Welcome to
ESL Printables, the website where English Language teachers exchange resources: worksheets, lesson plans,  activities, etc.
Our collection is growing every day with the help of many teachers. If you want to download you have to send your own contributions.

 


 

 

 

ESL Forum:

Techniques and methods in Language Teaching

Games, activities and teaching ideas

Grammar and Linguistics

Teaching material

Concerning worksheets

Concerning powerpoints

Concerning online exercises

Make suggestions, report errors

Ask for help

Message board

 

ESL forum > Message board > let ´s recollect our memories...    

let ´s recollect our memories...





Apodo
Australia

I like the smell of the rain approaching when it has been dry and dusty.
I remember once coming home from school in a storm and the rain was coloured reddish brown wiith dust. It made a mess of my white shirt which was part of my uniform and my bike handlebars were covered with muddy red spots.

20 Jul 2011     



douglas
United States

A Rain Memory:
 
 (Mar �s comment about doing a rain danced reminded me of this). 
 
 Growing up in California, my parents have always had a very keen interest in California history, especially in the indians that lived there and how they lived before the "white man" came.  It was not uncommon for us as children to spend our weekends playing at one of the California missions that Father Sera http://www.sfmuseum.org/bio/jserra.html had founded or searching for arrowheads in the Californ�a foothills.  My parents also liked crafting, so we would try to do crafts in the "old" ways--not a bad childhood despite being poor.
 
At some point my mother began giving talks about life on the California coast in the early years--especially about  life as a Chumash indian  http://www.santaynezchumash.org/history.html .   She had lots of hands-on things that let the smaller children to get a real feel for the life.  For her younger groups she would take the chlidren out to the playground and, beating her rawhide drum, teach them a rain dance--they loved it and Mom was called back every year in the fall (Halloween and Thanksgiving time) to give her talks in the local schools. 
 
One thing about the California coast is you can be pretty sure it is going to rain at least a little in October-November.  So inevitably, after teaching a group of children the rain dance we would get rain and the magic of living history and "ancient" cultures was brought to life in the children �s minds.  What a great memory, thanks Mar 

20 Jul 2011     



joy2bill
Australia

I remember lying in a camp stretcher listening to my husband huffing and puffing as he built a trench around the tent to stop the rain pouring in. I remember finally forcing myself to get up and help him tie the tent down which was threatening to blow away with our small children and all our precious camping equipment. I remember hanging EVERYTHING out to dry the next day, only for it to rain again that night and the whole performance to be repeated.
Oh the JOYS of summer rain in New Zealand.
Handshake  Joy

20 Jul 2011     



serene
Greece

Hello, Mariethe!
I like rain very much. I like its sound and the smell of the first rains in autumn after the hot and dry summer. Unfortunately it doesn �t rain often where I live now so I miss rain a lot and when it does rain I am happy and excited like when I was a child in my hometown. It used to rain a lot in winter back then, there were the occasional storms but usually it was this kind of steady rain that isn �t very hard but can go on for a long time. I remember those winter afternoons when I was supposed to be doing my homework and instead I would stand by the window for hours looking out at the rain water rushing down the street forming bubbles and little streams that crossed over each other. I used to associate those little streams with the veins I had noticed popping out in the arms of grown up people. I think it �s quite odd that I haven �t seen anything similar ever since or could it be that I wouldn �t notice any more...

20 Jul 2011     



edrodmedina
United States

Thank you Mariethe for bringing up this discussion. It has stirred up some good memories for me and made me think of some other topics to bring t the forum in the future. HugEd

20 Jul 2011     



ldthemagicman
United Kingdom

Dear Mariethe,

I live in the North of England, where it rains long, and hard, and often.

Now, it has been raining non-stop for two weeks.

The sky is a blotched, dull, dirty blanket.  Clouds are rolling hills of grey slag: memories of ash in a dead, burnt-out fire.  East and west, the heavens rumble and threaten and groan, like a restless volcano, sharp pains in the stomach, which bubble, and gasp, and groan!

Day, after day, after dreary day, it is cold, and wet, and miserable.  The shivering postman darts from door-to-door, doggedly trying to dodge the deluge.  His efforts, alas, are all in vain!  He cannot run the relentless rain!

Waves of water wash down his back, wetting his Wellingtons, soaking his sack.

Each sleepy door gives a stifled yawn, like a new-washed infant, which is newly-born, and into the mouth drops a soaking bill: making household misery greater still.

And as the heavens grumble and mutter, the dirty old world washes into the gutter.

But when I was just five-years-old, and I played with my baby sister, the rain was different!  The rain was oh, so very different!

The rain was warm, and it shone, and it sparkled.  It was happy, and beautiful, and, most of all, it was friendly.

Even though I must remain sitting on the floor of the lobby, peering through the open door, cuddling my sister, we are joyously happy.

We watch with fascinated eyes --- the patterns, the swirls, the sparkling rivulets of gleaming rainwater.  We listen with attentive ears to the rhythms, the melodies, and the music of the dancing raindrops.  We joyfully clap our hands in time with the orchestra of sounds all around us.

We are happy.  We are young.  We are children.

And, as the day begins to draw to a close, we must go to bed, so we sing a fond farewell to our friend, �The Rain�.

�Rain, Rain, go away!  Please, come back another day!�

Les

20 Jul 2011     



edrodmedina
United States

Beautiful Les!

20 Jul 2011     



Mariethe House
France

Thank you Les for this masterful piece of literature! thank you for the bright spirit you are, the sensitive man and thank you to.... the rain!
A tout chose malheur est bon ... what is it in English? every cloud has a silver lining?
Hug

20 Jul 2011     



Pelletrine
France

    Wow: thank you Les for these strong pictures :o))) Feels like having shared each second with you, will definitely stay long in my memory.
 
    Thank you Mariethe for the subject... it does bring up lots of past feelings and sensations ;o))
 
    Right now, I�m in my bygone father�s house... some 1600 km from where I live. I�m sorting photos, books and other material stuff from a life that doesn�t exist anymore.... in a house I�ve never lived in. It isn�t raining... wish it was.
 
    But, on the spot I�ve got strong roots and memories carried on to where I live.
 
    On the spot, there used to be a small wooden house. We used to come here/there for the summer months. (later, my father and his wife decided to live there, tore down the wooden house and built a new solid one.... no!... it�s not quite the story about the 3 little pigs ;o).
 
     As a child, it was like paradise: no school, the sea to swim in, the harbour to explore, the wind to play with, the trees to climb... I could spend all day in the tree tops, looking out on the sea, watching, and listening to, the small light-blue fishing boats coming in and out of the harbour
( at that time the boats had a "two paced" motor which would go " tough-tough tough-tough tough-tough".... now they just don�t make any noise at all).
 
     And the rain..... the rain was a blessing: I would climb the latter up to the attick, and play under the roof.... listening to the rain playing on the roof, playing music, singing tunes for me... it felt soothing and relaxing... (you�re right ;o))... it does calm yourself and also our pupils down!!!)
 
    Childhood-rain was always something playful and joyful, I loved to jump in puddles and feel the rain on my face.
 
     And when thunder storms came: with my cousin, at night, we used to kneel on the bed, beneath the window, lights out, watching, quite scared and nevertheless excited, the show of lightning tearing up the sky.
 
    Today, I still find the rain soothing; and when June and end-of-year-lessons-you-don�t-know-if-you-will-manage-to-finish come, I�m just so happy when a rainy day comes: because I know lessons will just be fine and warmly welcomed ;o))

21 Jul 2011     

< Previous   1    2