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

International Day of Friendship (July, 30th) and Friendship Day (August, 3rd)

Friendship day was originally founded by Hallmark in 1919. In April 2011 the United Nations officially recognised 30th July as International Friendship Day but many countries celebrate it on the first Sunday of August.

"On this International Day of Friendship, let us cultivate warm ties that strengthen our common humanity 

and promote the well-being of the human family. "

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

"The International Day of Friendship was proclaimed in 2011 by the UN General Assembly with the idea that friendship between peoples, countries, cultures and individuals can inspire peace efforts and build bridges between communities.

To mark the International Day of Friendship the UN encourages governments, international organizations and civil society groups to hold events, activities and initiatives that contribute to the efforts of the international community towards promoting a dialogue among civilizations, solidarity, mutual understanding and reconciliation".

Surf the following sites for more information:

http://www.un.org/en/events/friendshipday/

http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/un/friendship-day

SOME CLASS ACTIVITIES

ABOUT FRIENDSHIP

READING AND WRITING

• How could you define friendship? Have a look at the following website: http://friends.com/definition-of-friendship. Then write your own definition of  "friendship".

• Read this article at http://friends.com/rules-of-friendship about the rules of friendship and add your own rules to the list.

LISTENING

Some songs on friendship

"Count on me" - Bruno Mars

"I'll be your friend" - Amy Grant

"Friends are friends forever" - Michael W. Smith

"Any time you need a friend" - Mariah Carey

"I'll be there" - Mariah Carey

"I turn to you" - Christina Aguilera

"That's what friends are for" - Dionne Warwick

"You've got a friend" - James Taylor

"You're my best friend" - Queen

"You've got a friend in me" - Randy Newman

 SPEAKING 

Talking about friends

A conversation about friendship

Friendship Soup Recipe

After having watched the above videos, prepare an oral presentation about your best friend. Tell:

• how long you have known him/her,
• what you have in common,
• which are the things you like about him/her,
• what is you personal "friendship soup" recipe.

"Establishing lasting peace is the work of education"

"Establishing lasting peace

 is the work of education"

 Maria Montessori

In this hard time for peace I suggest some activities to talk about love and tolerance.

Listening

Listen to the following songs about peace:

"Playing for change" songs bring together musicians from around the world to talk about peace and to fight war.

Gimme Shelter - Playing For Change 

Love Is All - Playing For Change

Imagine - Playing for Change 

War/No More Trouble - Playing for Change

A Better Place | Playing For Change

In the above video there are not subtitles. Can you understand what they are saying? 
Write down all the words or sentences you can catch.

Some other classics

One love - Bob Marley

John Lennon - Give peace a chance

U2 - Peace on Earth

Writing

Answer the following questions:

• What do you think about war?
• How do you think conflicts should be solved?
• Do you know anyone who has fought in a war?
• What war has your country fought in the recent past? What do you know about that?
• Do you think that war always solves problems?
• Which is the best way of achieving peace in your opinion?
• Conflicts are around us everyday (in our family, school, etc.). How do you respond to conflicts?
• Do you know any important people who promoted peace and non-violence?

Now have a look at the following diagram I made for you. Are there any other words that you would use to define "war" and "peace"? Use them to compose some sentences.

https://cacoo.com/lang/en/

Speaking

Form two groups of students: one group is in favour of force and war to resolve conflicts, the other is in favour of peace and diplomacy. You are on a TV talk show, make a debate!

Reading

Read about some famous people who promoted world peace in their life, then write your impressions:

http://www.biographyonline.net/people/world-peace.html
http://listverse.com/2011/06/05/top-10-peaceful-men/

http://worldpeace.org.au/messages.asp

http://www.biography.com/people/groups/nobel-peace-prize-winners

http://www.britannica.com/nobelprize/article-9487436

  “If we don’t end war, war will end us.”

HG Wells