April 22nd 2008 - Earth Day!

Earth Day is next Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008. It is time to celebrate, reflect, encourage action and promote environmental citizenship.



We want Earth Day to be everyday because our planet needs protection.
In order to develop a sense of environmental responsibility students at Challenge Education will get involved in many activities and projects.



"Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents,
it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors,
we borrow it from our Children." Ancient Indian Proverb

Spicing up your personal Profiles! Second Part

Here we have the first three comics created by students who accepted the challenge and introduced themselves using a web 2.0 tool.

Sabrina, Vanina and Patricio! Congratulations!


Description of Sabry from sabry on Comiqs


My Description from pachuu on Comiqs


My friend Vany from vany on Comiqs


And, of course, I also created my own comiq:


Introductions from saa on Comiqs

Good news!

The end of the year is coming. I'm sure that lots of interesting things have happened to you. Getting a new pet, passing an exam, finishing school are all examples of excelent news. I`d like to know all your good news! Share them with us in our forum!

Looking for an ending for "The Red Dress" story

The students from Beginner level have been working very hard trying to find pictures to illustrate the story they have been reading in class. They have finally finished their project and they would like to share it with all of you. Why don't you take some time to answer the questions they have prepared? You can also help us to find a good ending for the story. Invent one and post it in Voice Thread. Remember that, as we said last week, you can leave your comments typing, recording your voice with a mic or even using your webcam.
Here is the story, ENJOY!

Can you guess the ADJECTIVE?

We have recieved plenty of Google Montages related to adjectives. (If you want, you still have time to send us yours to challengeeducation@gmail.com.) We have created our own "Guess the Google" on Voice Thread, a web page in which you can leave comments by voice, text and audio file.

Why don't you participate in our game? We have left some clues to make it easier for you to answer. Leave your guesses...

Can you Guess the Google?

I'm sure that you usually use Google to search for information. In order to do that, you have to type a key word and google does the search for you. Today I propose you a new challenge: to reverse the process. Here you can see a montage of photographs that are the result of a google search. Can you guess which two words I have typed to get this result? HELP: It is related to Challenge Language School.
If you liked it, in this webpage you will find a game to go on guessing. In "Guess the Google" you must guess what keyword made up the image. Enter the page, click on "launch project" and start playing. Why don't give it a try? If you are fast, you will get to the top scorers board.
Now, I was wondering that maybe you can make your own creations. Why don't you prepare your own google montage, with a key word that represents you? In order to do it:
1) Enter this webpage: Montage a Google.
2) Click on "Launch a Project"
3) Enter the keyword and click on search
4) Click on create a montage
5) Now to save it in yur computer press Ctrl and "Prt sc" or "Impr pant"(if you do not know where to find this key here you can see a picture of it on a keyboard)
6) Paste it into your favourite photo or paint programme, such as paint , microsoft photo editor and others.
7) Send it to challengeeducation@gmail.com
We will post your creations soon and we will be able to have a game of our own.
See you next week. Do not forget to participate in our forum discussions.

Spellathon Winners!!!!!!

The Spellathon has already taken place at Challenge. We would like to cogratulate the winners : Nahuel, Florencia and Nahuel and all the students from Junior Level for having had such a wonderful performance. Go on working hard and thank you for having taken part in the competition.

Happy Halloween!!!

Halloween is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31st. During that night children go to their neighbours' houses asking for candies. The usual phrase "Trick or treat" is heard everywhere. There are also lots of halloween festivals, bonfires and costume parties going on. And of course, horror films and ghost stories cannot be missing.
In spite of the fact that we do not generally celebrate Halloween in our country, I invite you to be surrounded by the spooky atmosphere of this celebration. You can start getting into the mood by reading a ghost story or a tale of terror that you can find in this website : Halloween Ghost Stories.
As you may know, the students from FCE course started last week a discussion in our forum on "Life After Death" (of course, everybody is welcomed to take part in the discussion). At one point, the question of whether ghosts exist or not cropped up, and some ghost stories were given as examples. For that reason, I invite you now to expand on that discussion. I would like to hear your opinion on the topic and if you want, to share with us a ghost story. Maybe, if you celebrate Halloween in your country, you can also share your experience. You can comment on this in our forum. Looking forward to hearing your stories. Happy Halloween!

How are You? I'm PINK today.

You might be wondering what the title means. Well, it is not that I have gone a bit cuckoo in the head. As you may already know, just as colours can express sounds and tastes so can they express ideas and feelings. For that reason, languages are full of the use of colours to describe moods, and the English language is not an exception. Here are some common idiomatic expressions with colours and their meanings:

1) I saw red. (I got very angry)

2) I was green with envy. (I was very jealous)

3) I was tickled pink when I heard the news. (I was really happy)

4) It came out of the blue.(It was a surprise)

5) I'm really browned-off about it. (I'm fed up, annoyed with it)

6) I was in blue funk. (I was very scared)

And now, let's make something out of all this. I would like to know how you are feeling today, and a funny way of doing this is by associating your moods with colours. If you enter this page, you are going to be able to keep a record of your moods and visualize them in beautiful colour strips. You are also going to have the possibility of writing a comment on why you have chosen that colour. To do so, follow these instructions:

1) Enter the page.

2) Login by entering the following information:

Username: challengestudents

Password: moods

3) Click on post

4) Click on the colours that reflect your moods

5) Write the feelings associated with the colours under "Describe it using words", separate them by commas and do not forget to write your name.

Ex: Sabrina: happy, green with envy

6) Press post and that's all.

To see the colour strips you and the rest have done follow this link.

Looking forward to seeing your colour strips.

Spelling Challenge!!!!

Can you realise what's wrong with this sentence? (HELP: There is a spelling mistake which creates a humorous effect) If you have spotted it, why not leave it as a comment?

The Spellathon is just around the corner, so we should start practicing NOW. As you all know, it will take place on the 22nd of October.

Last week, we practiced the alphabet so I hope that by this time, you already know your abc perfectly well. If that is so, we can devote the whole of this post to practicing spelling.

Let's start with a fun warm-up. As you can see from the picture we have here, spelling can change the meaning of a sentence completely. So don't underestimate the need of correct spelling. This picture is part of a series made by Graham Rawle appearing in some British newspapers, where a single consonant is missing from a normal sentence, creating a humorous effect. Here you will find more examples. Click the button that reads : "More of this" to see more examples. If you spot the mistakes share them with us by leaving a comment.

And here you have some games to practice your spelling before the great day comes.

Alien Scavenger Hunt: Shoot the letters to form the word you hear.

Spelling Bee: Listen to the word and write it down.

Spell Check: Which word is not spell correctly?

Hope you like them. Good luck in the spellathon!!!!

Looking forward to our SPELLATHON!

The great day has finally arrived! If you are a student from Junior, you will be able to put into practice everything you have learned as regards spelling in our Sopellathon. It will take place at end of October here at Challenge Education Language School. If you are planning to take part in it, you will have to start practising.

First of all, you should revise the alphabet and here you have some entertaining games to help you with that.

Can you help the mokey in Alphabet Antics? Listen to the sound and click on the appropriate coconut.

Or maybe you prefer to go to the undersea world. There the red lobster needs your help to find the letters.

Now, that you know your ABC perfectly well, you are ready for our next challenge!

Coming Soon: Spelling Games!!!!

Our new project!! Why don't you take part in it?

We are a group of students from Intermediate level and we have been working on differences between living in the city and living in the country. We have listened to a folktale called "The City Mouse and the Country Mouse" .
Here you have a Tom & Jerry cartoon in which you will find more differences between living in the country and living in the city.


Now, we are all interested in knowing what YOU think about the topic so as to have more ideas to include in our project. We would be grateful if you could answer the questions we thought for you and collaborate with us. You would find all the questions in our forum.
Please, do not forget to tell us your name or nickname, your age and your nationality
Thanks,

Intermediate Courses.

It is not only YOU!

If you sometimes feel that you will never master the English language, here you have two examples to make you feel that you are not the only one. If even native speakers may sometimes misheard a song, why feel frustrated when you, who are just starting to learn the language cannot understand every single word you hear. Here you have a video of a famous advertisement from the 80's in which you can see a strange way in which a native apeaker interpret this song.


Have you been able to understand the actual lyrics of the song? If you have been able to: Congratulations!!!!! If not, don't worry here you have the correct interpretation of the song.

Get up in the morning,
slaving for bread, sir,
So that every mouth can be fed.
Poor me, Israelite.
My wife and my kids,
They are packed up and leave me.
Darling, she said, I was yours to be seen.
Poor me, Israelite.

I will now tell you another interesting story. Sam Goldwin arrived in the United States from Poland at the age of eleven. He later became one of Hollywood’s most successful film producers, but he never managed to completely master the English language. According to wikipedia "Samuel Goldwyn's inferior English language skills led to many of his malapropisms, paradoxes, and other speech errors called Goldwynisms ("A humorous statement or phrase resulting from the use of incongruous or contradictory words, situations, idioms, etc.") being frequently quoted"
Some of his Goldwynisms are very well-known although probably not all genuine:
“Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist needs his head examined!”
“An oral contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on".
Goldwyn often confused common sayings. Can you tell us which are the actual idiomatic expressions he was trying to say. Maybe you can also explain to us the meaning of them and provide us with an example in which the idioms are used. (You can leave them as a comment)
1) “Include me out”
2) “They’re always biting the hand that lays the golden egg” (Be careful! This is a mixture of two sayings)
3) “We have all passed a lot of water since then”
4) “It rolls oft my back like a duck”
5) “In two words: impossible”
We would also like to hear about your own experience with the English Language. Do you find any skill (listening, speaking,writing, reading) remarkably difficult? Have you ever misheard a song or confused common sayings in English or in your mother tongue? Can you share the anecdote with us? We are looking forward to hearing from you.
Finally, remember that in our forum there are lots of new topics to be discussed and if you are new to it yo can start by telling us something about you in the introductions section.

Let's introduce to one another!

It has already been a month and a half since we started with our blog project and we have shared activities, videos, games and lots of other things. However, I'm afraid there is something missing. I have introduced myself in the first post but I still do not have much information about you. For that reason, we are going to devote this post to getting to know one another. When you meet a person for the first time, what do you ask? Here you have some ideas to start with but you can come up with your own questions.


We have started in our forum a thread in which we can introduce to one another. There are some questions to guide you. Answer the ones you like and feel free to post new questions for us all to discuss.
Looking forward to meeting you all!

PARTICIPATE IN OUR FORUM

Would you like to take part in our project?

We are a group of students who are learning English at Challenge Education School. We are working on a collaborative project about healthy eating habits. We would like you to answer the following survey so we can analyse the information gathered from different countries.

When you answer the questions do not forget to say your name/nickname, age and nationality!
Thank you!

Here is the survey: You can either answer it as a comment or follow this link to our new forum. There you will also find the survey. We consider that the forum is the best option because there, we will have the possibility of interacting with each other. The information we gather will be available for everybody who is interested in reading it here and in our forum.

Choose one of the following options to answer the questions:

Always- Often- Sometimes- Hardly Ever- Never

1. Do you drink milk?

2. Do you have a balanced diet?

3. Do you eat vegetables and fruits?

4. Do you buy sugar-free chewing gum?

5. Do you buy sugar-free drinks?

6. Do you eat chocolates?

7. Do you do some exercise every day? Do you play any sport?

8. Do you walk every week?

9. Do you cycle to school?

10. Do you take a bus to go to school?

11. Do you walk to school?

12. Do you have a healthy breakfast?

13. Do you spend money on sweets?

14. Do you clean your teeth every day?

15. Do you look after your health?

16. Do you smoke?

17. Do you eat too many high-fat food?

18. Do you eat low-fat food?

19. Do you sleep a lot?

20. Do you drink plenty of water?

R u a text expert?

If you live in this world, you most probably have a cell phone, send text-messages and communicate with your friends via MSN. But do you go to extremes like the girl we can see in this British advert?


I hope not. If you don't have a clue about what this girl is saying, you lack information on new technologies and internet lingo. Here there is a very comprehensive article and listening from the BBC on Instant Messaging. Now, that you have all the information you need we can proceed.
If you are a regular user of instant messages, you are aware that you have to be economical with words. For that reason, people have found very creative ways of getting their messages across by combining letters and numbers. You already know how to do this in Spanish, but do you know how to read text messages in English? Here you have a webpage with all the information you need. You can translate from txtmsg lingo to English or the other way about (from English to txtmsg lingo). There is also a very complete list of emoticons, txting words and acronyms.
Let's have a bit of fun with all this. Can you translate these text messages into plain English? Leave us the translation as a comment...

1. C U L8R M8
2. AFAIK
3. W8 4 ME, I’M L8, SOZ
4. KIT
5. HAND
6. TMB
7. C U 2NITE O 2MORO
8. Evtings funny as long as its nt hapNg 2 U.
9. The best wA 2 gt rid of doZe past memries is 2 brng somit nu 2 Rplce it
10. Ive a pen wich S blue, Ive a pal wich S u. flowers wl di,e waters will dry, but r Fship will nvr say gdby

You can also create your own text messages by translating them here from plain English into txtmsg lingo. Give it a try and leave your messages as comments...We will be waiting for them.

A Challenge for you all: Inventing a gadget!!!!

Do you know what a gadget is? A gadget is a device that is small and often not essential. If you have been studying at Challenge, you have most probably encountered in some of your classes two very famous British characters that have already invented lots of gadgets:Wallace and Gromit!!!! If you have never seen them before, here you've got the trailer of their last movie to get acquainted with them:"Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit". In Pre-Intermediate we have been watching "Wallace and Gromit in a Close Shave" and we have devoted last class to work on gadgets advertisements (real and imaginary) that we have in our text-books. For that reason,we pose a challenge to all of you:

"Invent the funniest and most useful gadget of all times. "

Choose a gadget (serious or humorous) and write an advertisement for it. Don't forget to include a title, the advantages of your gadget, the price and where you can get it.

We will be waiting for your creations...leave them as a comment.

Simpsonized!!!!

If you have ever wondered how you would look like if you lived in Springfield I have got the answer. As I told you before you can go to www.simpsonizeme.com/# and turn yourself into a Simpson character. I have already done it and here you have the result.

Can you guess who these two people are? I can help you: If you go to Challenge, you are most probably going to find them at any time...

http://simpsonizeme.com/ecard.php?lang=en_us&code=sprkwigxpkubsyrswkyvjlaqguhgknxv

and....

http://simpsonizeme.com/ecard.php?lang=en_us&code=huvmfyuqmifqwyamjxsjmcfoyfvrveba

And finally here you've got our first students' creation. They are from Elementary. Can you guess who they are?

http://simpsonizeme.com/ecard.php?lang=es_es&code=zxguoidoumgecmkunjnsptkxsekfaheu#

http://simpsonizeme.com/ecard.php?lang=es_es&code=bhcchwkmhybzprpturznzptweyartqrq

And who are these girls?

http://simpsonizeme.com/ecard.php?lang=es_es&code=pkbzckagfgohamtrrxtvpwikqwmeerxi

http://simpsonizeme.com/ecard.php?lang=en_us&code=nqeberzphvsfuaoltfhvadclhcjszujx

http://simpsonizeme.com/ecard.php?lang=es_es&code=qcvbaqxxubqjkdqafjsjrhkuxdejhddq

remember to send us your creations so that we can post them too. You can invent an imaginary name. I'll be waiting for your creations.