Merry Christmas from Lestonnac

Today our students of 3rd ESO have started sending their first emails to their pen-pals from Slopnice. They have also  prepared a video to show them our school. 

Do you want to have an eye on it?

Exchange with Poland

The students of 3rd ESO A & B have started a program of pen-friends via email with the students of the Gimnazjum im A. Mickiewikza, in Slopnice, a village in the southern Poland. 

To start our relationship with these students and new friends, we have decided to take a photo of ourselves and send it to Poland to wish them Merry Christmas Christmas. Here you have it...

This exchanging program has been promoted thanks to eTwinning, the community for schools to connect and develop collaborative projects in Europe.

The Story of the Christmas Tree

This presentation will show you a short story about the Christmas tree.

Christmas Vocabulary

To remember the main Christmas vocabulary, here you have this presentation:

Christmas Activities

A bunch of activities to have fun on Christmas.

Just click on the bell...

Past Simple Tense

The Past Simple expresses an action in the past taking place once, never, several times. It can also be used for actions taking place one after another or in the middle of another action.

• Most Verbs

Most verbs conjugate by adding -ed like the verb "wait" below.

Positive	Negative	Question
I waited. You waited. He waited. She waited. It waited. We waited. They waited.	I did not wait. You did not wait. He did not wait. She did not wait. It did not wait. We did not wait. They did not wait.	Did I wait? Did you wait? Did he wait? Did she wait? Did it wait? Did we wait? Did they wait?

Exceptions in spelling when adding -ed
after a final -e only add -d	love – loved
final consonant after a -l or short, stressed vowel as final consonant after a vowel is doubled	admit – admitted travel – travelled
final -y after a consonant becomes -i	hurry – hurried

• Irregular Verbs

Many verbs, such as "have", take irregular forms in the Past Simple. Notice that you only use the irregular verbs in statements. In negative forms and questions, did indicates Past Simple.

Positive	Negative	Question
I had. You had. We had. They had. He had. She had. It had.	I did not have. You did not have. He did not have. She did not have. It did not have. We did not have. They did not have.	Did I have? Did you have? Did he have? Did she have? Did it have? Did we have? Did they have?

• To Be

The verb "be" is also irregular in the Past Simple. Unlike other irregular verbs, there are two Past Simple forms: "was" and "were." It also has different question forms and negative forms. Always remember that you DO NOT use did with the verb to be in the Past Simple.

Positive	Negative	Question
I was. You were. We were. They were. He was. She was. It was.	I was not. You were not. We were not. They were not. He was not. She was not. It was not.	Was I? Were you? Were we? Were they? Was he? Was she? Was it?

Past Simple (Activities)

If you want to practise the past tense in English, here you have some useful links to help you:

Present Simple Tense

In theses boxes you can review the Present Simple Tense:

• First of all, the positive and negative forms:

• Secondly, the questions form:

This video could help you too:

Finally, here you've got lots of exercises to practise on-line the Present Simple Tense:

• Cartoons
• JM inglés
• The Happy Verby Gang
• Englisch-Hilfen 1
• Englisch-Hilfen 2
• English Grammar On-line 4You
• a4esl
• English Exercises

4th ESO to participate in the Schools Song Contest

Our students of 4th ESO-A will take part in the 3rd Schools Song Contest.

This contest consists in shooting a video clip with a cover version of a song in English and then performing this song in a live festival that will be held next May in the theatre of the school Sant Gabriel in Barcelona. 

They've chosen as an artistic name The Lestonnackets. And you can see their promotional poster below.

Stay tuned for more news...

Daily Routines

A video clip to review daily routines:

In this other, you will review daily routines while practising the present simple tense and the time:

Telling the Time

Telling the time in English is not difficult.

Useful Expressions to Tell the Time

Here you have some useful expressions to tell the time:

Night and Day

There are 24 hours in a day. The day is divided into day andnight. Daytime is from sunrise (approximately at 6am) to sunset(approximately at 6pm). Night-time is from sunset to sunrise.

Every day starts precisely at midnight. AM (Ante-Meridiem = before noon) starts just after midnight. PM (Post-Meridiem=after noon) starts just after midday. This means that 12am and 12pm have no meaning.

This diagram shows the cycle of a 24-hour day and the words we use to describe its parts. The day starts at midnight.

To refer to these parts of the day, we use different prepositions:

In the morning.	6,00 AM – 12,00 PM
In the afternoon.	12,00 PM – 6,00 PM
In the evening.	6,00 PM – 12,00 AM
At night.	12,00 AM – 6,00 AM

Playing with the Time

If you want to review how to tell the time in English, you can check this blog: The Teacher. Just follow this link.

But if you want to get fun and learn at the same time, here you can find lots of on-line games related to time in English:

• Free Training Tutorial
• Classroom
• The British Council
• Woodlands
• Timemonsters
• Maths games
• Bfgl

Adverbs of Frequency

Adverbs of Frequency are adverbs of time that answer the question "How frequently?" or "How often?". They tell us how often something happens.

Frequency	Adverb	Example
100%	always	I always go to bed at 11pm.
90%	usually	I usually walk to school.
×70%	often	I often surf the internet.
×50%	sometimes	I sometimes go to the cinema.
0%	never	I never swim in the sea.

Adverbs of frequency are put directly before the main verb. If 'be' is the main verb and there is no auxiliary verb, adverbs of frequency are put behind 'be'. 

Subject	auxiliary/be	adverb	main verb	object, place or time
I		often	go swimming	in the evenings.
He	doesn't	always	play	tennis.
We	are	usually		here in summer.

On-line exercises to practise adverbs of frequency:

• Adverbs of frequency Quiz
• Position of adverbs of frequency 1
• Position of adverbs of frequency 2
• Sentences with adverbs of frequency
• Fill in the gap: adverbs of frequency
• Adverbs of frequency order