This document describes a series of short classroom activities designed to help students learn about various topics and historical figures through 5-minute activities. The activities cover subjects like art, literature, science, history and inventions. They involve puzzles, sorting passages, matching inventions to inventors, and more. The goals are to engage students in brief interactive exercises that make complex topics more accessible and help develop language skills.

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This project has been funded with support from the european Commission

2. © Barcelona 2014
Cover designed by Francesc Mir
Edited by
Col·legi Pare Manyanet - Les Corts. Barcelona, Spain
Gimmnazija Jutja Barakoviæa, Zadar, Croatia
Glatasaray Lisesi, Istanbul, Turkey
The Westgate School, Slough, United Kingdom
Liceo Scientifico Statale, “Alberto Eisntein”, Palermo, Italy
Werner von Siemens Gymnasium, München, Germany
Coordinating School
Liceul Tehnologic Economic “Virgil Madgearu”, Iaºi, Romania

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Set of short activities to do in class
Those activities are aimed for students of 3rd and 4th ESO
Content
1. Arts. The art puzzle
2. Spanish. Don Quixote
3. Catalan. Compact tales
4. English. People we admire
Sant Jordi
5. Science. Who’s who? Scientists in a crossword
6. Social Science. Different personalities and their role in History
7. Technology. Inventor vs. inventions

4. 4
Visual and Plastic Education. “Learning to read works of art”
Description:
Working on Catalan Architecture-Sculpture-Painting.
Correction and time spent are tested.
This activity can be done individually or in groups, also as a competitive game while
working three works of art at the same time.
It can be used as the initial activity to start working styles and eras, social class and function
of art throughout history.
The works of art are:
Medieval Art. Romanesque. “Pantocràtor de Tahüll” work of Master Tahull. Painting.
Art Nouveau. “Palau de la Música Catalana” Lluis Domenech i Montaner. Architecture.
Realism-Symbolism Art “Els primers freds” (“First Cold”) by Miquel Blay. Sculpture.
Students have to relate works of art of three different periods and styles of our culture.
Students must rebuild the different images of the work from the pieces of a puzzle,
identifying the work, the author and the style to which they belong.
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5. 5
Author: Miquel Blay
Artwork: First colds (Els Primers freds)
Realism/Simbolism (Realisme/Simbolisme)
Author: Master Tahull
Artwork: Pantocràtor de Taüll
Romanesque (Romànic)
Author: Lluis Domenech i Montaner
Artwork: Palau de la Música
Modernism (Modernisme)
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6. 6
Spanish. “Literature without order”
Description:
Working on “Don Quixote”.
The activity planned by the Spanish language
department was to choose the first paragraph of the
famous novel ‘Don Quixote’, written by our most
international writer Don Miguel de Cervantes
Saavedra, translate it into English and then print the
text on cards of different colors.
Then we cut it into smaller pieces, with one or two sentences in each piece, and the students
had to sort the different fragments of the first paragraph in the correct order.
Different fragments of the first paragraphs of Cervantes’ masterpiece, “Don Quixote”
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7. 7
Different fragments of the first paragraphs of Cervantes’ masterpiece, “Don Quixote”
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8. 8
Catalan. “Literature in less than 5 minutes”
Description:
Compact Tales.
Since we are working on Pere Calders, one of our most prominent 20th
Century writers
and that he was a master in the art of narrative, we have discovered irony, absurdity,
genius, the unusual aspect of reality by reading his so-called synthetic tales.
We chose some of them and we read them in class.
The stories have no more than 6 lines but are
intended to make people reflect.
The next day the students also tried to write one,
and the ones who did read them in class.
EXAMPLES
The Express
Nobody wanted to tell him what time the train would come. Everybody saw him with
so many suitcases that they felt sorry to tell him that there had never been neither a
station nor tracks there.
Balance
Just as he was about to catch the bucket, he
tripped and fell into the well. As he was falling,
he saw his whole life go by, and he found it
plain and monotonous (as we would say) so he
swallowed the water to drown with exemplary
resignation.
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9. 9
Discretion
We invited him to think and said he did not want to bother us so he would think when
he got home.
The mirror of the soul
We had never met anywhere, any time, but he looked like a neighbour of mine so much
that he greeted me warmly… he was also confused.
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10. English. “People we admire”
Description
People who deserve to be admired
This activity is based on groups of four students each, where they have to prepare an
oral expression talking about someone whose life deserves to be admired.
They explain everything they have found out about that person, giving details about his/
her work, his/her thought, that is to say, everything that made him/her a person deserving
admiration. We have tried to focus on Catalan people. They belong to different fields such
as music, cinema, literature, international organizations, etc.
The students who are listening are given the chance to ask their classmates about these
characters. This activity has different goals: the first one is to have an approach to local
people who have/had a remarkable life. Through this approach they will get some values
–at least we hope so-.It is also a way to improve their English skills since very often they
have to look for very specific vocabulary regarding to the fields where the different
“admirable” people used to belong. Some of them are still alive but in most cases, they are
dead.
When we started this activity, we used power points to make them more attractive but
soon we noticed that the expressions lasted too much so we decided not to use them.
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11. English. “Sant Jordi”
Description
Same book different details
Sant Jordi is the Catalan for St George, the patron saint of Catalonia. The Diada de Sant
Jordi, which is St George’s Day (23 April), is a festival that has been taking place over
the years, with lots of balconies in the city draped with the senyera, the Catalan national
flag. The festival’s star elements are culture and love, represented by books and roses,
and its main meeting point in Barcelona is along the Ramblas, which you will find
packed from end to end with book and flower stalls.
It is usual on St George’s Day to find books in every language, but there most stalls
specialize in Catalan and Spanish, given that St George’s Day here is seen as a day for
promoting and championing Catalan and Spanish culture. St George’s Day has been the
Book Day ever since the first third of the 20th century.
The activity we organized on that occasion and after the festivity was to check which
books sold the most and match the different authors and their books and do a little
research (the internet) on them and by groups. Time spent was tested. It was a short
activity which proved to be successful because many of the students knew about most
of the titles.
Catalan Fiction
1. L’avi de 100 anys que es va escapar per la finestra (La Campana), de Jonas Jonasson
2. Quan érem feliços (Destino), de Rafael Nadal
3. Memòria d’uns ulls pintats (Empúries), de Lluís Llach
4. Jo confesso (Proa), de Jaume Cabré
5. La dona veloç (Planeta), d’Imma Monsó
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12. Spanish Fiction
1. El enredo de la bolsa y la vida (Seix Barral), d’Eduardo Mendoza
2. El abuelo que saltó por la ventana y se largó (Salamandra), de Jonas Jonasson
3. El lector de Julio Verne (Tusquets), d’Almudena Grandes
4. El prisionero del cielo (Planeta), de Carlos Ruiz Zafón
5. Las horas distantes (Suma de Letras), de Kate Morton
Catalan non-Fiction
1. Memòries III: de la bonança a un repte nou (1993-2011) (Proa), de Jordi Pujol
2. El menjar de la família (La Magrana), de Ferran Adrià
3. Viatge a l’optimisme (Destino), d’Eduard Punset
4. Fago (La Campana), de Carles Porta
5. Diguem prou! (Angle), d’Arcadi Oliveres
Spanish Non-Fiction
1. Más allá del crash (Los libros del Lince), de Santiago Niño Becerra
2. La comida de la familia (RBA), de Ferran Adrià
3. La soledad de la reina: Sofía, una vida (La esfera de los libros), de Pilar Eyre
4. El arte de no amargarse la vida (Oniro), de Rafael Santandreu
5. Haciendo majaradas, diciendo tonterías (Espasa), de Mario Vaquerizo
Media Books
1. APM? El circ de la tele (Ara llibres), diversos autors
2. El llibre de jocs de Crackovia (Columna), diversos autors
3. En directe (Rosa dels vents), de Josep Cuní i Pilar Rahola
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13. Chidren’s
1. Stilton: El llibre i la rosa (Estrella Polar), de Geronimo Stilton
2. Una rosa per a... pintar (Susaeta), diversos autors
3. El meu primer llibre de Sant Jordi (Estrella Polar), diversos autors
4. Londres 2012 (Ediciones B), de Francisco Ibáñez
5. Stilton: El secret del coratge (Estrella Polar), de Geronimo Stilton
1. Los juegos del hambre I (Molino), de Suzanne Collins
2. En llamas (Los juegos del hambre II) (Molino), de Suzanne Collins
3. Londres 2012 (Ediciones B), de Francisco Ibáñez
4. El día del libro (Destino), de Gerónimo Stilton
5. Stilton: El secreto del valor (Planeta), de Gerónimo Stilton
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14. Science. “Who’s who?”
Description
Scientists in a crossword
Guess all the words in the next crosswords with the names of famous scientists in Spanish
History
14
Down
1. Spanish primatologist who discovered Snowflake, a very rare albino gorilla that lived
in the zoo of Barcelona
2. Pioneer investigator in the
microscopic structure of the
brain. He is considered the
father of modern Neuroscience
3. He was the first European to
correctly describe the function
of the lung circulation
4. Spanish biochemist who
worked in understanding the
origin of life. Participated in
several NASA missions,
including Apollo mission to
the Moon and the Viking lander
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15. 15
Across
5. He is an internationally recognized leader in the study of cancer metastases. Currently
he is chair of the Cancer Biology and Genetics Program at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center
6. Spanish - American Doctor of Medicine and Biochemistry he was awarded the Nobel
Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his research in the synthesis of RNA
7. Molecular biologist who discovered the first oncogene.
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16. Social Science. “Historical personalities”
Description
Different personalities and their role in History
Historical characters have been chosen from different periods or stages of Political History
of Spain. Pictures of those characters, their names and the historical period to which they
belong to have been printed in folio using the same format.
Some characters have already been studied in previous courses, others are studied in the
course and others are known for their role or historical relevance. The characters are:
Alfonso XII
Francisco Franco
Felipe González
Isabel II
Fernando II of Aragon
Juana la Loca.
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17. These characters may change on other occasions depending on the Historical period we
are studying.
Students previously divided into groups identify character, name and historical stage in
the shortest time possible…this way students relate the character image visually with his
stage name in a most practical and educational way.
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18. 18
Technology. “Inventor vs Inventions?”
Description
Who invented what?
In Technology class, we worked on the historical part of inventions. We prepared a 5
minutes activity where students had to relate the Spanish inventor to the invention made.
Students recognized half of them, and the other half took quite a long time. They had fun
trying to guess the latter. Here is the list we worked on.
INVENTIONS
Digital calculator
Hypodermic disposable syringe
The stapler
Microseismograph
Laryngoscope
The sharpener
Talgo train
Submersible vessel
Submarine,made of Steel and driven by electric power
Autogiro, precursor of the helicopter
The mop
Lollipops
Futbolín
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19. 19
Answers
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