Santa Claus

Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas or simply "Santa",  lives in a small hill called Korvatuturi in Lapland, Finland. Santa brings presents to the good children on Christmas Eve.

The saint who inspired the legend of Santa Claus was Saint Nicholas, who lived in the 4th Century AD and was famous for giving presents to the poor and for putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him.

Santa enters through the chimney and leaves the presents under the Christmas tree or in the stockings that hang from the mantelpiece.

Have you been good this year?

New Year's Eve

 New Year's Eve is celebrated on 31st December. Some countries celebrate it in summer, and some others in winter. There are different ways to celebrate it, depending on the traditions of the country. 

• Spain: Spanish people eat 12 grapes when the clock strikes 12 at the turn of the year, that is,  we eat a grape for each bell ring (the sound of the bells is very fast so you must eat quickly). A Spanish legend says that if you go outside with an empty suitcase after the clock struck 12,  you will be lucky in your next trips.
• Portugal:  there are the same traditions than in Spain but instead of eating grapes, Portuguese people eat raisins.
• Brazil:  New Year's Eve is celebrated on the beach and people get dressed in white as they believe that if they wear white clothes on New Year's Eve, good luck will stay with them for the rest of the year.  At 12 o'clock people go into the sea with champagne and make a toast to the New Year.

• China: before beginning the celebration of the New Year, they clean their houses to eliminate all the bad luck from the year that they want to  leave behind. Dragons of plastic are used as decorations and firecrackers are thrown to eliminate bad spirits.

Spanish League News

David Villa from F.C. Barcelona has broken his shinbone and he will probably not go to the Eurocup. After last weekend match, Barcelona are level on 37 points with Real Madrid but Barcelona have played one match more. Barcelona played "better" than Real Madrid: Benzema scored in the first minute of the match, but Alexis, Cesc and Xavi scored for Barcelona.

As for the other teams in the Spanish League, Zaragoza, Racing and Sporting are in decline. Levante, Valencia, Sevilla and Málaga are in Europe. Atlético de Madrid and Villareal are doing a terrible league. Valencia and Villarreal are eliminated from the Champions.

December 2011

Brookhouse Literary Awards. Christmas edition

Most of our talented writers have made great effort to write beautiful stories. We have read all kinds of stories; some were too short or too long, a bit too spooky to be christmas time. So far, we know that there was a tie and the jury decided to awards two writers instead of one. The winners will be announced this afeternoon and the stories will be published in the "Brookhouse Times" Christmas edition.

Recycling project

Our English project is about recycling. We explain the process of recycling, that is based on "the three Rs": Recycle, Reduce and Reuse.

Sorting the waste out is essential. There are four bins:

- The blue bin is for paper only,

- The yellow bin is for plastic and packaging only

- The light green bin is for glass only,

- The dark green bin is for organic waste.

If we recycle, our planet will be cleaner. 

What Can We Do To Protect The Environment?

As you know, the environment is changing. Our use and abuse of natural resources is causing global warming (the poles are melting), deforestation,  pollution in the cities, oceans and rivers, etc. 


Then, what can you do to protect the environment?

• Don't waste water: turn off the tap when you're not using it or take a shower instead of a bath. 
• Don't throw litter on the street.
• Recycle your rubbish at home.
• Use the public transport. That would help to reduce the exhaust fumes in cities.
• Don't pollute the oceans. That could kill a lot of fish.

You could do a lot of things more......... like.........Picking up the litter from the streets, turn off the lights every time you leave a room, turn off the TV when you're not watching it, turn off the heating when you are not at home or use less paper to save the rainforests.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS

LITTER :  It's the rubbish that you find on the streets, like bottles, papers or tins. If you throw papers in the bin, everything will be cleaner. Don't you agree?

GLOBAL WARMING: It's an increase in the average temperature of the Earth. To reduce global warming we should: use public transport, reduce the amount of pollution in the cities and reduce factory fumes.

Christmas Time!

Christmas is celebrated in many countries around the world every year.

Important dates:

24th December :  it's Christmas Eve. It's the most important family gathering of the year. We usually have dinner with our family and Santa Claus (or Father Christmas) comes to our house at night to leave the presents.
25th December: it's Christmas Day. Children and adults open the presents that Santa has left for us. We have lunch with our family.
31th December: it's New year's eve. We have a New Year's Eve dinner with our family and at midnight we eat 12 grapes to welcome the New Year.

The photo on the right shows a tree and a lot of presents underneath. We can see the stockings full of presents hanging from the mantelpiece.

In Spain, the Three Wise Men bring presents on 6th January to the children that have behaved properly.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2012!

 

Social Networks

Nowadays social networking websites are very important in teenagers' lives
Some of the most important social networks are:

- Facebook: Facebook is the most popular website at the moment, it was launched  in February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. Now it has got more than 800 million active users.                                                            

 - Tuenti:
Tuenti is a Spain-based private networking website where you can only enter with an invitation, it is like a Spanish Facebook. It was founded in 2006 by a group of Spanish friends.


- Twitter:
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets". It was created in 2006 by Jack Dorsey. It has 300 million users.

80s Music

Throughout history there have been a lot of rock bands. We remember some of them because they were great  or very popular around the world and even if they split up or died,  we remember them. The music that we listen to nowadays would be different without the influence from the 60s or 80s.

The most popular bands of the 80s were:

Cyndi Lauper was born in NY.  She is a very famous singer, her best song is "Girls just wanna have fun"
When she was 15 she looked different: she was the Princess of POP music.

Michael Jackson is the king of  POP. Although he died in 2009, we still remember him and his songs. Thriller, We are the World (he sang this song with other singers of the 80s) Smooth criminal, etc.  are still  listened to nowadays.

HANDBALL

HANDBALL  is a team sport in which two teams of seven players pass a ball to throw it into the goal of the other team. A match consists of two periods of 30 minutes, and the team that scores more goals wins.

In Spain, handball is very popular, although not as popular as football. The Team Seis do Nadal from Vigo is a bit famous in the area.

The Spain national handball team has won several competitions and medals. 

The KIKE CUP

In the competition there were 5 teams which were: Rockets, Mavericks, All stars,Titans and Terminators.
All the teams were very good but just two could  play the final and those two teams were the Rockets and the All stars. The match was divided into two parts of 30 minutes in the first part the rockets scored one goal, but in the second part the rockets scored one goal more and the all stars scored one goal too.

      THE GOALS

1st goal: Mario Cabado (rockets)

2nd goal: Mario Cabado(rockets)

3rd goal:jesus (all stars)             

                                                                          THE PLAYERS


                 ROCKETS                                                                   ALL STARS



GOAL KEEPER:Iñaki Carrera Bueno            GOAL KEEPER: Pablo Losada
DEFENDERS:Javier Campelo                        DEFENDERS:Fran Gonzalez,Jesus
ATTACKERS:Mario , Alex,jesus                    ATTACKERS:Fran and Pedro
CENTRE:Manuel Abelardo                           CENTRE:Ansur,Jesus
 EXTRAS:Javi Vazquez                                    EXTRAS: Marc Baldor

                                       

 CONGRATULATIONS TO THE ROCKETS!  

We also had our tireless cheer leaders!

  By guest writers from Pontevedra school: Iñaki Carrera and Ignacio Álvarez  

Belvedere house

Our second excursion was to Belvedere house. ''Narnia The Witch, The wardrobe and the lion'' and ''Bridge to Terabithia'' were filmed there. We went to the gardens and saw  a lot of interesting places about the film.

We also saw the house which was built by a noble man a long time ago. There was a wall that's called the jealous wall. The jealous wall was build on the 1760's. It's 22 metres tall and 50 metres long, it's beautiful. it was built to separe the two brothers houses that were in the same garden so that they couldn't see each other.
The bad thing is that it was raining.

By Pedro and Teresa

Our first excursion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went on our first excursion in Ireland to The Modern Art Museum it was cool and strange but very nice... We all took a ribbon bracelet to cherish somebody's wish and we left a wish written on a piece of paper to be cherished by the next visitors.

As we usually do,we went to The Stephen's Green Shopping Centre, we were running until we got there...then we were very tired but we just wanted to buy...hahaha!☺






Ansur and Astrid

Happy Thanksgiving!

In 1620 some English people sailed to America because they didn't like the King's religion.
It was a long journey and when they arrived in America they were very ill. Many people died from sickness, starvation and freezing to death. There were some people living there, the Indians. The Indians decided to help them. They showed the English people how to hunt and fish, how to grow corn and potatoes and helped them to build houses. In 1621 they started to get corn, pumkings and animals like ducks; this was because the Indians helped them. So they decided to celebrate it to give thanks, not only for the harvest, but for their new home and friends. Today in countries like USA, people celebrate  Thanksgiving the forth Thursday in November. They get together with the family and friends and they have a Thanksgiving dinner. They have turkey, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING !!!!

Halloween spooky story contest

Fisrt of all I would like to thank you all for the great stories you have written for the contest. I think we have fantastic potential writers among us. I'm glad to know that.

And the winner is... CLAUDIA DINIZ 1º ESO B

WELL DONE CLAUDIA!!!!!!!

Special mention to: Bea Castro, Gabriela Barreiro and Cayetana Fernández for their spooky stories.



The teacher

Top seven songs

Here are the 7 best song that you'll never hear: 
           
1 WELCOME TO ST.TROPEZ - DJ Antonie vs Timati
          
2 One day-LMFAO 
        
3 Rain over me - Marc Anthony ft. PITBULL
        
4 Give me everything - Nayer ft. Ne-yo PITBULL
      
5 International love - Chris Brown ft. PITBULL
   
6 Sweat - Snoop Dogg ft. David Guetta

7  What makes you beautiful - One direction

BY: The Frankis

VICTORIA'S SECRET FASHION SHOW 2011

The Victoria's Secret fashion show 2011 was celebreted in New York at the eyes of the important people and CBS. The Top Models were literally Angels...♥This is how they are usually called... This year the show was dedicated to Spain and its culture.

And Miranda Kerr has been mum very recently and she is... AWSOME!!

By: Glamourous 1º ESO A

TRIP TO ORLANDO

We're going to talk about DisneyWorld Orlando. This park is the most famous park in the world Disney World is children's favourite place. This park has also a waterpark with a lot of rides they are exciting because the longest slide in the world is  there.
Mickey is a mouse, he is the king of the park and his girlfriend is Minnie. There are other prominent figures, like Goofy, Donald duck, Daisy and Pluto. When we were there, we enjoy all the time because in the hotel there were alsoDisney characters.


                                                                          
By: Ana López, Esther Ogando, Natalia Martínez y Paula Diz

Our trip to Ireland

We think that our trip to Ireland it will be the best of the three.We are looking forward to eating a lot of sweets like whams, brain lickers or jawbreakers. We are going to visit a lot of places like the Belvedere house, where Narnia Chronicles were shot,  or a chocolate factory and we are going to go shopping to one of the biggest shopping centres in Europe, Dun Drum. But what we all want is to see snow.

 This is the inside of Dun  Drum

By: Scrunch Scrunch 1º A

The tragic death of Marco Simoncelli

Marco Simoncelli died because he fell off his motorbike . Valentino Rossi  and Colin Edwards hit him in his head and the helmet went out .  Forty-five minutes later the doctors gave the world the bad news of  his death . In the next race all the riders remebered him with a  silent minute. That was a very sad day.






By: Javier Vázquez, Mario González, Oleg Varela y Gonzalo Elvira. 

Roller coasters

We visited a lot of funfairs and we are going to talk about the ten fastest  roller coasters of the world.
 The 1º is Kinda Da, the 2º is Dragon 2000, the 3º is Millenium Force, the 4º is Top thrill Dragster, the 5º is Doponda, the 6º is Thunder Dolphin, the 7º is Goliath, the 8º is Dragon Khan, the 9º is Titán Roller and the 10º is Alton Towers. We recomend them!!!!!
By : Paula Sanmartín , Clara Soutullo , Noelia Bugarín y Laura Pérez

The Black Eyed Peas

We like this group because it's one of the most famous group of USA and it's famous in all the world.
They are famous in techno, hip-hop, etc...
Their most famous songs are: boom boom pow, let's get it's started, I got a felling.

Their names are: Apl.de.ap, fergie, will.i.am, taboo.

Our names are: Alex Rodríguez , Pablo Losada, Felipe Sanmartín.

Animals in danger

We are very worried about the animals in danger, one of them is the golden lion tamarin we are going to talk about it.
This animal ,the golden lion tamarin gets its name from its fiery orange and red pelage and the extra long hairs that form along its cheeck, throat and ears. Its face is dark and hairless.
The golden lion tamarin is the largest callitrichines. It is found only in brazil. where it lives in the forest.











We need to protect our environment

                                                                                                     ¿Isn't it cute?

By: Alba, Carlota, Claudia & Paula M.

Johnny Depp

 He is a very famous actor because he did a lot of famous films.
For example pirates of the caribean,turists,Charlie and the chocolate factory and he has won The globe award.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B2-vf1Sy2c

 

 

 

 

DIEGO,GABRIELA,CARLOS AND SANTI

Trip to Barcelona

The first day we were on the bus all day , and we didn't sleep.The next day we arrived in Salou in the water park!! We had a lot of fun there !!!!!!!!!!!!!

The next day we went to PORT AVENTURA :)  it was the best day!!!      



by : Natalia, Blanca,María, Ale :) BOOM

                                                   

                                                                                           

Formula 1

The formula1 is one of the most popular racing sports.We are very interested in sports and Formula 1 is one of our favourite. we find it very exciting and when we grow up we would like to be drivers like Fernando Alonso.

We said Fernando Alonso because is, in our opinion, the best driver in the world.

This year Vettel is the winning because he has the best car.But Fernando Alonso did a great job.

And we like the girls that are in the paddock. 


HUGO FERNANDEZ ,

MANU CASTRO
GUILLE MARTÍN
JAIME OCAÑA

VIDEO GAMES

On this blog you can see the best video game of this year (2011). So at the end we must do an evaluation of the best video game of the year:

-Battlefield 3: It has the new tehcnology of frosbite 2 that permits some incredible animations and special effects and the graphics and the audio are the best in the word for PS3 and xbox360. The battlefield 3 won a lot of prices but the most important were:(http://www.battlefield.com/uk/battlefield3/1/awards)
     -oficial price of the gamescom (best of show)
     -price game critics (best of show E3 2011)
     -eurogamer (best of show)
     -tokio game show (video games price of japan 2011-future division)

by: -Rodrigo Pérez
     -Javier Borreguero
     -Jorge Romero
     -Pablo Baldó

Spanish football

Here we´ve got some information about spanish league:
R.Madrid is in first position, Barcelona is one point behind R.Madrid. Levante FC is the revelation team this year, they are in third place and Ballesteros is the best player of Levante FC.
Messi and CR7 are also playing very well, Messi is the maximum scorer with 13 goals and CR7 is second with 10 goals.
                                 
In Liga Adelante Hércules is the leader, Celta is in forth position and Deportivo de la Coruña is in seventh position. The scorer of Liga Adelante is Joselu player of the Villarreal B with 8 goals, and in second position is Iago Aspas player of the Celta with 7 goals.

Here we´ve got some information about champions league: 
R.Madrid and Barcelona CF. have the qualification secure.
Valencia FC. has to win against Chelsea, and Villareal CF. was eliminated of the Champions League after losing agaist Manchester City 0-3.

By Luis Carrera and Pablo Peñalosa

Halloween contest

Halloween is near and this year secondary students are encouraged to write the most spooky story they can think of...

Any length, be as original as possible, make it scary...
Hand it in next 24th or 25th of October (to María Ilarri). There will be a prize for the winners.The best will be published.
TRICK OR TREAT???????

Music ;)

Welcome to the music blog section: Today we are talking about music. Pop: Michael Jackson was the best dancer and singer in the world. He have a lot of song like: One of his most famous songs is called Thriller. It was not very famous at the beginning, but when he made the videoclip everybody liked it. He wanted to have a white skin. Then Michael Jackson died of an overdose of medicines because his doctor gave them to him.

AC/DC: The group was born in the year 1970. The group has six members. The heaviest song of the group is BACK IN BLACK.

GUNS AND ROSES: The famous song is WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE. Two years ago the singer of the group went mad. Axel, the singer left the band.

By C.P.A.C

Los Sauces football team

     Although last year we finished in third place, this year we want to be first. Today we are going to meet the team's coach and one of the players.


Aldo's interview:

-Last year you  finished third, how do you think you're going finish in the league?

-Last year we were very good but this year we expect to be fourth

-Wich team was the hardest to beat last year?

-Erizana team was the most difficult to win.

-Why did you choose the colour for that football T-shirt?

-Because it was the cheapest!!

-Do you  get angry very often?

-Just enough

Jesus' (football player) interview:

-Do you always obey the team's coach?

-Yes, because if I don't do it i get punished

-In Wich place do you play?

-I play of playmaker, but now I'm a alternate

-Which player do you want be like?

-I want to be like Andres Iniesta because I like his type of playing football

By frankis:Pedro López, Mar Fraile, Teresa Matamoro, Marc Baldor

Beginning 1st of ESO

The first day we met a lot  of new teachers that we didn't know. We  were very nervous, but after two weeks we feel a bit better. This year we have more subjects than in 6 graders and now we are the youngest of  ESO.
Our new subjects are more difficult . :( The bad news is that we are having our first exams in two weeks' time.
We have a new building, it's better than Primary's building because it's bigger.

This year,  we are going to Ireland with Los Sauces  Pontevedra. It's our last trip to Ireland  during the schoolyear.

By Boom! : Alejandra, Blanca, Maria y Natalia

Summer is over

Now summer is over and we are all going to miss the things that we did in summer and that we can't do now.
For example: some people like going to the beach but other people prefer going to the swimming pool or to the mountains. Lucky people travelled all around the world beacause they weren't happy with spanish beaches.
Other people went to summer camps like: adventure, horse-riding, fishing, water sports...
But now, we're in Autumn so we can do other different things like halloween, "Magosto", and indoor activities. The worst thing about autumn is that we have to go to school and the days are shorter.



By Macacarru

Spain Wins The Eurobasket

Spain is the brand new European Champion after beating 98-83 in an amazing match in Lithuania.

So Spain has won the eurobasket again. The first time was in 2009 in Poland.

Spain has been the dominant team in Europe but France was a good opponent. Juan Carlos Navarro was awarded with the MVP(Most Valuable Player) trophy,  he scored 27 points, and he caught 4 rebounds, and Pau Gasol, the star of spanish national team, did 17 points and 10 rebounds.

The Final match took place in the Kauno Arena of Kaunas City, 14.500 people attended the match. The Prince of Spain, Felipe went to the Kauno Arena to celebrate the success with our team.

Spain is now qualified for the London Olympic Games in 2012 together with France, USA, Argentina, Brazil and The United Kingdom.

By Blackbird Team 2ºESO A

Los Sauces basket team

Hi, we are four girls from school basketball team.

We love basketball because we have fun playing with our friends against other teams. We are back to school and we are training very very very hard to be the best team this year.

This year we have new people in the team: like Beatriz Castro, Raquel Blanco, Astrid Silles...

We have a great coach Rafa Viña (we call him KOPI) Other coaches are Carolina, Sergio and Adrian.

 This is us when we were 11 years old.This photo was taken after a match ,we won that match that's why we look so happy !!!! :)

 By The 4 Crazy girls

WE ARE ON HOLIDAY!

English house kitchen

Banoffee pie recipe

Ingredients
a packet of chocolate digestive biscuits
3 tablespoons of butter
sugar
dark chocolate
cream
3 bananas
toffee

How to make it

Put the biscuitsin a ziplock bag

Release the air from the bag

Seal the bag

Bash biscuits with a rolling pin

Put the smashed biscuits in the bowl

Pour over melted butter

Stir well

Transfer to  a baking tin and refrigerate

Press down with a spoon

Chill in the fridge for 15 minutes

Prepare the bananas

Chop the bananas

Add the bananas and the toffee

Flatten

Spread evenly

Refrigerate 20 minutes

Whip the  cream

Top the pie with the cream

Grate chocolate on the cream

Open the seal

Run a knife around the inside

Remove the baking tin

And serve it

 By Pedro López and Laura Pérez (Group 12)

Enjoy!!

Summer.

This year, 1st  of ESO will go to Cies Islands. There they will visit the lighthouse and then they will have some fun at the beach.
2nd of ESO will go for a trip to the Ribeira Sacra. They will sure enjoy it!
3rd of ESO will go rafting to the Miño river. 4th of ESO will go for the same excursion but a bit longer and more dangerous.
1st of Bach will visit San Simon Island and spend a day on the beach.
Finally, 2nd of Bach will go for their final excursion to Paris! We will miss them a lot!

Have a great summer.

International exams

CONGRATULATIONS to all the students who took Trinity this year. Everybody has passed!

1st ESO project

Emily Dickinson:

Emily Dickinson was born on 10th December, 1830 in Massachusetts. She is regarded as one of America's gratest poets. She wrote poetry of great power. As a young child, Emily showed a sharp intelligent, and was able to create many original writings. She said that her father was very strict with her. As well as writing over 1,700 poems, Emily was a prolific letter writer; These letters gave her the opportunity for contact with other people. She wrote poems like: "a bird came down","a clock stopped", " a door just opened"..
Our favourite poem is " a bird came down" because we think  

International exams

Trinity and Cambridge exams are near you'd better start revising and spend time listening, reading and studying English to perform great at the exams. You can watch sample exams on the web and there are also plenty of exercises to practice.

Here are some links to help you

http://www.examenglish.com/ 
http://www.candidates.cambridgeesol.org/cs/
http://www.onestopenglish.com/Exams/