I don’t want to be a party pooper but the truth is I’ve never celebrated this day. I know that for some of you this day is full of meaning so I don’t want to let it go by without wishing you a happy St Valentine’s day with a beautiful love song.
If you want to read a bit about the story of St Valentine’s Day, click here and then do the comprehension questions.
It’s not like me to pick this singer for one of my posts. I normally go for R&B or ballads but ,as the old saying goes, “when in Rome , do as the Romans do” and I cannot certainly choose Sade or The Beatles to get to my 12-year-old students. They adore Lady Gaga and this is just what I’m going to give them . Having said this, I have to admit that Lady Gaga is in my MP3 and I usually listen to her when I am running on the treadmill and if I have to be honest and make a clean breast of it I find her songs quite funny and full of rhythm .
Well, here it is ! The popular ALEJANDRO with its catchy chorus. As I said it’s for elementary students , so it shouldn’t be too difficult.
Click on the image and it’ll take you to the exercise. I haven’t , so far, found a way to embed a Hot Potatoes exercise in a WordPress blog. (please, dear reader, if you know how , kindly let me know)
There are some verbs we never seem to use.It’s like when I tell my students not to use the verb “say” all the time when they are writing essays and they invariably stare at me probably thinking : What the hell does she want us to use instead? As if I didn’t know that, deep inside their brains , the verbs “claim” or “state” are there to use as substitutes for the mighty “say”.
So let’s widen our vocabulary by revising the meaning of some of the verbs used in this song. I hope that ,in the early future , you use some of them .
Let’s listen to this beautiful song by the country music group Lady Antebellum and focus on some verbs and expressions
-to scatter:to cause to separate and go in different directions scattering confetti from the upper windows
–to wonder:to feel curiosity or be in doubt I wondered what happened
-To cross one’s mind:to be a sudden or passing thought; be thought of by
She looked so well it never crossed my mind that she was ill.
To guess: to think; to suppose; to believe; to imagine I guess I can get there in time.
It’s been quite a long time since I haven’t sung any Christmas Carols with my students . I might be wrong but I’ve always felt that although they might have been willing to learn about some cultural issues , singing Carols was out of the question. But this year …. is my year for all these secret pleasures that I used to enjoy doing when I was in primary or secondary school.
That’s why with my elementary class there is going to be a Christmas Cards competition and we are also going to learn the Christmas Carol ,Jingle Bells . We are going to practise really hard and delight teachers and students with our graceful singing. No kidding , some students sing really well!
Click to see some ideas for the cards.
Craft activities (Oxford)
Making a Pop-Up card (Oxford), Another Pop-Up Card (Artcare), Christmas Tree Pop-Up Card (Staiden)
And this is the carol we’re going to be singing. Want to join us?
Do you want to learn English and/or French, Italian, German… through music? Well, if this is so, this is your place. This cool site is called Lyrics Training and it’s just amazing and hear this ,free to use!
This is how it works: at the bottom on the right-hand side you can see some lyrics, choose according to your level. There are three: easy, medium and hard. Then, when the window with the song you’ve chosen opens up, choose your mode; again, there are three, beginner,(fill in the blanks10%), intermediate (25%) and expert (full lyrics).
Now, this is what you’ll see if you choose the song Tell him in the beginner mode. One of the best things is that if you get to a word and you can’t understand it or if it goes too fast, it will stop until the blank has been filled. The song literally WAITS for YOU!!!
But there’s even more. If you click on HELP at the bottom you can see what else the programme can do for you. Let’s imagine that you want to listen to the same line again, press Backspace, and if you are still unable to understand the word, don’t worry, just press TAB and the word will be written for you. Aren’t you dying to give it a go!!
