Guy Fawkes & the gunpowder plot

November the 5th is Bonfire Night, when the British commemorate the capture of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators who tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament (the gunpowder plot).

On Bonfire night people light large bonfires, set off fireworks and burn "guys", effigies of Guy Fawkes made with old clothes and stuffed with straw or paper. Before the fifth, children traditionally use the "guys" to request a "penny for the guy" in order to raise funds with which to buy fireworks.

Watch this video which explains in short where this celebration comes from.



Or you can help Guy Fawkes push the barrels in this game:

American elections

Tomorrow all the world's eyes will be set on the US, as they're electing their president for the next four years.

The presidential election process is quite complicated. Read All about Electing a President of the United States or watch this animated video (click on cc for the transcript) to get the hang of it.

If you get stuck with some of the vocabulary, try this Electionary.

Make sure you understood it all by doing this test.

Who will win the election? We'll know in a few hours. In the meantime, watch this video and decide who's best:


or find a winner by playing this game:

McCain Vs Obama Risk it all and use superior tactics to win the Presidential Election

Play this free game now!!

Happy Halloween!

Awesome MySpace Comments & Myspace Layouts

Tonight is Halloween, so celebrate it by reading some Halloween jokes:

Q. Why are black cats such good singers?
A. They're very meeewsical.

Q. Why didn't the skeleton dance at the Halloween party?
A. It had no body to dance with.

Q. What would you do if a witch, an alien, Count Dracula and Frankenstein were at your door?
A. Hope it was Halloween.

One ghost asked another, "Do you believe in people?"

Sam: Why do witches fly on brooms?
Pam: Because vacuum cleaner cords are not long enough!

and playing a couple of games:


Halloween Toys & MySpace Layouts at pYzam.com

Creepy Pong See how many Halloween ghouls you can beat at table tennis!

Play this free game now!!

Revision of past tenses

Visit these websites and do the exercises to start revising for the upcoming exam...

• Past simple
• Past continuous
• Past perfect
• used to
• difference between past simple and past continuous
• difference between past simple and past perfect

Halloween is coming...

Created by Crazyprofile.com

Reported speech help

If you have trouble with reported speech, these sites may help:

changes in verb tenses

reported statements and exercises

reported questions and exercises

April Fool's jokes

Today we read about some jokes (also known as pranks or hoaxes) played on the media on April Fool's Day.

Visit the following page:

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/hoax10.html (and its link)

to learn about some successful jokes that fooled a lot of people and became very popular.

Activity: send a comment to this article with the following two tasks:

- was any joke you read specially funny/witty/wise? Explain it and say why.

- could any of those jokes be harmful/not funny at all and why?

(don't forget to sign your writing!)