HOW IS THIS ISSUE GOING ON?

Spain passes 100,000 confirmed cases Sam Jones Spain has crossed the threshold of 100,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, health officials said on Wednesday. According to official figures, it now has more cases than any country except Italy and the US. Spain also reached a new record single-day death toll between Tuesday and Wednesday, with a total of 864 deaths. The country has now logged 102,136 cases of the virus and 9,053 deaths.

Sources within the Pedro Sánchez administration said that once the peak of transmission has passed, there will be an evaluation of the shortcomings of the healthcare system in order to prepare for the possibility of a second wave of contagion. Spain’s hospitals are under severe strain as intensive care units continue to fill up, and healthcare workers are struggling to treat patients without enough protective gear for themselves.

MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR CONFINEMENT!

Good afternoon you all
As we are going to spend a long time at home, I encourage you to have a look from now and then to this blog and click on the grammar exercises on the right side. You can practise the ones which deal with the grammar points in which you are weaker and the page will correct your answers so that you can see where your mistakes have taken place.
I also encourage you to click on the Daily Mirror newspaper (or any other in the list) to read a piece of news dealing with coronavirus. That way you can get familiar with the vocabulary that is used within the scope of journalism when writing about a virus. Reading is the best way to learn English!
I will send specific tasks to the students of 1st and 2nd course of Bachillerato through their particular e-mails.
I recommend to do at least five exercises every day. Dedicate a specific time of the day to have a look at your books and take advantage of this period of being at home to revise content and practise the last lessons we have seen in class.
Be patient, be regular with your work and don´t let the excess of free time make you forget about English.
Greetings from home,
Icíar

WE ARE GOING TO LONDON!

AS WE ARE PREPARING OUR TRIP TO LONDON!

HERE YOU ARE SOME OF THE PLACES WE ARE GOING TO SEE THERE...

ON MONDAY, THE 25th 

LONDON TOWER




SAINT DUSTAN IN THE EAST CHURCH



GREAT FIRE OF LONDON MONUMENT



LONDON BRIDGE



THE SHARD



THE SHAKESPEARE GLOBE



TATE MODERN



MILLENIUM BRIDGE AND SAINT PAUL´S CATHEDRAL



COVENT GARDEN



IT ISN´T A BAD TOUR FOR THE FIRST DAY, ISN´T IT?

LET´S GO FOR TUESDAY!

PICADILLY CIRCUS



REGENT STREET



TRAFALGAR SQUARE



SAINT JAMES PARK



BUCKINGHAM PALACE



WESTMINSTER ABBEY



HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT AND BIG BEN



WESTMINSTER BRIDGE



LONDON EYE



AND THAT´S ALL FOR TODAY. AREN´T YOU EXHAUSTED AND HAPPY AND THE SAME TIME?

WHAT ABOUT WEDNESDAY?

CANDEM TOWN



REGENT´S PARK



WARREN MEWS FITZROVIA



CARNABY STREET



CHINATOWN



SOHO



TIME TO GO TO BED!

THURSDAY FOR SHOPPING

KING´S CROSS AND HARRY POTTER



BRITISH MUSEUM



OXFORD STREET



HYDE PARK



HARROD´S



THE END IS COMING... ONLY ONE MORNING LEFT!

FRIDAY MORNING. LET´S GO HOME...

JACK THE RIPPER MUSEUM

WEIRD TRADITIONS ON ALL SAINTS DAY IN SPAIN

    El Día de Todos los Santos, a public holiday across Spain that falls on November 1st every year, is for most people a day of remembrance. Most Spaniards visit their loved ones at the local cemetery, leaving flowers at their tombstones and then spend the day with their families. This is what most of them do. But not all...

Fancy dress for animals and food in Cádiz

    The southern coastal city of Cádiz treats All Saints’ Day (Tosantos as they call it) as a bit of a carnival. But rather than succumbing to Halloween’s scary dress trends, Gaditanos put clothes on rabbits, pigs, fish and hens in the city’s Virgen del Rosario market.

Porridge in keyholes near Jaén

    In the small Andalusian village of Begíjar, young people celebrate El Día de Todos los Santos by taking a casserole of gachas (a type of local porridge) out for a stroll and then proceed to fill up every keyhole they can find with a dollop of oatmeal. Why, you ask? Tradition has it that the porridge stops evil spirits from seeping in through Begíjar’s keyholes.

Children begging in Seville

    Okay, we’ve embellished the title slightly. In the Sevillian town of El Ronquillo, kids essentially hit the streets and carry out a more low-key (but equally full-on) version of Halloween’s trick or treat tradition. Legend has it that long ago El Ronquillo’s altar boys would chime the church bells incessantly during the month of November to remember the dead, and that they’d accept food offerings from the villagers to keep up the hard work. With time, all of El Ronquillo’s children began knocking on doors, and in true Andalusian fashion would sing to the villagers in return for whatever food was available. The lyrics of the most common song (La Cachetía) were a tad threatening however, along the lines of “If you don’t give me some nuts, I’ll ruin your wall” and “If you don’t hand over those chestnuts, I’ll stay here all day”.
    The tradition lives on to this day (as does the song), but it’s all healthy snacks such as nuts, fruit and veg for these kids. This after all is some no-nonsense trick or treating, no sugar rushes or scary costumes. All in all, a relaxing break from life and all that ‘dead talk’.

Galicia has its own Halloween and it’s older than that US’s

    This sea-swept northwestern region of Spain, with its Celtic roots and traditions, claims its ancient festivity - Samaín - was a precursor of America’s Halloween. And there’s no reason to believe the rumours aren’t true, as the Gaelic ‘Samhain’ festival did merge with Christians’ All Saints’ tradition to form the foundations of modern-day, sugar-crusted Halloween. In Galician villages such as Cedeira, O Vicedo and Narón, kids and adults have for centuries dressed up as spirits and magical beings, organised death marches, carved scary faces in pumpkins and gone trick or treating.

Sound familiar?

THEATRE IN ENGLISH AT OUR SCHOOL

The 25th of January of 2019 the theatre group CLAP will come to our school to represent the Theatre play BUCCANEERS. All students from IES Juana I de Castilla will go to Casas del Tratado to watch the performance.

We hope you enjoy Clap´s play and have fun with them!

WELCOME EVERYBODY

Welcome to our blog of English, a place where you will find useful material to practise your English and reinforce your knowledge.

CONVERSATION IN A RESTAURANT

LINGUISTIC IMMERSION WITH FIRST AND SECOND GRADERS

ENGLISH CAMP IN GREDOS

Our first and second graders are going to spend a few days in Navarredonda de Gredos, Ávila, next 1st of March. They will be enjoying three days of linguistic immersion and will be doing several activities related to new technologies and nature. 

We hope they enjoy and come back to school ready to tell us everything about their experience out there.

WE WILL MISS YOU, MARY

MARY, YOU ARE NO LONGER WITH US, BUT...

THANKS FOR GIVING US ..
Your time
Your effort
Your Joy
Your empathy
Your wisdom
Your intelligence
Your knowledge
Your marvellous smile
Your laughs
Your patience
Your sense of humour
Your sensitivity
Your endless common sense

THANKS FOR BEING AS YOU WERE

I will copy the last poem she worked with at university. We enjoyed a lot trying  to decypher its meaning. She loved it.

After Apple-Picking

Related Poem Content Details

BY ROBERT FROST

My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree 

Toward heaven still, 

And there's a barrel that I didn't fill 

Beside it, and there may be two or three 

Apples I didn't pick upon some bough. 

But I am done with apple-picking now. 

Essence of winter sleep is on the night, 

The scent of apples: I am drowsing off. 

I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight 

I got from looking through a pane of glass 

I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough 

And held against the world of hoary grass. 

It melted, and I let it fall and break. 

But I was well 

Upon my way to sleep before it fell, 

And I could tell 

What form my dreaming was about to take. 

Magnified apples appear and disappear, 

Stem end and blossom end, 

And every fleck of russet showing clear. 

My instep arch not only keeps the ache, 

It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round. 

I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend. 

And I keep hearing from the cellar bin 

The rumbling sound 

Of load on load of apples coming in. 

For I have had too much 

Of apple-picking: I am overtired 

Of the great harvest I myself desired. 

There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch, 

Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall. 

For all 

That struck the earth, 

No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble, 

Went surely to the cider-apple heap 

As of no worth. 

One can see what will trouble 

This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is. 

Were he not gone, 

The woodchuck could say whether it's like his 

Long sleep, as I describe its coming on, 

Or just some human sleep. 

SOME WEBS TO PRACTISE YOUR SPOKEN ENGLISH

If you want to have extra practice in English, try one of the following webs which will allow you to exchange conversations in real language with English speaking people.

1-. VERBLING. You teach someone who wants to learn Spanish and he or she teaches you English.



2-. ITALKI. Here you can speak and you can also practise your reading and writing.



3-. PENPAL WORLD. You can meet friends from all over the world and you can write messages to them.



4-. WESPEKE. This is an enormous chat in English. Fantastic to meet people and to have nice conversations.



5-. COEFFEE LEARNING. Here you can exchange teaching and gaming.

I HOPE YOU FIND THIS INFORMATION USEFUL. TRY ONE OF THESE WEBS AND HAVE FUN WITH YOUR NEW FRIENDS!