LET'S COOK!: FINAL PROJECT ACTIVITY

1. Warm-up activity: SPIDER WEB (5’)
Grouping: get together in groups of 4
You have 2 minute to write as many words as you can in the spider web:
The winner is... whichever group has more words! READY, STEADY… GOOOOO!


2. Review the vocabulary: THE SHOPPING TROLLEY (10’)
Grouping: individually
Click on the picture to go to http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-games-trolley-dash.htm
You need to go shopping. They will give you the shopping list and you’ll have 60 seconds to collect what is on the list. Use your mouse to move your trolley left or right and click on the item you want to buy.

3. Speak a little bit: INTERVIEW “HOW WELL CAN YOU COOK?” (10’)

Grouping: In pairs: Click on the picture to go to http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-print-cooking.pdf and interview your partner. Find out how well can he/she cook. Then ask him/her about his/her food likes.

4. Listen to the video and find out about HOLIDAY TRADITIONS AND FOOD (15’)
Grouping: Get together in groups of two
Listen to the video and answer the following questions:

• Who do they celebrate Christmas with?
  
• What do they eat on Christmas morning for breakfast?
  
• What does her brother cook for dinner on Christmas eve?
  
• Who cooks the desert of Christmas eve? What do they have?
  
• Name two Christmas traditions they have.
  

5. Read the following text and answer the questions (10’)
ARE YOU LOVING IT?
A fifth of Britain's population will be obese within the next 10 to 15 years according to health experts. They say Britons are on the way to becoming the fattest people in Europe, and catching up with the United States, which has the world's heaviest population.
As an student you may not feel concerned but as you have taken a liking for fast foods you'd better think twice..... The idea is to collect information about this issue, weigh the pros and cons and then make up your mind as to whether you are loving it or not!
Junk food is usually a term used to describe foods that are not particularly good for our health and in fact they can be harmful to our health'....
Childhood obesity 'to double'
Childhood obesity around the world will almost double by 2011 according to new data. The report by International Association for the Study of Obesity also says things will only get worse if people don't change the way they live and eat.

QUESTIONS:

• Are Britons the fattest people in Europe?


• What country has the world’s haviest population?


• Can you make a definition for junk food?


• Is there any solution to avoid obesity?

6. Write a little bit: WRITE A RECIPE (10’)
Groupings: get together in groups of 3
You are going to write a short recipe. But first you can practice a little bit by clicking on the image!

In the following recipe book that you will find by clicking here you have some examples of how to write a recipe in English.

7. OPTIONAL ACTIVITY: Record the recipe you wrote in groups and post the video on the blog. We’ll watch it in class. ENJOY!

LET'S COOK! Information on the activity

TIME: 1 SESSION
LEVEL: 2ND OF ESO
CONTENTS:
Speaking and writing
a) Producing brief and coherent texts such as recipes
b) Learning strategies: accepting the opportunities that communication technologies offer to acquire linguistic ad communicative competences in English

Listening and Reading:
c) Understanding oral, written, audiovisual messages and instructions in order to solve tasks properly
d) Using basic learning strategies to remember, organize and revise linguistic contents

Grammar in use:
e) Recognizing and accepting errors as part of the learning process and adopting a positive attitude towards it.
f) Transforming easy texts in different supports and formats, modifying or expanding sentences and paragraphs.
g) Being aware of the organization of the personal work as a strategy to progress in the learning process autonomously.

Socio-cultural aspects:
h) Reading, understanding and enjoying videos selected and adapted to the students knowledge.
i) Knowing not only one’s own but also other countries’ culture and history.

CONCEPTS:
-Recipe
-Description of videos
-Quiz
-Interview
-Functions using imperative to give instructions
-Structure and grammar: some/any/a./an
-Expressing ability with the verb “can”
-Vocabulary related to food and Christmas

AIMS

. General targets
To interact, express and understand through oral, written or audiovisual means, in a coherent and proper way adopting a respectful and cooperative attitude.
To apply in a reflexive way the knowledge learnt about how language works and its linguistic rules to understand and produce oral and written messages with adequateness, coherence, cohesion and correction, and to transfer this knowledge to other languages.
To use with autonomy and a critical point of view the different means of communication and technologies.

. Didactic targets
To show understanding of an explanation related to culture uttered by speakers with different backgrounds and nationalities.
To be able to record a video and upload it to the blog.
To write a recipe using proper and accurate vocabulary.
To learn about other countries customs at Christmas time.
To learn how to keep a balanced diet.

KEY COMPETENCES
-Information processing and digital competence
-Learning and interaction with their background
-Communicative competence
-Social and citizen competence
-Personal autonomy and motivation
-Learning to learn

IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH WATCHING REAL ENGLISH

Real English has a set of videos worth seeing. This is aimed to review the English tenses. I hope you like it!

YAPPR.COM

BONO FROM U2 AND BRIAN WILLIAMS



Yappr.com is another interesting tool to learn and understand the lyrics of a song or to do some listening activities. There are many song, documentaries or interviews to celebrities posted. Hope you like it!

INTERESTING WEBSITES, INTERESTING ACTIVITIES

Out of the wide range of resources I selected two webs:

A)

http://www.podcastsinenglish.com/index.shtml

What is it that makes it an interesting website?

In my opinion, the communicative competence is one of the most important ones. We can have a good command of grammar but what we need when learning a foreign language is to be able to understand and to produce, especially when speaking more than when writing. Therefore, this website helps us improve this area. Another interesting thing of the website is that the videos are classified into different levels, which will make it easier for us to choose a video for a specific level or course. Moreover, we are provided with the transcripts, the most important vocabulary along with worksheets related to the videos. It’s perfect!

What competences can we work on when using this website?

With this website we can foster, most of al the communicative competence. Moreover, our students will also be developing how to deal with information and the digital competence and they will also be learning how to improve their foreign language in an autonomous way.

How could we carry on the activity in class?

As a pre-activity I would work on the vocabulary, either with the vocabulary activities provided or with any other warm-ups. Then, I would either play the video for the whole class with a big screen or, if enough computers are available, it could also be a pair-work activity. Depending on the level, students would be allowed to listen to the video twice or as many times as necessary and then they’d be required to answer the questions either in class or as homework


TRY IT!

THE LUCKY DOG AND THE PLUCKY DUCK

1. TRANSCRIPT
2. WORKSHEET
3. VOCABULARY
4. WEBQUEST

B)

http://www.clicknlearn.net/

What is it that makes it an interesting website?

I discovered this website a while ago and I thought it was really useful for all Secondary and Batxillerat students. They lay out and the sound effects are really attractive and kids really like them. Moreover, the contents are really well organized: into courses and into topics.

What competences can we work on when using this website?
By using this website, students will develop the digital competence. On some tasks, they will also work on how to deal with information and they will also be interacting with the world and learning culture issues of other countries.

How could we carry on the activity in class?
Some activities (specially the funny games and vocabulary activities or the grammar exercises) could be carried out in class in swapping hours or even they could be assigned as homework, as reinforcement activities, for students who want to work harder. Some other activities (issues related to culture) could be done in pairs or small groups along a session.

WELCOME EVERYBODY!

"Tell me and I will
forget,
teach me
and I will remember,
involve me and I will
learn"







This blog has been created to learn English through motivating and involving activities. Therefore, everybody is more than welcome to share any experiences or to post interesting activities that we can all profit from. Feel free even to post anything related to trips to English speaking countries.