Merry Christmas

Christmas is a celebration, which marks the birth of Jesus Christ.
People exchange gifts to remember the Three Wise Men (in Portuguese: Melchior, Gaspar and Baltazar) who offered gifts to the child after his birth.
The Santa character was inspired by a Roman bishop from the fifth century, "St. Nicholas", which offered, on 6 December, donations in secret, to the daughters of a very poor man. Gradually this day merged with the Christmas period and was immortalised by a Coca Cola advertisement some decades ago featuring an iconic Santa Claus.

Merry Christmas to all and many gifts in your (little) shoe!!!!

Merry Christmas

Christmas is a day on which we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. In ancient times, Christmas was celebrated on several different dates because they did not know exactly the date of Jesus' birth. It was only in the fourth century that December 25 was established as the official date of celebration. 
In ancient Rome, December 25 was the date on which the Romans celebrated the beginning of winter. Therefore, it is believed that there is a relationship of this fact with the institutionalization of the Christmas celebration.

The old Christmas celebrations used to last up to 12 days, as this was the time it took for the three Wise Men arrive to the city of Bethlehem and deliver gifts to the infant Jesus. Currently, people often put up their trees and other Christmas decorations in early December and dismantle them until 12 days after Christmas.

From a chronological point of view, Christmas / Jesus' birth is a date of great importance to the West as it marks the first year in our history.

                                             My new pet

   
                                                                  My puppy is Mimi

Christmas Concert in Sobral

Christmas Concert

              Today is our Christmas concert in Sobral - Soure

Santa Claus is coming !!!

Merry Christmas

Nobel Week 2014

Traditionally, the Nobel Prizes are presented to the Laureates at ceremonies on December 10, the date that marks Alfred Nobel's death. We've all heard about him already, but who exactly was Alfred Nobel? Well, you can look for further bio and biblio here, but, in short, he was a Swedish-born inventor and international industrialist who stipulated in his will that his fortune was to be used for prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Psysiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace.

We've already congratulated Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi on their shared Nobel Peace Prize in this blogpost last October; today, that the award ceremonies are taking place in Oslo and Stockholm, let's meet the laureate for 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature: Patrick Modiano, a French writer, hardly known outside France, though translated into English.

If you check http://www.nobelprize.org/ you'll find all you can possibly imagine about the founder, about these prestigious awards, laureates and ceremonies throughout time.

Your fantastic teacher of French, Anita Duarte, has again generously contributed to this blogpost. Please read further, but now in the literature laureate's mother tongue:

Finally, has any Portuguese ever been awarded a Nobel Prize? Yes? How many? Who? In what area(s)? 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!!!!!

CR7 cissé

Hello everyone!
I wanted to introduce you to my new team "VINHA DA RAINHA".
The team that has a yellow outfit was my old team "Sourense" and the team that has the white outfit is my new team "Vinha da Rainha".
This is the first time I play in this team, and I'm really enjoying it. This is going very well !! I am very proud !!
When I played in Sourense there was a proposal to play with sporting, but my father did not let me go because I was too young.
My dream is to be a professional soccer player. I love playing football.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, everyone !!!!

Welcome December!

Welcome December, the last month of the year and the one that brings us some days off as well as some presents - not all that matters but also contribute for a sense of joy, right?
Here you have a personalized calender for this December 2014 and below, if you click on the link, you'll have an Advent Calendar in which a new window pops up every single day :)

Click on...

http://pearsonelt.es/adventcalendar/ 

Thanksgiving Day

What is Thanksgiving Day?


The Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. In the US it is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November, and in Canada, on the second Saturday of October.
Facts about Thanksgiving Day

As its name implies, the Thanksgiving Day is a day where people come together to show their gratitude for the blessings received during the year, also expressing affection for their friends and family. This is one of the most important holidays in the US and Canada, along with Christmas and the New Year. The Thanksgiving Day is therefore a family holiday, where it is normal to make long trips to visit relatives. Another great tradition of this holiday is the food. Families celebrate this day with great gastronomic variety where they typically eat turkey (so it is also known as Turkey Day - Turkey Day), sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, apple pie, pecan pie, among many other things

There is a ceremony on Thanksgiving Day where the American President pardons two turkeys (an officer and a reserve), thereby saving the animals from the same fate of the other 46 million turkeys - the estimate number of turkeys that is eaten in the public holiday.The Thanksgiving Day is also well known for big parades. The best known of all is Macy's Parade in New York, where hundreds of participating media figures and characters from the world of childhood and fantasy like Mickey, Spiderman and others meet. On Thanksgiving Day there are also football games, one of the most popular sports in America.The Friday after Thanksgiving Day is known as Black Friday. On that day, several shops have amazing promotions, and for this reason, the stores are overcrowded, so that every year, there are always cases of clashes between customers struggling as they try to get the same products.

The First Thanksgiving

The first Thanksgiving Day was celebrated in the United States in 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, by pilgrims (the founders of the village) together with their Indian friends who had helped them survive.

After the crops were severely damaged by the harsh winter, the colonists had a good corn harvest the following summer, in 1621. To mark the occasion and celebrate that difficult year in terms of agriculture, the governor of the village decided to organize a party in the autumn of 1621. This party was attended by about 90 Indians and ducks were eaten, turkey, fish and corn. From this year onwards, in New England, each autumn a feast of Thanksgiving to God was organized because of good harvests  In 1863, Abraham Lincoln (president at the time) announced that the last Thursday of November would be known as the National Day of Thanksgiving.

Spreading Gratitude

“A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all other virtues.” 
CÍCERO

I hope today's activity has taught you there is a lot to be thankful for in our every day life; two words, THANK YOU, or even shorter, THANKS, can make a whole difference in our hearts, in other people's hearts, and in the way we face life.

As for the English class itself, well, there is a collaborative document in your gmail account so that each of you can add info on Thanksgiving, a very important festivity in the USA. This time, I flipped it a bit, in other words: below you can find some videos and / or links for you to go through and then be able to do your share. Easy, right? You just have to click on the link of the googledoc I've just sent you, read what you are expected to do, browse / watch the videos and then summarize the info to write down in our shared document. Any questions? Just send me an email, ok?

25points. Deadline: Saturday, 12:00. 

Thank you!

I could direct you to amazing websites out there in the web, but I would rather you focus your time and attention in a single one which encapsulates the relevant info. Please check the written material as well as the videos at http://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving to accomplish your task!

Source: http://www.nrm.org/2013/11/giving-thanks/?lang=en

Sadness

Oh, my friends, I've had my hair cut!!!! I'm so sad...

Groups

Whether in class or outdoors, we all like being in groups or belonging to a group - true?
Have a look at the following sequence of advertising clips by De Lijn, a Flemish transport company which runs almost 4000 buses and around 400 trams.



Now say...
1- How many clips are there?
2- What animals are included in each of the clips?
3- What situation is REALLY portrayed by the animal clips?
4- How does it apply to our classroom / classes / ourselves?
5- Are there any other videos you know of featuring this relevant issue you can share here?

Hope you have as much fun as I did :) Thank you!