ACTIVITY ON PHONETICS

You already know the importance of knowing phonetics in any language when wer want to master that language.

I propose a kind of game where you have to classify the following words according to their vocalic sounds. Before starting you can have a look at the following site where you will find a phonetic chart.

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/activities/phonemic-chart

Which of the following words contain the sound /æ/ and which others the sound /a:/?

1. car 2. back 3. father 4. cat

5. bag 6. last 7. start 8. hard

9. flag 10. hat 11. heart 12. sad

13. man 14. calm 15. park

Good luck!!!

MEXICO, NOT ONLY INFLUENZA VIRUS.

NOW EVERYONE KNOWS MEXICO LIKE THE PRINCIPAL PLACE WITH THIS NEW VIRUS, BUT DO YOU REALLY KNOW MEXICO?

Mexico is a federation of thirty-one free and sovereign states, it’s one of the 18 mega diverse countries of the world. With over 200,000 different species, Mexico is home of 10–12% of the world's biodiversity. Mexico is also considered the second country in the world in ecosystems and fourth in overall species (approximately 2,500 species are protected by Mexican legislations).

According to the World Tourism Organization, Mexico has one of the largest tourism industries in the world. In 2005 it was the seventh most popular tourist destination worldwide, receiving over 20 million tourists per year; it is the only country in Latin America to be within the top 25. It has one of the seven wonders: Chichen Itzá. And it also count with many beautiful places with wonderful beaches like: Acapulco, Quintana Roo, etc.

The peak tourist seasons in Mexico are during December and during July and August, with brief surges during the week before Easter and during spring break at many of the beach resort sites which are popular among vacationing college students from the United States.

Mexico is the twenty-third highest tourism spender in the world, and the highest in Latin America
Mexican cuisine is known for its intense and varied flavors, colorful decoration, and variety of spices. Most of today's Mexican food is based on pre-Hispanic traditions, including the Aztecs and Maya, combined with culinary trends introduced by Spanish colonists.

The most internationally recognized dishes include chocolate, tacos, quesadillas, enchiladas, burritos, tamales and mole among others. Regional dishes include mole poblano, chiles en nogada and chalupas from Puebla; cabrito and machaca from Monterrey, cochinita pibil from Yucatán, Tlayudas from Oaxaca, as well as barbacoa, chilaquiles, milanesas, and many others.

KATHERINE PADRÓN (3ºESO-A)

TRIP TO "LA PEDRIZA" (SOLUTIONS)

Next Thursday, students from 1ºESO are going to go on trip to "La Pedriza". Students from higher level went there last year with Mercedes. You will find different plants, animals and stones as the ones that appear in the pictures below.

Do you know the names of the following pictures in English?

1. 2. 3

1. a) Bull b) Cow c) Goat
2. a) Pine b) Olive tree c) Cypress
3. a) Bush b) Juniper tree c) Chesnut tree

4.5. 6.

4. a) Slate b) Diamond c) Granite

5. a) Carnation b) Rockrose c) Daisy

6. a) Lime Blossom b) Pennyroyal c) Lavender

7. 8. 9.

7. a) Rosemary b) Lime Blossom c) Camomile

8. a) Stork b) Vulture c) Eagle

9. a) Cypress b) Juniper tree c) Pine

TWILIGHT: A BOOK TO READ

I want to recommend you an interesting book I like: TWILIGHT (EL CREPÚSCULO) That’s a book about vampires. Bella’s a girl, who met Edward and after that…
I don’t want tell you anymore because you have to read it!It’s been successful and that isn’t to be strange because the book is really mysterious and terrific!
Some teachers of our high school have read it and they liked it!After of that, there’re others books which are the sequels of Twilight, like New Moon or Eclipse. They have even made a film based on this book.But only a piece of advice… read it, please! ^_^

PRIYANKA Mª RUIZ (2ºESO-B)

ENGLISH WORDS IN THE SPANISH LANGUAGE

I propose you a kind of game. It consists in thinking about words that we have in Spanish which come from English. I can come up with a few words, for example, friki or internet.
What about you? Any ideas?

WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH.

Listening to songs in English and watching original version films will help you to improve your English.
I recomend you a very good site where you can watch film trailers and then you can do different activities based on the trailer you watched. You can register for free.
This site is http://www.english-trailers.com/
I hope you like it and you have fun!!!

GOODBYE DAVID!!!

David has been our language assistant in our school this year. Every week you have gone with David to improve your oral English.
Thank you David for your help and patience with all of us. We will never forget that smiling guy taking always a fork, a knife and a spoon with him.
We all hope you will be in our school next year again!!!
See you soon.

ANOTHER ENGLISH IDIOM

I am still waiting for your answers about the previous idiom. Meanwhile, here you go another idiom for those impatient people you already know the meaning of "green fingers".
What's the meaning of the expression "He is on his last legs".

1. He's completely crazy.
2. He's got more than two legs.
3. He's very tired or ill.
4. He hasn't got any money.

I am waiting for your answers!!!

VISIT TO ALMAGRO

On 23rd April -the Book Day- we went to Almagro. It’s situated in Ciudad Real. We watched a play: “House with two doors is bad to keep” by Calderón de la Barca.
The plot is relatively simple. Lisardo stays in Felix’s house who lives with his sister. It will be the origin of the adventure, because she wants to see Lisardo and when she meets him, they fall in love. Apart from that, Felix falls in love with Laura too. She’s Fabio’s daughter…
We liked the play and we had a good time!

MARINA AND PRIYANKA (2ºESO-B)

COOL FACES PACK AGAINST INFLUENZA-A (máscarillas contra la gripe A)

Some people are wearing a new mask to protect themselves from the Flu A. They are cool and strange. You can wear a face pack with a cartoon of Mickey Mouse and the Simpsons. These “masks” are selling in New York online. A lot of American and Mexican people have bought them. This is a strange fashion which more people are practicing it, because they think that it's funny.

GONZALO BLASCO (1ºESO-A)

SPELLING CONTEST IN COLMENAREJO

On 18th April, some students from our high school went to Colmenarejo, because we participated in a spelling competition.
We were: Alba, Kel, Mara, Amín and Dani(1º); Luis.E, Clara, Adrián, Marina and Priyanka (2º); Natalia, Odalis and Katherine(3º). And teachers who went with us were Maite and Loly.
Last Saturday, we went to Colmenarejo again, to know the winners. And there were raffles too.
Marina was the third winner of her level, but Alba and Adrián won the raffles!
We learnt some new words and it was really entertaining!

PRIYANKA AND MARINA
(2ºESO-B)

DO YOU KNOW THE MEANING OF THIS IDIOM?

If I tell you "you've got green fingers", what do I mean?

1. Your fingers are green because you ate vegetables for lunch.
2. You are good at growing plants.
3. Your fingers are green because you are becoming an alien.

What do you think the correct answer is?

JUST FOR FUN

If we want to master a language, it is important to have knowledge of the phonetics of that language. That is why I always want you to get familiarised with the English phonetics and I teach you phonetics symbols.
In the following site you can practise your phonetics doing some activities http://club.telepolis.com/phonetics/index.html

I recomend you to watch the following video to understand better the importance of pronouncing words properly.
Enjoy it and after watching it I hope you know the difference between sing /siŋiŋ/ and sink /siŋkiŋ/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT86iWiH2mI

OUR VOLLEYBALL TEAM

This year we have played a lot of volleyball matches, but this is our first year playing volleyball, and we have lost every match; the rest of the teams have been playing for four years and they are better than us. However, we almost won some matches.
Although we lost every match, we really had a good time.
Next year we hope we will play better.

Next, I include all the details of the matches:

Date Local Visitors

20/01/09 Jaime Ferrán 2 Juan Ramón Jimenez 0
27/01/09 Juan Ramón Jimenez 0 Lázaro Cárdenals 2
03/02/09 Colmenarejo 2 Juan Ramón Jimenez 0
10/02/09 Juan Ramón Jimenez 0 Infanta Elena 2
24/02/09 Juan Ramón Jimenez 0 Jaime Ferrán 2
03/03/09 Lázaro Cárdenals 2 Juan Ramón Jimenez 0
10/03/09 Juan Ramón Jimenez 0 Colmenarejo 2
24/03/09 Infanta Elena 2 Juan Ramón Jimenez 1

SARA PUCHE, 2ºESO-A