China's snow bird - a writing & speaking project

 You've read the book, and enjoyed the thrills & spills with familiar characters...digested new vocabulary and recycled more; read bits out loud and shown understanding of the text.

Make your own character - a snow animal - including a bit of 'dictadraw' (add a scarf/hat etc), then write a description of your new animal with words from the glossary...and then read your work.

Win win using chatterkids app (students quickl learnt how to manipulate/edit/enhance their own creations!), following up our OUP Read & Imagine graded reader. After reading = fun activity & a legacy moment!

Talking text - Chiharu's Snow Rabbit

 

Listen to super Chiharu describing her "Snow Animal", an after reading project from OUP Read & Imagine graded reader "In the Snow". Extensive reading really works for our students' four skills and is an excellent outside of class  learning component; boosts language (grammar as well as vocabulary recyclying), imagination, reading large chunks of text & coping with comprehension questions quickly > great exam preparation too.

Creating this work = loads of fun as well - self & class as a group proof-reading & practicing, encouraging and giggling :)

The Scarlet Letter - A brief biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was an American novelist and short story writer.

He is known for Dark Romantic novels and stories such as "The Scarlet Letter" and "The House of the Seven Gables".
His works often focus on history, morality and religion.
 
He was born in Salem, Massachusetts, on July 4, 1804 and his family was a prominent Puritan
He was raised by his mother and relatives after his father died when he was four.
He enrolled Bowdoin College, graduating in 1825.
He published his first novel, "Fanshawe," in 1828 which is based on his experiences at Bowdoin College.
Horatio Bridge offered to cover the risk of collecting these stories in 1837 into Twice-Told Tales, which made Hawthorne known locally.
Regarding to his family, he married Sophia Peabody in 1842.
They had three children: Una, Julia, and Rose.
"The Scarlet Letter" and "The House of the Seven Gables," were published in 1850 and 1851, respectively.
He was rewarded in 1853 with the position of United States consul in Liverpool shortly after the publication of Tanglewood Tales.
He died in Plymouth, New Hampshire, on May 19, 1864.

Postcard from...Taipei, Taiwan

 

Hi! Jim!

I'm visiting Taiwan, just two days.

Taiwan like Japan, so I can't feel like travelling abroad.

But, Taiwanese food is delicious and quite different from japanese foods, so I'm enjoying to eat!

See you next class!

Makiko  :)

Salem: where Nathaniel was born

The author of this book, The Scarlet Letter is Nathaniel Hawthorne.  He was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1804.  Salem is a famous historical place, where The Salem Witch Trials happened.  In 1692, some young girls acted strangely, and they claimed they were being hurt by witches.  The town of Salem set up a special court to decide who was a witch.  Many girls were arrested and put on trial, and 19 girls were executed.  Later, people realized the trials were wrong and all those were based on fears.  Through the Salem Witch Trials, many girls who didn’t do anything wrong were pulled to the court and wrongly sentenced as a witches.  Nathaniel’s great-great-grandfather was the Judge of the Salem court.  Nathaniel felt guilt for his family history, and he changed his family name by adding w to be different from his family’s dark past.  I think Nathaniel put the ideas from The Salem Witch Trials in his work, like sin, punishment, social criticism, etc.