Category Archives: ESO3

Nature, well-being & poetry

St George is around the corner and this year we will focus on our Erasmus + project about nature and well-being. 

Connecting with nature is known to have lots of positive effects on our mental health and well-being. It could mean growing plants, tending to vegetables, going for a walk, relaxing in a local green space and generally embracing it!

Poets from all centuries have found inspiration in nature to create their poems and express their feelings. Poetry helps express emotions and creates a connection with the reader. 

I. This year, you will have to create a calligram. Do you know what a calligram is? What is the name of a famous poet who created calligrams?

…

A calligram is made of two words (calli = beautiful, gram = message). They use the design and shape of the letters, the ink color, the paper quality, and the frame, to deliver a combined effect and communicate something beyond the message of the letters themselves.

II. Observe examples of calligrams:

Source: https://jenikirbyhistory.getarchive.net

Source: https://jenikirbyhistory.getarchive.net

What do you think this poem is about, just looking at the form? What do you think the poet’s mood and feelings were when he wrote it? This is a poem by Gillaume Apollinaire and the original language is French. Click here to check out an English version. What do you think it is about?

What about this other one? What is it? Read the poem. What feeling do you get?

III. Now it’s your turn to be a poet. Follow the steps to write your calligram. First you write the poem and then you will design the form.

STEP 1. Think about the topic (it must be related to nature and well-being)

STEP 2. Brainstorm ideas. Use the dictionary to find words that you may need. How does the topic you chose make you feel? Think about adjectives, actions that you may use to express your feelings.

Cambridge Dictionary / Wordreference

STEP 3. Write your poem. Remember that every line in a poem is called a VERSE. Is your poem going to rhyme? Check the following document to see some rhetorical devices you can use.

STEP 4. Design the shape and create your calligram!

Students’ worksheet

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Cinquain

Saint George is coming!!!!

It’s time to participate in the school’s literary contest. This year we are going to write a cinquain.

But what is a cinquain?

Have a look at this cinquain poem by Khaled, an adult intermediate-level ESOL student at the University of Oregon:

Nature
by Khaled

Nature 
Beautiful, pure 
Refreshing, enjoying, relaxing
Nature is healthy. 
Fun

I. A cinquain is a 5-line poem. An what is its structure? Match these parts of speech to the 5 lines in the poem:

PART OF SPEECH EXAMPLE IN THE POEM
a) 2 adjectives. They describe the noun in line 1.
b) 1 short, complete sentence about the noun in line 1.
c) 1 noun. This is a synonym for the noun in line 1.
d) 1 noun. This is the topic or theme of the poem.
e) 3 gerunds (verb + ing). They describe the noun in line 1.

II. Now check the structure:

 

Other examples:

River 
by Miki

River 
Clear, wonderful 
Slapping, whirling, flowing 
The river is cold. 
Water

Dove 
by Min

Dove 
Active, free 
Flying, sitting, crying 
A dove is free. 
Bird

Have a look at the poems written by Mireia Xortó’s students.

Now it’s your turn!!!!

[All activities inspired by PIZZAZ & the University of Oregon and the post has been adapted from Mireia Xortó’s blog]

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Plastic Ocean

I. Name 20 things that are made of plastic.

II. Do you recycle plastic at home? Have you ever found plastic in the sea when you go to the beach in the summer?

III. Watch the video and fill in the gaps with the missing words (up to 1:16)

  • The world produces more than ______________________ tons of plastic every year including billions of plastic bottles and __________________ plastic bags.
  • Plastic is wonderful because it’s ____________________ and plastic is terrible because it is _________________. Almost every piece of plastic ever made is still on the planet in some form or another.
  • Half of all the plastic produced will be used just once and then thrown away. By _______________, when the population explodes to almost _______________ people, it’s expected that plastic production will triple. 
  • The problem with that is that today only _______________ of the plastic that we produce is recycled.The rest ends up in our environment and it’s coating our lands and our oceans like a disease.

IV. Listen to the rest of the video and say if this sentences are true or false (correct the false ones)

T F
1. Garbage thrown away in the USA can make its way to Asia.
2. There is one ocean current that pulls plastic into the center of massive gyres.
3. Seabirds pick up plastic off the surface of the ocean and they feed it to their chicks. 
4.This provides scientific data in terms of where the plastic comes from, its distribution and how it breaks up on the ocean surface.
5. The plastic found in the stomach of the bird accounts for 5% of its body mass. In human terms it is equivalent to having 2 to 3 kilos of plastic inside our stomach.
6. 90% of birds have swallowed plastic at some point in their lives.
7. There is an equivalent of a large garbage truck every hour of every day dumping plastic into the ocean.

V. Discuss. What are the consequences of using plastic?

Student’s worksheet

Teacher’s worksheet

 

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How Hollywood says “I love you”

Let’s play Bingo!

Take a piece of paper and draw a graph with 16 boxes (4×4).

Write 16 out of these 21 words in the boxes:  love, you, weak, home, I, very, want, only, smart, sorry, need, never, one, give, more, day, always, fly, wait, life, hello

We’re going to listen to the audio of the following video. Every time you hear one of the words on your sheet, you should put an “X” in that box.

The first five people to have four X’s in a row will be the “winners” 

Are you ready?

[Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo]

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300 Possible Habitable Worlds in the Milky Way Galaxy

I. Check the meaning of these words: 

earth  /  evolve  /  environment  /  evolution  /  unlikely  /  however  /  diversity of life

II. Watch the video up to 0:32 minutes and answer the following question:

Why is the Earth the best planet for us? 

III. Why do you think life can exist on the Earth? In pairs, think about possible reasons.

IV.Watch the second part of the video and complete the reasons why there’s life on Earth with the missing word.

surface                            habitable                      oceans                      atmosphere             magnetic                 cosmic rays                moon                        solar

 

  1. We’re located in the ____________zone of a main-sequence star that doesn’t produce too many killer __________ flares.
  2. We’ve got a thick _______________filled with oxygen and nitrogen that we can breath
  3. The planet is large enough so that it’s still molten in its core with a rotating ball of iron that maintains a planetary _______________ field. This combined with a thick atmosphere protects the surface of the planet from _____________, the worst of ultraviolet radiation from the Sun and deadly solar storms.
  4. We have plate tectonics that constantly recycle material on the _____________ of the planet bringing fresh chemicals up from its interior.
  5. We have a relatively large _____________ which probably keeps our planet more stable in its axial tilt with tides that helped early life-forms transition from the oceans to the land. But not too big a moon.
  6. We have huge ______________that help regulate the climate of the planet moving warm waters to cooler regions to make them more diverse and habitable.

 

IV.In pairs, write the introduction of your article on a Google Doc.

 

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50 years of Internet (II)

I. How many things can you do that depend on the Internet nowadays? Note them down.

II. Before you watch the video, say whether these sentences from video 1 are true or false:

    1. Internet was invented in 1969
    2. It was invented in the University of Florida.
    3. The first message was LOGIN and then the system crashed.
    4. The fathers of the Internet are two men and one woman.

III. This words will appear in the video. Look them up in the dictionary.

 dial-up modem / kick-start / develop / worm / outbreak /

computer security / web server / web browser / storage

Continue reading →

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50 years of the Internet (I)

The Internet has turned 50 years old. Do you know when, where and who invented it? 

I. We’re going to write an article for our magazine about the 50 years of Internet. Before you watch it: do you know the meaning of these words?

lab / router / lo and behold (used to express surprise) / available / device

II. Watch the video and answer these questions in groups of three.

Continue reading →

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