The Sweetest....

We did a fill-in-the-blank exercise, and I was nervous because it was almost time to go.

I wrote "make" on the 7th blank, but the answer was "made."

Great job, Diana!  Thanks for speaking up!!

"We have taken many rides on troubled shores" means we have experienced problems.

It's a metaphor -- not an expression you should use.

shore=beach (or land near the line between water and land)

Superlative Examples

Do you like sugary desserts?  What is the sweetest dessert that you like?  What makes you happy?  What are your sweetest memories?

Longer...

Practice game: comparative

Slide show from class

Student Examples:  Spring 2025

Study and Practice Using Comparatives and Superlatives

What are your best attributes?  Write about two of your friends.  Who is taller?  Who is younger?  Who is funnier?  Who is farther away?

Use comparative adjectives to compare 2 things

 

Compare some things at home.  My TV is bigger than my cellphone.  My husband cooks more delicious food than I do.  The bathroom is cleaner than the front porch.  The refrigerator is larger than the freezer. My air fryer is almost as big as my microwave.

Stronger

A syllable is a part of a word with one vowel sound.  

The number of sounds is more important than the number of vowels.

A silent e is never a syllable.

Ed is always a syllable even if we don't pronounce it as another syllable.

(We only pronounce "ed" like another syllable after a last letter = T or D)

Children's Video that practices breaking words into syllables

If you understand which syllable is stronger, your pronunciation will be better.

Study and practice using comparative adjectives

Do you do anything to get stronger?  What do you do? I lift weights twice a week, but I'm still not very strong.

Practicing this and that

 

What are your favorite things?

Challenging Listening for Earth Day

This conversation is difficult for our level.  The grandfather talks about how things were when he was young.  I do not agree that his generation was better for the environment!  In the USA, that generation used leaded gas in their cars and asbestos insulation in their houses.  People smoked cigarettes, pipes and cigars everywhere. They didn't worry about factory smoke or factory emissions and they didn't try to conserve water.

Do you worry about the environment?  Do you try to have a small "carbon footprint?"  Do you remember  different ways of doing things that were good for the environment?

Write about helping the environment.

or

Write about things you used to do, but you don't do now.  How did you change your habits?

Happy Earth Day!!

Practice this/that/these/those

Did you celebrate earth day today? What did you do?
When I was in elementary school in Colorado, we often planted trees and picked up litter on Earth Day.

What is litter?  Trash on the ground.   

Do you have a garden? Even when I lived in a small apartment, I had plants on the balcony. My family always grows some plants. Do you like to talk about saving the earth? Is pollution a bigger or smaller problem in your old country or in the USA? Do you have a big or a small carbon footprint?

(VERY difficult English website:  Carbon Footprint Calculator)

What are they doing?

 

Practice Present Continuous

What are you doing right now?  What is your friend doing right now?

I wonder (Lemon tree)

 

Practice Present Continuous

What are you doing today?  Are you working?  Are you relaxing?

Are you spending time with anyone?

Are you doing chores?

What are you wearing? Basic conversations about clothes

 

In American English, a jumper is a dress with a vest-style top.  Where these speakers say, "jumper," say, "sweater."

What do your favorite clothes look like?

Happy Easter!

Many people in the USA celebrate Easter today.

Non-Christians as well as Christians  celebrate Easter by dying hard-boiled eggs * or buying plastic eggs, putting candy in, and having an Easter Egg hunt.  When I was a child, adults usually hid the eggs.  A long time ago, kids had races and tried to roll uncooked eggs across a field without breaking them. One popular public Easter egg roll is usually at the White House.

*Easter eggs are often boiled for ten minutes.  Vinegar is often added to the water and to the dye cups.  Most people use food coloring or an egg dying kit.  I like to use icing dye in blue, red, and yellow.  My kids mixed the colors.

Easter is a holiday when Christians remember that Christ rose from the dead. 

Many churches usually start their service with this hymn:

Did you celebrate Easter?  Do you celebrate Resurrection Sunday?  How?

Holiday! NO SCHOOL April 14-18

All Fairfax County Schools have Spring Break -- NO SCHOOL April 14,15,16,17,& 18

Many people travel.  Some people relax.  Some people get very busy with their children.

What are you doing on this holiday?

Nothing Else Matters

 I like the vibe of Metallica, but I prefer Marlisa's enunciation.

What matters most?

Adjectives

 

Use adjectives to describe a friend or family member.

Use adjectives to describe a place.

Lady in Red

 

Practice Present Continuous verbs (be ____ing  now or certain future)

Do you like to dance?

What's your favorite color?

What are you doing?

What do you wear when you want to relax?

What do you wear when you want to look great?

Eye of the Tiger

 

Do you like to compete?  What sports do you play?  What games do you play?  Write about a time when it was difficult to win, but you won.

Blue

 

The next song was written by the King of the Blues...

Mr. Vo calls me the "blue teacher."  I don't know why.  Maybe, it's because I have a lot of blue clothes and a blue car.  Maybe, it's because I look sad.  In these songs, blue means sad. The blues is a music style that often has amazing guitar riffs.

What do you do when your friend is blue?  What are good ways to cheer up people?

Living on a prayer

 

What do you have to do every week?

If the world was ending...

 

I'd=I would

wanna=want to

Do you have a bucket list? A bucket list is a list of things that you want to do before you die.  What do you want to do when your English is excellent? 

Do you have a romantic partner? How did you meet?  Would you (did you) follow that person to another place?

What do you like to do?

 

Video Quiz

What do you like to do?

Kahoots so far in Spring 2025

Identify nouns, verbs, and adjectives

Hello! Welcome to class! (Hello Again)

 

Hello!

Welcome to class!

What's your name?  Where are you from?  What do you like to do?

Listening to songs can help you speak and understand English better.  I post songs and write questions.

Please write answers to the questions as often as you can.  You can write comments or on paper for me.

There are also links to useful websites.  On a phone, you need to scroll down and touch the link for view web version to get to the links. 

 Please tell me about any songs, websites, or YouTube videos that helped you.

Who did you meet today?  Can you describe a classmate that you met today?  What do you want me to know about you?

Happy Find-a-Rainbow Day

Do you know the names of the basic colors?

Color Listening Game: Match the speaker to the color

Online Picture Dictionary with more colors

Move the letters to spell the colors correctly. If you don't catch it quickly, use the dictionary link.

My husband's first memory is looking at a rainbow with his mother in Hawaii.

Write about a time you saw a rainbow.  Where were you?  Who were you with?

Hello!

 If you love a song in English, please listen and sing to it a lot.

Hello!  How are you?  What are you thinking about?

April Fools!

On April 1, people play pranks on each other.  They try to trick people in a funny way.  On April Fools a few years ago, all the teachers changed classes in my children's elementary school for the first ten minutes.  Some children were really upset, but most of  them laughed when they realized it was a trick.

EL Civics-- April Fool's Day -- Do you agree that stealing the toilet paper is funny?

Children's Picture Book: Arthur's April Fools

Did you ever play a trick or be tricked on April 1st?  What happened?