Our country

Our school is in Cabrera de Mar, about 20 km away from Barcelona. We live in Catalonia, which is an area in the North East of Spain.

2nd ESO students have written short descriptions of our country, including topics as typical dishes or traditions, climate or landscape.

My Country by Lidia Gonzalo on Scribd

Informal emails

Nowadays, not many people write informal letters anymore because we tend to write an email instead of that older way of communication. 

3rd ESO students have written short informal emails as a way of practising this writing task. Here we are showing you a small part of those emails. They were asked to write to a friend, planning a visit in their home town and giving some news, too.

Informal Email by Lidia Gonzalo on Scribd

Santa Claus is coming to town!!

Tió

In a few days we are starting our Christmas celebrations. In Catalonia we have some curious celebrations, as having to hit a log (Tió) which after a few days having been fed, gives us some presents. Or we include a small character next to Baby Jesus who is... Well, he's called the 'Caganer'.

Caganer

Today we want to recommend you a website where you will have some English Christmas Carols. Try to learn some to sing with your family.

Fictional narrative

2nd ESO students had to write a fictional narrative about a funny, strange or scary thing that had happened to them. In the production, they had to include past simple, past continuous and sequencing words and expressions such as one day, soon, then, later... They were also requested to use adverbs (-ly) which were the contents learnt in the unit.

Fictional Narrative by Lidia Gonzalo on Scribd

Reviews

2nd ESO students have written short reviews about theme parks, museums and other interesting placew they have visited. The aim of the task was to describe one of these interesting places. They also had to structure their texts in three paragraphs, using also, too, could and other past tenses. Maybe you have visited some of these places too and you share their opinions.

Reviews by Lidia Gonzalo on Scribd

Spooky, scary...

Halloween history is one of mystery and intrigue, the story of Halloween’s past has been passed down through generations. Traditions and adaptations of ancient ceremonies and superstitions have evolved into the holiday we know and love today. We’ll explore the history of Halloween in various forms, and unlock the dark secrets of this ancient holiday. Halloween is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31. The word Halloween is a shortening of All Hallows’ Evening also known as Hallowe’en or All Hallows’ Eve. Read more at http://halloweenhistory.org/

A happy ending

Traveling is great. It doesn't matter if you drive, fly or just walk. Having some free time and discovering a new culture is always a fantastic experience. For a few days or weeks you may feel adventurous and will be able to experience how other people in other areas live. 

Not everything always goes as planned, though. That's why we have written some short stories which seemed to be a complete disaster but that finally had a happy ending. Enjoy!

Happy Ending by Lidia Gonzalo on Scribd

Our School

We spend six hours a day at school. Because of that, 3rd ESO students have written short descriptions about what our school looks like, following a given structures. Some of them have also described one extra-curricular activity they like doing. 

Our School by Lidia Gonzalo on Scribd

Struggling with phrasal verbs; PUT

Source of picture: Talk2meenglish

Phrasal verbs have always been a real headache for Spanish or Catalan learners. Here you have some examples with PUT, one of the most usual ones. Of course, there are more, but it's a good choice to start with.

Here you can also watch a video with examples.

Our favourite author

My Favourite Writer

2nd ESO students (aged 12-13) have written short descriptions about writers. They have searched online for the information needed, following a webquest structure. The final production was a Word file. Final productions have been assessed in the English as a Foreign Language Subject, taking into account the accuracy, the spelling, the vocabulary...

Personal Profile

2nd ESO students have written profiles of people, including personal information, hobbies, friends... They were told to use so/because, present simple tense and frequency adverbs. Not all the students have the same level, though. Some of the compositions were more suitable for their age, while others were much simpler, but with good quality, too.

Personal Profile

Personal Profile 2 by Lidia Gonzalo on Scribd

You bet!

Native English speakers use different expressions all the time. Today we are offering you a couple of them. 

The first one is "You Bet!" We use this expression to say that we are extremely keen on something or to emphasize something.

Click here and you'll be redirected to a video which provides good examples.

Another expression English speakers often use is "Turn the Page". It gives the meaning of leaving a difficult situation behind. In fact, we also use this expression in our own language. Click here to learn more about this expression.

Cambridge exams

We are really proud of our students!!!!

Some of them took different Cambridge tests last June and the results were really positive. Most of them took the Key English Test examination, and some more the Preliminary English Test. One of our students took the First Certificate of English and all of them got their diplomas. See their pictures.

Welcome back

Here we go again!!

Last Monday we came back to school and we are really excited about it! Some of us are having new subjects, new teachers, new classmates... Lots of changes all of a sudden. 

We will share here, as usual, some of the tasks we do while learning English. We hope you enjoy them!!

One of the projects we want to keep on doing is exchanging letters with a school which is located in Turkey. We loved the experience of sharing information and getting in touch with students from another cuture, using English. We also hope to work in a collaborative way, as our school will begin using these techniques in different subjects, and English is one of them. 

As you can see, lots of projects until the end of the year 2016-17, in June. It will be a long journey and we expect we will enjoy it as much as you will, too.

Southern France

Between the 14th and the 17th of June, 3rd ESO students have been visiting the area known as Rousillon, in Southern France. They have visited many interesting places:

• Carcassonne
• Perpignan
• Saint Jean Pla de Corts
• Coulliure
• Fou Canyons
• Canet en Rousillon
• Saint Michel de Cuxa

They have done many different activities, apart from visiting those places, as for example taking temperatures at different times and producing graphs, for example. They have also produced different leaflets in English, where they have included information about this area and interesting proposals of things to do or visit.

In this post we are showing you some of the productions.

Our penfriends

Tell me about your penpal

Here they are!! Showing the final productions!

Penpalling has been an activity which was highly followed in English speaking countries. Nowadays, though, with new technologies, it has been relegated to the past, given that we prefere writing e-mails or text messages instead of letters.

However, our school started a few months ago a new project where we will exchange letters with a school established in Turkey. It is the school Ülkem Koleji, in Manisa (Turkey). First, we got into the programme by Cambridge Penfriends and we waited for a school which matched us. So, in fact, they found us. When we received the letters from the Turkish students we read them, compared them, shared the information included with our friends and finally we wrote the letters to be sent back to the Turkish school. We are also going to display those letters so everybody in our school can see them. In this post, we are showing you some of the pictures we took that day. 

Unfortunately, our summer holidays are very near and maybe the project will be continued in September again.

How interesting!

Sharing information about our penpals

What can you tell me about your penfriend?

Working on our letters in the classroom

Starting up

Sharing the information in our letters

Feeling shy at the beginning...

Interesting facts about our penfriends

Feeling shy at the beginning...

Working on our letters

Writing, writing, writing...

Work in progress..

Work in progress..

Work in progress..

Work in progress..

Work in progress..

Work in progress..

Work in progress...

Decorating our letters..

Work in progress...

Some colourful productions

Work in progress...

Writing, writing...

Don't forget to check your spelling!

 
Work in progress...

Answering questions and writing some more...

Answering questions and writing some more...

Here they are!!

What about your letter?

Paying attention.

Checking the information given

Some pictures added

Personal information!

Proud of what we have done!

Showing everybody else what we have done.

Ready to send our letters back to Turkey!!

Sharing our final letters

Proud of our work!!

Here they are!! Showing the final productions!

Here they are!! Showing the final productions!