Wednesday 22 April 2009

Book Day

On 23 April we celebrate Book Day and Copyright Day. But do you know why? This day is the anniversary of the death of three important authors around the world: William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. All of them died on 23 April 1616 (although there are some days of difference because some countries followed the Julian calendar and others the Gregorian one). That is the reason why UNESCO chose this day to encourage people to enjoy reading.

Sunday 19 April 2009

Modal Verbs


These days we have been working with modal auxiliary verbs in class. Here is a tutorial that can be quite clarifying for you. Moreover, you have further practice in this site, where you can do some activities and correct yourself. I hope it helps!

Sunday 12 April 2009

Easter Egg Hunt

Have you ever gone Easter egg hunting? Before holidays we learnt it was a typical game for kids in both the USA and the UK.

Here are two videos where you can see how much fun kids have these days. The first one is somewhere in Texas. The second one is in New Haven.



Sunday 5 April 2009

Easter

Before the holidays we learnt what Easter is and how it is celebrated in different parts of the world. We also learnt about its religious and pagan origins.

This is the worksheet we used in class. I hope you learnt many things.

Enjoy the holidays!

Easter

Wednesday 1 April 2009

April Fool's Day


April Fool's Day, or All Fools' Day, is the first day of April. It is a traditional day for playing pranks on unsuspecting people. In many countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, people play tricks on others. A favourite joke is to send someone on a fool's errand (a search for something that does not exist), or to get people to believe ridiculous things. The victim is called an April Fool.

No one knows where the April Fools' custom began. The origin is uncertain but may be related to the arrival of spring in late March, when nature "fools" humanity with changes in weather. Another explanation has to do with the change to the Gregorian calendar in 1582, which moved New Year's Day to January 1.

The tradition originated in France and Great Britain and it was introduced into America in colonial times.

The French call April 1 "Poisson d'Avril" or "April Fish". French children sometimes stick a picture of a fish on the back of their schoolmates, crying "Poisson d'Avril" when the prank is discovered.