Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) is one of the most important American painters and illustraters. He became famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios that he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine over more than four decades. Among the best-known of Rockwell's works are the Four Freedom Series which include this Thanksgiving portrait.Welcome to the English Club Blog of Maia Secondary School! We invite you to join our blog and to go on this journey with us. Together, we can learn, share ideas and have some fun too. So, wherever you are from, please feel free to make comments. We'd love to read them. The video below portrays what we have accomplished in one year and a half. Let's keep up with the enthusiasm we've had so far!
Friday, 19 November 2010
"Freedom from Want" by Norman Rockwell
Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) is one of the most important American painters and illustraters. He became famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios that he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine over more than four decades. Among the best-known of Rockwell's works are the Four Freedom Series which include this Thanksgiving portrait.Thanksgiving Recipes
Marshmallows Pilgrims Hats
Ingredients
• 24 chocolate-striped shortbread cookies
• 12-ounce package of chocolate chips
• 24 marshmallows
• tube of yellow decorators' frosting
Instructions
1. Set the chocolate-striped cookies stripes down on a wax-paper-covered tray, spacing them well apart.
2. Melt the chocolate chips in a microwave or double boiler.
3. One at a time, stick a wooden toothpick into a marshmallow, dip the marshmallow into the melted chocolate, and promptly center it atop a cookie.
4. Using a second toothpick to lightly hold down the marshmallow, carefully pull out the first toothpick.
5. Chill the hats until the chocolate sets, then pipe a yellow decorators' frosting buckle on the front of each hat
Gobble me up
Ingredients
• Apple
• Clementine or navel orange
• Pear
• Dried apricot
• Peanut butter or cream cheese
• Mini chocolate chips
• Nut (we used a cashew)
• Dried cranberry
Instructions
1. Arrange apple and clementine or navel orange slices on a plate as shown, and lay a cored pear half on top.
2. Use scissors to halve a dried apricot, then snip small triangles from each half and tuck them under the pear to form the feet.
3. Finally, use peanut butter or softened cream cheese to attach mini chocolate chip eyes, a nut beak, and a dried cranberry snood.
Research done by Elisabete Carvalho in http://familyfun.go.com/thanksgiving/18-classic-thanksgiving-desserts

Ingredients
• 24 chocolate-striped shortbread cookies
• 12-ounce package of chocolate chips
• 24 marshmallows
• tube of yellow decorators' frosting
Instructions
1. Set the chocolate-striped cookies stripes down on a wax-paper-covered tray, spacing them well apart.
2. Melt the chocolate chips in a microwave or double boiler.
3. One at a time, stick a wooden toothpick into a marshmallow, dip the marshmallow into the melted chocolate, and promptly center it atop a cookie.
4. Using a second toothpick to lightly hold down the marshmallow, carefully pull out the first toothpick.
5. Chill the hats until the chocolate sets, then pipe a yellow decorators' frosting buckle on the front of each hat
Gobble me up

Ingredients
• Apple
• Clementine or navel orange
• Pear
• Dried apricot
• Peanut butter or cream cheese
• Mini chocolate chips
• Nut (we used a cashew)
• Dried cranberry
Instructions
1. Arrange apple and clementine or navel orange slices on a plate as shown, and lay a cored pear half on top.
2. Use scissors to halve a dried apricot, then snip small triangles from each half and tuck them under the pear to form the feet.
3. Finally, use peanut butter or softened cream cheese to attach mini chocolate chip eyes, a nut beak, and a dried cranberry snood.
Research done by Elisabete Carvalho in http://familyfun.go.com/thanksgiving/18-classic-thanksgiving-desserts
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
One week before Thanksgiving - America prepares for the big Festivity!
Thanksgiving is one of the most important national holidays in the United States. It is celebrated each year on the fourth Thursday in November. On this day, families gather together, and many people say prayers of thanks for the year’s blessings. In many homes, a big dinner of roast turkey and dressing is served. Thanksgiving is traditionally a harvest festival. Similar festivals are celebrated in many parts of the world to give thanks after the year’s crops have been safely harvested.
Watch History of Thanksgiving — History.com Video
and learn about the historical origins of Thanksgiving
Saturday, 13 November 2010
My first everything in the USA
I have been an "Alien" in Savannah, state of Georgia, for three months and half now. Around here weekends are to relax, socialize and spend money.
In October the city spruced up for the fall and with it pumpkins and scarecrows. Halloween was crazy: candies, costumes, parties...
Nov. 9, 2010
In October the city spruced up for the fall and with it pumpkins and scarecrows. Halloween was crazy: candies, costumes, parties...
November is time for Thanksgiving (Thursday) and Black Friday.
For Thanksgiving, Americans travel to meet their loved ones. The majority of them do not return for Christmas. They say it is family time...
In stores, books for children speak about the Pilgrims that were starving and the Indians who helped them learning how to survive in a new land. But in the 21st century what are they giving thanks for?
The newspapers of the weekend before Black Friday advertise 50% or more off in all products. It’s the bargain of the year!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At dawn of the next day family values are replaced by consumers. Black Friday begins, they go shopping until they drop.
Elisabete Carvalho, a Portuguese living in the USANov. 9, 2010
Etiquetas:
Reflexions of a Portuguese in the USA
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
International day against ...
9th November
International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism
International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism
After the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Jews were subjected to increasingly discriminatory treatment accompanied by organised violence. On November 9th 1938, the Nazis started a program against the Jews.
Synagogues were set on fire.
Jewish shops had their windows smashed across the country, which gave rise to the name "Kristallnacht", which freely translated means the Night of Broken Glass. Many Jews were physically attacked too. The "Kristallnacht" is usually seen as the symbolic beginning of the Holocaust.
9th November, 1989 - Germany Berlin Wall Opens Up
East Germany opened its borders today, allowing its citizens to freely cross into the West for the first time since the Berlin Wall was built in 1961. Some Germans used hammers to chip away at the Berlin Wall for keepsakes or in their own small way try to destroy the infamous symbol of East-West division.
Monday, 8 November 2010
Martin Luther King, Jr. - " I have a dream"
"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. "
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. "
"I have a dream today!"
Saturday, 6 November 2010
Bonfire Fireworks
Friday, 5 November 2010
Remember, Remember the 5th of November
5th of November - Today Maia Secondary School saw not one, not two, but three Guy Fawkes "burning on a bonfire" for having tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament!!!
Thursday, 4 November 2010
Tuesday, 2 November 2010
Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot

Guy Fawkes Nursery Rhyme
Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I see no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli'ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow;
By God's providence he was catch'd (or by God's mercy*)
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holla boys, Holla boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!
And what should we do with him? Burn him!
If you want to learn more about this English festivity click on the following video and you will watch a BBC documentary on this historical moment.
Monday, 1 November 2010
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