Notting Hill Carnival - August, 24 and 25 2014 - What's your favourite Carnival?

Colours, music, stalls, floats and costumes. The  biggest European  street festival  is held in London in August.

London's Afro-Caribbean communities have celebrated their traditions since 1964 but learn more about this festival clicking on the following Blendspace lesson I prepared for you:

Notting Hill Carnival

SOME ESL RESOURCES

Notting Hill Worksheets and Printables

http://www.eslprintables.com/cinema_and_television/movies/drama_movies/notting_hill/

http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/pdf/index.pl?read=1937

Carnival vocabulary

Practice some Carnival vocabulary, and then take the test at:

http://www.tolearnenglish.com/exercises/exercise-english-2/exercise-english-90943.php

ESL Resources on Carnivals around the World

The most famous carnivals:

http://www.michellehenry.fr/carnivals.htm

A Video Quiz: Carnivals from around the world:

http://www.eslvideo.com/esl_video_quiz_low_intermediate.php?id=15668

The most famous Italian Carnivals

Have a look at the following information I've put on Thinglink about  three famous Italian Carnival cities. Moreover I've added on Thinglink some videos I've mixed up with Metta. Enjoy!

YOUR TASK

What's your favourite Carnival? Do you celebrate Carnival in your country or city? Write an essay about some particular traditions or masks that characterize your country or city's Carnival.

Newspaper articles: some new (and old) ways of reading and writing

Nowadays more and more people read the news on the Net, so the way we read and even write a newspaper article is definitely changing.

Have a look at these American surveys on how the Internet is affecting traditional journalism and how it'schanging the way viewers and readers get news.

There are plenty of digital tools you can use to read or even write newspaper articles. I am going to show you just some of them.

READING

Here you can read the breaking news from the world:
http://www.breakingnews.com/

Here you can filter the news by language, country or newspapers:
http://newspapermap.com/

WRITING

A simple way for journalists, designers and creators to weave interactive stories:

http://cartodb.github.io/odyssey.js/

You may also try Storymap. It is a free tool to help you tell stories on the web that highlight the locations of a series of events. You can use it to tell a story with photographs, historic maps, or other image files. 

http://storymap.knightlab.com/

Some free digital tools to create your digital magazine;

https://www.flipsnack.com/

https://www.joomag.com/

https://www.scoop.it/

https://www.lucidpress.com/

https://flippingbook.com/

https://madmagz.com/

Ok, we have just seen some digital tools we could use to read or to write newspapers articles. But now let's see something more general.
Do you really know how to read a newspaper? 
Could you really write a good news article?

HOW TO READ A NEWSPAPER

Have a look at my mindmap:

How to read the News On-line vs in Print

HOW TO WRITE  NEWS ARTICLES

How to write articles the quick and easy way

How to write the perfect newspaper article

Now have a look at the following mindmaps I made for you:

Some links from my blog you can find useful

Some examples of digital magazines:

https://thetravellingteachers.blogspot.com/2020/05/michelangelo-news-school-digital.html

http://thetravellingteachers.blogspot.it/2014/06/its-time-to-travel-lets-consult-some.html

http://thetravellingteachers.blogspot.it/2014/06/football-world-cup.html

https://thetravellingteachers.blogspot.com/search/label/digital%20magazines

Summer holidays: Beach vs. Mountains

August is time to take a vacation for many people and the two most common places people choose for their holidays are the beach and the mountains. Which do you prefer?

THE BEACH

SOME RESOURCES

Great resources about the sea and the oceans:
http://www.henry4school.fr/Vocabulary/sea/sea.htm
http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/themes/summerattheseaside/

BEACH VOCABULARY

VIDEO

Maybe you already know some of the most common marine animals....  but what happens in the deep sea?

Deep sea creatures

SOME SONGS ON THE SEA

"Beyond the Sea," Bobby Darin

"Under the Sea," from Disney's "The Little Mermaid" 

"Octopus's Garden", The Beatles

"(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay," Otis Redding 

THE MOUNTAINS

SOME RESOURCES

Some resources about the mountains:

http://www.eslprintables.com/vocabulary_worksheets/places/the_mountain/

http://santiamalpineclub.org/mountain/climbing/terms/

MOUNTAINS VOCABULARY

VIDEO

What is a mountain?

SOME SONGS ON THE MOUNTAINS

"Rocky Top", Osborne Brothers

"Rocky Mountain High", John Denver

"Mountain Music", Alabama

" Sugar Mountain", Neil Young

STUDENTS' TASK

Write an essay about these two different types of holidays. Which do you prefer? What are the main differences between the beach and the mountains? Can you find any similarities? Consider the types of activities you can do in each place, the climate and the location. 

What do you usually do? Present simple practice