Imagine

Here is a good exercise and word-recognition activity for you all to do. Simply listen to the song and then answer the fill in the blank questions after the song is over. It's one thing to recognize words on paper but it is also very important to recognize spoken (and sung!) words. Sine the State of the Union Address has got us thinking about society I chose "Imagine"- a famous song by John Lennon. Listen to the song, take the quiz, and try and think about what John Lennon means in his song and how he would like the world to be.

State of the Union Address

Last night, as you know, President Obama gave his State of the Union Address. Hopefully you all watched at least some of the speech last night....several channels also had the speech translated in Spanish so you have no excuse! Above is something called a Wordle. This is a graphic that displays the most common words that President Obama said in his speech. The larger the word, the more often he used it. By looking at this Wordle someone can get an idea of what the speech was mainly about just by seeing what words were used.

What words do you see?

Are there some you don't know/understand?

Which is the most important, in your opinion?

After you study the Wordle from President Obama's speech click on this link. It will take you to another blog. When you get there, click on the picture of the Wordle on the top of the page. This will show you Wordle's from a couple other presidents such as Georege Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Study the Worlde's and look for the differences between the past presidents and our current president.

Chanting!

Today in class we did a chant together to practice the uses of 'in' and 'at' when describing a location. "In a space, at a place!" This is a very common mistake that everyone makes so don't get discouraged...practice! I've recorded myself saying the teacher part of the chant so you can repeat the chant after me for more practice.

chat from: http://esl.about.com/od/grammarlessons/a/chant19.htm?r=e

Teacher: In, at


Class: In, at

Teacher: in a space


Class: in a space

Teacher: at a place


Class: at a place

Teacher:in a space - in the room


Class: in a space - in the room

Teacher: at a place - at the school


Class: at a place - at the school

Teacher: in the garden - at the door


Class: in the garden - at the door

Teacher: Let's meet in a city at a place.


Class: Let's meet in a city at a place.

Teacher: She lives in New York...


Class: She lives in New York...

Teacher: ... and she works at a bank.


Class: ... and she works at a bank.

Teacher: We sleep in our houses ...


Class: We sleep in our houses ...

Teacher: and we meet at the mall.


Class: and we meet at the mall.

Teacher: in, at


Class: in, at

Teacher: in a space


Class: in a space

Teacher: at a place


Class: at a place

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Working on Our Writing

Over the next couple of days we are going to be working on our story writing skills using the grammar we have learned in the beginning of the year along with our new vocabulary words. Here is the assignment: I want you to write a short story about one of the six pictures from the last post. Remember the last assignment on here was to choose at least 2 words to describe each picture...so you each already have an idea for your story! Expand on those 2 words you chose and write a story that shows why those 2 words describe that person. Post your story as a reply to this post so that we all can read each others ideas and learn from each other....remember we are a community of learners!

Below are some links to different sites to refresh the grammar lessons we have learned eariler this year. Please take some time and look at them so you do not make these common grammar mistakes in your story!

Making complex sentences
We do NOT want: Maria is a girl. She loves cats. We DO want: Maria is a girl who loves cats.
They're, Their, There
Make sure you are using the correct word!!
Family Words
If you're writing about a family click this link to refresh your memory on family relationships
Interesting- More Interesting
A couple of our vocabulary words have these grammer rules!

Happy Writing!

Our Words in Pictures

Here is a group of 6 pictures which can each be described by at least 2 of our words from the word list. Post a sticky on the wallwisher with your responses. There are a couple different words that can be used for each picture so don't worry if you have something different from your classmates!

1.)

2.)
3.)

4.) 5.) 6.)

Songs

Another way to increase your understanding of a word is to listen to how it is used in a song. In the sidebar I made a mixpod of a couple popular songs that have our vocab words in them. As you about your week try and listen for our vocab words in the songs you hear on the radio or play in your house. As you find them post them on here and I will add them to our mixpod.

Words to Describe People

Today in class we made a new vocabulary list of words that are commonly used in stories to describe a person. We decided it was important to know these words because they are very useful in our everyday speech and writing.

Here is the list:

angry
beautiful
brave
careful
careless
clever
crazy
cute
dangerous
exciting
famous
friendly
happy
interesting
lucky
old
poor
popular
rich
sad
thin
ugly
unlucky
young

http://www.manythings.org/vocabulary/games/f/words.php?f=adjectives_for_people_1

This link will take you to an interactive game to better learn the definitions of these words. The game provides you with several English definitions as well as definitions in your native language. Take the time to read a couple definitions so that you have a good understanding of what the words mean. For homework I'd like you each to write a sentence of your own for each word that shows me that you understand its meaning. Please post these sentences as a response to this post.