Animal Idioms

You'll be able to find more interesting idioms at www.grammar.net.

Fascism and Nazism

This is the presentation that we have made for our ESO-4 CLIL history classes:

Unit 12 - FAscism and Nazism from Ana Arias Castro

You'll find more CLIL resources for history classes in this page in our blog.

Spain in the 18th century

This is the presentation that we have made for our CLIL history classes:

Unit 1 - The 18th Century in Europe from Ana Arias Castro

You'll find more CLIL resources for history classes in this page in our blog.

Beginning of the First World War - the Assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo

Gavrillo Princip, Franz Ferdinand's murderer

WHAT HAPPENED 100 YEARS AGO?

100 years ago, on the 28th June 1914, the heir to the Austrian Empire, Franz Ferdinand, was murdered in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, while he was visiting the city.

Franz Ferdinand

Bosnia was in the very south-east corner of the Austrian empire and some people there wanted to be independent from Austria and set up their own state which could run itself.

WHY DID THIS MURDER LEAD TO THE WW1?

Serbia was blamed by Austria for this murder. Serbia was near to Bosnia and it had encouraged the Black Hand Gang and given the gang weapons. Serbia hoped that both herself and Bosnia would unite to form a new Balkan state.

Austria decided that Serbia must be punished and planned to invade her. Serbia called on her old friend Russia to help her. Now the alliance/entente came in to play. One country from each was involved on opposite sides. The situation could only get worse.

Serbia would have been easy for Austria to crush but Russia was a different issue. She had a huge army and Austria would not have coped with a Austro-Russian war. Austria called on Germany for help. The German government agreed to this and their response provoked the French government.

However, unknown to anybody other than the German government, the German army had created a plan called the Schlieffen Plan. Schlieffen was a senior German army officer and he believed that the German army was superior to any army in Europe but that it could not fight a war on two fronts - France and Russia. 

However, he calculated that the vast Russian army would take 6 weeks to get itself organised - called mobilisation - and that in that time, the Germans could attack the French, beat them and then send their army across Europe to fight the Russians. The German High Command accepted this plan. But it had one problem. It relied on what the French or Russians did and the actions of one would provoke a German response and not the other way round. In other words, the Germans had to react to a situation as opposed to controlling it.

When France called up her army, Germany had no choice but to carry out the Schlieffen Plan. This plan involved an attack on France via Belgium.

Britain had given Belgium a guarantee in 1839 that if anybody attacked her, Britain would attack the attacker.

Therefore, within weeks of the murder at Sarajevo, five out of the six countries that had signed the two treaties were on the verge of war.

On August 4th, 1914, Germany invaded Belgium. Britain declared war on Germany. France and Russia supported Britain. Austria supported Germany. Only Italy did not get involved - yet.

Every country concerned was convinced that the war would last only from August to Christmas 1914 but it lasted until 1918 and millions of people died in what was later called the Great War.

adapted from  http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/sarajevo_assassination_1914.htm 

Unit 9 - The First World War from Ana Arias Castro

OUR CLIL RESOURCES ABOUT WW1

READ MORE:

• Wikipedia
• History Learning Site
• History
• First World War
• Jetpunk Quizz about WW1

50 Awesome Facts About Languages

Did You Know That ?

• There are about 7,000 languages in the world.
• There are 50,000 characters in the Chinese language. You’ll need to know about 2,000 to read a newspaper.
• 12.44% of the world’s population speaks Mandarin as their first language.
• There are about 2,200 languages in Asia.
• 1/4 of the world’s population speaks at least some English.
• 50% of educational time in Luxembourg devoted to learning English, German, and French.
• There are 13 ways to spell the ‘o’ sound in French.
• There is a language in Botswana that consists of mainly 5 types of clicks.
• There are 2,400 languages classified as being ‘in danger’.
• 231 languages are now completely extinct. These include Alderney French, Soyot and Togoyo.
• Ayapaneco. In Mexico this language is in danger of dying out , because its two remaining speakers refuse to talk to each other.
• One language dies about every 14 days.
• Eastern Siberia, Northwest Pacific Plateau of North America, And Northern Australia are hotspots for endangered languages.
• There are 12 imaginary languages in Lord of The Rings.
• Marc Okrand, the man who was credited with creating Klingon, was once a linguistics teacher at the University of California.
• Esperanto is an artificial language, but is spoken by about 500,000 to 2,000,000 people, and 2 feature films have been done in the language.
• The UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been published in 300 languages. It is the world's most translated document.
• There are 24 working languages of the EU.
• There are 6 official UN languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
• The Bible is available in 2454 languages.
• Agatha Christie's novels are available in 7231combinations of book and language. She is the world's most translated author.
• 830 languages are spoken in Papua New Guinea.
• Frisian is the easiest foreign language for English speakers to learn. It is native to part of the Netherlands and has a common history and similar sounds.
• Welsh is spoken in Wales (the United Kingdom) and Argentina, as Welsh immigrants settled in Patagonia in 1865 and kept the language.
• The oldest written language was believed to be written in about 4500 BC.
• Rotokas has the smallest alphabet, just 11-12 letters, whereas Khmer (Cambodian) has the largest alphabet, 74 letters.
• South Africa has 11 official languages – the most for a single country.
• The pope tweets in 9 languages.
• German and French have been voted the best for graduates to learn to help enhance their prospect of getting a job.
• German is thought to be the most similar to English.
• If babies hear foreign languages in their first few months, they'll find picking up languages easier in later life, a study has shown.
• Sign language also has accents.
• The US has no official language.
• You can us an ATM in Latin in Vatican City.

taken from http://www.edudemic.com/language-quiz/

Our zebra fish

Zebra fish and their life cycle by María López Alonso

The female lays eggs in the water, where the male fertilizes them. The stages of embryonic development are fast.

The females lay more than 200 eggs per week. The embryos are protected by a membrane, the chorion. After three days the embryos hatch.

They can be kept in the laborature in culture dishes thanks to their small size.

An adult is approximately 4 incles long. Unlike humans zebra fish continue to grow until death.

Why are zebra fish interesting? by Jennifer Somoza Couso

The zebra fish is native of Eastern India and Bangladesh. The "danio rerio" can live in termperature that range from 64ºF to about 77ºF. 

It makes an attractive display, particularly when 5 to 10 specimens are kept together. 

Zebra fish are omnivorous.

from Taylor

Hi guys! I hope you've all been doing well since I last saw you a couple of weeks ago. I'm sorry it took me so long to write to you, I've been busy with my brother's high school graduation and vacation to the beach.

I want to take a moment to thank you all for this last year. You've made it a great one for me and I have learned a lot from you. Every one of you has something to offer and can accomplish awesome things if you put in your best effort. Hugs to everyone!

So you guys had great ideas about souvenirs. My family and friends loved all of their gifts. Here are some pictures of a few things I brought back to the US with me:

My brother with the soccer jersey I bought him (at the chino, shhhhh)

The wine and chorizo I brought for my parents.

My cousins with their hats and cookies I bought them.

Also, I hope you all enjoy watching the World Cup!

My friend and I ready to watch the game, Go Team USA!

4th year, have fun and be safe in Madrid!

Here's to a great summer for everyone at CPI Tino Grandio!

Talk to you soon,

Taylor

Football English

picture from Banco Imágenes INTEF

The Football World Cup is taking place at the moment. You will probably watch some of the matches from Brazil but, how much do you know about football in English?

First of all, have a look at this list of vocabulary at BBC Learning English website. The most basic words are listed first but then you'll find many more that are also very useful.

INTERESTING LINKS ABOUT FOOTBALL

• Short quiz about football
• Vocabulary (it is classified and each section has activities)
• Football phrases (with activities)
• Learn English with the Premier League
• Historical information about football: rules, history and stars
• Football quiz

The benefits of learning a foreign language

Song: Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival

Listen to this 1969 song by Creedence Clearwater Revival and complete the activity in ESL Video:

ACTIVITY

This song is about the Vietnam War. If you want to check the lyrics, click here.

Movie Without Boundaries

Cheat the Cheater is the eTwinning movie that has been made collaboratively with our eTwinning partners in Poland . The script was written by everyone using Google Drive. Both schools have recorded different scenes of our action story and our Partners edited the movie whereas we have edited the trailer. 

Finally, a poster has been made to help make our film more popular among our school communities.

On the left you can see the poster that will publicise our film and you can also watch the trailer and film themselves:

• MOVIE
• TRAILER
• TRAILER (smaller file)
• POSTER
• ETWINNING WEBSITE - Twinspace
• ETWINNING WEBSITE - Project diary

School life - eTwinning movie

This is the eTwinning movie that has been made collaboratively with our eTwinning partners in Poland and Lithuania. The script was written by everyone using Google Drive.  All three schools have recorded different aspects about our schools and edited a part of it in which recordings from all schools were put together and edited.

Finally, a trailer and poster have been made to help make our film more popular.

On the right you can see the poster that will publicise our film and you can also watch the trailer and film themselves:

TRAILER

MOVIE

ETWINNING WEBSITE - project diary

ETWINNING WEBSITE - Twinspace

Passive structures

WHAT IS A PASSIVE STRUCTURE?
Active sentences usually focus on who did the action:

• My sister broke the window.

Whereas passive sentences usually focus on who or what suffered the effects of the action:

• The window was broken.

On most occassions the agent (who did the action) is not mentioned but, if relevant, it can be mentioned after the preposition by.

• The window was broken by my sister.
• Don Quixote was written by Cervantes.

HOW IS IT MADE?
Passive structures have these elements:

1. the passive subject (my sister)
2. verb be in the right tense (the same tense that would be used in the corresponding active structure)
3. the past participle of the lexical verb
4. only if necessary, the agent (by + ______)

CHANGING ACTIVE SENTENCES  INTO THE PASSIVE

1. The object of the active sentence becomes the subject in the passive structure
2. verb be in the same tense as the active verb in the active structure
3. past participle of the main verb
4. the subjet of the active sentence becames the object in the passive structure (by + agent)
• Peter builds a house. -> A house is built by Peter.
• They were cooking dinner when we arrived. -> Dinner was being cooked when we arrived.
• I will finish it tomorrow. -> It will be finished tomorrow.

PASSIVE SENTENCES WITH TWO SUBJECTS (ONLY ESO-4)
Some active sentences have both a direct and an indirect object. In English both can be the subject in a passive structure. The indirect object is introduced by to in the passive sentence.

• ACTIVE: My sister asked me a question.
• PASSIVE 1: A question was asked to me.
• PASSIVE 2: I was asked a question.

• ACTIVE. The teacher explained the exercise to the students.
• PASSIVE 1: The exercise was explained to the students.
• PASSIVE 2: The studens were explained the exercise.

Eso 3 passives from Ana Arias Castro

VIDEO

EXERCISES

• Exercise 1 (www.isabelperez.com)
• Exercise 2 (www.isabelperez.com)
• Exercise 3 (www.isabelperez.com)
• Exercises 4 (www.englisch-hilfen.de)
• Exercise 5 (www.itslj.org)
• Passives (easier exercises)
• Passives (more difficult exercises)
• Hot Potatoes ESO-3
• Hot Potatoes ESO-4

Abdication of King Juan Carlos of Spain

Continue reading the main s

Today, the 2nd of June 2014, King Juan Carlos of Spain has abdicated. The king appeared on Spanish television at 1pm, just hours after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced that the monarch was to abdicate. 

HIS LIFE

Juan Carlos was born to Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona and Princes María Mercedes Bourbon-Two Sicilies in Rome in 1938, where his family had settled after the procalmation of the Second Spanish Republic.

King Juan Carlos I

In 1948 he moved to Spain to be educated.

In 1962 he married Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark, daughter of King Paul of Greece and they had three children: Infanta Elena (1963), Infanta Cristina (1965) and  Felipe, Prince of Asturias (1968)

Juan Carlos was named Franco's personal successor and given the new title of Prince of Spain in 1969.

After Franco's death in 1975, Juan Carlos was proclaimed King of Spain and took the name of King Juan Carlos I.

King Juan Carlos quickly instituted reforms and appointed Adolfo Suárez as Prime Minister of Spain. Many reforms took place during those first years as King of Spain: PSOE and the Communist Party were legalized, the first democratic elections in 1977, the promulgation of the Constitution in 1978, etc.

King Juan Carlos's role has been decisive to build the present-day democratic Spain.

Read More:

• The King's abdication speech
• King Juan Carlos's timeline
• List of Spanish Monarchs
• The King's abdication (El País)

Song: Hey Brother

Listen to the song by AVICI and try to fill the blanks in the following activity.

Go to the ESL Video activity for this song


More songs in the Song Page of this blog.