Christmas

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas! May it be filled with joy, laughter, love...oh, and lots of presents! Here is a Christmas season bucket list that you can try to mark off over the holidays.

1. Watch a Christmas movie
2. Make a handmade Christmas card
3. Make eggnog
4. Listen to Christmas carols
5. Bake cookies
6. Read Christmas stories such as this one that I posted on edmodo, this Christmas classic or this poem that American children read every Christmas Eve.
7. Build a snowman (just kidding...we live in Murcia!)
8. Go Christmas shopping
9. Kiss under the mistletoe
10. Drink mulled wine

What would you add to this list?

Podcasts

No matter what you're interested in, there's a podcast for you! I'm a huge podcast fan. I love downloading several of them on various topics to listen to while I commute to work, wait in line or even while I'm at the gym. There are podcasts created specifically for language learners, but at your level listening to normal podcasts shouldn't be a problem. 


I personally enjoy BBC news, Lena Dunham's Woman of the hour, Elizabeth Gilbert's podcasts on creativity, Dear Sugar podcasts on society and culture and This American Life.


Here are a few others recommended by a Cup of Jo 

'Tis the Season

While Christmas can be an exciting time of year, it can also be extremely stressful. Shopping, cooking and social obligations seem to take up most of our time and leave us feeling drained. What would happen if we said exactly what we felt about attending some of these gatherings? I know some of them can be great fun, but I know there are a few you'd rather avoid (ahem...your in-laws for example).

Click here to find out

Maybe these charts with help you manage this Christmas

Illustrated Idioms

English can be a complex language to learn with loads of irregular verbs, odd spelling/pronunciation rules and oodles of idiomatic expressions. An English teacher in Brazil decided to make her students' lives easier by illustrating a few of the most popular idiomatic phrases in the English language. I thought you might enjoy them!

Click here to see them

Adjectives/Adverbs

Remember that at this level you are expected to use precise adjectives when describing something/someone. Adjectives and adverbs are particularly frequent in descriptive texts; Here are a few descriptive text writing examples. Hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend--I know I did!