A GREAT WEBSITE TO LEARN VOCABULARY

Activity for my ACCESO STUDENTS.
You know I always tell you to read a lot in order to learn vocabulary. You know that I love surfing on the Internet to find links that can be useful for you and I came across with this web page where you can work vocabulary of different topics in context, through reading, listening and doing useful activities. I recommend you to explore it widely:
http://www.dailyesl.com/index.htm

SNOW BY JULIA ALVAREZ

It snowed a little last Friday. Whenever I see the snow I can't help thinking about the snowy winter I spent in New England at Williams College in Williamstown. Apart from living among the snow for months I had the opportunity to read lots of books in my studies of ethnic literature of the minorities in the US.
Thanks to Judith, I came across the first book by Julia Alvarez: How the García Girls Lost their Accents, which was a pleasure to read. Especially that chapter entitled Snow, when Yolanda, the youngest sister discovers the snow in class while the Cold War and the fear of a third World War is in the air.
This is the link from the Internet:

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/romance/spanish/219/13eeuu/alvarez.html

I hope you like it as much as I do.

SCIENCE UNIT 4: VITAL FUNCTIONS IN ANIMALS & PLANTS

Activity for Sergio and his friends in 4th Grade Primary:

THE NUTRITION FUNCTION IN ANIMALS is how they feed, breathe, distribute and use substances and expel waste.
- Animals feed: They obtain nutrients by eating other living things (plants, animals or both) and drinking water. They DIGEST their food because they have a DIGESTIVE SYSTEM.
- Animals breathe. they take oxygen and expel carbon dioxide. They have a RESPIRATORY SYSTEM.
- Animals distribute nutrients and oxygen to their bodies. Animals transport substances using their CIRCULATORY SYSTEM.
- Animals expel waste using their EXCRETORY SYSTEM.
Just like humans!!!!!!!

THE NUTRITION FUNCTION IN PLANTS is how they make nutrients, respire, distribute and use substances and expel waste.
Plants make nutrients by absorbing water, mineral salts (through their roots) and carbon dioxide (through their leaves) and carrying out PHOTOSYNTHESIS (changing xylem sap and carbon dioxide into phloem sap)
Plants take oxygen from the air and expel carbon dioxide, just the opposite of humans!!!!!

ANIMAL REPRODUCTION
It is SEXUAL: a male produces spermatozoa and a female produces ova. Animals have a REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM with 3 stages:
- FERTILISATION (an spermatozoa and an ovum join together and make a zygote which becomes an embryo later).
- DEVELOPMENT OF THE EMBRYO ( In OVIPAROUS ANIMALS embryos develop inside an egg. This is the incubation period. In VIVIPAROUS ANIMALS the embryo develops inside its mother. This is thE gestation period).
- BIRTH (In OVIPAROUS ANIMALS they come out of the eggs. This is HATCHING. Some animals like frogs have a transformation called METAMORPHOSIS. In VIVIPAROUS ANIMALS they come out of their mothers. This is called BIRTH or DELIVERY).
Humans are viviparous animals!!!!!!

PLANTS REPRODUCTION
The majority of plants have a SEXUAL reproduction through flowers. A FLOWER has: stamens (the male part), pistil (the female part), the corolla (petals surrounding the stamens ans pistil) and the calyx (green leaves called sepals protecting the flower).

THE STAGES OF REPRODUCTION IN PLANTS
- POLLINATION: pollen moves from the stamen of one flower to the pistil of another.
- FERTILISATION: the pollen grain and the ovule join together.
- SEED AND FRUIT FORMATION: the ovule forms an embryo, that develops into a SEED. The pistil develops into a FRUIT.
- GERMINATION: In MOIST SOIL seeds germinate, the embryo develops into a new plant.

INTERACTION IN ANIMALS AND PLANTS
- Animals have sense organs (eyes, ears, taste and smell and touch organs), a nervous system (brain and nerves) and a locomotore system (bones and muscles)
- Plants have no sense organs, no nervous system and no locomotor system but they can REACT to changes in the environment.

Now YOU CAN INTERACT with animals and plants when you finish studying.

Our fish, Lolo

A rose in my father in law's garden

Flowers in Dad's garden

Lucía interacting with a tortoise in England 4 years ago

Sergio's  favourite place to interact with animals:

http://www.heskethfarmpark.co.uk/

ENGLISH PROVERBS & SAYINGS

We are doing an English workshop in the Cultural Week at CEPA Joaquín Sorolla next Friday. It is called English Proverbs & Sayings. We'll play games and learn lots of proverbs and sayings in English.
Here are some links we can check to learn some more:



http://www.learn-english-today.com/proverbs/proverbs.html
http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Discourse/Proverbs/English-Spanish.html
http://www.lingolex.com/refranes.htm
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/proverbs.html
http://www.citehr.com/32222-1000-english-proverbs-sayings-love-blind.html
http://www.phrasemix.com/collections/the-50-most-important-english-proverbs

https://www.englishclub.com/ref/Sayings/

 Finally, we'll have a look at the wonderful book: The Lemony Pear where we can find useful tips to communicate in real English and have fun at the same time:

Interesting work by SUPERBRITÁNICO. I'll give you the link to their website:

http://www.superbritanico.com/

CULTURAL WEEK CEPA JOAQUÍN SOROLLA

It's all ready for our 4th Cultural Week. I am really happy for all the interesting workshops that we will have and for the help and participation of the teachers at the CEPA.
Please join us and enjoy this exciting week!

This year we will have an English workshop: "English proverbs & sayings". It will take place on Friday the 30th at 6 p.m. We will be waiting for you : )

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

It's CHRISTMAS time. All the streets are decorated. We meet our families on CHRISTMAS EVE for dinner. In Britain and Ireland families meet on CHRISTMAS DAY.They eat ROAST TURKEY with GRAVY and CHRISTMAS PUDDING for dessert. Children sing CAROLS. SANTA CLAUS leaves the presents under the CHRISTMAS TREE. It's BOXING DAY on the 26th of December. Then on NEW YEAR'S EVE people sing the song AULD LANG SYNE when the new year come.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!

Christmas tre at Rockefeller Centre, New York