Monthly Archives: September 2009

The Thriller Dance

26 September 2009Funny Stuff, MusicCristina Cabal

My son Lucas, who is 9, was watching TV (I’m afraid he’s sort of becoming a couch potato if I do nothing about it) when the video of Thriller filled the screen. He called me all excited about what he was seeing. I tried to explain who Michael Jackson was (difficult when I got to the part of him turning white) and what the video was about (the part about the graveyard and him turning into a zombie and scaring the girl was his favourite) and then, in my determination to show him how fun dancing could be I started searching the Net and bumped into this funny page where you can learn how to dance the Thriller Dance.

And well, I am just beginning to think it might be very interesting to teach vocabulary related to verbs of movement in a funny way. So… dear students … get ready, next year when we get to the point of learning verbs related to movement we’ll be dancing Thriller… if you don’t believe me … have a look at how organised they’ve got it all for me, ready to be used!! We might even be asked to perform at the Christmas Party!! How about that!!! I can’t wait!!!

Let’s get started
Step 1.The Dance. There are 8 lessons and each consists of 4 clips
http://thrilltheworld.com/learn/videos

Step 2. The Dance Script
http://thrilltheworld.com/images/uploads/TTW_Official_Dance_Script.pdf

Related Links:
Karaoke online

An amazing dictionary online

26 September 2009Dictionaries, Resourcesdictionaries, online, visualCristina Cabal

It is called Visuwords and it’s worth a visit.Never before have I seen such a display of colours, diagrams and words in a dictionary. It is great for everybody to use ‘cause it’s fun and it shows not only the definitions of words but also the connections between words. What’s more, if you place your cursor over any of the words ,the definition appears. You can even click and drag individual nodes to move them around to help clarify connections.If you ver get lost in this crazy tree of words ,use the colour-coded key on the left to understand the connections between the words.

I like this quote

26 September 2009GeneralCristina Cabal

“be who you are and say what you feel,
because those who mind don’t matter and
those who matter don’t mind.”

How many bricks..?

26 September 2009Funny StuffCristina Cabal

Fancy a riddle??
How many bricks does it take to complete a building made of brick?. … The answer below Related Links

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Only one.
the last one. 🙂

What on earth is a palindrome?

26 September 2009The English languageEnglish, fun, palindromeCristina Cabal

What’s a palindrome?
Although you might not have realized yet what a palindrome is what you cannot deny is that the word is beautiful. It comes from the Greek “palin”= return and “dromes”= path; but this won’t probably enlighten you as regards its real meaning.

All right, I know you are all on tenterhooks waiting for me to tell you but first of all, I’m going to give you an example … or several to make you rack your brains. I know, I know you’ve nearly finished exams and they have been hard enough but we don’t want you to put your mind at rest just yet, do we? Enough of beating about the bush …here’s the example: “no lemon no melon”.

Can’t see it? Not a clue? Really? Ok, I’m going to give you another example. It is said that the first sentence uttered by a human being was a palindrome. First and second human being? Adam and Eve. So when they met for the first time the gentleman in Adam said to Eve: “Madam, I’m Adam”. Although some people think that Adam was more talkative than this and that what he actually said was “Madam in Eden, I’m Adam”.
Now the penny’s dropped and you know!

A palindrome is a word or a phrase which is the same when read from the start or the end. Mystery solved!!

Can you think of any palindromes? Please do and then send me a post … you can even write a song. You think this is far-fetched? Have a look at this video