Easter

WHAT IS EASTER?

Easter is the celebration of Jesus Christ's rising from the dead after His crucifixion which took place on what we now say Good Friday.

Easter is usually celebrated on the first Sunday after the full moon following the Vernal or Spring Equinox on March 21st. This can be any Sunday between March 22nd and April 25th. It is the most sacred of all the Christian holidays or celebrations.

Christ's return (or rising) from death is called the Resurrection. According to the Scriptures, Christ's tomb was empty three days after His death, which is commemorated on Good Friday. His followers saw Him and talked to Him after this. Christians therefore believe that they have the hope of a new life (an everlasting life in Heaven) after their earthly death.

EASTER IN THE ANCIENT DAYS

Although of course Easter is a Christian festival, it has many pre-Christian. Eastre was the Anglo-Saxon name of a Teutonic goddess of spring and fertility. A month was dedicated to her, corresponding to our month of April. Her festival was celebrated on the day of the vernal equinox and traditions associated with the festival live on in the modern day Easter rabbit, a symbol of fertility, and in coloured Easter eggs. These were originally painted with brilliant colours to represent the warmth and sunlight of spring, and used in Easter-egg rolling contests or given as gifts.

THE HOLY WEEK

The Holy week is the last week of Lent. Lent is the forty days special season prior to Easter Sunday.

The Holy Week begins with the observance of Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter Sunday. The name, Palm Sunday originated from Jesus’ entry in Jerusalem. The crowd laid carpets of palms on the street for Him. The Last Supper is commemorated on Holy Thursday of special week (often called Maundy Thursday) and Friday is the anniversary of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on the cross. The Lenten season and Holy week end with Easter Sunday (the Resurrection of Jesus Christ).

THE NAME EASTER

Easter was called Pesach by early Christians. It is the Hebrew name for Passover. Today, the names for Easter in many cultures in Europe are similar to the word Pesah. The English name Easter is much newer. When the early English Christians wanted others to accept Christianity, they decided to use the name Easter for this holiday so that it would match the name of the old spring celebration in honour of Eastre, goddess of spring and fertility. This made it more comfortable for other people to accept Christianity.

SYMBOLS OF EASTER

• Easter eggs & baby chicks: Eggs and chicks symbolize new life. Eggs have been a symbol of spring since ancient times. An egg also is a symbol of the rock tomb out of which Christ emerged when he arose again. The chick, hatching out of the egg, symbolizes new life or re-birth.

• Easter bunny: The rabbit, or hare, was a symbol of abundant new life in ancient times, and reminds us of spring and new life.

• Easter lilies: Easter lilies symbolize the purity of Jesus. They also symbolize new life and the resurrection of Christ.

Easter Online Games

If you want to enjoy Easter, try these online games from different web pages:

• Kaboose

• The Kidz Page

• DLTK’s

• Free Easter Games

April Fools' Day

April Fools' Day is celebrated in the Western world on the 1st of April of every year. Sometimes referred to as All Fools' Day, 1st April is not a legal holiday, but is widely recognized and celebrated as a day which tolerates practical jokes and general foolishness.

April Fool's practical jokes should not harm anyone, they are   just a good fun. The best jokes are the clever ones where   everyone laughs, especially the person who had the joke played on them.

Some examples of clever jokes:

put food colouring in milk.

go with a couple of friends, stand near some busy street corner – stare and point up at the sky. Watch the reactions of people around you!

Draw funny eyebrows and moustache on someones face while she/he is asleep.

Tape a little walky-talky on your pet or hide it somewhere near where it is laying. Walk off to a safe distance where you can keep yourself hidden from others with the other piece. As soon as another family member tries to pick up or pat on the back of your pet, say in a gruff voice, "I hate you doing this to me." See them jump with fright and shock. 

You're so Vain: Irregular Verbs

A perfect opportunity to review some irregular verbs in the past simple: You're so Vain, one of the most famous songs by Carly Simon.

The Fonix 2.012: official Photo Gallery

The official photographs for the Fonix 2.012 have already been published. Right click on this link to see the gallery.

Stationery Inventions: the pencil

In 1795, Nicholas Jacques Conté (a French officer in Napoleon's army) patented the modern method of kiln-firing powdered graphite with clay to make pencils of any desired hardness. But, around 1560, Mr and Mrs Bernacotti had made the first blueprints for the modern, wood-encased carpentry pencil.

 

With this video you'll discover that nowadays pencils are made using a similar method.

The Water Cycle

To answer some questions of your Treball de Síntesi, you must take a look at this presentation about the water cycle. The first part of it explains this process thanks to a friendly character called Droppy the Raindrop. The second part is devoted to some more specific explanations about the three steps of the water cycle.

Bell and the Telephone

The Human Being never takes a rest. He is always inventing new things to ease our lives. One of the most important devices never invented is the telephone. And the person who was able to think that people could communicate each other without mind the distance was Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone.

Watch this silent film that re-creates the moment of this invention.

Take a look now at this presentation to learn lots of things about Bell and the telephone:

And, finally, a funny approach with this parody of Lady Gaga's famous song Telephone.

Advertising Campaign

It's smarter to travel in groups seems to be a very good slogan for an advertising campaign. An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme.


Take a look at these four adverts from an advertising campaign by De Lijn, the Belgian buses company. It's worth it!

The crabs:

The fireflies:

The ants:

The penguins:

Calvin & Hobbes

To answer the questions of "Còmics a la red" from your Treball de Síntesi, you should follow these two links:

• Homines

• Blog de comics 

 

Furthermore, you will need this comic strip of Calvin & Hobbes, by Bill Watterson:

Spring

Spring, spring is coming soon

Grass is green and flowers bloom

Birds returning from the south

Bees are buzzing all about

Leaves are budding everywhere

Spring, spring is finally here!

Activities for this Spring:

• Squigly's Games
• DLTK's
• A Kid's Heart

Present Perfect Simple

The present perfect simple expresses an action that is still going on or that stopped recently, but has an influence on the present. It puts emphasis on the result.

Form of Present Perfect

	Positive	Negative	Question
I / you / we / they	I have spoken.	I have not spoken.	Have I spoken?
he / she / it	He has spoken.	He has not spoken.	Has he spoken?

For irregular verbs, use the participle form. For regular verbs, just add “ed”.

Exceptions in Spelling when Adding ‘ed’

Exceptions in spelling when adding ed	Example
after a final e only add d	love – loved
final consonant after a short, stressed vowel or l as final consonant after a vowel is doubled	admit – admitted travel – travelled
final y after a consonant becomes i	hurry – hurried

Use of Present Perfect

• puts emphasis on the result

Example: She has written five letters.

• action that is still going on

Example: School has not started yet.

• action that stopped recently

Example: She has cooked dinner.

• finished action that has an influence on the present

Example: I have lost my key.

• action that has taken place once, never or several times before the moment of speaking

Example: I have never been to Australia.

Signal Words of Present Perfect

already, ever, just, never, not yet, so far, till now, up to now

Activities

• Grammar and five activities from Eclectic English.
• From Perfect English Grammar, different exercises about the form of the present perfect simple.
• From English Grammar 4 You, a bunch of exercises and three level tests.
• A short explanation and several exercises taken from English 4 You.
• From Agendaweb, lots of exercises of all kind about this tense.

The Family

 

Marge is Clancy's and Jackie daughter.

Homer is Abraham's and Mona's son.

Abraham is Herb's and Homer's father.

Jackie is Marge's, Patty's and Selma's mother.

Herb and Homer are Abraham's and Mona's children.

Clancy and Jackie are Marge's, Patty's and Selma's  parents.

Marge is Homer's wife.

Homer is Marge's husband.

Patty and Selma are Marge's sisters.

Herb is Homer's brother.

Bart is Ling's cousin.

Bart is Herb's nephew.

Lisa is Patty's niece.

Lisa and Maggie are Abraham's and Mona's granddaughters.

Bart is Clancy's and Jackie's grandson.

Abraham is Bart's grandfather.

Clancy and Jackie are Ling's grandparents.

Bart, Lisa and Maggie are Abraham's and Mona's grandchildren.

Mona is Lisa's grandmother.

Marge is Herb's sister-in-law.

Herb is Marge's brother-in-law.

Clancy is is Homer's father-in-law.

Mona is Marge's mother in law.

Marge is Mr Mona's daughter-in-law.

Homer is Mr Clancy's son-in-law.

Try now this quiz from English Exercises about the Simpson's Family.


And now take a look at this video if you want to listen to this vocabulary:

Activities:

• English Grammar 4 You
• Prof2000
• ESL Tower
• My English Pages

Saint Patrick's Day Fun

March 17th is Saint Patrick's Day. Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. To celebrate this festivity. just click on the links to have fun.

On-line Games from Apples 4 the Teacher, :

• Scrambler Puzzles
• Word Search 1
• Word Search 2
• Memory Game

Funny Games from Kaboose:

• Shamrock Streamer
• Wallop
• Quiz

Lots of online games at Alphabet Soup:

• Games

Talking About the Future

It is possible expressing the future time in English in many different ways:

• Will
• Going to
• Present Continuous

WILL
I you he / she / it we they	will ('ll) will not (won't)	play

We use going to when we want to talk about a plan for the future.

 Subject + to be + going to + infinitive

• I'm going to see him tomorrow.
• They're going to go to London next month.
• We're going to study English this afternoon. 

Subject	Verb To be	Going to	Infinitive
I	am	going to	dance
He / She / It	is		read
We / You / They	are		plan

Subject	Verb To be + not	Going to	Infinitive
I	am not	going to	sleep
He / She / It	is not (isn’t)		cook
We / You / They	are not (aren’t)		jump

  

	Verb To Be	Subject	Going to	Infinitive
What	am not	I	going to	do?
Where	is not (isn’t)	he / she / it		eat?
	are not (aren’t)	we / you / they		fish?

This future plan doesn’t have to be for the near future. In this case, we use the present continuous form of the verb:

 Subject + to be + -ing

 Activivites about future plans with going to:

• Englisch-Hilfen: exercises 1, 2 & 3.
• English Grammar Secrets: exercises 1, 2, 3 & 4.
• English 3D: complete the dialogue.
• ESL Gold: audio exercise.