We say goodbye to Alex, our language assistant

Alexandra Howe, our language assistant, dind't know what we had in store for her when she came to school on her last day as assistant. We had organised a terrific show where music was the protagonist. Every group was given an area in the USA and had to perform a typical song (either live or play back). The performances were outstanding and everybody had a wonderful time!

Music Trip around the USA

Since the show was one hour long, we can only select some excerpts and clips:

1º A danced to "Surfin'USA" by The Beach Boys (California)



3º B sang "I will follow Him" in pure Gospel style (South Carolina)



4º B dared to perform "Jailhouse Rock" by Elvis Presley, singing and playing live (Memphis, Tennessee)




1º C rapped and danced "Gangsta's paradise" (New York)




At the end of the show, Alex was given some presents with which teachers and students wanted to thank her. We will miss you, Alex!

Team Building Day II

In the last few years we have made an effort to put our students in contact with other bilingual students from other towns in the belief that by organising different activities through the curriculum we could offer an entertaining and educational way of using the English language. Thus, last year, for instance, we got in touch with the bilingual coordinator at IES Miguel Crespo (Fernán Núñez), who liked the idea very much, and we organised two sets of activities in what we called a Team Building Day to celebrate in each school.

This time, however, we decided that the event should take place outside the school so we chose Córdoba as the perfect scenario to carry out the activities. The students had met each other last year, so they were eager to see each other again after one year.

The first activity took place in the patio of the Mosque-Cathedral: some students read in English three legends about "El Cristo de los Faroles", "La Malmuerta" and "The prisoner" while their classmates had to answer some questions about each legend.


Reading out the legends

The following activity was devised by our language assistants. The students had to unjumble some sentences to get a paragraph about the history of Córdoba.

Iris and Alex explaining what the students had to do

Then we went to the heart of Córdoba, the Tendillas square, where we were going to have a fantastic "Treasure Hunt". The students were divided into teams and given the clues to find out the hidden words. They had to carry out some tasks as well to get the prize. Here is the thresure hunt:



The winners


The final activity consisted of interviewing English-speaking tourists. They had to interview them in order to learn about their stay in Spain. Although shy at the beginning, once the first interview was finished, the students wanted to go on non-stop. It was a wonderful way to end the day! Everybody agreed that it had been good fun! 



Interviewing tourists

British Festivals

Who is the patron saint of England? Why is Pancake Day so important in Britain? Why do many small towns and cities all over England have a May Queen? We wanted to find an answer to all these questions so we organised a British Festival Day. Students from 1º ESO A-B-C had to learn about these festivals in order to explain to their classmates how British people celebrate them. What's more, we invited 3º Primaria pupils from the other bilingual school in Montoro, Nuestra Señora del Rosario Primary School, to attend and take part in the initiative. 

May Festivals

Antonio and Fran told us about why the coming of spring symbolizes the birth of a new cycle of life. To represent that, in many towns a queen is elected, the Queen of May, who starts the celebrations. In order to choose the Queen, we had 3 candidates from the primary group, and Celia and Sofía asked them questions (in English, of course!) about their subjects at school. They had to ask many questions because they knew all the answers! Finally, once the Queen had been chosen, two handsome knights (Juan and Juanma) wanted to be her King, so they had to win a dance competition to become King. It was really funny! 

 
The May Queen and her King

the May Queen

Contest to choose the May Queen

Questions the candidates had to answer to become Queen

Pancake Day

Mª Antonia and Raúl explained when Pancake Day is and why it is celebrated in Britain. Miguel sang a rap song to introduce all the ingredients we need to cook a delicious pancake. After that, we played two traditional games, Flipping the Pancake and a Pancake Race.

Singing the song "Pancake Day"

Explaining the ingredients to use






St. George's Day

St. George's Day is celebrated on 23rd April. Why did St. George become the Patron Saint of England? and What is the legend of St. George? Sergio and Leo told us about that. In order to clarify everything we had a terrible dragon, a beautiful princess and a brave St. George on stage. Laryssa explained what happened in the story: the dragon (Fernando) wanted to eat a princess (a girl from the primary students), but St. George (Rodrigo) wanted to rescue her and kill the dragon. Laryssa then asked the kids some questions. If they answered correctly, St George would save the princess, but if they diddn't .... Fortunately, they knew all the answers!

The protagonists of the legend

The dragon comes into the room to eat the princess