It takes a lot of patience to learn English quickly.  When else is it really hard to be patient?  Do you have a lot of patience?

What do you like to do on a beautiful day?

Today is cool and sunny.  Yesterday was also cool and sunny.  Yesterday, I went for a long hike and looked at the colorful leaves and the Potomac River.  This week we are going to work hard in class.  My younger children are going to dress up and "trick or treat" for Halloween.  My older son will be in a scary play on Friday.

What do you like to do on a beautiful day?

What did you do yesterday?

What are you doing today?

What will you do tomorrow?

What are you going to do for Halloween?

It's going to be a great day!

Happy Birthday!

Today we welcomed Lyuda.  We sang happy birthday for Ji Hee and Lillian.
We thought about Maria -- she has an October birthday too.

We practiced future tense with "will."

A disgrace is a shame-- a bad thing that hurts the family or group that the person belongs to.

Are you planning any birthday celebrations for anyone?  What will you do?

Can you describe a wonderful birthday or holiday?

I want to hold your hand

Remember, you only write "want to" like "wanna" in dialogue and song lyrics!

For single students:

•  Is life better without a partner?  Why?
• Can you describe your boyfriend or girlfriend? 
• Can you describe a person you would like to have for a boyfriend or girlfriend?  

For married students:

• Can you describe your spouse?  
• How did you meet your spouse? 
• Can you describe the moment that you knew you wanted to marry your spouse?

Rihanna "Unfaithful"--Listen to "I don't want to __"

When you use lyrics to learn English, sometimes you'll see words that aren't real English words.
"Wanna" is not an English word.  It's how "want to" sounds.  Don't use "wanna" in formal writing, but practice saying it when you read, "want to."

This song has many examples of want to+ _________(base verb).

What did you want to do?

Tell me about a time you got something that was difficult to get because you made and followed a plan.

Bryan Adams, "Everything I do, I do it for You"

Do you have any memories that go with this song?

Who do you admire?

Do you admire anyone?  Who?  Can you describe that person?

Talking

Everyone wants to practice speaking.  What do you like to talk about?

Eid

Today is Eid.  Today muslims in the USA celebrate that Abraham sacrificed a ram instead of his son.  Many poor people will feast on meat today.

Do you celebrate Eid?  What do you do?  What's your favorite holiday?

Happy Columbus Day!

We don't have school today.  Today is Columbus day.  We remember 1492 when Christopher Columbus officially found the Americas and advertised them in Europe.

Today school is out, but stores are open.  Many stores have sales.  Some sales at Tyson's Corner Center

What are you doing today?  Are you shopping?

Describe your favorite....

What does your favorite shirt look like?  Do you have a pair of favorite earrings?  What do your nice shoes look like? What's your favorite outfit?

Describe clothes, jewelry, and accessories that you like.

Example:
I really like my white tank top tee-shirt with yellow lace bordering the neck line.

Through My Eyes

English Teacher Notes:  "theres"  should be "there's."  I also prefer writing "all right" rather than "alright."

R & E Adjective Order

Today we practiced adjective order.

What's a noun?
A person, place, thing, or idea.

My favorite noun is Jack, my husband.  I also like Boulder, Colorado very much.  I like the beach and the mountains. My daughter loves her teddy bear.  My son loves math.  Jack, husband, Boulder, daughter, teddy bear, son, and math are nouns.

Words for clothes and accessories are nouns.  Examples:  skirt, ring, earring, shirt, blouse, and dress.

Quiz on ESL vocabulary on clothes, jewelry, and accessories.

What are your favorite nouns?

What's an adjective?
An adjectives is a word that describes a noun.

Look at the picture. Click on the best description (adjective.)

Look at the picture. Click on the best adjective

Examples
I love my faithful, intelligent, sweet, witty husband.  Faithful, intelligent, sweet, and witty are adjectives.
She went to the big, purple mountains.  Big and purple are adjectives.
He went to the windy, hot, crowded  beach.  Windy, hot, and crowded are adjectives.
The cuddly, fuzzy, soft teddy bear sits on the bed.  Cuddly, fuzzy and soft are adjectives.

What adjectives do you like?

Although most native U.S. speakers do not know that they use an adjective order, you will sound wrong if you do not use it.  The order we practiced today:  1. SIZE, 2, AGE,  3. SHAPE, 4. COLOR,
 5. PATTERN.

We say:  Tall young woman, not young, tall  woman.  We say green plaid shirt, not plaid, green shirt.

Need a more detailed explanation?   Adjective Order Discussion Scroll down to 102.

Practice:  Practice from the Ventures Book  Go to BLUE, Unit 1, Personal Information.
Usingenglish.com adjective order quiz

Can you describe your favorite nouns?  Who are your favorite people?  What are your favorite places?  Where do you like to be?  What are your favorite things?  What are your favorite ideas?

What's your best dish?

My best dishes are very easy.

• I make a delicious summer pasta salad with garlic, olive oil, basil, cheese, and fresh tomatoes.  
• I make a warm pasta with a white sauce that's boiled whipping cream, garlic, white pepper, and parmesan cheese.  
• Sometimes I bake chicken pieces in orange juice. 
•  Sometimes I dip chicken legs in Italian dressing and Italian bread crumbs and then bake them.  
• Sometimes we marinate boneless chicken breasts in Italian dressing and put them on the grill
• I marinate small chunks of beef in brown mustard and brown sugar and put them on kebobs with red peppers, sweet onions, and pineapple.

My husband's best dishes are chinese-style stir fries.  He makes a delicious kung pao chicken.  He also makes wonderful pancakes.

What are your most delicious meals?

What can you do?

Today we practiced with "can + base verbs."  Verbs are action words.  Base verbs don't have "s" "ed" or "ing" at the end.  We talked about things we can and can't do.

Here's a song called "Can we talk?"  It's fast, but I think you can read to follow it and understand many of the words.

Note:  It can be bad to call women, "baby" or "girl." if you don't know them really well.  Some women hate that.  Also, "wanna" is not good Engish even though it's very common in song lyrics.  It's the way "want to" sounds when we say it.

Real English video we watched in class today

We talked about jobs/occupations--
  Language Guide Jobs Vocabulary (same as vocabulary link, but specific)

Another fast video-- this one for vocabulary.  Stop it and repeat it.

We say "mail carrier," not postperson.  Everything else works.

Do you like to shop?

Do you like to shop?  What do you like to buy?

All dressed up and no place to go

I think some of my students can write this whole song as a dictation.  Can you?

Pimmit October 2 R & E

Welcome to class!  We met each other.  We talked about goals.  We've played games like two truths and a lie and telephone tag.

We did a lyric fill-in-the-blank with

"That's My Goal."

Picky English teacher notes about this video:  "Thats" should be "That's"  (That is)  Ive should be I've (I have)

When you write, don't capitalize every word.
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We reviewed "to be," "to have," and vowels.

We practiced using "s" after simple present verbs with he, she, and it.  We practiced saying the s both voiced and unvoiced. (ZZZZ and SSSS)

We used "want," "need," "have," "see," and "hear" in the present tense.

We practiced using and saying "-es" after SS and X.  You can also put an "es"  after SH.

Example:  classes, taxes, wishes.

We used will+ base form for future.

We used --ed for simple past.  We practiced saying it like "t" in worked, cooked, and stopped.

Tell me about yourself.

Who are you?  Where are you from?  Do you live with your family?  If yes, who are they?  What do you like?  What do you hate?  Can you tell me a funny story about yourself?