St Andrew’s Day, 30 November, is the Scottish national day. Here are a couple of resources to talk about the celebration with collège classes, and a suggestion to get everyone moving! This BBC Newsround article written for children has “Everything you need to know about St Andrew’s Day”. It’s usable from A2. You may want … Continue reading “St Andrews Day Online Resources”
Sixty years after Robert Wise’s award-winning movie, Steven Spielberg’s much awaited remake of West Side Story aims at a much more authentic portrayal of the Puerto Rican protagonists in this Romeo and Juliet-inspired tale of star-crossed lovers in NYC. We here offer one worksheet but two articles of different levels (B1, B2) so you can … Continue reading “West Side Story 2021”
For many years, the Native Americans at the first Thanksgiving dinner were reduced to generic “Indians” in the national story. Today, the Plimoth Patuxet living-history museums at the site of the original Thanksgiving have created an online game to help school children learn about both the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag. The former Plimoth Plantation had … Continue reading “Thanksgiving with Wampanoag and Pilgrims”
A Thanksgiving intergenerational project in the U.S.A. would make an excellent language activity anywhere. StoryCorps is an innovative oral history project that has been recording ordinary Americans having conversations with people they love since 2003. The concept is simple: the mobile StoryCorps recording booth sets up in a town. Anyone who wants to can come … Continue reading “Thanksgiving Stories”
It’s Anti-Bullying Week in U.K. schools from 15 to 19 November. The theme is kindness, how saying one kind word can potentially break the cycle of bullying. It lends itself well to a language activity on expressing kindness. There are lots of teaching tools on the Anti-Bullying Alliance site. The secondary school lesson plan is … Continue reading “Anti-Bullying Week”
The This is England short film festival in Rouen has a specific programme of short films for lycée classes covering topics from ballet to hip hop, flat earth theory to fox hunting. If you sign up for a lycée showing, your students will see ten films ranging in length from 1m30 to 16 minutes. There … Continue reading “Short Films with your Lycée Students”
To “remember, remember the fifth of November”, as a children’s rhyme says, A1+-level pupils can watch a slideshow about Bonfire Night. At A2-A2+, useful links can be made with the history curriculum It’s worth giving pupils a few basic facts about the failed plot and the annual celebrations. This Powerpoint presentation from the UK Parliament … Continue reading “Guy Fawkes Webpicks”
The Earthshot Prizes website has great short videos on the five ecological challenges the prizes aim to tackle. They are perfect for class use, either picking a theme or having groups work on different videos and share information. The British Royal Foundation is awarding five prizes a year till 2030 for innovative ideas to help … Continue reading “The Earthshot Prizes: Working with Videos”
The This is England short-film festival in Rouen has a specific programme of short films for collège classes covering topics from food poverty to sharing, coming-of-age to fossil hunting. If you sign up for a collège showing, your students will see eight films ranging in length from 1m30 to 19 minutes. There’s one animation, one … Continue reading “Short Films with your Collège Students”
Halloween is a popular celebration with pupils, and it can be a great way to introduce some English-speaking culture. In the U.S.A., a major Halloween tradition is Trick or Treat for Unicef, a fundraising campaign for the United Nations children’s fund. Unicef has lots of teaching resources about the campaign. This is Unicef U.S.A.’s main … Continue reading “Halloween with Unicef Videos”