December

December weather brings about many things: colder weather, gloves, hats, scarves, winter coats, but most importantly, Christmas. I have never been more excited to decorate than I was this year. My boyfriend and I adventured out shopping last week and bought an ample amount of Christmas decorations.  We bought our first tree and assorted ornaments to go with it. The one squabble we came across, however, was a dispute over colored or white lights. Growing up with my family we always had colored lights on the tree. My boyfriend, on the other hand, always had white. As you can probably guess we both wanted the opposite of what we grew up with. I let him win this one. We have colored light on our first tree. Personally I think white lights on prettier.

Vocabulary

Decorate:  verb. The act of decorating and putting up things.

Adventured:  verb. To go out or have an unique or unusual experience of doing something.

Ample:  adjective. A good, sufficient amount of something.

Decorations:  noun. Something used for decorating.

Assorted:  adjective. Different types, kinds of a particular item.

Dispute:  noun. An argument or disagreement.

Squabble:  noun. A petty quarrel.

Vocabulary Exercise

Fill in the blanks:

Every year we _______________ our tree, and also put up many _________________ around our home. There are an ____________ amount of decorations that we ______________ out to purchase. We bought different types of decorations and ornaments so we have an _____________. We had a petty _________ at the store about the color of lights to put on the tree. However, I lost the ______________ and now we have colored lights.

Links

Practice your comparatives and superlative below:

http://www.grammar.cl/Games/Comparatives_Superlatives.htm

http://www.go4english.com/qg/read.php?lang=en&unitid=694

Grammar Point

Comparatives are verbs and adverbs that end in –er.

Which are the comparative in my blog? Are there any superlatives?

Procrastination

My best advice to future students is to not become a procrastinator. What does this mean? Well, don’t put things off. Once you begin to put things off such as chores and assignments it becomes virtually unfeasible to break the bad habit. For example, if you have a paper due a month from now, begin it three to four weeks prior…not 3 days before. This will always help relieve stress and you’ll probably do a more efficient job on your work as well.  When you procrastinate it becomes very overwhelming. Trust me, I would now. Ever since I began college I procrastinated and every year it seems to get worse and worse. A regular easy assignment can become the biggest, hardest, longest project ever!

Vocabulary:

Procrastinator: noun. Someone who constantly puts off or delays something.

Virtually: adverb. Almost, close to being.

Unfeasible: adjective. Capable of being done.

Prior: adjective. At an earlier time, before.

Relieve: verb. To ease something, alleviate.

Stress: noun. Physical, mental, or emotional strain or tension.

Overwhelming: adjective. Something that is overpowering.

Vocabulary Exercise:

Unscramble the vocabulary words:

RTSESS

ROIRP

MINWVHOEGREL

ELERIEV

ALRIYTUVL

BILENAESUF

ROTSCAOAPNTRIR

Grammar Point

Superlatives are adjective and adverbs that end in -est. I use superlatives in this blog. What are they? What are the superlatives referring to? Make a list of a least 5 superlatives.

Link

If you click below...you'll be taken to a site to read the funniest story about Richard...and you'll learn the easiest way to use the coolest superlatives!

http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=1507

Thanksgiving

This year was the first year my boyfriend and I decided to host Thanksgiving. Not to mention the first year we had to cook as well! Everything went okay although I believe we could have done better on timing everything. We had our family come over at all different times (although the goal was 3). The food was not all ready at the same time and we had to keep reheating things in the oven waiting for others to arrive. My boyfriend had never carved a turkey before and suddenly came to realize he was not good at it. All in all, I thought everything tasted pretty good and everyone was stuffed according to tradition. By around 8 o’clock everyone was ready for their nap and went home so we realized that we had accomplished a successful Thanksgiving. At least by not burning or ruining anything; no one argued so that’s always a good sign right? Anyway, I hope everyone had a pleasant time with their families as well!

Vocabulary

Host: verb. to have an event, celebration or party at your residence or planned by you.

Carved:  verb .the way in which you cut a turkey or any other large piece of meat

Tradition: noun. the handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, information, etc., from generation to generation, esp. by word of mouth or by practice.

Accomplish: verb. To perform, carry out a task.

Successful: achieving or having achieved success.

Pleasant: adjective. something that is agreeable or enjoyable.

Vocabulary Exercise

Fill in the blanks:

This year I am having a party for New Years. I will ______the party.

My boyfriend realized he was not very good at ___________ a turkey.

Thanksgiving is a wonderful __________ and holiday.

The weather was not very __________ on Thanksgiving this year.

Our thanksgiving was ______________because everyone enjoyed the food.

You have now ____________ finishing this exercise.

Grammar Point

A preposition is a part of speech, just like nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. Prepositions may seem a little tricky to figure out at first, but it's fairly easy to show kids how to identify them and use them properly.

Make a list of as many prepositions as you can from the above blog.

Links:

Visit the links below to learn more about prepositions see a video and play a game!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4jIC5HLBdM

http://www.marks-english-school.com/games/b_prepmed.html

http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/prepositions-list.htm