WE ARE WHAT WE EAT
Jamie Oliver, the English tv chef, has been running a campaign to make the public aware of how badly we eat nowadays and to encourage schools in Britain to serve healthy food to children at lunchtime. Here in the video he talks about this subject (if you find the language difficult, you can watch it on the web with subtitles):
Activity 1: Using your dictionaries, compile a menu for what you think a typical British person and a typical Spanish person eats in a week. Which do you think is healthier? How can the menus be made better?
Activity 2:
Jack Sprat could eat no fat
His wife could eat no lean
And so between them both, you see
They licked the platter clean
This is a children´s nursery rhyme from the mid seventeenth century.
Now it´s your turn: write a short poem about food.
Activity 3:
Apple pie is a traditional British and North American dessert. It´s nutritious because it´s full of apples - but it´s also got lots of sugar! Listen to an English child describing how his grandmother made another favourite dessert - trifle:
http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/overcooked/grandmas-trifle
Using some of the vocabulary from the video, write a recipe for a traditional dish from your country. Or even better, make the dish and share it with us!
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
How fit are you? Do you play a sport or go to the gym? One of the results of modern life is that people do less exercise - we take the car instead of walking, children don´t play in the streets anymore: life is faster and we´re getting bigger!
Activity 1: Make up a questionaire to ask your classmates or friends about their activities. Here are some questions to get you started:
1. Do you play any sport?
2. How often do you play?
3. Do you go to the gym?
4. Do you do more or less exercise than your parents did when they were your age?
5. What sports have you played in the past?
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Report your findings to the rest of the class.
Activity 2: Different countries have different sports that you associate with them. One English sport that mystifies foreigners is cricket. Watch the video and see how it´s played:
Now imagine that you are going to give a short talk to an English person on how to play a typical sport in your country. Describe where you play, how many people play, what equipment you need, the rules of the game and how you win.
Activity 3: Try this Crossword on sports on the bbc learning English website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/quizzes/crosswords/sport.shtml
ENVIRONMENTALLY UNFRIENDLY
So what effect is modern life having on the environment? As we´ve already seen, we aren´t taking so much time to prepare our meals using natural ingredients as our ancestors did. We go to the supermarket instead of the market and buy convenience foods, ready made meals, take-aways - all wrapped in plastic. We travel by car instead of walking or using puiblic transport. All this is damaging the environment.
Activity 1: Recycling.
In Spain, we have bins for paper, for glass and for plastic containers but other countries have different rules for sorting rubbish into the recycling bins. Choose three countries and search the web to find out what goes where.
Activity 2: Test your vocabulary in this fun game from the British Council:
http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/vocabulary-games/recycling
Activity 3: Webquest.
Go to Google maps and choose two cities in Spain.
Find out how much a train and bus ticket would cost to travel between the two cities.
Go back to Google maps and do the same for two cities approximately the same distance apart in two other countries.
Which country is the most expensive/cheapest?
Share your results with your classmates/friends.
Are you surprised?
