Confused? English can be so confusing!

Hopefully this game will help:  http://www.eslgamesplus.com/adjectives-ing-ed-catapult/

password for vocabulary

I've mentioned this before, but sometimes you need my special password to get all the vocabulary exercises on the SpellingCity site.  So you need to sign in as:

deniselleck@sbcglobal.net

and use the password:

750eddy

Enjoy!

Vocabulary from movie review of Avatar

We just read a very difficult piece with lots of new vocabulary.  You can practice the new words here.

And here's a clip from Avatar:

Be Careful Today!

It's Friday the 13th!!

 Many people think that this is an unlucky day.  Do you?

Here are some other American superstitions from Stickyball.net:

Superstition	Meaning
Baseball Bat	Spit on a new bat when using it for the first time to make it lucky.
Bed	It’s bad luck to put a hat on a bed.
Bell	When a bell rings, an angel has received its wings.
Cats	If a black cat crosses your path, you will have bad luck.
Clover	It’s good luck to find a four-leaf clover.
Knives	If a friend gives you a knife, you should give him/her a coin.
Ladybugs	It is bad luck to kill a ladybug.
Ladder	It’s bad luck to walk under a ladder.
Mirror	If you break a mirror, it’s seven years bad luck.
Salt	If you spill salt you must throw some over your left shoulder.
Umbrella	It’s bad luck to open an umbrella in the house.
Wood	Knock on wood anytime you mention good fortune.
Yawn	Cover your mouth so your soul doesn’t go out of your body.
Itchy Ear	Someone is talking about you.
Friday the 13th	This day is traditionally unlucky unless you were born on it.

Happy May Day!

We don't really celebrate May Day in the U.S. In other countries it is a day for workers.   When I was a little kid, we used to dance around the Maypole, kind of like in the video above (but not as coordinated!)  It goes on for a long time.  You only need to watch it for a minute or so to get the idea!

Here's some vocabulary from this week:

Impeccable	Perfect	She cleaned all day and the house looked impeccable.
Right back	Immediately	I’ll be right back.
Settle down (1) Settle down) (2)	Get married Calm down	A lot of people settle down in their thirties. (1) Okay kids, stop jumping and screaming.  Settle down! (2)
Cool down (1) Cool down (2)	Get less hot Calm down	It’s really cooled down since yesterday. (1) You are too upset.  You need to cool down before you talk to him. (2)
Run away	Leave	Some unhappy children run away from home.
Set up	Arrange something, especially people	It usually doesn’t work when you set people up on a blind date.
Run out	Disappear, come to an end	Denise always runs out of papers in class.
Enjoy ____ company	Like	She is my best friend.  I really enjoy her company.
Blind date	Be set up on a date with someone you do not know	He set us up on a blind date but it didn’t work out.
It may be for the best	Something bad happened but it might be better this way	My blind date was bad, but it may be for the best because I met someone at school today.
Work out in the end	Something bad happened but it ended well	We’ve had some problems but I’m sure it will work out in the end.
Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched	Don’t be too sure that something good you hope for will really happen. It might not happen after all.	When I told my teacher that I will go to Level 7, she told me not to count my chickens before they’re hatched!

 

Earthquakes

San Francisco street after 1906 earthquake

This past weekend there were terrible earthquakes in Japan and in Ecuador.  We also get earthquakes here in San Francisco.  In fact, today is the anniversary of the biggest earthquake we ever had here.  it was on this day in 1906.

It is important to be prepared for the next earthquake.  Please go to these sites for more information:

¡Red Cross

¡

¡72hours.org

¡Shakeout.org