HOW TO MAKE A 3D CHRISTMAS CARD - ETWINNING

Use your scissors to cut out the six Christmas trees, tree trunks and stars.

Carefully fold all of the Christmas tree pieces, tree trunk pieces and star pieces in half.

Use your extra strength glue stick to add glue to one side of one of your Christmas tree pieces. Then line up another Christmas tree on top of the glue. Continue gluing all the Christmas tree pieces together one on top of the other.

Repeat step 4 using the tree trunk pieces and star pieces.

Cut a piece of blue cardstock in an 8 1/2-inch by 8 1/2-inch square. Fold it in half and then open it back up. Add glue to the back of the 3D Christmas tree, tree trunk and star and glue them along the inside folded seam of the open card.

NOW IT’S TIME TO ADD DETAILS TO YOUR 3D CHRISTMAS CARD!

A simple way to add ornaments to your Christmas tree is by using Avery round stickers. They have a plethora of different colors to choose from so you can use primary colors or neon colors. Add the stickers to each different section of the 3D Christmas tree.

Cut a strip of white paper or cardstock to place at the bottom of your 3D Christmas card. Fold the white paper in half and then glue it at the bottom of your Christmas tree.

You can use a variety of different materials to decorate the inside of your card. We went with snowflakes to give our 3D Christmas cards a wintery feel. For snowflakes you can glue on snowflake sequins, use snowflake stickers, or you can use a chalk marker to draw snowflakes around the inside of your card.

To finish your 3D Christmas card, use markers or pens to write “Merry Christmas” or any holiday message on the front of your card. Then fold your card in half and place it in a large envelope for the recipient.

When the card is opened the recipient will be delighted by the 3D effect of the Christmas tree inside. The best part, they can put the card on display somewhere in their home to add to their festive decor.

Watch the video below to be guided through each step of this craft. 

https://iheartcraftythings.com/3d-christmas-card.html?fbclid=IwAR1np1zxs3pSBG6u3p9KEsv078wlw_5NFdxOXnA_389XiMt87M-6s0sq6QE&jwsource=cl

100 Ways to Improve Your English — Language Exchange Sites

Language exchange websites are places online where people who want to learn a new language can go to meet native speakers of their target languages. For example, imagine that you are a French speaker who wants to practise your English. You can use one of the sites below to find an English native speaker who wants to learn French, et voilà — you can help each other learn. Typically, the exchanges take place via Skype, but there are other options. For example, some sites allow you to find a partner living in your area for face-to-face conversations.

Language exchanges are perfect for learners who want to use the language outside the classroom or those who are learning on their own and have limited opportunities to practise their oral skills. Some of my own students have had very positive experiences with language exchanges, and have even ended up visiting each other's homes.

Each of the following sites offers different possibilities, but they all have free services. So why not check out a few and see which one suits your needs best?

• Babelvillage — look for and find a language Exchange or Practice partner to train your target language.
• Conversation Exchange — Practice your second language by meeting up with native speakers living in your area. You can also find penpals or partners for text, voice and video chat.
• Easy Language Exchange — Free platform where language learners from all over the world can come together and learn their targeted foreign language.
• HelloTalk — The language app where your teachers are native language speakers from around the world.
• How Do You Do? — Helps you learn and practice foreign languages by text and video chatting with native speakers and learners from all over the world.
• InterPals — Free site for online correspondence, cultural exchange, and learning foreign languages.
• Language for Exchange — On this site you can arrange an exchange where you actually go and stay in your partner's home.
• LingoGlobe — Learn and practice foreign languages for free. 40,000+ registered members.
• MyLanguageExchange.com — The first site to host online language exchange practice. Over 3 million members from over 133 countries, practicing 115 languages!
• Polyglot Club — Find members ready to help you learn your favorite language and in return, teach them your mother tongue.
• Speaky — Instantly practice languages with people around the world. Also available as an app.
• Tandem — An app that helps you find native speakers of almost any language who want to learn your language in exchange. Check out the Tandem blog for tips on language exchanges.
• Vivalanga — An app that allows you to locate and connect with native speakers nearby. All you need is send an invitation and start learning from each other.
• WeSpeke — Learn and practice with native speakers from around the world using text, audio, or video.

http://www.englishblog.com/2017/04/100-ways-to-improve-your-english-3-language-exchange.html#.WPc-wtLyvZY

100 Ways to Improve Your English — Podcasts

If you’re not familiar with podcasts, here’s a definition : "a podcast is a digital audio recording, usually part of a themed series, that can be downloaded from a website to a media player or computer". I spend a lot of time listening to podcasts on my iPod when I’m at home doing the dishes, on the bus or train, or just out walking. My favourite podcasts would probably not be suitable for most learners of English (except those at a very advanced level), but the good news is that there are dozens of podcasts available specifically for learning English — and they’re a wonderful way to improve your listening skills. Here are some of the very best …

• All Ears English — Learn advanced conversational English or prepare for your IELTS exam.
• BBC World Service — 6 Minute English — Learn and practise useful English language for everyday situations.
• BBC World Service — 6 Minute Grammar —Every Tuesday learn a new key area of grammar.
• BBC World Service — 6 Minute Vocabulary — Every Monday hear about different ways to develop your vocabulary knowledge and skills.
• BBC World Service — The English We Speak — Every week, a different everyday English phrase or piece of slang is explained in this fun three-minute programme.
• Better at English — Real conversations for more advanced learners (with transcripts).
• Business English Pod — One of the top ESL sites and normally a paid service, but you can also get free subscriptions without having to sign up.
• Culips ESL Podcast — Learn conversational English for everyday use (from Montreal).
• Deep English — Learn English with Stories —"Train your ears to understand fast English".
• Grammar Girl — "Your friendly guide to the world of grammar, punctuation, usage, and fun developments in the English language" (for advanced learners).
• ESL Pod — The "number one English learning podcast". Now a paid service but you can get some free sample lessons.
• Happy English — Over 400 free podcasts from New York teacher Michael DiGiacomo.
• Learn English Elementary Podcasts — British Council podcast with interactive tasks and transcripts.
• Learn English Professionals Podcasts — This British Council podcast covers a large number of business and work themes and is suitable for learners at intermediate to advanced level.
• Learning English Broadcast — Voice of America's 30-minute daily podcasts use a limited vocabulary and are read at a slower pace than VOA's other English broadcasts.
• Luke's English Podcast — An award-winning podcast that started in 2009 and now has over 400 episodes, with transcripts, videos and a special series on phrasal verbs.
• Podcasts in English — One of my personal favourites. The podcasts (at three levels plus a business podcast) are free, but you can pay to get transcripts and worksheets.
• Real English Conversations —Listen to natural English conversations to quickly build your understanding of conversational American English. With free transcripts.
• Splendid Speaking — Podcasts for advanced learners studying for IELTS and other exams
• The Business — Podcasts — This Macmillan podcast features authentic interviews focusing on working life in the UK. With tapescripts and worksheets.

20 Useful Websites Every Student Should Know About - video and information

• Stack Exchange – a collection of question-and-answer communities. If you’ve got questions about chemistry, math, programming, or pretty much anything else, you’ll probably find an answer here.
• Wolfram Alpha – a “computational knowledge engine”, this site can calculate basically any math problem and come up with data on all kinds of things (including all Pokemon data!)! Step-by-step solutions to math problems used to be free, but they cost money now. For a free (but less easy-to-use) solution, try SymPy Gamma.
• StudentRate – a site that aggregates student deals and discounts on clothes, travel, textbooks, electronics, and lots of other things.
• Sleepyti.me – uses the sciences of REM cycles to calculate the optimal time you should go to bed in order to feel well-rested, based on when you plan to wake up.
• Habitica – formerly HabitRPG, this is my favorite tool for building habits and you probably know I’ve talked about it before. If you end up using it, check out the CIG guild – we’re up to around 1,500 members now!
• Todoist – my task manager of choice. I like the clean design, organizational features, and the fact that all my tasks sync across multiple platforms. However, I will say that the bulk of my task management happens on paper/whiteboards these days. Todoist just functions as one of the quick capture components of my system.
• Google Calendar – old and trusty. I’ve been using GCal since I was a freshman, and while it hasn’t changed a whole lot since then, it really doesn’t need to. It accessible in any browser, has great smartphone apps, and just works.
• Dropbox – another app I’ve been using since my early college days, Dropbox keeps all your files synced, updated, and backed up across all your computers. Recently, their browser interface has gotten much better – you can now preview most file types right in the browser without having to download them.
• Lynda – a huge library of video courses that can help you learn tons of skills, mainly centered around computing and media production. Lynda is particularly good for learning the ins and outs of computer software.
• Mint – a tool that lets you view all your financial account in one place, track your spending, and set up budgets.
• Rate My Professors – a site that allows students to write reviews of professors. I don’t take this site’s ratings as the golden truth, but it has steered me towards some great professors in the past.
• Coggle – a cool little mindmapping (one of my favorite note-taking methods) tool that lives in your browser.
• Your university website! – If you’re not familiar with it, get on it. Most university websites have course catalogues, schedule planners, financial aid information, scholarship listings, academic calendars, student job boards, and other useful things.
• Written Kitten – potentially the greatest writing aid ever invented. Set a target word count, and whenever you hit it, you’ll get a new picture of a cat. What could be better? Note: There’s currently a bug that prevents pictures from showing when you set count to 100 words, so set it to at least 200.
• Cheatography – a really cool site that collects cheat sheets that condense information on all kinds of topics. This could be helpful for building study guides.
• Bibme – a tool that can help you automatically generate bibliographies and source citations. I like it better than similar tools because it lets you search for books and other sources; if it recognizes what you searched for, it can often auto-fill all the citation fields.
• Ankiweb – the web component of Anki, my favorite spaced-repetition software. I kinda used Ankiweb as an excuse to put Anki on a list of websites, but it’s legit because it’ll let you study your flashcards in the browser. However, you do need to have Anki downloaded first.
• Instructables – a site where people can post DIY project tutorials. I put my hanging desk and hanging loft bed projects on there, but you’ll find much more practical projects as well.

Beating Homework Hassles - Whether it’s simple addition or advanced biology, kids don’t always want to do their homework: this video has great ways to eliminate those homework headaches.