Halloween Pumpkin Carving Contest Winners

Escola Americana is excited to announce the winners of our 2011 Halloween Pumpkin Carving Contest! Students 10 and older worked in groups October 19th and 20th to carve and decorate pumpkins with chosen materials from home. Sixteen groups participated in the contest and all of the students did a great job. Some pumpkins were scary, others funny, but all were fantastic! In November, students, teachers and parents were given the opportunity to vote for their favorite pumpkins and we had a wonderful turnout! As a reward, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners will get to choose between pizza and ice cream during the first week of regular classes in February! Halloween is one of the most anticipated holidays in the United States and we have a lot of fun bringing the customs - including pumpkin carving - to our students at Escola Americana each year. Thanks to everyone who participated in this year's contest. We look forward to carrying on the tradition again next year! Here are our winners...

First Place - 81 votes

Second Place - 72 votes

Third Place - 29 votes

Teacher Ana's students

Teachers Manu and Gabi's students

Teacher Rapha's students

Teacher Charlotte's students

THE BLACK CAT, by EDGAR ALLAN POE

He was born at January 19, 1809 and died at October 7, 1849.

Edgar wrote about mystery , macabre and ghost stories.

THE BLACK CAT

o   His wife bought sorts of birds, gold fish, a fine dog and a cat.

o   The cat was very large and beautiful. He was black all over and very intelligent.

o   Pluto was the cat’s name.

o   The husband, started to drink. Then he started to use bad words and hit his wife.

o   He hit all the animals, but never Pluto. One day he started to hit Pluto, because of the drink.

o   He was full of blame and to forget, he drank again. And did a horrible thing: took the cat’s eye out.

o   The cat didn’t love him anymore.

o   He hung the cat by his neck from a tree, and then it was dead.

o   One night, he woke up suddenly, his bed was on fire. The whole house was destroyed except the new white plaster.

o   On this wall, was a shape of a large cat, hanging by its neck.

o   He thought someone cut the dead cat from the tree, and threw it through the window.

o   He wanted to buy a new cat.

o   He found a cat just like Pluto. It liked him. The cat followed him at the new house.

o   He stayed with the cat, and very soon he became her wife’s favorite animal. But soon he hated it.

o   He was afraid of the animal. Because it reminded Pluto, but it had a white shape on its chest and just one eye.

o   The cat’s shape was changing.

o   It was like an object. A gallows.

o   The cat was bringing bad luck.

o   It brought him all his unhappiness and making him mad.

o   During an angry attack, he killed his wife.

o   The police went to his house.

o   The found his wife inside a wall with dried blood all over her head and the cat was standing on her dead body.

o   In the end, he was sent to the gallows.

VIDEO:

"Why are you doing THAT?"

Sometimes we do act strange, don't we? For improving their learning in "Simple Present" x "Present Continuous", the group of Tuesdays/Thursdays afternoons have made a drama about a curious thing that happened to them. You can watch it right here down:

Love, 

Teacher Charlotte!

One more Horror Story!

And here it is! Another horror story for your pleasure, this one written by my Tuesdays/Thursdays afternoons group. And you can wait, because there's a last horror story to be posted.Always remembering that this group used the same method as the other to create this piece of art!!

Enjoy it!

Teacher Ana Wolf

                                                                       The Fat Ghost

Last night I was watching TV when I heard a strange noise. I went to the garden to see what was happenning. There was a person on the ground . When I came closer I saw something that terrified me : that was a man and he was dead. While I was looking at him, he was turning into a ghost, a fat and ugly ghost. He was very mad because the man who killed him scaped from the police. I felt sorry for the ghost and decided to help him finding the killer.
We started loking for him arround the neighborhood, but we didn't find anybody. The ghost got angrier because I wasn't competent. So it started haunting me. Everytime when I was at home, strange things happened like sparkling lights, scary dreams and noises.
One day the ghost killed me and I turned into a ghost too.        

                                                                                THE END?

Authors:

Lucas Faust, Cora Destefani, Natassha Futemma and Victoria Zanon.

Teenagers Horror Stories...

To put into practice everything we've learnt so far involving Past Continuous, using When and While, my teenagers who are studying with the 2B books had a great challenge: to write a scary horror story!! But then, some ideas appeared in how to have it written... Each student would write two sentences, fold the paper in a way the next person would see just one sentence, and continue from that point, till they came to an end... The results were both scary and funny!! 
So, here's the first horror story, from my Mondays/Wednesdays afternoons group!
Hope you enjoy it!!


Teacher Ana Wolf.


                                                 Our Worst Nightmare


When we were at Escola Americana last night, we saw something that scared us. A ghost was coming inside our classroom while we were studying. When it started scratching the wall, we were running desperately. We were going to a hotel to hide from the ghost, who called a monster to help him. The ghost and the monster could reach us, when the monster started saying it was going to eat us. So we started running again to hide from them.

We found a dark and cold corner, a perfect place to hide. We were standing there, when a boy started crying. He was afraid, he couldn't bear the situation. He was saying to the monster to take it easy while the monster was threatening to eat him. "Why are you going to eat me?", asked the boy. "Because I want to", answered the monster.

While we were trying to escape, the monster and the ghost were jumping on us. And we started screaming. So we were trying to hide in the bushes. They weren't able to see us there. We managed to escape to a desert street    

One of us started yelling "I'm going to die!". "You're not going to die", I told him. "Who could help me?" he asked. "Me, Chapolin Colorado!" he said. While he was killing the ghost with a bionic hammer, he was also hitting the monster.

But it's said that it is still alive...


Authors: 
Maycon Furtado, Letícia Corrêa, Bruno Trannin, Maico Schramm and Maria Júlia Giacon

"Let's go on a Bear Hunt?"

Basead on a "Greg & Steve" song, the groups of  tuesdays/thursdays mornings made a very cool movie about a "Bear Hunt"! They've brough several things to compose the set, like hunting clothing, cameras, (fake)weapons, binoculers... Well, why don't you ckeck it out?

"Hey, everybody/

Let's go on a bear hunt?" ♫


Teacher Charlotte Pires

Hey there!

Here at Escola Americana we always have fun and learn at the same time, isn't it nice?

I'm teacher Charlotte Pires and I'm here to present you one of my groups of  Tuesdays/Thursdays afternoons. They've made a drama about the subject that they've learned, which was "Simple Present vs. Present Continuous" and I recorded everything, of course! 

Hope that you enjoy them, let's watch?

See you soon, guys !

Teacher Charlotte ♥

Learning and Having Fun!

During the past two weeks, some of my groups put everything they've learnt so far into action.
These opportunities were recorded to be posted here, at our blog, and shared with everybody.


And you can bet it was a really enjoyable way of learning! We're always going to be around here, sharing our news!


Teacher Ana Wolf.



WHERE'S CHARLIE?
Tuesdays and Thursdays - Morning

Tuesdays and Thursdays - Afternoon

DRAMA INTERVIEWS
Mondays and Wednesdays - Afternoon

WHY TO CELEBRATE ST. PATRICK’S?

St. Patrick's Day honors St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. We celebrate St. Patrick's Day on March 17. Americans march in parades, dance the Irish jig and gather to sing Irish songs. People wear green in memory of Ireland, the Emerald Isle and wear shamrocks, clover with three leaves.

March 17 was not the day St. Patrick was born but the day he died. Even though we don't know the date of his birth, most scholars believe the year was 385 AC and the year of his death was 461 AC.

St. Patrick was born in Wales, studied religion to become a priest and then went to Ireland to teach the people about God. There are many wonderful stories about St. Patrick, some true and some not true. The most famous legend is that he drove the snakes out of Ireland. This did not happen but the Irish will tell you that you cannot find a snake throughout the whole country of Ireland. 

 

The Leprechaun

The name leprechaun came from the Irish leath bhrogan (shoemaker), although its origins may lie in luacharma'n (Irish for pygmy). These apparently aged, little men are frequently found in an intoxicated state, caused by home-brew poteen. However they never become so drunk that the hand which holds the hammer becomes unsteady and their shoemaker's work affected.They are known as The Fairies Shoemakers, and it is said that they just produce two shoes a year.

Leprechauns have also become self-appointed guardians of ancient treasure (left by the Danes when they robbed around Ireland), burying it in jars or pots. This may be one reason why leprechauns tend to avoid contact with humans because they think they are foolish, voluble and greedy creatures. If caught by a mortal, he will promise great wealth if allowed to go free. He carries two leather bags. In one there is a silver shilling, a magical coin that returns to the purse each time it is paid out. In the other he carries a gold coin which he uses to try and bribe his way out of difficult situations. This coin usually turns to leaves or ashes once the leprechaun has parted with it. However, you must never take your eye off him, for he can vanish in an instant.

Post created by: Victoria Zanon, Lucas Faust, Cora Destefani, Vinícius Bernardes, Nickolas Vilbert, Júlia França.

St. Patrick's history and school party

Saint Patrick's Day is a religious holiday celebrated internationally on 17 March. The most commonly recognized of the patron saints of Ireland is St. Patrick. He is famous for bringing Catholicism to Ireland. Now we are going to tell more about the history of the day.

Legend credits St. Patrick with banishing snakes from the island. However all evidence suggests that Ireland never had snakes.Legend also credits St. Patrick with teaching the Irish about the concept of the Holy Trinity by showing people the shamrock, a three-leaved clover.
 

http://www.brasileire.com/userfiles/stpatrick-snakes.gif

 Escola Americana St. Patrick’s Day party

Date: March 31^st

 Time: 18:30 to 22:00

Cost: R$15,00

                       

We’ll have candy, green soda, music and DJ s.

We’ll have a lot of delicious food.

We’ll have a fantastic light show… Come to our party and have fun with us.

Make sure that you are dressed in something green for the St. Patrick’s Day party.      

 

 

St . Patrick's Day

We celebrate St. Patrick's Day on March 17th. This is a very important  Irish holiday, and is celebrated not only in Ireland, but in several parts of the world, like in USA, Brazil, Argentina, etc...

Who was St. Patrick?

St. Patrick is the most famous saint in Ireland. People say he was the person to eliminate all snakes from Ireland ( he climbed up mountain and with his stick sent the snakes to the sea). He is Ireland's patron, and he used the 3 leaf clover to represent the Holy Trinity.In the beginning, his color was blue, and as the time passed, he started wearing green clothes.

Legends