We started the lesson saying the opposite adjective of a given one. Somebody did not know the meaning of crowded, nor its opposite, empty. Another interesting pair is reserved/outgoing.

Students read homework, some short dialogues in which somebody makes a request. Good job, everybody. 

 As we started the unit with complaints, remember you can complain about + noun or gerund, complain that + clause. You can also complain of as in  Complain of shortness of breath and a cough.

We studied some two-part verbs or phrasal verbs: turn down, turn off, tun on, put away, pick up, take out, take off, put on, clean up, hang up, put out. 

Remember that in English you turn on or turn off a faucet or a tap. 

We were listening to a recording in which some people made some requests of their neighbors. They started their request in different ways:

Would you mind + verb ing...?

Would you mind not + verb ing...?

Would you please + verb (infinitive)

Could you please...

Can you + verb (infinitive)

Homework: make 10 requests like those and write also the replies which may be an excuse, a promise or an offer or something else. 

Something else: please, look at your notes and make a list with 20 verbs, 20 nouns and 20 adjectives you have learned ( or at least intended to learn) in this term.

Homework: what advice would you give your child if he/she was moving away to go to university?

What advise would you give a new employee in the place where to work?

Remember to use should, not must. You are giving advise, you are not giving orders.

I  apologize for being so long without writing. For some reason I forgot about this group. In fact, I thought I had done an entry for last week. Possibly I made a mistake and wrote it somewhere else.

Anyway, in our last lesson we were practicing modal verbs: have to, can, must and should.

You can use should to give advise and also to present some chices or alternatives, like: should we travel by car or by train?
Students looked at some signs and and explained what they meant using sentences live: you have to, you can´t, it is not allowed, X is allowed.

We listened to a conversation between two friends who were planning a trip together. We studied the sentences and then some of the students read it and role played the dialogue.

As homework students must read the section What do you think? and say what is like in Spain for each one of the laws in Britain that are mentioned.
Also, you should write a conversation between two friends that are planning a trip together. The conversation must include 3 questions of the type: Should we...?

Our Tuesday lesson was about artists and authors. At the beginning of the lesson students read homework. A part of it were sentences about things they were allowed or not allowed to do when they were in school.

Remember this is a passive construction and is followed by an infinitive:

I was not allowed  to exchange clothes with my classmates.

We were allowed to sit anywhere we wanted.

This time we read a short biography of Ernest Hemingway, a very famous American author who made the San Fermines in Pamplona a worldwide known celebration. Words that we learned from this text are: shotgun, hunt, eyesight, wounded, plane crash.

Remember the Past tenses we are studying:

Past Simple:
Affirmative: I wrote        Questions: did you write? ( You must always use the auxiliary did,whatever the beginning of the question. The only exception is when the question starts with Whoand Who is the subject of the question: Who wrote that book?
Negative: I didn´t write.

Past Continuous: (The auxiliary verb is the past of the verb to be: was/were)
Affirmative: I was reading (The auxiliary verb is the past of the verb to be: was/were
 Questions: Were you reading?
Negative: I wasn´t reading.

Past Perfect (The auxiliary verb is the past of the verb to have)
Affirmative: I had already read the book when I watched  the film.
Questions: Had you already seen the film?
Negative: I hadn´t read the book.

Homework
Write 5 questions about Hemingway´s biography.
Choose an artist, any kind of artist - musician, painter, dancer, actor, film director, etc. and do some research about him/her. Note down a few details of his/her biography.

We are trying really hard to learn how to speak using the correct past tenses.

So students started the lesson saying 3 things they did on the weekend. They were not allowed to use the verb to go. Next they ask their classmates about the first thing they had done in the morning.

Beatriz read her version of Snow White, the rest of the students will read their stories in future classes.

Looking at Judy´s schedule for yesterday students were asking each other questions in the past continuous: What was Judy doing at 8:30 in the evening? and answering: She was putting the baby to bed.
Later students made a list of things they had done yesterday, swapped their papers and asked one another questions like: Were you taking a nap at 4:00 in the afternoon? Yes, I was or No, I wasn´t. At 4 I was studying in the library.

Finally we listened to the very famous song by Otis Redding: Sitting on the dock of a bay. Here is the link, in case you feel like listening to it again.

To warm up today we were practising numbers and dates. Students also had to say something they are supposed to do today, so they don´t forget the passive. They said things like I´m supposed to do the laundry.
After that students read their homework, which was a very good exercise, because they had had to complete some simple questions and give answers. Because the sentences were fairly simple, they could think about the verb tense they were using. The questions were about sports the students practice at present or have practiced before. Remember: we use play for ball sports,do for sports like gymnastics , yoga o aerobics and go for things like swimming, running or cycling.

We started a new unit. In this unit we are studying the past tenses: past simple: I bought/ did you buy?/ I didn´t buy; past continuous: I was buying/ were you buying?/ I wasn´t buying; past perfect: I had bought / had you bought? / I hadn´t bought.

Students listened to a story and filled up the gaps with some given phrases. Some new or not so well known terms which are used in the story are: boast, scream, suck and fearless.

For homework remember to write a story. You don´t have to make it up, you can just retell a well known fairy tale, like Little Red Riding Hood. Try to include those 3 past tenses we have been talking about in the lesson.

Students finally asked their classmates the questions they had prepared for them at the beginning of October. Not everybody could do it because there were two students missing. They were probably sick, so many people get sick this time of the year. Remember the difference between having a cold and being cold. Other health problems you may have are headaches, stomach aches, toothaches, a sore throat, the flew or a stiff neck.

After the introduction students read their homework, which was really WELL DONE. Most of them read the part about a typical day in their lives. Students in this group put a lot of effort and interest in the work they do on their own and the results are really good.

Students said what they knew about Halloween and then they answered a questionnaire so they could find out if they are witches.

We listened to a recording where 3 different people talked about sports they practiced or exercise they enjoyed doing. Students had to fill in a chart and answered different comprehension questions. 

Homework
Complete the questions and give the answers for Ex. 5, page 21, New Headway Inter.

Please be Careful on Halloween Night. Do not go to an 

overcrowded concert.

We started the class with a few questions: what´s your brother or sister like? and How do you make a living?
Students read their homework: some sentences in passive voice.



Example of how to rewrite an impersonal passive.
 
People know that she is a good swimmer.

She is known to be a good swimmer.

Students wrote questions for L.´s interview. Ex. 7 New Headway Intermediate, page 19. Then we listened to the interview to check the questions.

Finally students looked for strong adjectives to match the given ones. Tired- exhausted, bad-awful, good-fantastic, big-huge, difficult-impossible, frightened- terrified, surprised-amazed.

Homework: 
What´s a typical day like for L.? 

What´s a typical day like for you?

If you still have time, write some sentences using those strong adjectives.

Enjoy your weekend!

We started the lesson talking about things we did on the weekend. A classmate had to ask an echo question and  a following up question. Example: I went to the mountains on Saturday. Did you? And how was it?

We worked on a text called The Clown Doctor. First students summerized it orally, as they had already done it in writing. Students read it aloud. Remember to pay attention to the pronunciation of plural words like faces or nurses. Also pay attencion to verbs followed by a preposition, pronounce them together.

Students searched for sentences in the text that had a similar meaning to some given sentences. Now everybody knows that being useless is the same as being no help at all. Learned words like unwind, race, crash out, charity. 

Students searched for verbs in the passive vooice: present simple and present continuous. Teacher explained how to build a sentence in the passive voice and we did some examples.

For homework

Rewrite the sentences in passive voice.

1. The sheep ate a lot. -
2. We do not clean our rooms. -
3. William will not repair the car. -
4. Did Sue draw this circle? -
5. Could you feed the dog? -

1. Rachel will give you some advice.
   →
2. The police officer showed us the way.
   →
3. Our neighbour gave me a lift.
   →
4. We have asked him a favour.
   →
5. She told me a lie.
   →
6. They have written her a postcard.
   →
7. Kerrie will make you a cup of tea.
   →
8. The waiter has not brought us the coffee.
   →
9. They did not offer her a seat.
   →
10. IMPERSONAL PASSIVE
11. 1. His collegues thought that he was on holiday.
       →
    2. People know that cars pollute the environment.
       →
    3. They suppose that the new product will come out soon.
       →
    4. They found that the mission was impossible.
       →
    5. They believe that she will win a gold medal.
       →

Today´s lesson

We did some warming up questions: what´s your address? and what´s your zip code? Well, they are quite useful.

Students read their homework.Teacher made corrections.

We asked questions like What does a mechanic do? and gave a simple answer: a mechanic repairs cars, making sure the sentences were grammatically correct.

We used a dialogue on page 17, New Headway Itermediatea as model to write similar dialogues using different professions. Students played the roles of interviwer and interviewed with their dialogues.

Homework: Read the article The Clown Doctor and make a summary.

Enjoy your weekend.

Today we started by practicing short answers.

Students read their homework. I found their stories about their father or mother very interesting.´.

We were listening to Jeff Norman telling us about her wonderful job and learned a few expressions from him like on top of that, paper boy ,marriage counsellor, it´s not much of a job.

The difference between action verbs and state verbs was explained.

Completed the sentences on page 16 New Headway Intermediate.

All through the lesson we had plenty of conversation. Students said when they had first met their best friends or their boyfriends. They spelled their last names.

Homework
5 sentences using frequency adverbs (  present simple).
5 sentences with state verbs.
5 questions in the present continuous tense.

Hi girls,

I remember now that I had asked you to prepare some questions for one of your classmates and that I forgot to do it in our last class. I apologize for it. Don´t despair (just kidding), we´ll do it next time.

Here are the points you got for the Olympic Games activity yesterday. The maximum amount of points per activity is 10 points.

Player 1  7 points

Player 2  10 points

Player 3  10 points

Player 4  10 points

Player 5  10 points

Player 6  10 points

You all did wonderfully, I hadn´t expected such good results, you are certainly a bunch a smart girls. Next day we´ll be working on informal expressions so I´m giving you a little taste.

If you need it for writing I recommend the Oxford Spanish Dictionary: www. wordreference.com. That one includes the Collins too. On top of the page you can see the picture of a loudspeaker. You can click on US or UK and listen to the way the word is pronounced  in either place.

See you Tuesday.

Question to remember:

How long does it take you to get to...?
What does VIP (or WASP, or USA or www) stand for?

Use of Passive

How would you say the same thing using the verb in a passive form?

Did Sue draw this circle?
William will not repair the car.
He can cut out the picture. 

Remember the Quiz you have to make up.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Welcome to the new course of Learn and Enjoy! I'm looking forward to meeting you. Teacher: Begoña Aspiunza. Students: Natalia Sánchez, Eva Mª Leal, Ana Belén Sánchez, Sara Serena, Paula Medina.