Happy Holidays 2018

We wrapped up 2018 with a class potluck, speeches, games, song, and breaking bread together. I hope to see everyone again in the new year.

Winter Break is Coming

What are we up to lately?

We are keeping busy learning about calcium and vitamin D. We can read nutrition labels.

Wednesdays are our educational technology days. We have iPads and can use Flipgrid for speaking and listening practice and assessment. We are also about to learn to use Google Cardboard since we have six VR viewers.

This is the penultimate week of school before winter break. On the day of the big party, our room will be the quiet games room. We will teach each other some games. Huarong will teach a card trick. Weiying and her friends will teach us to play Mahjong. Nabil, Hamdi, and Raja will teach us to play chess (just the basic moves). Dr. Peng will teach massage. Thanks to Maria, we have a portable massage chair tucked behind our cabinet! I will bring all my games and be ready to teach SET, Quarto, tangrams, and maybe even Mancala.

Did you know that 2018 will be #CCYT, or Canada-China Year of Tourism? I didn't either!

Happy Holidays!

Thank you, students of the seniors' class, for a wonderful party.

You are too good to me.  I hope you know how precious each of you is to me.  We are like a family.

the spread

We shared food.

JunJian

We spoke from the heart.

Mr. Zhang

We listened to a poem. I think I know why Mr. Zhang chose that poem. It was poignant.

Mei, Xiumin, Hamdi, Kelly, Junjian

Hamdi taught us a dance step. Tareq drummed for us.

Mei, Xiumin

We heard a delightful story about an unlucky day turned lucky!

Weimiao

We solved riddles.
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Dr. Peng, Xiumin, Kelly, BaoHua, Shurong, Mei

The women took a group shot.
Enjoy your two-week break. We will see each other again in 2017, Inshallah!

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.

Invitations

Hello, students!

This week we learned about Valentine's Day and also about issuing, accepting and declining invitations to parties and other events. Next week we will work on our Valentine's party invitations and plans.

Here is a listening lesson about invitations.

Here's another one.

There are MANY dialogues here about inviting people to parties and so on.

Here is a little history of Valentine's Day. Listen and answer the questions below the video.

Have fun!

Happy Lunar New Year!

Happy Year of the Wood Goat!

I share your wish for world peace this year.  Thank you for all the treats. That was quite a spread. The red tea was delicious! I loved it when the parade came from childminding, two children of about age three acting as the head and tail of the lion.

Hallowe'en

Hello, students!

Click HERE to watch a 3-minute video about the history of Hallowe'en. Below is the transcript. Some students want to paste it into Google translator.

Here is a lesson about Halloween. What do you know about Halloween?

Do you have children or perhaps grandchildren?

Will you take your children trick or treating this year? Will you carve a pumpkin?

Click HERE if you would like to practice spelling some Halloween words.

Transcript of video:

From communion with the dead to pumpkins and pranks, Halloween is a patchwork holiday stitched together with cultural, religious and occult traditions that span centuries.

It all began with the Celts, a people whose culture had spread across Europe more than 2000 years ago.  October 31 was the day they celebrated the end of the harvest season in a festival  called Samhain. That night also marked the Celtic new year and was considered a time between years—a magical time when the ghosts of the dead walked the earth.

Expert: It was a time when the veil between death and life was supposed to be at its thinnest.

On Samhain, the villagers gathered and lit huge bonfires to drive the dead back to the spirit world and keep them away from the living. But as the Catholic church’s influence grew in Europe, it frowned on the Pagan rituals like Samhain.

In the 7^th century, the Vatican began to merge it with a church-sanctioned holiday. So November 1^st was designated All Saints Day to honour martyrs and the deceased faithful.

Expert: Both of these holidays had to do with the afterlife and about survival after death. It was a calculated move on the part of the church to bring more people into the fold.

All Saints Day was known then as Hallowmas. Hallow means holy or saintly. So the translation is roughly “mass of the saints.” The night before, October 31^st, was All Hallow’s Eve, which gradually morphed into Halloween.

The holiday came to America with the wave of Irish immigrants during the potato famine of the 1840s. They brought several of their holiday customs with them, including bobbing for apples and playing tricks on neighbours, like removing gates from the fronts of houses.

The young pranksters wore masks so they wouldn’t be recognized. But over the years the tradition of harmless tricks grew into outright vandalism.

Back in the 1930s, it really became a dangerous holiday. I mean there was such hooliganism and vandalism. Trick or treating was originally an extortion deal... Give us candy or we'll trash your house.

Storekeepers and neighbours began giving treats (or bribes) to stop the tricks, and children were encouraged to travel door to door for treats as an alternative to trouble-making. By the late 30s, “trick or treat” became a holiday greeting.

Holidays

Hello, class!

Please note: this Saturday is WINTERFEST downtown.

SPELLING:

Everybody, please practice these words. Take the test. Play some games.

Level 3, please also learn to spell these words.

============== After the break ====================

CHRISTMAS

See how to make a paper snowflake. Here's another explanation.

Practice making snowflakes.

Here you can watch a small section of the famous ballet Nutcracker with score by Tchaikovsky.

Watch a short video about Christmas crackers.

Level 3 students, try reading this lesson about mistletoe. It's a bit difficult!

GRAMMAR

Quiz: A or AN?

Quiz: A, AN or nothing?

Practice the first mention / second mention rule.

The Elves of the LINC Seniors Class

The elves of the LINC Seniors class have a holiday surprise for the whole YMCA. Please view our little performances.

Langza, Saleem, Mahmed, Hana and Wardia can be seen singing and dancing HERE.

Our second performance, which you can see by clicking HERE, stars Samir, Ali, Mustafa, Habtemariam and Mahmed. Mahmed stood in for Jouzeef, who was away in Toronto for a wedding.

Enjoy!

Let It Snow!

Tonight I am making lots and lots of paper snowflakes.  If you go to the Make a Flake website, you can cut your own paper snowflake. But be careful. This site can be addictive, as can cutting paper snowflakes.

Have fun!

Hallowe'en

Hello, students!

Here is a lesson about Halloween. What do you know about Halloween?

Do you have children?

Did you take your children trick or treating this year? Did you carve a pumpkin?

Click HERE if you would like to practice spelling some Halloween words.

If you finish, please go back to our last lesson on the Canadian school system. You may also use Ellis or any other English learning site.

Kelly

Canadian Thanksgiving

Hello, Seniors Class!

Soon it will be Thanksgiving in Canada.

Click HERE to read about this holiday.

Click HERE to practice spelling some Thanksgiving vocabulary words.

Click HERE to do a Thanksgiving word search puzzle!

You can also use Ellis software or any English website.

Samir or Hana, please ask Jouzeef to click here to practice typing personal information.

Cheers!

Kelly