Best of NTC: Summer’s coming

Those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer – there are plenty of events to enjoy in the sunshine …

In the UK, you can take your tent to Glastonbury to watch the most famous musicians alive – this year Kanye West and The Who will be the headliners. After Glastonbury in the calendar is Wimbledon, the world’s most famous and oldest tennis tournament. And this is followed by the refined Glyndebourne Festival in the south of England at which men and women sit on blankets on the grass, drink champagne and eat delicious picnics while listening to classical opera. No Kanye West here!

Independence Day in the USA is celebrated on 4 July, and you can be sure of fireworks and processions. A month later it’s the Iowa State Fair which attracts over one million visitors – don’t forget to check out the sculptures made of butter.

Back in Europe, you can visit The Rose of Tralee International Festival which takes place in the west of Ireland in the middle of August.

And don’t forget the Brisbane Festival if you visit Australia - of course it’s winter there in July, so there’s not much chance of lazy, hazy days downunder!

Click on the left button below if you would like to find out more about these events in the UK, USA, Ireland and Australia. And if you would like to do an activity on the topic of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, then click on the right button below.

Wimbledon (level A1, 15+ mins)

The Wimbledon Tennis Championships take place between 29 June and 12 July 2015.
The first championships were held in 1877.

• On the board write Wimbledon and ask students what they know about it.
• Tell students they are going to do a dictation about some past winners of Wimbledon.
• On the board write Year, Name and Nationality. Students should write these words along the top of a piece of paper and make a column below each word.
• Ask a confident student to write his / her dictation on the board so you can use his / her (corrected) text for the whole class.
• Slowly and clearly, read out the year, the name and the nationality of any three of the winners (see below) and ask students to write down the words they hear in the appropriate column. Tell students whether the person is a men’s or women’s single winner. Be ready to spell out the names.
• Check answers together.
• You can continue this activity and ask individual students to read out the remaining Wimbledon winners and the other students write them down.

Men’s single winners

Women’s single winners