Wednesday, 25 December 2013

Digital Christmas!

We would like to wish a Merry Christmas to all our students! You're "digital natives"... so this is for you!

Watch this video about Nativity in our time...

How would you represent a modern Nativity?

Monday, 23 December 2013

Christmas... having fun!

Dear students,

we know, you don't want to study during your Christmas holiday! But you can practise English having fun! Here you have some links that will allow you to do so... Try them!

And of course...

Here you can find a lot of fun websites about Christmas acitivities, games, quizzes, videos and songs!
http://eflinks.wikispaces.com/Christmas+sites

Here you can watch videos, TV shows or movies about Christmas, listen to music, learn Christmas recipes or read Christmas stories!
http://xmasfun.com/

Learn about the Christmas story, traditions all around the world and have a Christmas karaoke!

http://www.whychristmas.com/

Remember, you can better learn having fun!!!

... from you travelling teachers!!

Some drawings by the students of IB

Sunday, 15 December 2013

"A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens

from a PowerPoint presentation by Roberta Martino

We watched "A Christmas Carol" in our classroom

Some interesting facts about
"A Christmas Carol":
http://www.charlesdickensinfo.com/christmas-carol/trivia/

QUIZ!!
http://www.charlesdickensinfo.com/games/christmas-carol-quiz/

The following are some quotations from "A Christmas Carol".

Can you tell me who and when pronounces these words?

“I wear the chain I forged in life....I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.”

“You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!”

“They are Man's and they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance and this girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.”

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!”

"Business!" he cried, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The deals of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

“Bah," he said, "Humbug.”

“And therefore, Uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that [Christmas] has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!”

“If they would rather die, . . . they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”

“God bless us, every one!”

“Come in, -- come in! and know me better, man! Look upon me! You have never seen the like of me before!”

“Christmas is a poor excuse every 25th of December to pick a man's pockets.”

“Are there no prisons?”

“I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world! Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo!”

If you need more information here is a list of some Charles Dickens websites:
http://www.shmoop.com/charles-dickens/websites.html

These are parts of a story board of "A Christmas Carol" by some 11-years-old students

Monday, 9 December 2013

Travelling into foreign cultures - Christmas in the UK

Christmas in the United Kingdom

Most families have a Christmas Tree in their house for Christmas.

Christmas Trees were first popularised in the UK by Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria. Prince Albert was German and thought that it would be good to use one of his ways of celebrating Christmas in England.

Holly, Ivy and Mistletoe are also used to decorate homes.

Nativity Plays and Carol Services are also very popular at Christmas time.

Children believe that Father Christmas or Santa Claus leaves presents in stockings or pillow-cases. They are usually hung up by the fire or by the children's beds on Christmas Eve. Children sometimes leave out mince pies and brandy or milk for Father Christmas when he visits them.

Children write letters to Father Christmas with their requests, but sometimes instead of putting them in the post, the letters are tossed into the fireplace. The draught carries the letters up the chimney and Father Christmas reads the smoke.

Boxing Day is a very old custom that started in the UK and is now taken as a holiday in many countries around the world.
Boxing Day in the United Kingdom is the day after Christmas Day, December 26th. Traditionally, it was a day when employers distributed money, food, clothes or other goods to their employees. In modern times, it is an important day for sporting events and the start of the post-Christmas sales.

In the UK, the main Christmas Meal is usually eaten at lunchtime or early afternoon on Christmas Day. It was traditionally roast beef or goose, although it's common to have turkey, roast vegetables and 'all the trimmings' which means stuffing and sometimes bacon and sausages.