Dear children and Jury teacher,
Today something gave me a double pleasure that one was that you sent to us the Pizza song. So I have mistaken when I had believed that this song had been composed by them - So you found it on Elizabeth Gray and Virginia Evans course.
The other which gave to me a great pleasure that accidentally I found your pic on the Facebook. I saved it and I try to send it to them.
Have a good days:
Kati
Hello Urs and Jury,
On the Fb. I can find always something interesting. Here a photo which hadn’t been taken by Urs.
I like it.
Bye:
Kati
Hello, teacher Yuri!
I hope the kids will be interested to read this short story.
Regards to all and have a happy Christmas!
Evylinda
PAPA PANOV’S SPECIAL CHRISTMAS
a French folktale
retold by Leo Tolstoy
It was Christmas Eve and although it was still afternoon, lights had begun to appear in the shops and houses of the little Russian village, for the short winter day was nearly over. Excited children scurried indoors and now only muffled sounds of chatter and laughter escaped from closed shutters.
Old Papa Panov, the village shoemaker, stepped outside his shop to take one last look around. The sounds of happiness, the bright lights and the faint but delicious smells of Christmas cooking reminded him of past Christmas times when his wife had still been alive and his own children little. Now they had gone. His usually cheerful face, with the little laughter wrinkles behind the round steel spectacles, looked sad now. But he went back indoors with a firm step, put up the shutters and set a pot of coffee to heat on the charcoal stove. Then, with a sigh, he settled in his big armchair.
Papa Panov did not often read, but tonight he pulled down the big old family Bible and, slowly tracing the lines with one forefinger, he read again the Christmas story. He read how Mary and Joseph, tired by their journey to Bethlehem, found no room for them at the inn, so that Mary’s little baby was born in the cowshed.
“Oh, dear, oh, dear!” exclaimed Papa Panov, “if only they had come here! I would have given them my bed and I could have covered the baby with my patchwork quilt to keep him warm.”
He read on about the wise men who had come to see the baby Jesus, bringing him splendid gifts. Papa Panov’s face fell. “I have no gift that I could give him,” he thought sadly.
Then his face brightened. He put down the Bible, got up and stretched his long arms t the shelf high up in his little room. He took down a small, dusty box and opened it. Inside was a perfect pair of tiny leather shoes. Papa Panov smiled with satisfaction. Yes, they were as good as he had remembered- the best shoes he had ever made. “I should give him those,” he decided, as he gently put them away and sat down again.
He was feeling tired now, and the further he read the sleepier he became. The print began to dance before his eyes so that he closed them, just for a minute. In no time at all Papa Panov was fast asleep.
And as he slept he dreamed. He dreamed that someone was in his room and he know at once, as one does in dreams, who the person was. It was Jesus.
“You have been wishing that you could see me, Papa Panov.” he said kindly, “then look for me tomorrow. It will be Christmas Day and I will visit you. But look carefully, for I shall not tell you who I am.”
When at last Papa Panov awoke, the bells were ringing out and a thin light was filtering through the shutters. “Bless my soul!” said Papa Panov. “It’s Christmas Day!”
He stood up and stretched himself for he was rather stiff. Then his face filled with happiness as he remembered his dream. This would be a very special Christmas after all, for Jesus was coming to visit him. How would he look? Would he be a little baby, as at that first Christmas? Would he be a grown man, a carpenter- or the great King that he is, God’s Son? He must watch carefully the whole day through so that he recognized him however he came.
Papa Panov put on a special pot of coffee for his Christmas breakfast, took down the shutters and looked out of the window. The street was deserted, no one was stirring yet. No one except the road sweeper. He looked as miserable and dirty as ever, and well he might! Whoever wanted to work on Christmas Day - and in the raw cold and bitter freezing mist of such a morning?
Papa Panov opened the shop door, letting in a thin stream of cold air. “Come in!” he shouted across the street cheerily. “Come in and have some hot coffee to keep out the cold!”
The sweeper looked up, scarcely able to believe his ears. He was only too glad to put down his broom and come into the warm room. His old clothes steamed gently in the heat of the stove and he clasped both red hands round the comforting warm mug as he drank.
Papa Panov watched him with satisfaction, but every now and them his eyes strayed to the window. It would never do to miss his special visitor.
“Expecting someone?” the sweeper asked at last. So Papa Panov told him about his dream.
“Well, I hope he comes,” the sweeper said, “you’ve given me a bit of Christmas cheer I never expected to have. I’d say you deserve to have your dream come true.” And he actually smiled.
When he had gone, Papa Panov put on cabbage soup for his dinner, then went to the door again, scanning the street. He saw no one. But he was mistaken. Someone was coming.
The girl walked so slowly and quietly, hugging the walls of shops and houses, that it was a while before he noticed her. She looked very tired and she was carrying something. As she drew nearer he could see that it was a baby, wrapped in a thin shawl. There was such sadness in her face and in the pinched little face of the baby, that Papa Panov’s heart went out to them.
“Won’t you come in,” he called, stepping outside to meet them. “You both need a warm by the fire and a rest.”
The young mother let him shepherd her indoors and to the comfort of the armchair. She gave a big sigh of relief.
“I’ll warm some milk for the baby,” Papa Panov said, “I’ve had children of my own- I can feed her for you.” He took the milk from the stove and carefully fed the baby from a spoon, warming her tiny feet by the stove at the same time.
“She needs shoes,” the cobbler said.
But the girl replied, “I can’t afford shoes, I’ve got no husband to bring home money. I’m on my way to the next village to get work.”
Sudden thought flashed through Papa Panov’s mind. He remembered the little shoes he had looked at last night. But he had been keeping those for Jesus. He looked again at the cold little feet and made up his mind.
“Try these on her,” he said, handing the baby and the shoes to the mother. The beautiful little shoes were a perfect fit. The girl smiled happily and the baby gurgled with pleasure.
“You have been so kind to us,” the girl said, when she got up with her baby to go. “May all your Christmas wishes come true!”
But Papa Panov was beginning to wonder if his very special Christmas wish would come true. Perhaps he had missed his visitor? He looked anxiously up and down the street. There were plenty of people about but they were all faces that he recognized. There were neighbors going to call on their families. They nodded and smiled and wished him Happy Christmas! Or beggars- and Papa Panov hurried indoors to fetch them hot soup and a generous hunk of bread, hurrying out again in case he missed the Important Stranger.
All too soon the winter dusk fell. When Papa Panov next went to the door and strained his eyes, he could no longer make out the passers-by. most were home and indoors by now anyway. He walked slowly back into his room at last, put up the shutters, and sat down wearily in his armchair.
So it had been just a dream after all. Jesus had not come.
Then all at once he knew that he was no longer alone in the room.
This was not dream for he was wide awake. At first he seemed to see before his eyes the long stream of people who had come to him that day. He saw again the old road sweeper, the young mother and her baby and the beggars he had fed. As they passed, each whispered, “Didn’t you see me, Papa Panov?”
“Who are you?” he called out, bewildered.
Then another voice answered him. It was the voice from his dream- the voice of Jesus.
“I was hungry and you fed me,” he said. “I was naked and you clothed me. I was cold and you warmed me. I came to you today in everyone of those you helped and welcomed.”
Then all was quiet and still. Only the sound of the big clock ticking. A great peace and happiness seemed to fill the room, overflowing Papa Panov’s heart until he wanted to burst out singing and laughing and dancing with joy.
“So he did come after all!” was all that he said.
Hello Evylinda, Urs, Mujibur, Kati, Anastasia, Megan, Mauricio and everyone,
Merry Christmas. We are the 5th Form of Kyren school. It is very nice to meet you. There are 11 students in the classroom. My name is Aldar. My name is Anastasia:) My name is Dasha. My name is Raya. My name is Polina. My name is Alyona. My name is Aryuuna.My name is Inga. My name is Ayur. Myname is Danzyn.
My name is Sasha, and I read this message.
Hello. We would like to talk to you.
Take care,
the 5thV Form
Hello everyone,
It is the 6thB Form.
My name is Nima. My name is Sasha. My name is Galya. My name is Dulma. My name is Sanzha. My name is Lena. My name is Masha. My name is Bayaskhalan. My name is Nastya. My name is Zhenya.
We wish you a very good holiday. Will you have some fireworks? We like fireworks here very much! Usually they come from China. China is not too far from us. And they do very good fireworks.
Merry Cristmass!
Take care,
the 6thB
Hello everyone,
How are you? It is the 5thB Form. My name is Dayana. My name is Ksyusha. My name is Garma. My name is Olya. My name is Maxim. My name is Zhenya. My name is Aryuna. My name is Ayur.
We wish you all the best! May your dreams come true!
Merry Christmas!
Take care,
the 5thB
Hello everyone,
We are the 6thV. My name is Evdokia. My name is Alina. My name is Namsalma. My name is Valya. My name is Artyom. My nami is Dima. Myname is Alyosha. My name is Damdin. My name is Ira. My name is Sveta. My name is Ira. My name is Alina. My name is Zhenya. My name is Sergey. My name is Erdem. My name is Igor. My name is Lena. My name is Lena. My name is Sasha. My name is Iliya.
We wish you all the best in the world.
Merry Christmass.
Take care,
the 6thV
Merry Christmas!
For all of you, students of Yuri
A Merry Christmas with lots of health and peace!
Christmas is happy, when we can share our happiness with our family and friends.
Let’s make every day a special day, a Christmas, with hopes, achievements and accomplishments in all activities of our life.
Cheers.
Hensiq
Dear Children,
Once I have read that Alan Townand’s one of favourit writers is Charles Dickens. English writer, (1812. február 7. – 9 June 1870) His childhood was impoverished so he knew the poverty and wrote about it several times.
I read his famous novella The Christmas Carol. I have to reveal to you that I was crying during I am reading. Now I can’t say why I was crying because I was a child as you are now. The main character was a very miser and rich man who detested everything which was beautiful, even the Christmas and preparation for Christmas. One of his Christmas became a turning point in Scoorage’s life . The novella is about his transformation.
On this Christmas evening it was very cold ,bleak and biting outside which means the weather was very cold and unpleasant. Until this evening he enjoyed his richness ,his money was his God but he hated to spend it. He said about Christmas it is a humbug for tricking the people. So he was a very evil-minded man.
He did not invite his poor nephew for Christmas dinner. When two people knocked at his door for asking a little money for buying some food for the starving people and children he sent them with rude words. He usually said that the Christmas means for the poor to try picking the men’s pocket.
This night three ghosts had visited him one came after the other.
The first was the ghost of the Past and brought him to his mind his childhood when he was gentle, he has a kind heart,loving and innocent. He saw himself as how he became a lonely child when his sister Fanny died. And later he saw his fiancée who left him when he had cared about more his money than his fiancée.
The second is the ghost of the Present who took Scoorage to places where the people enjoyed the celebration of Christmas evening He saw his nephew on a Christmas party where he spoke about him with sympathy and pity. After the ghost showed to him his underpaid employee and his family with their very ill child whose name was TINY TIM who was enjoyed the Christmas despite his very grave illness. The ghost told Scoorage that the child would soon die if something wonder does not happen in their misery.
The third was the ghost of the Future and he showed him his next Christmas. He said to him that Tiny Tid , the child of his employee would die because they could not provide him what he could have been needed from the father’s small salary. Afterward the ghost showed to Scoorage a funeral of a wretched, unlucky man. On this funeral there were only three people. And when they put him in his grave on the tombstone Scoorage saw his own name. Scoorage burst into tears and make himself a promise to change his ways in the hope that his name would not be on that tombstone on the next Christmas.
It ends with happy end. Scoorage next morning goes his employee’s place and in secret he leaves the price of a turkey for their lunch . The following day he had given a rise to Tiny Tid’s father.
From that day he became a generous ,sympathetic man full of feeling of compassion towards poor people. The story closes with the narrator repeating Tiny Tim’s famous words: “God bless us, everyone!”
Hello Children,
I wanted to correct a mistake but I didn’t manage.
My mistake that I wrote: “the Christmas means for the poor to try picking the men’s pocket.”
After try we can’t write a gerund (=when the verb ends -ing) you have to write an infinitive. So correctly the whole sentence:
He usually said that the Christmas means for the poor to try to pick the men’s pocket.
Don’t forget the rule: try to do sth
(or you can put a noun after it for example: You try the shoes before buying them.)
I try to do my best to correct my mistake in the text but I could do it in this way.
Bye.
Kati
[color=red]Dear Yuri Teacher and Dear Children,
[color=red]I WISH TO YOU A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Best wishes:
Kati
Hello Yuri,
hello students, and a Happy New Year to all of you!
Today, I would like to send you some more pictures from Moscow - amazing ones…!
Because we had Christmas Time a few days back, my topic is a very special church, buildt on the far side of the red square:
It is the:
-> Cathedral of the Protection of Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat
In Russian:
Собор Покрова пресвятой Богородицы, что на Рву.
It is also called the Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed (Russian: Собор Василия Блаженного), anglicized as Saint Basil’s Cathedral.
Maybe you have seen pictures of that great building or could even visit it. If not, I’m happy to present it to you here!
It was built from 1555–61 on orders from Ivan the Terrible and commemorates the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan.
They say that Ivan was so fascinated by the building, that he blinded it’s architect, so that he could not re-create the masterpiece elsewhere. But that is a legend, noone knows if it’s really true.
The building is shaped as a flame of a bonfire rising into the sky,[11] a design that has no analogues in Russian architecture.
It seems quite big from the outside.
But when you get nearer…
and enter it…
…then you find yourself soon in a labyrinth of very narrow corridors,…
…leading to the eight side churches and the central one.
It is quite dark inside sometimes and not many people can enter it at the same time…
Beautiful doorframes give view to the inside of marvelous interiours…
There are a lot of Icones to cherish, Altars to kneel down in front of and pray to your Saviour.
Four of the side churches are well visible and accessable today, the smaller ones are sometimes hard to access…
The plan of the cathedral is not symmetric, and that makes it even more mysterious!
And every side church with its cupola is differently shaped, coloured and furnished! So it’s always a surprise when you enter the next one!
Some of them are very high, so the Central Church goes up to 46 metres but has a ground surface of only 64 m2!
You have to crane your neck in order to look high up the Church and to the sky, so to Heaven and God! That was the idea, probably.
Outside again, you pass more beautiful doors and golden Images of Saints that are hung on the corridor walls!
As you can see, many tourists are roaming the Church. And I was lucky to be one of them, and it was even allowed to take photos, which in most cases you can’t do.
But now it’s time to leave the Cathedral again:
Here you can see some more details from the fassades.
What these craftsmen were able to accomplish - just imagine you had to do it yourself!
So now, I hope you enjoyed these pictures.
I have a lot more in store for you next year, if you are interested.
I wish you all a happy New Year and hope to hear from you in 2014!
Let’s keep the good work up:)!
Cheers
Urs
Hello Torsten,
Please ,on #670 (permalink) Thu Dec 26, 2013 19:36 pm My first steps in English
let me change
1.‘the child of employee’ = ‘the employee’s child’
2. the funeral of a wretched ,unlucky man = a wretched unlucky man’s funeral.
3. try picking = try to pick
The number of letters won’t change only the word-order.
I am very sorry for the mistakes. But these errors are so gross and I would like to write them correctly for the children.
I copied in the send box the corrected version- it will be there and if it goes through it will mean to me that you allowed to me to send the corrected version.
Many thanks:
Kati Svaby
Dear children here is my three mistakes.
1.‘the child of employee’ =[b] ‘the employee’s child’[/b]
2.[u]the funeral of a wretched ,unlucky man =
=[u]a wretched unlucky man’s funeral.[/u]
3. try picking = try to pick
I would like to correct them.
[color=violet]xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dear Yuri Teacher and Children, when I wanted to record the text I noticed first the third mistake- I wanted to correct it but if I couldn’t edit it so I couldn’t correct. [color=violet]I tried to explain you my mistakes for that you could learn from my mistake. So this mistake was that after try (verb) you have to use the verb [color=violet]‘to read’ 'to write, to count etc. its name infinitive.
After I found again two mistakes in genitive case. What is genitive case? When somebody/something has/owns something. In English there is a difference if a person ( a man, a woman, a kid) has something.
They use [color=red]-S after the owner. Compare with Russian:
In English makes difference BETWEEN if the owner is a living person or an object or an animal.
If the owner is a living person they put [color=red]'S after name of the person.
Собака Адама - Adam[color=red]'s dog.
Автомобиль Анны - Anna[color=red]'s car.
Телефон Игоря - Igor[color=red]'s telephone.
Это телефон Адама? - Is this Adam[color=red]'s telephone?
Это книга Лены.=This is Lena[color=red]'s book.
If the owner is an object or an animal the use "of"and genitive case is in inversion as in Russian.
план города = A map [color=blue]of the city.
Это берег реки.=This is the bank [color=blue]of the river.
Это берег чего?=This is the bank [color=blue]of what?
My mistake was-now you can see that in the genitive case we spoke about a person.
the child of employee=the employee[color=red]'s child
the funeral of a wretched ,unlucky man =
=a wretched unlucky man[color=red]'s funeral
Generally this is the rule but literary can be good the “of” but for the time being you have to know in genitive case after person you put [color=red]'S.
Proverb: Wise men learn by others’ harm.
Hello Evylinda,
Thank you for your Christmas story. We listened to it at our English classes just before our vacation. We liked it very much. Leo Tolstoy is very famous not only in Russia but all over the world.
Take care,
Nadya
Hello Kati,
Thanks a lot for your wonderful story. Charles Dickens is very famous in our country. I hope that I will read some of his novels in English.
See you soon,
Yulya
Hello Urs and Hensiq,
How are you? Thanks a lot for your congratulations!
Urs, thank you for your great pictures of the Saint Basil’s cathedral. I have never been to Moscow but when I come there I will definitely visit it. Please, keep sending us your wonderful pictures.
Best wishes,
Erdem
Hello Urs, Megan, Hensiq, Mujibur and everyone,
My name is Dayana. Nice to meet you. I am a newcomer here and I would like to talk to you. I am very merry and sociable! I am going to take part in the Flex program and this project will be very interesting and helpful for me.
Best wishes,
Dayana
Dear Nadya,
How are you? I hope everything goes well with you and your family.
It was my pleasure to have shared with you, “Papa Panov’s Special Christmas Story”, which was a French folktale, re-told by Leo Tolstoy. It tells about generosity and kindness.
I hope you have learned some inspiring thoughts and new words. In case you find some words that may seem difficult to understand, please feel free to ask me and I would be happy to help you.
Take care and best wishes on your studies.
Evylinda