What is the real cost of travel?

Everybody likes travelling. The excitement it brings about, the unforgettable moments of exploring the unexplored, a spellbinding sense of novelty. There are myriad of other nice expressions to describe how wonderful it is to travel ;) Yet, many of us tend to forget that the ideal tourist destinations we visit are home not only to other people, but also many unique animal and plant species. Probably you never ask yourself the question – what is the real cost of travel? Some people did, hence a short text under the very same title. Let’s help our students perceive travelling from a slightly different perspective, making them aware of the dangers to the environment our journeys may pose. 

 

Travel time!

Hello there everyone! The following week is going to be devoted to a very pleasant and engaging topic of TRAVELLING. As the May weather has been surprising us positively so far, lots of us certainly start planning some trips. Moreover, the holidays are coming. Thus, this is a perfect moment to introduce our students to this topic and let them practise vocabulary and phrases that may be inevitably necessary during their foreign trips! 

Third week's sum up

Good evening everybody! We have just ended the third week of our blog that was on the subject of FOOD. Here you have the collection of what has been posted during the whole week:


1. A recipe for good writing :)

Here you will find tips on how to teach writing ... by writing something as ordinary as a recipe!;)





2. Learning vocabulary - a tough nut to crack?

Vocab? Tough to crack? Nah..! Not with us!

Food-related speaking games and activities

As an extremely talkative person, I am also a teacher who provides a great deal of space for speaking activities. And don't worry - it doesn't mean that I talk all the time :) I just make sure that every learner has plenty of possibilities to develop speaking skills. 

What is more, as I mentioned in one of the posts - any opportunity to practice speaking cannot be wasted! Thus, every subject introduced to the class can serve as a base for further speaking tasks. 

One may ask: how is it possible? How long can you talk about food?? Basing on my own teaching experience, I can guarantee that it is possible to create various questions using only a few words. Working with the use of direct method has taught me that every word can be a basis for both easy and complicated questions for learners of all levels. For instance a simple word 'apple' can generate the following questions:

http://thaom.blogspot.com/2012/11/apple-znowu-pozywa.htm

What is this? [pointing at the apple or at its picture] 

What colour is the apple?

Is the apple red or green?

What colour can the apple have?

Do you like apples?

Does your mum/dad/etc. like apples?

What can you make from apples?

Is an apple a fruit or a vegetable?

Can you imagine not eating apples?

Do you remember what happened with the apple in the Bible?

How can you interpret the picture on the right?

What does an apple symbolize?

Do you have Adam's apple? Can you show it?

What does it mean to be the apple of sb's eye?

Organic or non-organic food? Reading comprehension

Do you like eating? I think that everybody does:)

Our eating habits may differ and I don't mean only the fact that some of us are vegetarians or vegans but rather the products we choose. Some people try to buy mainly things that are grown in a country they live, the others prefer those with low prices but there are also people who would do completely the oppoosite - they choose very expensive, organic food because they hope that the more they pay, the better their meal is.

What kind of consumer are you?

Organic food is my choice for today's reading comprehension:)

The text for reading comprehension you can find here:

Organic food - text

Listening exercises

You are going to listen to 3 recordings. One is about making a pie, one about ordering meals at a restaurant and the last one about deciding what to have for breakfast. Enjoy!

Listening 1 Making a pie

I. Fill in the gaps and answer the questions.

1. The first thing to do is to .................. onion and .......................
2. How should it be chopped? ..........................................................
3. Put the onion and the garlic into .................................................
4. What should be added to it?
5. What kind of meat do we need?
6. What should we do with it while cooking?
7. How much water should we add?
8. What should we do with it for 15-20 minute?
9. 20 minute should be enough for the meat to be nice and soft and ...............................
10. What should we do with potato?
11. We should ....................... the potato with a ..................... of milk

Food idioms - a piece of cake!

Idioms, idioms, idioms… Most of the time they are so weird looking and sounding that it’s almost impossible to remember what they mean. Take for instance the titular ‘a piece of cake’. I mean, really? How to combine the meaning with the form in a reasonable way? It’s challenging indeed, but you have to agree here that it sounds extremely sophisticated when an idiomatic expression is popped up every now and then in a conversation. Let’s show our students then that amusing visual aids may help a bit in memorizing idioms!

Following is the table with idiomatic expressions as well as three exercises practising their usage in context!