Now that the year is almost starting, I am getting excited to go back to teaching. And as I was preparing my year 5 lessons for next week, I just had to go and find a practice website for you. And I did.
So, my fifth year students will start the year off with writing a formal letter.
This exercise will help you improve your writing skills as well as your vocabulary. You can practice more by clicking on the 'B2 level' button at the top.
Happy practising!
The British Council provides a great deal of apps that help you improve your language skills. Today I will introduce one of these.
(Important! Since I own only an Android phone I will only link to the Android applications. I have no knowledge of whether these are avalaible for Apple or where to find them. If someone cares to supply the links to me I will surely add them to this post and future posts.)
Android British Council Watch and Listen
This app provides a number of videos on different aspects of British culture: there are videos about music, sports, history and much more.
Each video is accompanied by:
- an audio script, allowing you to read and listen at the same time.
- a glossary, explaining the most important difficult words.
- questions about the video, so you can check whether you really understood the video.
Each video is approximately 5 minutes long. You can also listen to the video without the audio script by tilting your phone sideways. This way you can truly focus on your listening skills.
The videos are suitable for years 1, 2 and 3, but may provide extra vocab for higher years.
Dearest pupils of mine, and actually everyone out there,
Please watch this video. Watch it all the way to the end, and preferably, watch it again.
And please, think about your own online activities, and your own safety.
Stay safe.
Of course, my favourite webcomic needs to be on here too, so here it is.
Questionable Content by Jeph Jacques
The main characters in this comic are Marten, Faye, Dora and Hannelore, although many side characters appear, disappear and reappear throughout the series.
Dora runs a coffee shop, Marten works at the library of a college and the comic is basically a slice of life of a bunch of twenty somethings in Massachusetts. And there are robots. Tiny robots called AnthroPCs, and they are sort of humanoid. Marten has one, Pintsize, and he is kind of an asshole.
I recommend to read the comic from the beginning in the archives. The earlier artwork is a lot crappier than the modern stuff, but the characters and the story line are worth it.
Here is a listening / watching tip for pupils in year 1: Rocket's Island.
A short summary, straight from Wikipedia because I am too lazy to write my own summary, and it's a good summary:
Rocket's Island is about the Boulsworth Family, who live and run Knot Farm, who take care of a number of foster children who come and stay with them. Rocket and his friends have many adventures in their day-to-day lives with plenty of drama involved.
It's funny and actually quite thrilling at times. The characters are well written, and have a typical CBBC weirdness to them :)
It's broadcast on CBBC, or BBC 3. Don't worry if you don't get BBC 3, there are plenty of episodes available on YouTube.
And here is the link to the original advert. Go ahead, click on it. Have fun!
I know that the following clip is quite old and you might have seen it already, but that doesn't mean it's not amazing.
And even after all this time, this video still moves me to tears. Lots of tears.
So here it is for you to enjoy (once more).
