Monet colour cathedrals

During the holidays I happened to read a book about Monet and was taken by the fact that he painted Rouen cathedral 28 times between 1892 and 1893. He captured the cathedral in different lights and at different times of day. 

Perfect link between Art and language learning here! 

• Locate the cathedral on Google Maps. Go on a real time tour of the area and the cathedral with Google Maps.Explore pictures and photographs of the actual cathedral. 
• Take a look at some of the different picture Monet painted of the cathedral. Share these on a screen and give the children limited time to write down colours in either English or the target language that they see in the pictures.
• Give the children time to compile a written target language list of all the colours and to check or look up colours in bilingual dictionaries.
• Take verbal feedback of the colours from the children and record these on the flip chart.
• Give children a blank piece of paper and ask the children to create a colour word cathedral of their own.Ask the children to build their own colour cathedrals using all the colours they noticed in Monet's pictures,from the bottom of the building up to the top, in an order they feel best fits the size and shape of the building.This activity will work best if they can use coloured pencils and pens to match the target language words.
• Ask the children when they have finished their colour wordbuildings to now add similes for each colour. Let the children look at Monet's paintings again to inspire these simple similies using the key word "comme" e.g. bleu comme le ciel etcetra.
• The children can then create a list of their similes and create their own similie word sculptures of the cathedral .
• Colour word cathedrals and simile word sculptures can then be used to create a class display 

Story character boxes

Funny what you see on your local garden centre! Walking around yesterday I spotted this jigsaw puzzle.As it's World Book day this week it gave me a simple idea.  

• First share with the children an empty card board box.Explain in English that inside is a traditional tale character.Set the scene .Ask them children who could it be? (You may want to share pictures of possible characters to prompt the children)
• Now share with the class the title of a traditional tale in the target language for example here we would share "Puss in Boots" in French or in Spanish :

• Ask the children to read the title. Look for familiar words .Think of traditional tales they know in English and decide which traditional tale this could be. (Goldilocks and the Three Bears , The Three Little Pigs, Sleeping Beauty  would work well as target language titles).
• Take feedback. Check with pictorial evidence
• Share a picture of the traditional tale - so the picture of the jigsaw box above would be great for Puss in Boots. Does the evidence confirm the suggestions of the children? 
• Ask the children to help you put the pieces of the character's personality in the box. Make this as challenging as you think the children can manage.You can differentiate the task within the class itself. Can they write for you a name sentence, where the character lives, a possible age, a possible like and a possible dislike, how the character is feeling and using an adjective or adjectives what the character in the story is like. Can they write a sentence to describe the clothes or the face of the character?
• Now ask the children to help you to build character boxes. Give out templates for boxes or dice. Printable cube pattern templates 
• Ask the children to decorate the box with pictures linked to the story line and story character. On the lid the children should write the name of the story character or the traditional tale title and inside the box the children add sentence strips to that they have written to describe the character.