March- April, 2016

William ShakeSpeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, and he is considered one of the greatest writers of all time. His work comprises 36 plays, 154 sonnets, and two narrative poems. Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford, England. His exact date of birth is uncertain, but it is thought to have been April 23.

From the late 1500s to early 1600s, Shakespeare became known for his comedies and tragedies, including Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth.

By about 1610, Shakespeare was mainly retired from the stage. Among his last plays were the comedies The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest. Shakespeare passed away at the age of 52 in 1616.

Source: Scholastic Go

Our sixth graders chose to read and present for their open class Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. As you can see from the following photos they had fun with the Bard.

Throughout the months of March and April the children have been taking part in their open classes with parents.

The aims of these open classes are to motivate children’s language learning skills whilst guiding parents in ways in which they can support and reinforce the learning experience at home.The following collages of photos shows just a few of these ideas and please feel free to send in photos of your families working with English in fun and inspiring ways for us to share in our next month’s issue.

The FCE Saturday Class took a fieldtrip to the offices and classrooms of Creative Solutions who work with Instituto La Paz as the certified center for Cambridge Language Assessments. Our children took part in a training exercise with certified Cambridge examiners allowing them the opportunity to experience over the course of the evening the inner workings of a Cambridge Oral Exam. As you can see from the following photos they were nervous at the beginning but as they progressed through different scenarios their confidence grew. They were accompanied on the evening by Miss Gaby and Mr. Ignacio who stated “that it had allowed the children to understand that they only had to overcome their nerves in order to fulfill their true potential.”

This month’s resource is from Cambridge University Press allowing children and adults alike to play games designed to help them learn English.

You can play them on any platform including tablets and phones.

You may also like to check out the sing and learn link and please feel free to send in your videos of the family singing along for our next issue.

http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/learning-english/games-social/

Yoga for Exams

Bunny Breath

Slowly sip in the breath and pause between sips in to activate the brain. After several sips of breath in let the breath out in a long slow sigh.

Eagle

The ultimate brain balance pose. Very effective at your desk even during a test to access information when you know you know and just can’t get the answer out…

Seated Twist

Breathe in and sit up straight, breathe out while turning to one side. You may be able to grab onto the back of the chair to go a little deeper into the stretch. Repeat several times going from side to side.* Also a great stretch for after the test is done.

source https://flourishyoga.ca/3-minute-exam-prep-cheatsheet/

Did you know that what you eat and drink can affect your exam performance?The BBCs Food Guide Program gives the following advice to all those taking exams in the foreseeable future:

Keep calm... and carry on eating

No matter how close your test is, try to keep calm. Stress can have an adverse effect on your appetite and skipping meals won’t do your concentration any favours. Embrace the cliché and make breakfast the most important meal of the day, filling up on energy-giving oats and also eggs, which contain a nutrient called choline , thought to help cognitive performance and improve memory as we age. For lunch, eat foods with a low glycemic index to keep you going until dinner. For your last meal of the day, make the most of oily fish, especially salmon. The clever swimmers are a great source of omega-3, an essential fatty-acid, with many health benefits and are believed to help brain funtion. Not a fish fan? Try flaxseeds, believed to be the best vegetarian source of omega-3.

Enough Porridge Oats for 1

IngredientsSemi skimmed milkGreek yogurtHoneyBananas SlicedHazelnuts Roughly Chopped

MethodMake porridge with semi-skimmed milk according to the packet instructions.

Top with fat-free Greek yogurt, sliced banana and roughly chopped hazelnuts, and drizzle with honey.

Please feel free to share photos of your healthy exam breakfast suggestions for our next issue.

So as we all know breakfast is the most important meal of the day, in which case why don’t you try this mouth watering delight to help relax, on the morning of your exam.

source http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1403/porridge-plus)

source http://www.activityvillage.co.uk

A group of students from primary had the opportunity to visit Wan Tang Primary School in Lezuii, China for 3 weeks.

They departed from Mexico City Airport on the 11th March accompanied by Mr Mario and we invite you to read about their adventures by following this link:

www.ilp.edu.mx/chinatrip

We invite you to be part of this newsletter by sending us all your recipes, articles

and mind games to:

colibri@ilp.edu.mx

Where we are waiting to be enthralled.

Together we Educate!