Making an Easter Movie

Making an Easter Movie 

Several years ago with a Year 6 class and a French language assistant from the local High School  we created an opportunity for the class to generate movies of simple animal songs which were sung to a very familiar refrain - 10 Little Indians 





The class loved ICT  and as you can see from the example below were able to create simple movies using windows movie maker that explained the song they heard the language assistant sing . It was helped by the fact that the language assistant had a beautiful voice too.

It was a simple song known by a lot of us in French we then changed and to describe different animals and their associated movements : 

Un petit,deux petits, trois petits lapins ,

quatre petits, cinq petits , six petits lapins

sept petits , huit petits , neuf petits lapins 

dix petits lapins sautent!

As a class we were practising nouns for animals ,linking these to  action verbs  and looking at regular er verbs in French - so we had rabbits that jump, lambs that run and birds that fly in our three songs .It was Easter time - hence the lambs ! 

We used this simple book to explore animals and their movements .The book is still on my book shelf and is still used with classes  as they love learning about  real animals and exploring simple real factual information in the target language contained in the book

Recently looking at all the new APPS that we can use to create movies with the children I decided that it would be good to challenge the language teachers and assistants that work with me to challenge their classes to create their own Easter Movies .
An APP like Story Creator would be ideal - for children to record the story with pictures and then on the final page to sing the whole song 


With Year 3 the children can sing the song , record themselves and then create their own group movies 

With Year 4 the children can alter the song - change the animal and the action and create their own group movies 

With UKS2 the children can work on writing their own songs about an animal and an action and create in pairs simple movies . 

Using the Educreations IPad APP to explore how to respond to , use and create instructions and commands

Using the Educreations IPad APP to explore commands 

With all our classes from Year 3 onwards we work  on how to respond to , say and then be able to give instructions firstly to friends and then to groups of people . Over the course of four years of language learning the children develop their linguistic ability to :

1. understand and physically respond to instructions and commands in the second person singular and plural (e.g listen , sing , walk , run , skip , hop etc)
2. give a simple command in the second person singular 
3. generate a simple an instruction or command in the second person singular 
4. generate a simple an instruction or command in the second person plural 

It's important that

they progress from listening and responding to speaking confidently,to being able to create a spoken command independently and then to move on to being able to read and try to write instructions

(with support and/or independently).

Yes, we play games such as Simon says or last man standing bingo.We create mirror spoken activities with one partner following another partners commands or we become physical robot machines or puppets programmed by our partners commands and instructions.We write simple instructional messages for others to follow and we write instructions as part of our messages in a bottle Year 5 writing for purpose focus.

Yesterday thank to

@lisibo

 and her brilliant blog 

İ 

Vamonos

 ! 

I explored how we can use simple technology to create listening , responding and spoken activities linked to two of our core focuses in the Summer term with Year 4 and Year 5 . I found that Educreation's

Interactive Whiteboard APP

simple to use. The drawing pad is just like the IWB and with immediate recording facilities and different coloured pens it allowed me the chance to develop some creative and effective simple target language activities .

Firstly I generated for myself  symbols to represent physical commands (this could be a really engaging activity for the children what shapes and what colours would they associate with actions such as walking ,running ,swimming etc )

Here are a few examples of mine .

Walk 

Swim

Jump

Along with other symbols we create as a class- we could use these to practise saying the commands/ writing the actual word for the command in the air on a whiteboard or a sequence of written instructions and we could give children two or three symbols to convey in the target language to a partner who must respond appropriately.

In Summer Year 4 will focus on the

World Cup .

World Cup symbol

I trialled using Educreation's APP to draw the "sense " of each of four movements that you may want the children to understand, react to and say to partner or a group if you were practising sports instructions e.g  jump,run,turn and stop.

Educreations enabled me in English (you will hear my best Northern accent!) to draw symbols and say commands at the same time.You can hear and see the very simple creation of mine below:

World Cup Actions

I am now able to pass my message over to someone else to listen to , respond to physically and then write out in the target language as a sequence message or menu of commands for a third person to follow and do.

The Beach

With Year 5 we go to the beach and I decided that the APP could help me to create the physical sense of the freedom of going into the sea . Here is my recording plus drawings . with Year 5 we are exploring longer sentences and short texts . This recording would enable two people to write in their own order commands they associate with actions on the beach , swap tablets , listen to each others and then use the actions they have either physically or in their imaginations taken part in to create full first                                     person singular sentences about time spent on the                                       beach !

Here's the drawing and recording for you to listen to. 

Time on the beach

What first person singular  present tense simple sentences using colours as adjectives would you write ?  

Shape Sentence Jungles

Shape Sentence Jungles

Creating simple descriptive sentences using a  noun, a verb and an adjective to create a jungle animal.

This evening at JLN training,my colleagues and I were discussing writing simple sentences with Year 4  children  next half term , when we teach the children about jungle animals . It’s one of our favourite units in the JLN  SOW and we are always looking for ways to enhance what we do.

The children have learned about nouns and adjectives as components  of a simple sentence.We have practised colours and sizes but have not as yet practised the position of adjectives and agreement of adjectives in target languages

We want to be creative with the simple sentence structure and language.This year we are going to try writing shape sentences both as physical sentences and also as written descriptions of our jungle animals .

Physical sentences

Hand out to three children in the class, three cards – a noun , a verb and an adjective that describe one of the jungle animals- for example the giraffe 

Stand the three children in a row holding up their cards so that they are visible to the rest of the class. Make sure the children are in a random order – so stand the child with the adjective at the start of the line, the child with the noun in the middle and the child with the verb at the end of the row.

Can a volunteer reorganise the cards into a sentence for you so that it makes sense by moving the children into the correct position? 

Now can a second volunteer create a shape sentence . For example if it’s a giraffe we are describing then can we create a long tall shape with the noun at the top , the verb in the middle and the adjective at the bottom

If it’s a snake  …….

then we need to create a wiggly word sentence like this.....

If it’s an elephant then maybe our word shape will have a noun for the trunk , a verb for the body and an adjective for the tail .

Shape Sentence Jungle.

Can the children put their jungle animals into their jungle setting? This activity leads on well from the above activity . The children need to draw a picture of their jungle backdrop and then write shape sentences for each of the animals in their jungle . They can select four animals. They can use more than one adjective to describe an animal and they need to create their shape sentences so that they flow as a written sentence  , therefore noun , verb and adjective/ adjectives and look like the shape of the animal .

Can other children in the class find and identify the jungle shape sentences. 

Use wonderful art work such as Rousseau's pictures of jungle animals to inspire the children to create shape sentence jungle art and camouflage this in their jungle pictures  !

Châteaux et chevaliers

Châteaux et chevaliers!

This sequence of activity based around French castles and creating our own class chevaliers was inspired by a tweet by Emilie

@EWoodruffe

 who works with 

Janet Lloyd Network

in a 

primary school teaching French, where language learning  is a part of the whole school creative curriculum model . Her challenge this half term is to link language learning to the year group focus : “Castles” .

I have created a sequence  of language learning suitable for UKS2 French with listening , speaking , reading and writing  performance and DT .

Activities below can take your class on a journey to France , to the Loire , along the Loire and the castles , inside a creepy castle and to meet knights and give these French chevalier personalities , equipment and physical descriptions . You can mix and match activities to suit your class focus and they all lead to the creation of your own class chevaliers! 

Stage One : Les châteaux de la Loire

Pretty obvious place to start. Here is an evocative clip from You Tube introducing les châteaux  de la Loire

We love using child friendly maps of France to bring the country nearer to the children, with symbols and 

information they want to know. Often in UKS2 we will use these maps alongside Atlas work looking at the geographical features of the country .

For this focus we need to locate the Loire on a map Below are two of favourite child friendly maps of France 

Languages Sticker company map of France

   /    

la jolie ronde map of France

We sometimes take a virtual visit via google maps and their v

isites virtuelles 360 France

Once you have watched the video clip with the children , located the Loire on one of the child friendly maps and taken a virtual tour of the Loire and the castles via google maps , then it’s time to ask the children to annotate with Art work a simple map of the Loire valley and the châteaux. You could use a map like this one and allow the children to decide how they want to annotate five castles along the Loire

map of the castles of the Loire

This stage can also include the joining in and practise of an authentic French comptine: “Ah mon beau château

 "

Build a cardboard castle

And what about following French instructions to work in pairs and create castles of our own for a class display from teteamodeler !

fabriquer un chateau

Stage Two : Stepping inside the castle

Take the children on a story journey into a creepy castle, and listen to the wonderful Dark Dark Tale in French. You find a clip of the story on You Tube , search for "

u

ne histoire sombre , très sombre"

This French school’s website below has a wonderful PDF of  step by step activities linked to literacy which may like to try:

une historie sombre PDF

You could come back to this castle and the creepy story once you have learned about the knights who might have lived there …..Children love changing what is in the box at the end of the story and this time it could be something linked to the knights’ equipment or characteristics etc that  the children are about to  learn about .

Stage Three : les chevaliers

Who are the chevaliers ?

Introduce the class to these wonderful 

cartes de chevaliers

Play Quiz Quiz Swap and investigate names and personalities

Each child can be one of the Knights from a selection you decide of 6 cards from this pack .The children can practise introducing themselves as the different knights . I would select five or six so that we can  practise the names as a class and look at their portraits and decide how they would bow or introduce themselves flamboyantly . 

Now give each child one of the 6 cards you selected . You will need enough for each child The children can walk around the room with a card and play Quiz Quiz Swap (just ask a question – name – give a response – name of knight – swap cards and move on). 

Play this a second time and build  dialogues ( ask and answer questions about names , (pick a castle from Loire) where someone lives , how are they feeling and make sure to add a greeting and a farewell )

Hold "listen ins " where the class need to stop and listen to a dialogue between two of the children who deliver their dialogue  performing as the knights would do and then the class restarts the conversations and the Quiz  Quiz Swap  game. 

S

tage Four : Jousting

Knights and jousting go together  ! So we could go back and revisit familiar language and families of words during this unit by introducing an ongoing “jousting match” between tables of children that takes place for five minutes during the period of time in the term that we are working on our theme of chevaliers . Each table is given one of the knight's names from the cartes de chevaliers as their table's knight .

Jousting is between tables or as an "in front of the class" competition. A class “jousting league table “ is required , to record points that the  “chevaliers” win . If one table wins a joust it gains 3 points , if it’s a draw then both tables of chevaliers gain one point.  Set up table jousting matches where the tables have to select a knight to go into battle with a knight from the other table. These are games where each player speaks  alternately  e.g. I speak , then you speak , then I speak etc.

Hesitation means the other knight wins!

The jousts could be   based on the following …

…

·

Saying the months in chronological order.

·

Saying the months in alphabetical order

·

Say the months from December backwards

·

Counting in twos from 0-30

·

Counting backwards from 30

·

Saying the days of the week in alphabetical order

·

Stage Five : Knights and parts of the body calligrams

Revisit the parts of the body that the children already know and introduce new nouns you may need for the following parts :heart, brain, body

What type of body does a knight need to be the best? 

Here are a few suggestions…

A brave heart

Powerful  body

Fast legs

Strong arms

Clever brain

This is an opportunity to work with the children on the physical attributes of a knight and to look at the position and agreement of adjectives after nouns.

Working in pairs ask the children to investigate with bi-lingual dictionaries the key adjectives and to find the gender of the key parts of the body that are needed to describe their knights .

Build your own class chevalier

Draw round a child and then stick the outline to the wall . This will be your class knight and will work as a memory prompt , a working wall and a focus for other stages as we build our class chevalier

1. Give out key body parts and ask children to place them in correct positions on the outline
2. Give out the key adjectives  as cards to other volunteers Where do they think the adjectives fit best? 
3. Now ask a final group of   children to add any adjectival agreement they think is necessary to the adjectives and/ or to move the adjectives around if they think they fit better next to a different part of the body.

Last knight standing

Ask the class to help you decide upon an action for each physical description and then play our favourite type of bingo “Last knight standing” .

Ask the children to freeze frame in an action linked to the physical description. Call out a physical description and any children freeze framed in this action is out and must sit down Knights remaining must change their freeze frame action and play the game again. Who will be the last knight standing

?  

Knight calligrams

Give out the outlines of the knights . Here’s a simple knight template

knight template for calligram

Ask the children to create a calligram of the physical description of the knight you have built .

Stage Six : Personality of knight

Set the scene with this wonderful song. Thanks to 

@Janejaneheg

for this suggestion by the way! Chevalier de table ronde 

Today we are creating personalities for the knights. 

Children need bi-lingual dictionaries to look up the French meaning of   key adjectives to describe their ultimate knight e.g. brave, kind, trustworthy etc that you have written on the flipchart. 

Collate the list after the activity on your flipchart or whiteboard.  

Play Chinese whispers with the attributes

Create a memory game with the attributes  with children working in groups of six where they have to say what was said before and something for themselves and include the phrase

Now the children need to create in their best medieval handwriting on a scroll template an advertisement for  a new knight.

They have the language  to physically describe a knight , say what personality attributes he must have and they have the key phrase “Je cherche un chevalier qui est ……” .You will need to help the children to say also “Je cherche un chevalier qui a ….+ physical description

Stage Seven : The armoury of  knight

Look at the possible equipment a knight might need :

l

'

equipement du chevalier

Select from this equipment key language to create a game of 

lotto

First equip your class chevalier

Using the large outline you drew of a knight and physical description ask the children to help you using pictures , cognate recognition and bi-lingual dictionaries to decide where you should now add the equipment for the knight that you have selected  .

Introduce each item to be placed on your knight by saying “le chevalier porte……”

The volunteer who comes to place the equipment on the knight must say the complete phrase too.

Now play lotto – who will be the winning knight?

Finally have a game

of table armour beetle drive

with six pieces of armour that the children need to win for their own knight’s template (use the templates from the knights’ calligrams) . The children must take it in turns to throw a dice, name the item they throw which is linked to that number – picture and number clearly displayed at the front of the classroom - and then draw the item in  the correct place on their template. If they throw a number that they have already thrown they mustn’t draw anything and wait until their next turn  . First person to complete the armour wins the game . They must tell their table what their knight is wearing

“Le chevalier porte ……………!”

Stage Eight : The identity of our class chevalier!

You are now ready to create an identity for your class knight .

Ask the children in pairs or on tables to create an identity for the unnamed class knight

He needs a name , a castle where he lives , a physical description , a description of his armour and a description of his personality .

You will have to decide whether the class is ready to write in the third person singular or if you want to ask the children to write in the first person singular as if they are the knight.

The children need to present their descriptions to the class and the class needs to vote on the best knights description , marking it on the following : pronunciation, 

fluency , 

interesting description 

( each area can be awarded a maximum of 5 points ) . 

Which descriptions win? 

From these descriptions which one will the class decide to keep when they hear them one more time?

And finally

Following the instructions here your class chevalier needs to have a selection of shields in his armoury! The shields  are to be made by every child and then used as display around the chevalier , displaying their handwritten descriptions of the class chevalier that they created with a partner

un bouclier

Talking animals

Over the course of an academic year I create and explore ways to deliver effective language teaching and learning for local primary schools and KS3 departments. Now I want to share with the language learning community out there!

So here we go , first blog post coming up!
We are currently teaching year 3 children how to say which animals they like and dislike. This weekend I learned about the Yakit kids app https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/yakit-kids/id794546203?mt=8
and found it really simple to use . 

So after a windy walk on the beach , our dog lay down and looked tired and I thought how much our Y3 children would like to be just like Dr. Dolittle and understand animal language! Quick photo , create a mouth , add a sound file and I have an example to share with colleagues whose classes have IPads and Chrome Books !

Here's my example - bet the children can do better though!