Countdown to Valentine's Day 2015

At English & Creativity we just LOVE chocolate, love poems and songs and telling people how wonderful they are, so Valentine's Day is right up our alley !

The Bilinguals enjoyed discovering both Chet Baker versions of "My Funny Valentine"

vocals:

trumpet:

Ben made the class awesomely creative Valentine cards ...

They all tried their hands at creating cinquain poems about someone or something they love

A light-hearted love song by Cole Porter...

You're the Top - Cole Porter

At words poetic, I'm so pathetic
That I always have found it best
Instead of getting them off my chest
To let 'em rest unexpressed

I hate parading my serenading
As I probably miss the bar
But if this ditty is not so pretty
At least it'll tell you how great you are

You're the top, you're the Coliseum
You're the top, you're the Louver Museum
You're a melody from a symphony by Strauss
You're a Bendel bonnet, a Shakespeare's sonnet
You're Mickey Mouse

You're the Nile, you're the Tower of Pisa
You're the smile on the Mona Lisa
I'm a worthless check, a total wreck, a flop
But if baby, I'm the bottom, you're the top

You're the top, you're Mahatma Gandhi
You're the top, you're Napoleon Brandy
You're the purple light of a summer night in Spain
You're the National Gallery, you're Garbo's salary
You're cellophane

You're sublime, you're the turkey dinner
You're the time of the Derby winner
I'm a toy balloon that's fated soon to pop
But if baby, I'm the bottom, you're the top

You're the top, you're an arrow collar
You're the top, you're a Coolidge dollar
You're the nimble tread of the feet of Fred Astaire
You're an O'Neill drama, you're Whistler's mama
You're Camembert

You're a rose, you're Inferno's Dante
You're the nose on the great Durante
I'm just in the way, as the French would say, "De trop"
But if baby, I'm the bottom, you're the top

You're the top, you're a Waldorf salad
You're the top, you're a Berlin ballad
You're the basic grand of a lady and the gents
You're an old Dutch master, you're Mrs. Astor
You're Pepsodent

You're romance, you're the steppes of Russia
You're the pants on a Roxy usher
I'm a lazy lout which is just about to stop
But if baby, I'm the bottom, you're the top

They learned various expressions using the word "heart" ...

 

Another love song by Cole Porter...

”So In Love” -  Cole Porter

Strange dear, but true dear,
When I'm close to you, dear,
The stars fill the sky,
So in love with you am I.
Even without you,
My arms fold about you,
You know darling why,
So in love with you am I.
In love with the night mysterious,
The night when you first were there,
In love with my joy delirious,
When I knew that you could care,
So taunt me, and hurt me,
Deceive me, desert me,
I'm yours, till I die.....
So in love.... So in love....
So in love with you, my love... Am I....

Of course, no Valentine's Day celebration would be complete without chocolate, conversation heart candies, heart-shaped marshmallows and 

candy kisses....

Think you know what Valentine's Day is all about ? Try this fill-in-the-blanks (answers at the end) :

http://www.education.com/files/518001_519000/518138/file_518138.gif

Some famous love poems ...

She Walks  in  Beauty

By Lord George Gordon Byron

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that’s best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes:

Thus mellowed to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

My  mistress’ eyes  are  nothing  like  the  sun (Sonnet 130)

by William Shakespeare

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damasked, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delight

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

I grant I never saw a goddess go;

My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belied with false compare.

The White Rose

by John Boyle O’Reilly

The red rose whispers of passion,

And the white rose breathes of love;

O, the red rose is a falcon,

And the white rose is a dove.

But I send you a cream-white rosebud

With a flush on its petal tips;

For the love that is purest and sweetest

Has a kiss of desire on the lips.

  

“A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous”-  Ingrid Bergman