1. 2nd ESO Practice English students and their bit with the Environment
By Nieves Abellán Moll. English Language teacher in IES La Mola.
Environment is always an interesting subject our students in 2nd ESO Practice English
enjoy working. This year we have devoted quite enough sessions to this issue, dealing
with the four skills, speaking, listening, writing and reading and also with vocabulary.
To start with we had a vocabulary session with our British conversational assistant, Lucy
Curtis. We worked on the most important words using matching exercises and answering
orally to questions about their personal way of recycling. The worksheets we did were W1
and W2.
We also listened to Jack Johnson’s “The Tree R’s song” and tried to read the lyrics
from a worksheet and sing (W3). We also enjoyed watching the video of the song where
there are no subtitles but the lyrics are shown in the images themselves which makes it
quite difficult and funny at the same time to follow them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1yBQv1hLRY&feature=related
During next session we watched another video from Youtube. This time was an
animated short story called The Whispering palms. http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=eJtlanzlgFw
It shows how Mori’s family learnt to live by means of using, reusing and recycling
what nature offers them. First, we watched the video without subtitles in English, then
with them and finally, after checking they had already a general understanding, they
worked on a reading comprehension with questions about it. (W4).
As students showed an amazing enthusiastic attitude when working with these
videos, we also offered them another animated video of a song called Recycle Rex Son.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAvCsLPCGVE. Before watching it, they had
to fill in the gaps of the missing words in an individual worksheet with the written lyrics

2. and once checked and understood, we saw the video and tried to sing the song. It was
quite funny! (W5)
To finish with this subject of Environment, students visited a webpage called 55
ways to save energy http://www.ronitbaras.com/focus-on-the-family/kids-
children/55-ways-to-save-the-environment-and-make-a-difference/ . After
reading and understanding most of them, each student had to choose three of them and
look for a suitable logo in the net to illustrate their sentences. Obviously, they had to
adapt those sentences to the idea they wanted to express and have them corrected
afterwards. Then we wrote them on small colourful cards and spread them on a nice big
poster next to the logos. You can see it hanging on the wall in our school corridor. You
can bet we feel proud about having done a good job!

3. (W1)

4. (W2)

6. (W3)

7. (W4)
THE WHISPERING PALMS, by Deepa Gagwani and Tina Suchanek
Mori was a little girl with big brown eyes. She lived with her parents in a beautiful coconut
grove next to a small blue lake.
Every morning, she balanced a big empty basket on her head as she walked down to the
lake. Her mother followed with the laundry and her father brought the big fishing net. Her
mother washed the clothes on a stone next to the lake, while her father went fishing. He
dragged the net ashore and they collected the fish in a big basket. Sometimes a turtle got
stuck in the net, but Mori always hurried to the rescue.
One sunny morning, while fishing with her father, Mori said: “If we catch so many fish, one
day there won’t be any left!” Her mother laughed and sent her off to school.
Under the shade of the trees, Mori’s mother fell into an uneasy sleep. Se dreamt of a lake
with no fish, while the wind in the palm leaves whispered: “The waters and the land have
always taken care of your family, so you have to take care of them in return.” She awoke
with tears in her eyes, for she didn’t know how to bring up Mori without selling enough
fish. All afternoon she sat, weaving coconut mats and thinking about her dream.
That night Mori heard her parents whisper as the oil lamp burned deep into the night. The
next morning, her father gave her a smaller basket. “How can we carry all the fish in this
little basket?” Mori asked. “We will only take as many fish as will fit inside this basket,” he
replied. Mori was puzzled.
When she came back from school, she was happy to find her mother making soap and oil
from the coconuts. Mori swiftly climbed up a tree to get more coconuts, but her mother
cautioned: “Don’t pluck them; we must only use what the tree gives us”. Her father added:
“We have taken only fallen coconuts for these things. Look, we’ve even made this soap
with a jasmine flower inside!”
From that day on, the family made brooms from the palm leaves and wove mats from
coconut fiber. They took soap, oil and only a small number of fish to the market. When
Mori grew older, she loved to carve tiny turtles out of coconut shells and always wore one
around her neck.
1. VOCABULARY. Translate into Spanish the following words:
coconut grove tears
big empty basket to bring up
laundry weaving coconut mats
fishing net puzzled
dragged ashore soap
got stuck swiftly
shade Don’t pluck them
uneasy sleep brooms
wind carve
whispered coconut shells
have always taken care of

8. 2. Answer the following questions:
1. Where did Mori live?
..................................................................................................................
2. What did Mori do every morning?
.................................................................................................................
3. What did her mother do?
..................................................................................................................
4. What did her father do?
..................................................................................................................
5. Why did Mori’s mother wake up with tears in her eyes?
..................................................................................................................
6. What did her father give Mori the following morning?
..................................................................................................................
7. What things did they do from coconuts from that day on? What other things
did they do from the coconut fiber and from the palm leaves?
……………………………………………………………………………………..
..................................................................................................................

9. (W5)
RECYCLE REX
Who knew it wasn’t right
Just to toss out of sight
But now I’m gonna keep it clean
I’m gonna start recycling.
A little here, a little there
Will help the rivers and the air
Do it now, start today
Close the loop; it’s the only way
It’s such an easy thing to do
And it begins with me and you
We can make a difference
We can make old new
RECYCLE, REDUCE, REUSE
AND CLOSE THE LOOP, WE CAN CLOSE THE LOOP (2)
Plastic, bottles, aluminium foil,
Glass containers and motor oil
Papers, cans, that old magazine
We got one land, let’s keep it clean
So bug your neighbour, tell a friend
Circles never really end
Don’t just toss it, keep it new
We can do it, so can you!
Don’t wait! It’s something we must do
Right now the earth depends on you
You can make a difference
You can make old new
RECYCLE, REDUCE, REUSE
AND CLOSE THE LOOP, WE CAN CLOSE THE LOOP (3)

10. RECYCLE REX
Who knew it wasn’t right
Just to toss out of sight
But now I’m gonna keep it …………
I’m gonna start…………….
A little here, a little there
Will help the ………… and the ………
Do it now, start today
Close the loop; it’s the only way
It’s such an easy thing to do
And it begins with me and you
We can make a ………….
We can make …………new
………………., …………………., ………………………,
AND CLOSE THE LOOP, WE CAN CLOSE THE LOOP (2)
Plastic,…………… , aluminium foil,
Glass ……………and motor oil
Papers, cans, that old …………….
We got one land, let’s keep it clean
So bug your………………, tell a friend
Circle never really end
Don’t just toss it, keep it ………….
We can do it, so can you!
Don’t wait! It’s something we …………….do
Right now the earth depends on you
You can make a ………………..
You can make ………… new
…………………., ……………………….., ……………………..
AND CLOSE THE LOOP, WE CAN CLOSE THE LOOP (3)
Fill in the gaps with the following words:
Clean
air,
REDUCE
Bottles
Containers
magazine
new
must REDUCE
difference
recycling
REUSE neighbour
difference
old
RECYCLE old
rivers
RECYCLE
REUSE