The English Student
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Illustrations
  • About
  • Say Hello

Telling The Time

4/20/2015

11 Comments

 
Picture
Being able to tell the time is an important part of life. Just like Snoopy in this image, there are times when you'll need to be very specific. Someone might stop to ask you, "Excuse me, have you got the time?" or "Can you tell me what time it is?"

How about making a reservation at a restaurant? "I'd like to make a lunch reservation for 12:30" or making a doctor's appointment: "I'd like to schedule an appointment for 10:00 tomorrow"

Aside from knowing how to say the time, we also need to understand time being expressed by someone. One day you might be that person asking someone for the time and need to understand their response. Or even in understanding when to show up to a meeting or class! You never want to be late!

Take a look at the image below. The time usually has an hour hand (the short hand), a minute hand (the long hand). The hour hand is very easy as long as you know numbers, it's basically between one and twelve. The minute hand is usually the hardest for people to learn.

There are two ways we can express the minute hand. The first way is to say the hour time first and then express the minute hand.
For example:
1:30 = one thirty
3:14 = three fourteen
8:59 = eight fifty nine
11:00 = eleven o'clock

The second and considered more formal way to express time is to use "past" and "to." From one minute to 30 minutes, we use "past." The image below shows this. The number of minutes past the current hour. For example, 1:12 = twelve past one. It means twelve minutes past the hour of one o'clock.

Between 31 minutes and 59 minutes we use "to." The number of minutes to the approaching hour. For example, 1:40 = twenty to two. It means twenty more minutes until the hour of two o'clock.

When we use this form, it can be common to round it to the nearest five minutes, but not always the case. Some might even say, "It's almost ten past one."

This is a useful diagram for you to practice and learn this more formal way to express time. Use it, share it, learn it! !Try and see if you can complete the ten times below then download, print, and wear your own watch to help you practice!


The English Student, telling the time, reading the time, www.theenglishstudent.com, teaching resources
Telling the time, The English Student, www.theenglishstudent.com, teaching how to express time, clock for teaching telling time
Practice using "past" and "to":
(1) 3:35 =
(2) 6:00 =
(3) 12:07 =
(4) 9:30 =
(5) 2:35 =
(6) 11:50 =
(7) 8: 50 =
(8) 4:15=
(9) 4:45=
(10) 5:18=

Answers:
(1) twenty-five to four;  (2) six o'clock;  (3) seven past twelve;  (4) half past nine;  (5  )twenty five to three;  (6) ten to twelve;  (7) ten to nine;  (8) quarter past four;  (9) quarter to five;  (10) eighteen past five;
Picture
tellingthetimewatch.png
File Size: 369 kb
File Type: png
Download File

11 Comments

The Power of Visual Aids in Learning

4/16/2015

0 Comments

 
On this podcast, I talk about the power of visual aids in learning. If you're a parent, I really encourage adding visual aids into the learning process for your child. Visuals have the power to reduce fear and anxiety. When you see colorful, cute, interesting images, it makes the process of learning so much more fun and exciting. The senses are stimulated and from my experience, it has a tremendous affect on retention and recall. I am such a proponent of stress-free healthy learning because when a learner is happy, he or she can be open to absorbing more information and new ideas. Visual aids really do have the power to do that.

In addition, the great thing about visuals aids is that there are so many ways to use them for maximum outcome. It can be presented as a way to elicit information clearly to your child and then used as a way to encourage interaction together. When they see the image again, they can remember the experience and everything else that was part of that fun activity. This is especially helpful for younger children. Visuals for older children can be used to help them understand dense information and remove frustration of learning the "unknown".

Head over to BILINGUAL AVENUE to listen to this full episode, some advices on how to incorporate your own visuals into your child's learning, teaching techniques I've used myself, and definitely check out Marianna's other amazing compilation of resources for parents. I promise you won't be disappointed!

The English Student, Using visual aids as a tool for learning in bilingual children
I was very honored to be asked by Marianna Du Bosq, the creator of Bilingual Avenue to be featured on her podcast. Marianna does AMAZING work for parents trying to raise bilingual/multilingual children. If you're a parent stuck on a language journey with your child, I strongly suggest checking out and following Marianna's work. I'm truly in awe of how much time she has put in to provide an assortment of relevant resources to help parents. You'll find things like, "Will I confused my child if I read books to them in more than one language?" or "The power of music in language learning." Marianna spent years in the classroom teaching English language learners and best of all, a bilingual parent herself!  Gaining knowledge through experts and those who have experience in raising bilingual children can make it a lot less stressful on you as a parent, especially knowing you're not alone!

0 Comments

Capitalization

4/14/2015

0 Comments

 
Today I am re-posting an oldie that was one of the first visuals I created for this blog. It's truly been beneficial to a lot of learners to 'see' the basics of capitalization. It's an important part of grammar! In case you missed it before, here it is again. Hope it'll help you out!

Capitalization wheel, when to capitalize words, The English Student, ESL grammar
Related Lessons:
Proofreading Your Work
Punctuation is Important
Order of Adjectives
Print Friendly and PDF
0 Comments

Computer Savvy

4/7/2015

4 Comments

 
If you're learning English for your job or business, then today's lesson will be beneficial to you. "Computer savvy" is a term we hear quite often in business and also commonly on a job application, resume, or job description

On a job description, you might see something like this:
Looking for someone who has experience in sales, can work as a team and must be computer savvy.

The word SAVVY [sav-ee] means knowledgeable or has advanced skills in a particular area. So someone who is COMPUTER SAVVY means they have good experience with using computers. It can sometimes be seen as computer-savvy.
The English Student, www.theenglishstudent.com the english students, what does computer savvy mean? meaning of savvy, ESL website, best education blog, learn English fun
Those who have poor skills in using computers would not be computer savvy. It usually refers to someone who can do more than just type an email or create a Word document. Just because you have a computer doesn't mean you are computer savvy!

But if you are a computer savvy person, you probably understand how to use several programs, how to perform virus checks, recovering deleted items, creating folders etc. I would say I'm a computer savvy teacher!

There are many other ways the word savvy can be used and not just with computers. Someone could be business savvy, internet savvy, politically savvy, technically savvy, marketing savvy, media savvy

It can also be used as an adjective before a noun:
"He is a savvy shopper", "She is a savvy bride", "He is a savvy politician", "She is a savvy Facebook user!"

Do you think you're computer savvy?
4 Comments

Winner of Best-Designed Blog

4/6/2015

1 Comment

 
It's been a couple of days since the winners of the 2015 Weblog Awards were revealed and I'm so happy that The English Student won for Best-Designed Weblog. I really felt that all the other websites in that category were amazing, so feel very humbled to be selected. Although we didn't win for Best Education Blog, we were amongst the finalists of other great educational blogs, which was also unexpected but very exciting!

Thank you to everyone who took time to vote and for your continued support of my work. It is exciting that this Weblog Award will allow me to reach out to more English-learners around the world who are feeling frustrated with learning everyday English. Whether you're a teacher or student or parent, I hope that you can all continue to benefit from my resources and feel inspired to create a happy and healthy learning environment.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart! 
Jenny
Picture
1 Comment

No Bake Cookie

4/5/2015

1 Comment

 
As you may know, starting from last month, The English Student has been featuring a new easy recipe every month. The point of this is to encourage you to practice English vocabulary while doing something fun! This month I am making a no-bake chocolate oatmeal cookie. I love anything that's simple, so the recipe definitely appealed to me. You can always find the recipe of the month on the right-hand side of the Homepage). I made it today and it took me only about 20 minutes and was delicious! You can see my cookies below. If you're a chocolate or peanut butter lover, it's a must try! You don't even have to bake it!

This recipe, which is on the bottom of this page, has seven ingredients, but if you're like me, you probably already have milk, sugar, butter, and peanut butter at  home. So I only had to purchase a few items from the store. One of the most important ingredient here is the chocolate. The recipe asks for SEMI-SWEET chocolate. SEMI is a prefix placed before a word to mean "partly but not completely". Semisweet chocolate has more chocolate percentage than Milk Chocolate but less than Dark Chocolate. So it's partly sweet and chocolaty but not completely! That's the meaning of SEMI.
Picture
Picture
cookie recipe, easy cookie recipe, oatmeal cookie recipe, no bake cookies, no bake chocolate oatmeal,
Some other important verbs used in this recipe are:

Combine- to put and mix different things together
Boil- to heat something until it starts bubbling and steaming
Stir- to mix something together round and round with a spoon or stick
Add- to join one thing together with another thing
Remove- to take away
Drop- let something fall
Place- put something somewhere

You can learn and practice so much English here. Try it out by yourself, with a friend or with your family and let me know how your cookie turns out!

No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies from Back to the Cutting Board
Prep time: 30 min | Cook time: 1 hour | Total time: 1 hour 30 min

Ingredients
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • 3 cups quick oats
Process
  1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar, butter, chocolate chips and milk and bring to boil. Cook for a minute.
  2. Remove from heat and add the vanilla, peanut butter and oats, one at a time, stirring well after each addition. The oats should be the last thing you add.
  3. Quickly drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper and let set (1-3 hours)
Print Friendly and PDF
1 Comment
<<Previous
    Picture
    Picture




    ARCHIVE

    January 2017
    December 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013


    CATEGORIES

    All
    Business English
    Comprehension
    Cooking
    Culture
    Grammar
    Idioms
    Life Improvement
    Listening
    Pronunciation
    Punctuations
    Slang
    Vocabulary


    Teaching Blog Addict

    BlogWithIntegrity.com

    DMCA.com Protection Status
    Protected by Copyscape Web Plagiarism Software
    Creative Commons License
    This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

    RSS Feed

THE SITE

Home
About
Blog
Illustrations

SHOP

Teachers Pay Teachers

SUPPORT

Contact
FAQ
Customer Care
Terms of Use

LET'S KEEP IN TOUCH

Picture
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Illustrations
  • About
  • Say Hello