?
Andy	(laughs) I guess not. But that is what is truly scary. We all know we are going to die. That’s bad enough. But it’s when we lose who we are when we are alive. You know Alzheimer’s or dementia – I think that is truly terrifying. Or it is for me anyway.
Sarah	Why?
Andy	Well, it’s a bit personal. But one of my grandparents, as they got really old, lost their identity to the point that they couldn’t recognize me. We were close – but at that time, seeing them not know who I was or even who they were – it scared the hell out of me. It’s like their whole lives just got turned into something else. It’s like all the times we had spent together had become meaningless. Like it never happened. It’s hard to explain.
Sarah	But of course it didn’t. Just because they didn’t remember you, doesn’t mean that those experiences had no meaning. Just because we forget stuff it doesn’t make it less important.
Andy	Right. That’s what I tell myself. But still, you know, it’s scary stuff, isn’t it?
Sarah	I don’t know. I mean, I know there is a lot of stuff I’ve forgotten about my childhood. But I’m still me. I don’t think memories are all we are. So if we lose them – OK, it’s bad, but it’s not all we are.
Andy	I don’t agree. I think without them and without knowing who you are and who the people around you are, then you’re not you anymore. You’re someone else. Someone who can have new experiences, sure. But that’s not you.
Sarah	But, is that really horror?
Andy	I think so. Especially when it’s happening to everyone. So in my story, it is on a global scale. So imagine it. All round the world people forget who they are. They forget everything. What do you think would happen?
Sarah	I see.
Andy	Right. And that’s it - so that’s the world I imagine and I tell the story through one young woman’s eyes as she comes to terms with what is happening and tries to save her family and friends.
Sarah	Does it end happily ever after?
Andy	I’m not telling you that. What? You expect a writer to give away the ending? It will NEVER HAPPEN.
Sarah	OK. I get it. So what other ideas have you got about horror?
Andy	Well, I think it’s important. I think we need to face our fears and imagine them. It can prepare us for real life. We evolved to be aware of danger and imagine scenarios of how to avoid it.
Sarah	What kind of scenarios?
Andy	You know – would I climb a tree to avoid the bear or try and run? If a big tidal wave came crashing towards me what would I do? Stuff like that. We need to imagine bad, horrific scenarios to try and come up with solutions. So I think evolution rewards us by making us think about stuff like that. Or, to put it another way, what we now call horror gives us pleasure.
Sarah	It can’t just be that.
Andy	No. Of course not. We also just love imagining weird stuff – like ghosts and vampires and zombies and vampire-zombies.
Sarah	And we love a good story.
Andy	Yep.
Sarah	Ok. Well, I think that’s enough for now. Thanks for taking time out to chat to us.
Andy	You’re welcome. Anytime.

British and American English

Did you know that a lot of words are different if you live in the UK or the US. Instead of having a pavement outside your house you have a sidewalk.
Today we are going to begin to look at some of these differences. We start off with a film...

Then there will be some worksheets to do..

At the end of the lesson you will have the chance to choose what we are going to move on to next week