Can You Fix It?

Hello, students of the seniors' class!

We have someone auditing our class now. His name is Baigen (Bernie), and he is following our class from home. For this reason, I will try always to provide links to the worksheets and audio files that we use in class.

This week's topic is the DIY (Do It Yourself) movement, which is part of Canadian culture. We are using worksheets from LINC 2 Classroom Activities - "Can You Fix It?"  "How to Keep Out the Cold," and "An Expensive Weekend."

To see just how far you can take the DIY idea, we watched a short video about a young man in California who bought a tiny house for $950 and lives "off the grid" with no bills at all! That's amazing. He's only been doing that for four months. I wonder if he can keep it up! What do you think?

Also we listened to this audio on Tuesday; you have the worksheet with the questions.


Voice Recorder >>

Our assignment for next week is to team up with another student (if you wish) and teach others how to make something that saves you money and/or helps save the planet.  Reduce, re-use, recycle!

For example, Mei and her husband have made a wi-fi amplifier from an aluminum can.  Kelly knows how to make a mouse trap from a plastic bottle, chopsticks, two rubber bands, a paper clip and some thread. It really works! SaiYing and YueChen know some good recipes for earth-friendly, inexpensive household cleaning products.  Xiumin has a sewing machine. She could easily make a door draft stopper that looks like a cute animal.

Here are some ideas:
Re-Use Ideas
Upcycling
Upcycle Ideas
Upcycled products
Creative Ways to Re-use Plastic Bottles

Each student must list the materials needed and must describe the steps to follow.  Also, please add at least one photo or drawing. I can help you find good pictures on the Internet.

Good luck!

Snow Day

Hello, students!

Only five students were able to make it to class due to the snowfall.  We decided to deviate from the plan and instead studied weather forecasts.

We listened to this audio:


Record audio or upload mp3 >> ..
The script and questions can be found in this PDF document, LINC 3 Classroom Activities, page 106.

REMEMBER: There is no morning class on Monday, February 29th.

Stress and Vowel Quality

Hello, students of the seniors' class!

Since we had only a four-day school week and Fridays are special, we didn't tackle a new topic. Rather, we focused this week on making our stressed vowels longer, louder / higher in pitch, and clearer.

We reviewed the difference between CONTENT WORDS and FUNCTION WORDS.

English is a stress-timed language.  We practiced the rhythm of many sentences.

Here is a great video on this topic.

Invitation to a Dinner Party

Hello, students of the seniors' class!

This week we learned a lot about invitations in Canada. We learned how to issue them, both verbally and in writing, how to accept them, and how to decline them politely and more directly.

Watch this video from English in Vancouver about a party invitation.

 To watch with interactive quiz, go HERE.

To print out the listening activities, go to my website's FREE RESOURCES - Canadian Culture and scroll down to find the link.

Just for fun, send a valentine to a buddy.