Having Problems with the Present Perfect?

Having problems with the Present Perfect?

Don´t worry, here you have some exercises to practise it online, as well as a nice game called Deception where you can guess real life facts about your friends.

Once you finish the exercises, sit and relax watching and listening to this song, a classic by U2: I still haven´t found what I am looking for. 

Irregular Verbs

Tired of fighting with the irregular verbs? Do you need extra practice?
Try this list of online exercises to improve and enlarge the list of irregular verbs you know!

Exercises to practise just the verbs:
Exercise 1
 Exercise 2
Exercise 3

Exercises to set the correct verb in a sentence:
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Exercise 4

Young Sport Stars

Watch the following videos and pictures about really special sport stars:

                                               

 Paige Wheeler, 15, is the European Finals Event Winner
 in Drag Racing

 

Joe English is the captain of the DALZ Boys, the only All-Boy cheerleading squad in Europe

                                    



Aaron Fotheringham is a wheelchair motorcross athlete who has won several BMW Free Style competitions

             

11-year-old Brooke Raboutou is a rock climbing phenomenon who regularly breaks world records

 

 

Which of these four young people inspires you the most? Why? Which of these four sports would you like to practise?

Thanksgiving

Do you know what is Thanksgiving? and Black Friday?

As an introduction, watch this video

 Thanksgiving is a Canadian and North American harvest festival and family holiday. People in Canada celebrate thanksgiving on the second Monday of October.Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the USA.

Thanksgiving is a big family celebration, and a harvest festival. People travel from all over the country to be with their families for Thanksgiving. Many big cities hold parades and other special events.

Traditional thanksgiving foods include turkey with stuffing and cranberry sauce,  sweetcorn and sweet potatoes. A sweet dessert called pumpkin pie is also eaten.

The origins of Thanksgiving come from the first celebration made by the Pilgrims, the early European settlers that came to Masachussets,  after their first succesful harvest in the New World in 1621, with the help of the Indians.

Thanksgiving started to be celebrated all over North America in 1789,  during George Washington´s presidency, and Abraham Lincoln declared it a federal holiday to be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in 1863. For further information visit this very interesting History of Thanksgiving page.
 

Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving day. Since 1932, it has been regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in the U.S., and most major retailers open very early (and more recently during overnight hours) and offer promotional sales.

THANKSGIVING SONG: Nicole Westbrook became famous with this Thanksgiving song four years ago, and although it is a song for young children, you will probably find it funny. SPOILER:  Do not miss   the "microphone" that Nicole uses at the end! You may check the lyrics of the song too.

                                        

ACTIVITIES FOR OPTATIVA:

THANKSGIVING TRIVIA QUESTIONS: Choose the correct answer. Try to find the answers in the text and surf the net for extra answers if you need it. You can visit the kidsnationalgeographic page, or the story rewritten especially for students.

1. Thanksgiving occurs on the:
   1. Fourth Thursday in November
   2. Third Thursday in November
   3. November 26 each year
2. The first Thanksgiving lasted:
   1. One day
   2. Two days
   3. Three days
3. Which of the following was NOT served at the Pilgrims Thanksgiving meal?
   1. Cranberries, corn, and mashed potatoes
   2. Rabbit, chicken, wild turkey, and dried fruit
   3. Venison (deer meat), fish, goose
4. Which Indian tribe taught the Pilgrims how to cultivate the land and were invited to the Thanksgiving meal?
   1. Apache
   2. Wampanoag
   3. Cherokee
5. Approximately how many turkeys are eaten each year on Thanksgiving in the United States?
   1. 100 million
   2. 280 million
   3. 500 million
6. Which southern state was the first to adopt a Thanksgiving Day in 1855?
   1. South Carolina
   2. Virginia
   3. Georgia
7. What is a snood?
   1. The loose skin under a male turkey’s neck.
   2. A hat worn by a Pilgrim
   3. A hot cider drink served at Thanksgiving.
8. What utensil was not used by the Pilgrims to eat Thanksgiving dinner?
   1. Knife
   2. Fork
   3. Spoon
9. The best place to put the meat thermometer in the turkey is:
   1. The breast
   2. The middle of the back
   3. The thigh
10. Which president is believed to be the first to pardon a turkey and start this annual tradition?
    1. President Lincoln in 1863
    2. President Roosevelt in 1939
    3. President Harry Truman in 1947
11. The Pilgrims came to the New world seeking religious freedom and were also called:
    1. The Puritans because they wanted to purify the teachings and ceremonies of the Church of England.
    2. The Great Explorers
    3. The Wanderers
12. Today, our Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November because
    1. It is the date the Pilgrims landed in the New World.
    2. This was the date set by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 and approved by Congress in 1941.
    3. It was the date people voted to have it on.
13. What is a baby turkey called?
    1. A chick
    2. A nestling
    3. A poult
14. It has been estimated that how many Americans eat turkey at Thanksgiving.
    1. 88%
    2. 50%
    3. 75%
15. A full grown turkey has about how many feathers?
    1. A million
    2. Too many to count!
    3. 3,500

TRUE OR FALSE?

1. Canada also has Thanksgiving. They have their holiday on the second Monday in October.
2. The first ever Thanksgiving was held in 1621 at Plymouth by the Pilgrims.
3. All turkeys can fly.
4. The Pilgrims only “celebrated” three days – the Sabbath, fast days, and days of thanksgiving.
5. All turkeys gobble.
6. The first department store to hold a Thanksgiving parade was Macy’s.
7. More than half of the people in the Plymouth colony died that winter of 1621.
8. Every year the President of the United States pardons a turkey, who spends the rest of its life on a historical farm.
9. Cranberries are tasted to see if they are sweet enough to harvest.
10. Turkeys can see behind themselves.
                                                                                                                                                                              

 
To start learning vocabulary about this holiday, play any of the games in these web pages:

- Video with Questions
-Gap fill writing exercise
-Picture matching Quiz
-Interactive Word Search table
-Write the correct past tense
-Thanksgiving Wordsearch
-Thanksgiving Quiz

Halloween

Planning to dress up for Halloween?
Check these two videos to get new ideas and be the life and soul of the party!!!

English as a global language

Do you know what is a Lingua Franca?
It is a language used to communicate among non-native speakers.

English has become the most widely used Lingua Franca in the world, hasn´t it? For example: a Frenchman and a German that meet in South Africa will probably communicate in English to each other, especially if neither of them speak the other's language.

Do you know any other Lingua Francas? Watch this very interesting video and learn about Esperanto, a language that was created to change and improve the world in a time full of idealism:

Body language

Is body language different in the different countries? Can this be a confusing thing when travelling?

Have a look at this funny video and you will at least be able to understand most of the body language in a country where hand gestures are vital to transmit information: Italy!

Did you have a good trip?

After coming back from our holidays everybody wants to explain about their wonderful trip ( or is it travel?) to New York, and the nice travel ( or is it journey?) by plane, and how wonderful the voyage ( or is it trip?) was.... but all these words are very confusing!! Help!

Have a look at this useful page and learn the difference between these words, so that you can focus on telling your nice experience properly next time.

Advertisements

Last June our third and fourth ESO students got the assignment of planning, scriptwriting and filming an advertisement. They had lots of fun doing it, and some of the results were amazing!

Here you can watch the best ones:

News at the High School

Our reporters from 3r ESO A and B have been working very hard these last weeks, because many crimes have been committed! Here you have some of the news they reported:

 

The football team won the tournament

Welcome to Joan Miró news! Luckily some students of 3ª ESO won the intertournament of Cornellà. Our school team became the champions of our city.

The team was integrated by some students from the third course. They were for example Asier Jaurrieta, Albert Rodríguez or Mario Ballestero among others. They played 8 matchs with other secondary schools of Cornellà.

The final was played in Joan Miró. Obviously the match was a recital of sport. The final was very exciting, because Asier Jaurrieta marked the most important goal in the last five minutes. Still they are very tired, but they are happy for their good performance in the tournament.

At the end of the football final day, they lifted the gold cup. They took a photo of the team to remember this special day for them and for all the secondary school.

Reporter by Asier Jaurrieta, 3r B

Murder in high school : The guilty has been caught 

by the detectives

Welcome back! We start the class without problems. Unfortunately, a math’s teacher called Helena Domínguez has been murdered by a student called Ismael Sánchez, we can say that the problem has stayed solved. Apparently, the students had too much problems.

All started in a normal day. The teacher was found by the other teachers of the high school, in the teacher’s room. She had been stabbed by someone. Apparently, when the murderer killed his victim, he closed the door with the keys that Helena wore for that nobody could entry there. Obviously, the guilty wanted to carry his teacher to a lonely place to kill her. In addition, the witness have said that all started because the teacher erased the slate board, and later, finished with his bad mark in the exam. He wanted to solve a ‘problem’.

Luckily, the director called the police and the detectives. The detectives investigated and recruited all the students for a strict review. Luckily, the detectives investigated all the student’s fingerprints, and caught the guilty. Apparently, the fingerprints agreedwith the knife’s  fingerprints. The guilty would have to have used a glove. It seems that the student didn’t find the correct ‘formula’.

The student ‘solved the problem’. We hope that the next students solve their problems with calculator this time.

Reported by Marina Cañizares Sánchez

Class 3B

Some laptops were stolen 

I’m writing to inform you all that unfortunately there was a break-in at the weekend. The police were called to the scene of the crime and found a broken window on the 2^nd floor. Five laptops were stolen from the English classroom and a message was written on the board: “ I’m am a robber!!!”.

Fortunately, the police found several muddy footprints. They were from someone, probably athlete, who wore very large trainers and was capable of climbing up to the 2^nd floor. 

The police have questioned the English teacher and asked her if she recognized the writing on the board. She told them that she didn’t but she did recognize the spelling mistake! She only knew one athletic person with large feet who always made the same spelling mistake. It was Clara from year 3. She was given a last warning and she will be suspended from school for two months.

Obviously, this piece of news is very important to us because of data protection as we all use the laptops. Hopefully, this will be the last time we get a break-in.

Reported by Arianna Pannunzi,

Class 3B

Hacking hit the INS Joan Miró web:

Unfortunately, we start a new year with a crime-our web, INS Joan Miró, was hacked during the summer.

The hackers were hack our web with a program, they programed this “hack-program” and they introduced a virus into the program, but this virus only was activated when the program entered into the source code. The program hacked all the accounts and the hackers introduced a lot of modifications in our accounts.

The cyberattack was produced during an update of the system, they were introducing the program in these moment because during an update the antivirus and the firewalls are disabled.

Luckily, the identity of these two hackers was discovered by Roman Mendoza, the computer teacher. Curiously the criminals are students of our high school. We don’t know why they do this and if they have some personal information.

Obviously, we informed the parents of the boys about the crime and the police too.

If you have any further information, or if you see anything suspicious, you should contact us or the police. Hopefully, we can avoid more hacking in the future!

Reported by Adrián Llamas,

Class 3ºB.

 

A fire destroys all the High 

School Joan Miro

Today, day 5^th of May, in the High School Joan Miro there was a horrible accident.

During the playground there was an explosion of gas in the cafeteria. When the fire started at the kitchen, the people went out but the students needed to leave the high school by the door of the playground.

The worst was when the fire arrived to the laboratory, because these caused another explosion, but there was bigger. Luckily there wasn´t anybody inside.

The firefighters arrived in minutes, they turned off the fire but most of the high school was destroyed. Fortunately there wasn´t anybody injured.

Eugenia Porotova, 3rB ESO

School Magazine

Welcome again!

We have bad news to start the final term. The school was invaded by vandals the last weekend at night.

The damage occurred in the chemistry lab. The vandals wrote an offensive message in the middle of the wall with graffiti and also, they stole some chemical material and a pair of chairs and tables.

On Monday, the director called the police but they didn’t do anything because the CCTV cameras only recorded the principal door and the vandals weren’t caught.

Finally, the director put a vigilant at night and this won’t happen again.

Reported by Silvia Callejo,
3r A

 

A MINION ATTACK.

Yesterday morning, when the head teacher arrived at the school he found that someone had entered the building and painted minions all over the walls of every room. 

To enter the property, the vandals broke the door and wasted all the paintings of the Art class. Luckily, they didn’t steal anything of value, just some chips of the cafeteria and used the school materials to do the graffiti. The police was called by the same person that found out all the paintings.

Unfortunately, there were no cameras on the surroundings to record the authors of the crime, but the police think they are local teenagers. Even it has been an act of vandalism, it has not been so bad and the high school has decided to leave the paintings because it contributes to create an ambient of creativity and youth.

The criminals weren’t caught but the school has taken security measures and hopefully we can avoid this type of acts in the future.

Reported by María Chaves and Laia Dova, 3r ESO A

Welcome back after the holidays of Christmas! When we arrived after the Christmas holidays we found all broken and the gym with broken windows and without much material.

Most of the damage occurred in the bar and the gym. In the bar all the food and all the appliances were carried and in the gym  all the windows were broken and all the material that we used to play was taken. Fortunately, other parts of the school were not affected because the police found the robbers thanks to the school security cameras.

 Luckily the vandals were taken by the police. And the school after three months got to normal because teachers helped to make a new bar and students helped arrange the windows in the gym and placed new material. 

Reported by Judith Rodríguez, 3rd ESO A

 

 

School hit by vandals during school hours

Hello, today 12th of may, unfortunately, we start

 the day with some bad news. Ana of the coffee shop

was stolen by vandals during school hours.

We were walking around the high school because

we wanted a snack when the vandals appeared

and we went to the director’s office and they called

the police.

 Unfortunalety, the events weren’t recorded on

CCTV. Luckily the police station is near the school

and the police arrived on time, and Ana recovered

her money.

Eventually the vandals had to pay a fine and everything

went back to normal. Hopefully, we can avoid more vandalism

in the future!

       

 Reported by Ariadna and Verónica,  Class 3A.

A TEACHER HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED!

Last week there was a crime in our high school, one student jumped in to the building from the street to the playground, out of the school time.

This student trespassed the principal door and silently he went to the kitchen to take a knife, he walked through the indoor playground, (pati andaluç) and he arrive at the computer science class, when he was cutting all the cables and systems , a teacher saw the student, and the student knocked the teacher with chloroform, and now, the teacher has disappeared!! Is the student a kidnapper? Would he want a ransom for the teacher? We don’t know it yet but all the police are searching for him. And some people say that why does our highschool not have a CCTV system?

Reported by David Gérez, Class 3A