Quiz Quiz Swap with a Listening and Responding Twist- Restaurant Style

We love Quiz Quiz Swap and can play the game from from a very early stage in our young language learners' target language acquisition journey. 
All you need are sets of cards with picture items on them and you can set up simple guessing activities or asking and answering questions activities too.
The activities below are for our UKS2 learners,linked to eating out at a seaside fish restaurant in Spain but could easily be altered for other languages too!


With our UKS2 learners I want to look at how well they listen and respond and how quickly they can hear differences.It's a fun activity based on simple cafe culture conversations and add a listening and responding twist that they will enjoy!

Quiz Quiz Swap with a Listening and Responding Twist

1. Practise the core language to create a simple cafe dialogue between a waiter and a customer.You may like to start  by using my Happy Meal dialogues.
2. Share the specific dishes with the children which you want to use in this activity.Below are my dishes for a Spanish meal.
3. Play two games of Quiz Quiz Swap.First game a guessing game where each child has to guess what card the other player is concealing from them and then they swap cards and move to new partners.Second game build in questions and answers to create a cafe dialogue,with a freeze ,stop and listen built in, where you call "Freeze" the children stop talking etc and you select a pair for the class to listen in to and hear their conversation.
4. Now you can add the listening and responding twist! It's simple really.You need a bag of the pictures that the children have as Quiz Quiz Swap cards.As the children are performing their Quiz quiz Swap dialogues,randomly select a picture and call out "I would like + the item you can see on your picture".The children need to be both focusing on their conversation and ready also to listen and respond if they have the picture on their cards you are looking for.Children with that picture must raise it in the air and shout out the name of the dish.The child you hear first,wins a point for their class group or table. 
5. Once the class are confident you can ask members of the class to be the "caller" and draw pictures from the bag and call out the request with the  name of the dish.    

Here are some of the Spanish dishes I am going to use .I took these photos during a meal at a seaside fish restaurant meal.I deliberately chose items that either could sound similar (e.g the children must decide what type of olives they hear called out or can they hear when it's bread and water or bread with tomatoes?) The items chosen,specifically address the fact that our Year 6 KS2 learners have already met foods ,drinks and simple meals in the JLN SOW  .Now we are taking them on a "Cafe culture" trip -at the end of their KS2 language learning journey.
So for our Spanish cafe culture here are a few of the dishes I selected :

aceitunas (con queso/pulpo/boqueron) 

gazpacho

pan con tomate

pescado con patatas

"Rudolph and your nose so bright" guessing game

Just found these Rudolph pictures on the internet! 
Brilliant for a simple warm up game in a December language learning lesson.
The objective of the lesson will be to ask and answer questions based on colour of Rudolph's nose!

Here is the link

1. Just print out a class set and cut out each Rudolph so that you have enough cards - one per child.
2. Make yourself three large versions of any of the Rudolphs for yourself and make them into finger puppets. 
3. Ask the children to greet the first Rudolph you show them and to ask him how he is feeling.Respond as if you are Rudolph. ask the children the colour of Rudolph's nose
4. Can the children guess the colour of the nose of the other two finger puppets you have made?
5. Now set up a simple game for the children ,based on "Knock, knock , who is there?"In French we are going to say:

                                                                       Toc,toc,toc!

                                                           Qui est là?

           Rudolphe avec le nez ……..?

    Le nez .......

Oui/non

(The child who is guessing the other partner's Rudolph and the colour of the nose says the phrases in red.The child with the Rudolph being guessed says the phrases in blue)

In Spanish we are going to say :

¡Pon,pon,pon!

¿Quién es?

Rudolph con la nariz ……

La nariz……

Si/no

Adding extra challenge?

Have you noticed that the Rudolphs on the sheet at the top are also wearing ties? 
Well now this will work brilliantly in French as we can look at the adjective spelling change for some of the colours and the way we therefore pronounce them , when we use a "le " noun or a "la " noun.
Now we can add a DfE POS objective based on understanding basic grammar too and use this activity across all our language learners from KS1 and beginners to moving on learners with differentiated challenge !

And in Spanish? Well we can use la nariz with adjectives that agree and change the tie to a soft neck scarf and use the masculine noun el  pañuelo

Finally in German! We will need to tweak the verse abit for younger learners but can add a differing degrees of challenge with adjectival endings for more advanced learners....

Klopf,klopf,klopf!

Wer bist du?  

Rudolph und meine Nase ist .....

............

Ja/ nein

To be more challenging add the preposition"mit" and practise the positioning of the adjective before the noun with the correct adjectival ending

( Rudolph  mit der ...........Nase) 

Or to add even more challenge introduce the changes in the definite article too by using die Nase and also das Halstuch ( e. mit der .....Nase/ mit dem........Halstuch) 

Christmassy questions,answers.engaging in conversations and puppet shows

This week during CPD there is a Christmassy feel!
Here is a really simple way to engage the children in purposeful language learning whether they are beginners,moving on or advanced language learners....adding that Christmassy touch .

First of all tomorrow at a CPD session we will be exploring ways to use my paper puppets with older learners- but the idea below can be as simple or as challenging as you like and can be used across KS1 and KS2.
If you haven't already seen the paper puppets blog - here you go!

Paper puppets with a purpose 
And below is a very old but well loved Madame souris made by a young learner years ago!

Here is my new and very simple model! It's a Father Christmas example , but you could have rudolph, a snowman, a Christmas fairy etc!

All I did was source a Father Christmas face template , print it out and once I had made the basic paper puppet template stick the Father Christmas face to the template.Of course children could make their own and customise them too!

How can we use these festive paper puppets?

Well we can meet the objective in the new DfE POS of : engaging in conversation , asking and answering questions

With beginners:

• hold simple greetings, name, feelings and farewell question and answer dialogues between Father Christmas and the other festive characters the children have chosen to create.
• play "knock knock who is there?" as a class question to a child hiding their paper puppet , who reveals the puppet and says the name of the character and a Christmas greeting e.g "joyeux noel/ feliz navidad/ frohe Weihnachten "

With moving on learners:

• Ask the children to think about the likes and dislikes of the festive characters (food/weather/music.......!) and to create a conversation with a partner between two festive characters. Ask them to practise and memorise their conversations and then perform for the class the "festive puppet show" 

With advanced learners:

• Ask the children to create a question and answer conversation between two festive characters that explores the daily routine of the characters on Christmas eve and Christmas Day- what time do they get up ,have breakfast , what do they wear (Rudolph will naturally wear his red nose ...!) etc.What do they do on the two days and how do they feel at the end of the day? Brainstorm and record ideas first and write up with the children's support key sentences and questions that will be useful in the task .Encourage children to find and use new language alongside the familiar language.The children will need to write out their dialogues in pairs and practise so they can perform the dialogues with the written text only for reference if necessary. Children will need bilingual dictionaries to compete this task.Again there is the chance to share with the class.

 

Paper puppets with a purpose

There have been some fascinating posts recently on Facebook and Twitter about the use of puppets in primary language teaching.Recently I bought all the associate teachers that work with me new puppets as our puppets were beginning to be not only very well loved but also some what worn out!Our younger children love the puppets, singing with them ,talking to them, watching the language assistants and teachers whispering or asking questions with the puppets etc.

The recent posts made me think about how years ago (1995 to be exact!) I created "paper puppets with purpose" for my language learners in UKS2. 

I started creating paper puppets with my Year 5 and 6 in primary,after watching a local playschool teacher using paper puppets to support a reluctant speaker.I was amazed by just how precious the children in Year 5 and Year 6  found them in their language learning.Indeed these puppets were still being made and used by my language learners in 2012- with the same effect!

As a learning tool they help with language retention and language practise.They make what might be perceived as simple or silly questions more sensible because you ask the puppet and they create opportunities to have simple dialogues between the puppets and the puppeteers. Plus every child had a learning tool that belonged to him/herself. 

They are brown paper envelopes - hand size 

and if you depress the top two corners and push the fold inwards carefully ,you can make a mouth and operate this from inside the envelope.

The children can make them into their own characters and customize them - clowns,sports stars, animals, cartoon characters etc. 

All my children's puppets had  an appropriate target language name linked to language we practised - so animals, foods, clothes, colours etc were very popular.

We kept our puppets in our class drawers and brought them out to learn with use very language lesson.

Mine were called "monsieur baguette" and "Herr Hamburger" as we used them in French and German.They even travelled to the Primary Languages Show in 2001!

• The children could make the puppets talk of course!
• The children could make the puppets whisper or talk in target language too by beating out the syllables in words using the mouth of the envelope opening and shutting in time with the rhythm of the words. 
• They loved walking round the room practising dialogues and new questions- one paper puppet talking to another.
• They used their puppets to participate in class songs 
• They helped me to retell stories or add the repetition to stories

And finally let me introduce you to  a very old and good friend of mine ."Madame souris" She belonged to a pupil from 1997,Jennie B.Sadly you can tell that she is quite old now as the colour is fading etc .I often use her even now to share this idea with teachers and teacher trainees. 

 Simplest ideas are sometimes the best!

Look who it is ! Simple Year 6 fiction and fact activities

Today I have been training teachers in a school where Year 6 are just moving into their third  year of language learning but where the teacher wants to develop some more sophisticated Year 6 approaches to the language learning.

I suggested this idea that I used whilst teaching Year 6 French in a local primary school.I used the idea over several years and  was always surprised what topical conversation and questions it raised about our World and famous people in our World .The beauty of the activity is its transferability and the flexibility to use it with different stages of learners and to encourage appropriate levels of spoken and written outcomes and also to revisit and bring the activity out time and again with new pictures etc.the children enjoyed seeing how they had improved/moved forward etc. Great peer AfL and peer assessment opportunities too and a task that could easily be used in Y7 KS3 too!

Take a topical picture...maybe this one 

Or maybe this one ......

Or on a less political note ......

Or this one .....

Or humorous like this one

Firstly do the class know who the two people are?

This will be interesting and throws up lots of topical questions etc

Fictional not all fact dialogues 

 Working in pairs ....fictional spoken personal information  dialogues 

You need about 15 different pictures of different people or pairings  so that only two pairs have the same picture to work with.

I tried to give two pairs the same picture but the two pairs were working in different parts of the classroom so that they couldn't hear or see the discussions of the other pair using the same picture as their stimulus 

• What facts do they know about the people - nationalities, jobs, likes, dislikes etc?
• Can they now brainstorm the personal information questions and answers they already know?
• Can they create a simple dialogue between the two people? They may need to use language tools such as bilingual dictionaries to help them and you may need to remind them of all the ways they can use simple language such as likes and dislikes etc to give information about somebody.
• Can they use gesture and facial expression, stress and volume with their utterances to portray the characters they are depicting?
• The more language the children know, the more detailed the dialogues can be  and each  pair's dialogue will differ from the rest of the class because of the way they present their dialogues.

Now they can share their dialogues with another pair !

Fact not fiction flap files.

This is an activity where the children convert their 1st and 2nd person singular dialogues into 3rd person singular facts about the two characters in their pictures.

You will need to model the activity and try to keep the use of verbs to regular present tense of course!

Can the children create a "written over- flap" of each person in their picture, so that their pictures are covered and we can just read what the children have written on the flaps?These can be displayed so that all the class can try to decide which characters are underneath the written fact not fiction flap files.

Autumn celebrations and a touch of creativity

Over the next couple of weeks in primary school you will be busy getting ready with children to celebrate harvest time and Autumn. We celebrate Autumn in our SOW and it's a great way to practise simple familiar and useful language.

Here is my second blog on ways to in corporate Autumn in to your language teaching this half term.My first blog are simple word games and activities that all staff and language learners can take part in from beginners to learners who are moving on.Take a look here.Autumn celebrations blog one


The incredible harvest of fruits and vegetables! 
This is a an activity to get the children practising using adjectives with nouns and also to start thinking out of the box with primary languages.
A few days ago I saw this! White strawberries!

The idea is simple.
Ask the children to design a bush with magical powers that can create fruits in fantastical/ unusual colours. Ask the children to draw and label their fruits and then to share their ideas in a spoken dialogue activity with other children .The children need to practise the question: "What is that?" or "What type of fruit is that? and the children can then share their incredible harvest of fruits or vegetables. the activity will allow you to reinforce with more advanced learners adjectival agreement and position too!..... and of course now I am thinking Art - still life with a twist! Papier mache DT! Fantastical fruit poems if we can also add flavours ( maybe our ice cream flavours from Year 4?) The list could go on!!!

Woodland creatures 
Thanks to le francais et vous I was reacquainted with one of these glorious posters in French.This one is all about woodland animals.Take a look!

A great way to look at masculine and feminine nouns with our Y3 and Y4 classes ,particularly this in stage two (Y4 ) of learning . We can look for cognates and semi cognates.

We can add colours and we can create our own art work and drawings using a French stimulus.

With Stage 3 and 4 learners (probably Y5 and 6 who have been learning a language already for at least two years) so more advanced learners. let them go on a woodland creature hunt, giving each table a poster and descriptions of different animals in the poster.Can they read and understand the descriptions (make sure there are words in the descriptions that they need to look up on a bi-lingual dictionary  to add challenge) and can they add descriptive labels to the creatures?

Add a touch of Yakit for kids (using and APP where the photo talks ) and the children can make this an animated poster with spoken labels or woodland creature descriptions!

Twit twoo!

Looking for woodland creatures I found these two target language pages with instructions on how to make an owl that would be a useful way to develop reading comprehension activities with our more advanced learners:

In German Eulen basteln ( with a very simple template labelled in German that the children will need to read/puzzle out and then construct their own owls! 

and in French Julie Prince @princelanguages alerted me to this page for marionettes de automne from this blog http://nounoulolo88.centerblog.net/

Autumn poems

I think we can all source Autumn poems but yesterday I found this brilliant Spanish poem/list of all the things that are associated with Autumn .You can see it here below!

  Take a look here

Maybe it's a text to read and unpack learners or to use as stimulus to write with more advanced UKS2 learners our own lists of things we associate with autumn using nouns, verbs and adjectives. with younger learners we can make our own written and visual class autumn list perhaps using bilingual dictionaries of the colours, fruits, vegetables, weather, animals etc etc we associate  with Autumn.

What does Autumn and  harvest time mean to you?

Finally this morning I found these making activities on  the French website

http://www.teteamodeler.com

It's a time when we can look at culture and the lives of children in different countries and the crops and harvest time activities that they will be involved in for example la vendange in France is a time of grape picking and village festivals......Here's une boite aux raisins to make ...

in Spain the children will hear and possibly celebrate

 LA CASTAÑERA

Art and language learning , my blogs so far ....

This blog post is my own mental note and list of  the Art and language learning blogs I have written so far- to help the associates, colleagues within the network and me  plan purposeful and language rich learning opportunities:

3D Art and verbs using Renoir the Boating Party - Drama and Art /spoken activities (personal information , feelings, 1st, 2nd and 3rd person singular questions and responses)
3D Art and verbs stage one
3D Art and verbs stage two
3D Art and verbs stage three

KS2 Matisse Cut Outs Art and colour - dance,drama, spoken language , reading and writing
Matisse Cut Outs

Conveying emotions through Art - using the target language
conveying emotions

Rousseau and shape jungle animal sentences for jungle display  (noun verb adjective and animal descriptions) 
shape sentence jungles

Poster Power Poems (revisiting familiar language : weather,people, reactions,emotions, activities etc) - using the visual evidence in a poster to create spoken activities and performances (based on the Tour de France but activities can be used with lots of different posters etc)
Poster power poems

Preposition Picnic: creating our own sculptures using foods and cutlery/crockery and prepositions-using all 4 skills
Preposition picnic

Sentence calligrams- creating our own suitcases of Summer clothes - full sentence descriptions of items for a class display
Sentences ,objects and calligrams

Abstract Art - how we can use art to revisit and practise basic core vocabulary- colours, numbers 
Abstract art and beginners language

3D Clay and conversations - using clay sculptures to generate dialogue and conversations
3D clay scene questions and answers

If a picture paints a 1000 words. Portraits of women's faces through the ages used to practise eye, hair colour, target language names and emotions. Linking Art , Drama , music and language learning,
If a picture paints a 1000 words  

3D scene questions ,answers and clay figures

What a brilliant idea I have just come across.
Take a look below!
It's creative, imaginative and a wonderful way to bring together questions and answers to create simple exchanges of language. The site on which I found this wonderful idea is a site called "Val d'Arve news" as part of the Ecole Val D'Arve. Thank you so much! Here's the link to the Val d'arve news.

What do I like about this?

Well for a start it links art,literacy and dynamics of people's conversations and situations with target language knowledge.

It's an opportunity to practise accurate independent writing of questions and answers at whatever stage your language learners may be.

It's a great way as well to set up some real life drama snap shots too - like physical instagrams.

It's also a tool that we can use in KS2,in KS3 if we work with the Art and Drama departments and possibly to create our own "Wallace and Grommit" or "Morph" sketches using APPs and IT in KS2,3,4 and 5

How should we approach this?

• Firstly ask the children to work in pairs to generate questions and answers that demonstrate the dynamics in a relationship between for example : 

a mother and a child

two friends

a husband and wife

a teacher and a pupil

a policeman and a lost person

etcetra!

• Ask them to consider what might be the potential questions and answers between these people and and how would the people sound and what actions would they use?
• Ask the children to draw their dialogues as cartoon sketches ( sure a lot of us already do this)
• share with them some of the scenes and clay models on the Val d'Arve site. 
• Now make it 3D with clay models and sets - just like the teacher here in the Ecole Val d'arve has done!

Take a look at some of their clay models (how they convey the dynamics of the situation and the people) and scene sets (how they have cultural references in the back drop) and how they have added their speech bubble questions and answers (which add the text we need to interpret the event)!Brilliant. Thank you for the ideas Ecole Val'd'Arve!

des bonhommes en terre

Hope this inspires you too!