10 "English things" to do this summer

Are you short of ideas on how to keep you English alive this summer? Here you are a few:

1. Watch short videos and do exercises in Lingual.net and Yolango (you have to sign in for the second one, but it's worth it).

2. Find an exchange to speak and write to. Some possible websites are Shared Talk and My Language Exchange.

3. Do an online course in Livemocha or Mango Languages.

4. Revise English grammar with comics here. Make comics yourself here or here.

5. Are you brave enough? Read and listen to stories here or here.

6. Test and learn vocabulary here: The Internet Picture Dictionary.

7. In the mood for playing? Then try these games at BBC and Wordpower. Play Scrambled Sentences here.

8. Would you like to practice your Writing skills? Try this website to create a fairy tale, make a poem here or visit this site to get general advice on writing, tools and games.

9. Want to go a step further? Learn what Proofreading is here.

10. Finally, why don't you go back and read old posts in this blog? I'm sure you didn't have time to check it all. Scroll down and try clicking on "Older Posts" to access what has been published all year. You can also look for posts in the "Topics" section on the left.

Enjoy your summer and good luck with English.

Love,

Laura

Health Websites

Hi there again!

Do you remember the activities we did last week? You can do some more on the Internet. Try the following websites:

- Click here if you want to access an interactive site for children: you can read about getting ready for hospital, getting treated and getting around. Lots of vocabulary and fun activities!

- A similar interactive site for children here.

- General health vocabulary + images here and here.

- Would you like to have the transcriptions to the words read aloud? Healthy habits read aloud (karaoke style) here.

- An interactive tale about going to the doctor here.

- Conversations at the doctor's here.

- How to make an appointment here.

- A telephone conversation here.

Hope you enjoy!
Take care.

Chocolate cake (by Cristina Belver)

Thanks for sharing the recipe with us, Cristina. Here it goes:

I’LL TELL TOU HOW TO MAKE A CHOCOLATE CAKE

YOU’LL NEED:

1/2 cup of dark cocoa

1/2 cup of boiled water

1 teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate

100 g of softened butter

2 cups of sugar

2 eggs

2 ½ cups of flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

¾ cups of milk

INSTRUCTIONS

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees
• Grease a cake recipient
• Put cocoa, boiled water, salt and bicarbonate in a little bowl
• In a separated bowl beat the eggs, butter with sugar, mix with flour and baking powder
• Mix all this with the cocoa
• Pour into prepared recipient
• Bake at 180 º C until a knife inserted in centre comes out clean, approximately for 30 minutes
• When the cake has room temperature, place cut in half horizontally and whip with dulce de leche.
• Put chocolate on the top and around the cake
• Put the cake into the fridge for one hour.

If you prefer you can add rhum to the dulce de leche and chopped walnut on the top

Invitation

Hi everyone!

We're nearly through unit 4 and ready to get started with unit 5. Today we'll mix content from both units:

- giving directions
- and party language

Can you guess what we're going to do? We're going to invite our classmates to a party at home. Click here to access the page and follow the instructions. Remember to include directions on how to get to your flat / house!

By the way... Who's cooking? (I can already imagine a person or two)

Fashion fundamentals

I know you are all looking forward to listening to Kool Keita again. Who is Kool Keita? The stylist we listened to in class the other day! Don't you remember? He spoke about what is HOT and what is not.

Listen again and feel free to explore other videos too. Click on the following links to access them:

- Fashion fundamentals.

- Fashion Dos and Don'ts.

- And your favourite: All about Shoes.

But remember! It's dangerous to become a fashion victim.

Clothes vocabulary

Where to find more clothes vocabulary? In online shops, of course.

Please browse through the following shops and answer these questions:

1- What's a hoodie?
2- What's denim?
3- What's a waistcoat?
4- Why do we end these words with "wear"?: swimwear, knitwear, leisurewear, nightwear, footwear...

Men's catalogues
Burton
Marks & Spencer
JcPenney
Saks Fifth Avenue
Bhs

Women's catalogues
Debenhams
Top Shop
Saks Fifth Avenue
Dorothy Perkins
Next