Conjunctions of Contrast

A good YouTube video showing how to use although, despite, in spite of and however.

Listening to the News

CBC Newscasts are back. Click this link to hear the latest CBC news lesson.

Listening to the News - Sept. 13

Good times!

Thank you!

 
Thanks to all of you for your enthusiasm, positive feedback, gifts and good wishes. I'm so lucky to have such awesome students. We've had a great time together, and done so much. Let's keep the ball rolling! I'm looking forward to seeing you at the Friday afternoon conversation club, and hopefully we can do another volunteer activity this summer. I'm sad to be leaving Level 4, but I'm sure I'll see most of you in Level 6 before long! Best wishes to all of you! 

What's the Message?

Here are some more activities based on the messages we listened to in class today.

What's the Message? Ex. 1
What's the Message? Ex. 2
What's the Message? Ex. 3
What's the Message? Ex. 4

Sing a song on Canada Day

The Real Canadian Songbook

To celebrate Canada Day this weekend, why not sing a song? The Real Canadian Songbook website has a collection of songs by popular Canadian artists that you can sing along with. Fine-tune your listening skills by doing an ESL video quiz.

Telephone Phrasal Verbs

Telephone phrasal verb review: 

Activity 1
Activity 2 
Activity 3

Dragon Boat Festival

Congratulations to our classmates who volunteered at the Dragon Boat Festival this weekend -- Yana, Rezi, Gilla, Winnie, Cassie, Kim and Tu. We're looking forward to reading your blogs about your volunteering experience!

Listening to the News

This week's newscasts:

- Edmonton and Calgary making progress in decreasing the numbers of homeless people
- Massive protests in Brazil
 

Summer Solstice

June 21st is the longest day of the year and officially the start of summer.

 

Summer Solstice - Reading

What are you doing to celebrate the start of summer?

Telephone

1. Choose the correct prepositions - Grammar exercise.

2. Taking A Phone Message Podcast
Useful vocabulary for answering the phone and taking messages. Listen slowly and read. Listen to the vocabulary being explained. Finally listen again at normal speed.

3. Get the phone!
The phone rings and Darren answers it. Listen as Darren talks to the lady on the phone and his wife who is in the bathtub.

Listening to Voice Mail Messages: A Personal and a Professional Call

Listen again to the voice mail messages we heard in class today. 

1. Listening for details 
2. Listening for language

Listening to Telephone Messages

1. Can I take a message? (easy) Practice Exercise


2. Answering Machine (easy)

Make sure you do the Listening Exercise
and the Vocabulary Exercises:
- Mixed-Up Sentence
- Multiple Choice and Short-Answer Questions
- Sentence and Vocabulary Matching
- Text Completion Quiz

Conversation Strategies - Listening

 



Listen again to Grace and Abbey's conversation and fill in the blanks.

Listen and fill in the blanks

Conversation Strategies - Speaking

Listening: Conversation Strategies

Here is the conversation we listened to in class today. 

Conversation in the Company Cafeteria
1. Listen and answer 
2. Fill in the missing words

Go Fly a Kite!

Go fly a kite!

Can you guess the meaning of these expressions?

Click this link to learn and practise these idioms for recreation.

- a ball park figure
- a good sport
- be all thumbs
- go fly a kite
- have two left feet
- in the same boat
- keep the ball rolling
- music to one's ears
- off base
- on the ball
- put one's cards on the table
- right off the bat
- the ball's in your court

Roundhouse Tour Feedback - Afternoon Class

Did you enjoy the tour of the Roundhouse? What are your impressions? Are you inspired to try a new activity? Please post your comments on the wall below, and I will pass your feedback on to Percy.

 http://padlet.com/wall/hjxgz16i8k

Singing along

Level 4 Social Gathering

Hello My Friends,

Do you want to practice speaking English more?

I have an idea: I think we can meet each other every second Friday for coffee or maybe lunch. Friday noon or afternoon is good time for Morning Students and Afternoon Students.

Also, we can choose restaurants or coffee shops that serve your country's food or drink. It sounds interesting to me. How about you? Please send me an email so I can make a list of the people who will be joining us. The event information will be sent by email to the people on this list.

Let try it for first time in this Friday, June 14, for lunch at 1:00 pm, and enjoy our time together! We can speak more about these events in detail this Friday. I think for this first time we can choose the “CHIPOTLE RESTURANT” downtown. It’s a fast food Mexican restaurant. I will send you more information by email.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

RSVP - Please let me know if you can make it and feel free to email me if you have any questions: rezvaneh.norouzi@gmail.com

Keep in touch,

Rezi

Listening - Conversation Strategies

Listen again to the conversation between Vivian and Ted, the tax specialist. Fill in the blanks.

Conversation Strategies 1

Roundhouse Tour Feedback - Morning Class

What were your impressions of the Roundhouse? Did you enjoy the tour? Was it useful? Are you inspired to take up any new activities, like playing the piano or ping-pong?

Please click the link below to post your comments on our wall:

http://padlet.com/wall/vws7oloozq

Small Talk: Using Courtesy Expressions

Two friends talking at a community centre.

Here are some exercises to review the listening activity we did in class on Monday.

Using Courtesy Expressions 
Exercise 1 
Exercise 2 
Exercise 3

Community Centre

Steam Engine at the Roundhouse

This Tuesday, we're going on a field trip to the Roundhouse Community Centre. 

Morning class: Please meet at the main entrance at 9:50.
Afternoon class: Please meet us there at 1:30.

Reading/Scanning practise

 
Go to the Roundhouse website at www.roundhouse.ca
Click on the program guide.

1. 10-year-old Milton wants to learn tennis this summer. What is the registration code?

2. His 6-year-old brother Jonas wants to take karate lessons in August. What is the registration code?

Listening

1. Northside Pool and Fitness Centre

Listen and choose the best answer. 
2. Fill in the blanks.

Listening and Vocabulary

Getting Childcare

Student Survey

Hi Students,

We need your help in planning our course offerings for next year. Would you mind filling out a survey about your needs?

Here is the link to the survey:
Student Survey

Thank you! We appreciate your input.

Volunteering at the Children's Festival

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Volunteering at the Children's Festival

Tomorrow's plan for volunteering at the Children's Festival

Meeting time:  9:00.  Please be on time, or even a few minutes early.

Meeting point: Granville Island in front of the KEG restaurant. It's located near the entrance to Granville Island, straight in front of you, just after the big Granville Island sign.
 

From here, we'll go together to the Volunteer House, near the Public Market.

Looking forward to an awesome day! See you there!
 

Congratulations!

Bravo to our six morning classmates who completed level 4 this month. Way to go!

Expressing Joy at Someone's Success

Listening to the CBC news

Here are the latest headlines:

- Giant tornado in Oklahoma killed 24 people
- More Canadians are seeing unidentified flying objects than ever

Click here for the worksheet.

Volunteer Opportunity

June 21-23, 2013

Festival Volunteers

Festival Volunteers work primarily in customer service throughout the site. Volunteer duties include:

• greeting customers and answering questions
• checking passes
• helping to set up and run various activities
• assisting entertainers and other participants

A smaller number help us with administrative, coordination or technical activities:

• working with media
• organizing teams of volunteers
• assisting with volunteer registration and data entry
• maintaining
• working at an information desk
• providing technical set-up or strike support
• welcoming international guests at the airport
• working with our VIPs and Sponsors

Interested in getting involved? Here's the link for the
Volunteer information and form