Peter Lloyd

20 May 2015

Twizzle Stick Opposites!

Peter Lloyd

20 May 2015

Being in the target language country allows you to look for marvellous books - just to give you new inspiration!
In Spain last week I found this simple infant book and this led mt to think of a creative idea.....that could be really useful to practise opposites with LKS2!

The book in itself is a marvellous joining in text to practise opposites.The children can swivel the objects in the middle of the hard card page, can anticipate the opposite phrase used with the next page.You can revisit the book and play anticpation or memory games too.

This made me think of "twizzle stick opposites"!
All we are going to need are lolly sticks,firm card, glue and seloptape,oh and some scissors!

First a little bit about the book!
The book shows a picture of an item on each page and and a key word.It's opposite word and the same picture( but drawn to convey the new meaning) are shown on the reverse side of the page.The picture inbetween can be swivelled to match the key word .For example there is a smiley face with "contento" above it and when you swivel the face it is a sad face on the other side and reads "triste"

The pictures can be turned over or swizzled around! Just like this tortoise it can be "derecha" or can be flipped around and on the next page "izquierda"

Twizzle Stick Opposites Game

This is my way of creating an interactive game to practise opposites using a physical activity.
Year 3 or 4 could create the twizzle sticks and share with KS1.
It will also help the Y3/4 children have a better understanding of the concept of "opposites" plus a physcial and visual memory of key words to describe or place objects.
I anticipate that each child should make 5 swizzle sticks and therefore explore the meaning of 10 words in 5 pairs of opposites.
The twizzle sticks can just have opposites written on them or could also have the nouns of ther objects the children have used too, hidden under a lift and reveal flap.

Making Twizzle Sticks

Ask the children to think of 5 pairs of opposites in English
Can they now find these woirds in the bilingual dictionary and cross reference their meaning in the front of the bilingual dictionary to check its meaning.(This could be a pair activity where the partner cross reference words and feeds back what they find)
The children need to write each word out in the target language on a separate small strip of firm card.
The children can now put the words with their opposite word in to 5 piles of opposite words e.g contento/triste or izquierda/derecha
For each pair of opposite words the children now need to think of an object that they can draw and use to explain both of the opposite words.For example with contente/triste - this will probably be the face of a child/person/animal etc or maybe with directions it could be a vehicle.
The children should draw the objects (twice per twizzle stick) so that the images of the objects conveys the meaning of the opposite words .
The drawings needs to be attached with glue or selotape to the top third of the lollipop stick and the correct opposite word card that they have chosen and written out needs to be glued or selotaped below the correct image of the object.

The Twizzle Stick Year 3 or Year 4 Game!

Each child shares with a partner all the twizzle sticks they have made and say the opposite word as they show each of the images.They will need to twizzle their sticks to share all the images and the opposite words
the first child lays out their sticks on the table with one side of the twizzle stick showing.
The second child selects a twizzle stick , picks it up says the word that is face up on the stick, anticpates and says the opposite word and then twizzles the stick to see if he/she was correct.
If he/she is correct then the stick now belongs to the second child.
Which child wins the most sticks from am partner?
Add extra challenge by giving each child a strip of coloured paper long enough to place across the five twizzle sticks of one player.The strip of paper should not conceal the picture but should conceal the face up word.
Who can now remember the face up word and the opposite word written on the face down side of the stick?

Peter Lloyd

9 April 2015

Fishing for letter strings and sounds

Peter Lloyd

9 April 2015

A few years ago we trialed this sounds activity with Year 3 and it worked so well that we will be using the activity again during our "Seaside" focus CPD with the DFE funded WTSA/JLN project.
It is so simple .....and great fun too.
First of all you need to create a class magnetic fishing game .

You need a rod with string attached and on the end is a magnet.

You need a pool /pot pot bowl with no water in but with card fishes in it

Each card fish needs a paper clip nose so that when you pop the "fishing rod over the side of the pot,pool etc you can "catch" a fish with the magnet and its paper clip nose.

Each fish needs a letter string written upon it.

Now go fishing with your class.

Put the rod in the pool, pull out a fish and then as a class look at the letter string.What does this letter string sound like in the target language?
How many fish can the class catch and keep because a member of the class can think of a word with that letter string in it? If the class can't think of a word then the fish goes back in the pot,pond,pool!

Add more challenge.How many fish have you got in the net?

Add to the challenge, how many fish can they catch as a class .... this means how many words can they say and write that have the specific letter string in the word in the target language and put in their imaginary "letter string word net" ? Count them up? this is how many words the class can catch as fish in that particular net
Try a new fish from your magnetic pool.Which letter string word net contains most fish at the end of the game? .

Table games

Ask each table to write down on a shared mini whiteboard the target language words they can think of that contain the letter string.
Allow the table three minutes bilingual dictionary time too.Can they find new useful words with this letter string in the word.(They must be able to say the word and tell the class the meaning of the word too when it comes to sharing time!)
Each table shares their words with the class and then as a class the table with the most words that are real target language words are counted up and that's the number of fish that class can catch with this particular letter string in the words.

Table against table game

Make it a table against table fishing challenge- so the table with the most words , wins the magnetic card fish.This is a memory activity so differentiate the ability of the children on the tables to make this a fair game.Also words can not be looked up in the bilingual dictionaries this time , so this game would follow on well, from the game above.
Which table has the most fish at the end of the game?

Peter Lloyd

9 April 2015

Fishing for feelings

Peter Lloyd

9 April 2015

We are going to be sharing ideas on "Seaside" at our DFE funded WTSA/JLN local network meeting twilights this next half term. You would be very welcome to attend if you are near to one of these CPD twilights on the Training Schedule

Here is one of the story resources with accompanying ideas that we will be sharing and can be used in KS1, KS2 (beginners,moving on or more advanced learners) and potentially KS3 Y7.
The ideas are based on this wonderful story book that I found last October in Germany and that I now have as well as a French story book too!

Inside are the most wonderful chalk drawings on black paper of fish, representing a plethera of feelings and emotions.On each page there is one adjective to follow the title page repeated phrase: "I am ....." .Each adjective describes an emotion. The fish sketches convey the feeling or emotion through their size,colour ,shape, expressions. Here are two example pages:

In German:

In French

A simple fishing rhyme with KS1 and Year 3 Beginners

Game One

Let's make our hands do the talking!

How often do we tell rhymes about animals and use our hands as characters in the rhyme.Well here let;s make "hand fish" in class -using our hands as the different fish!

Well can you make your hand look big,small, courageous,curious, nervous, happy, sad etc?

Practise this with the children in the target language.
Call a feeling and ask the children to make their hand portray the action as if they their hands are swimming fish ( swimming quickly, sadly, slowly, nosily etc to convey the emotion or feeling)
Make this in to a "Simon Says" game too.

Game Two

Let's make our whole bodies in to the fish!

Let's take our favourite French and Spanish (thanks Emilie and Ana!) party rhyme and tweak it a little ....

In French :

Petits poissons, venez, passez, 1,2,3

In Spanish

Pequeño pez, ven y pasa

So in German we can say

Kleiner Fisch , komm, schwimm 1,2,3

And this time let's take out of a pot one of the fish descriptive words.
On the count of three in the rhyme ,pull out of the pot the fish word and call out the word to the class- can they be the fish with the characteristic or feeling you have just said?
Make it in to "a last one out" game by then asking the children to freeze frame in the action, as you count on to 10 slowly in the target language(4,5,6,7,8,9,10) Any movement and they are out of the game!
Start the rhyme again and add a new characteristic or feeling .....

Fishing for feelings with Year 3 or 4 beginner and moving on learners

Do you remember the wonderful magnetic fishing games, where you had a magnet on a string and you popped the "fishing rod over the side of a card pool and caught fish with magnetic noses?

(We have used this idea before in language learning- magnets on strings attached to rods and card fish with paper clip noses and we went fishing for sounds...We will be doing this again too!)

If you are lucky enough to have the story book , then read the book first and look at the characteristics.Look up some of the words in your bilingual dictionaries.

Give each child a word to draw as a fish (from the adjectives in the book). Get the children to create the magnetic noses with the paper clips.
Now pop all the fish in a class pool or pretend pond.
You need a fishing rod .... go fish feeling fishing with a magnet on the end too.
Can a child use the fishing rod to pull out a fish drawn by one of the class?
Show it the class and then let the class decide which feeling the fish represents.
Up to three guesses before the child who drew the fish shares with the the class the adjective and writes the adjective up on the whiteboard.
Collect at least 8 adjectives on the whiteboard that are visible to the class.Check their understanding of the adjectives.
Give all the children mini whiteboards and ask them to draw fish for a partner to represent feelings.Make the " fish sketching" a timed activity - maximum 60 seconds - can the partner guess which adjective the fish sketch conveys?
Can the children help you to create a fishing for feelings art gallery using adjectives and the phrase in the target language "I am....."

Sea Creature Sketches .Year 4 and 5 Moving On Learners

The fish in the sketches in the book are masculine singular nouns and therefore we can use the adjective exactly as it appears in the dictionary .

Discuss with the class what might change with the adjectives if you were using a feminine singular sea creature noun for example .......replace the fish with for example "a whale" in French or Spanish- feminine singular noun (la baleine/ la ballena).

Investigate the changes to the spelling to match the new sea creature.

Can the children draw for you a nervous or curious whale and write an accurate sentence to describe the whale's feelings?

The verb "to be" sea creatures and the fishy feelings mobiles !Year 5/Year 6 and Year 7 Advanced Learners.

The book is based on the use of the first person singular form of the verb "to be " e.g in French "aujourd'hui je suis ....."

So let's unpack the verb "to be" with this story and create a whole ocean of sea creatures and feelings

You will need to first of all use the activity above , based on changing the adjectives from masculine singular to feminine singular and you will need to develop this further with plural nouns too.

Now the children can explore with you a sea creature gallery of feelings.

Share with the children pictures of sea creatures and ask them to help you describe the sea creatures feelings and to link appropriate groups of sea creatures to parts of the verb " to be" .

For example one fish on its own could be "I am" or "you are" or "he is" but it can't be "she is" or any of the plural parts of the verb "to be". discuss with the children ehy this is the case.Why are the parts of the verb called "singular" or "plural" ?What do these words tell us?
As a class check out the plural spelling changes of the nouns you want to use for the sea creatures.
Discuss the ending changes to adjectives that the children may want to use to describe the emotions of the sea creatures.

Create a whole class fishy sea creature verb " to be " paradigm and spend time discussing why certain parts of the verb can or cannot match with the sea creature pictures.

Can the children create their own "Sea creatures and fishy feeling mobiles"?

Give out the paradigm ( pattern of the verb) "to be" in the target language.Print each part of the verb on separate strips of card ( blue card would be really good for this).Ask them to put the parts of the verb in to the paradigm order e.g.I am , you are, he is etc).
Ask the children to add an adjective to each of the parts of the paradigm and to think carefully about the spelling of these adjectives and to try to match the spelling to the type of nouns they can use with this part of the paradigm.
Can they now draw their own sea creatures to match the part of the paradigm and to convey the specific emotion or feeling of the adjective.
Ask the children to add their drawing to their strip of card too on the reverse of the card strip.
Now each pair has the parts of their fish mobile ready to be assembled and displayed.Each strip of card will have a part of the verb to be, an adjective to match the part of the verb and a picture of the reverse to convey the emotion or feeling of the adjective.

Peter Lloyd

1 February 2015

La chandeleur games to practise familiar language in speaking and writing

Peter Lloyd

1 February 2015

Have been looking for ideas for la chandeleur - 2 February (French pancake day) and came across this part of the "momes" site with lots of wonderful coloured and shaped pancakes.
You can access the recipes and the ideas on this part of the momes site blog momes here

This got me thinking about some very simple and easy to make activities for celebrations in schools for la chandeleur!
I have added the new POS learning objectives that could be practised or reinforced with these activities too !

Pancake spelling collection challenge
A pancake team challenge for beginner language learners who know their numbers, colours and with children who are moving on who also know fruits,vegetables and possibly flavours)

POS:Explore the patterns of language- link sound and spelling

Cut out four sets of five coloured circles( each represents a crepe).
Ask the children to count the pancakes for you and to say the colour of the pancake.
Make four piles of the pancakes - one from each colour in each pile.Each of the piles will ultimately belong to one of the four teams.The teams have to win the pancakes
Divide your class on to four teams/
The aim of the game is to win the crepes.Each team nominates a "writing" chef.
This chef must come to the front and write what you say.You could say colours, number, fruits, flavours (language linked to the umber and colour of pancakes and fillings).
The aim of the game is to win for the team one of each of the five coloured pancakes that you have cut out of paper.The chef must write clearly and correctly the spelling in the target language of the word you say.
You could play this as a speed challenge with two team's chefs up at the front at the same time
Which team will have their coloured pile of pancakes first?

Spoken flip the pancake

A challenge for language learners who have practised flavours (of ice creams) and can use the phrase "je voudrais"

POS: Speak in sentences ,using familiar vocabulary

POS: Broaden their vocabulary

Remind the children of the flavours of ice creams.For us this will work well with Year 5 as we learn flavours of ice creams in Year 4.
Discuss with the Year 5 children other possible flavours made up of the fruits and vegetables we are practising in our healthy eating module at the moment.
Share these as a written record on the board.
Give the children chance to try to memorise the phrases you have written on the board.
Ask them in pairs now to play flip the pancake (just like verbal table tennis) where they take it in turns to say a flavour "e.g je voudrais une crepe au chocolat"
Make this a time challenge
How many flavoured pancakes can they flip in 2 minutes?
Make it a "head to head" game and invite volunteers out to the front to play the "Spoken flip the pancake" challenge!

Dingbat pancake flips! (Say what you can see)
A game for all stages of language learners

POS: Broaden their vocabulary

POS:Speak in full sentences

POS: Describe things in writing

Give each child a piece of A4 paper and ask them to fold the paper into four and to draw four circles on the paper.
Each circle should be shaded on one side a different colour buy the children
They need to cut out their four circles.
The children now need to turn the circles over so the white empty side is facing them.
They must think of a flavour association with the colour (e.g red - tomato/ pink- strawberry etc)
In pencil on the white blank side they need to draw a symbol ( a Dingbat) to represent the flavour
On the coloured side they need to write the flavour in the target language.
Can other children guess and say the flavour accurately in the target language by looking at other children's "Dingbat pancake flips"?
Can children ask for each pancake politely using a full sentence target language request?
Once the have guessed they can flip the pancake to the coloured side and see if they were correct.

Peter Lloyd

25 January 2015

Different ways to get started with new content and add interest and challenge

Peter Lloyd

25 January 2015

A colleague has just contacted me to ask for ways that we might engage young learners when introducing new content.....

Here are some of my initial thoughts,

Engaging with our senses

Make the activity touchy feely - what's in the bag/ magic sack/ under the blanket / cloth etc?
Add an element of sensory challenge - don't look! Just smell or taste - what could it be?
Hearing the item before seeing it- does it rattle,squeak,clatter etcetra?

Be detectives!

Solve the scenario - what collection/ group/ family / situation might all the new items you are introducing belong to (e.g a weather report/ a zoo/ a jungle/ a restaurant etc).Give them pictures of possible scenarios from which to pick (e.g a zoo and a jungle or a cafe and a restaurant)
What's the link- in which order should the new items be ordered? Introduce the items in a specific order - can the class spot the link
Ask the class to watch and practise carefully the new items and then on tables set up their own "solve the link" problems for the rest of the class.Let the class create link problems for the rest of the class to solve e.g. one table can pout three of the items in size order - can the rest of the class spot the link and place the other items in to the size order so that the link is completed.Or another group might put some of the items in alphabetical order - can the rest of the class spot and solve the link
Conceal all the items under a sheet- so that it looks like a landscape.Introduce the items as a word and a picture , Can volunteers come to the front and spot the items from its shape under the blanket?
Introduce more than one of an item ... maybe specific colours. Can they help you count up the items?
Play hide and seek with the items ....just where is that new item?Who can find it first- maybe the pictures are blu-tacked around the room or are wrapped up and need to be unwrapped.Maybe volunteers are holding the possible items or pictures you want to share.
Finding the matching parts.Cut your pictures in half and share one half of the picture - now who is holding or where is the matching half to complete the picture of the food,animal,clothes item etc

Learn together

Don't just share the words, ask the children to work in groups to initially find possible words that we might need if we want to talk about animals, clothes , foods etc.Take feedback and see which of the words they have found match the words you want to share in the lesson.Make a list of the other words for additional language later in the focus.
Listen to the words first on sound files and ask the children to spot the written word on a flip chart or on cards in front of them.Can they help you to decide how to say the words by listening carefully to the sound files?
Reveal a new word or phrase in the target language and ask the children to share in English any fascinating facts they may know about the item - e.g weather (hurricanes/ storms/droughts etc) or animals ( speed of animals/ largest and smallest /habitats etc).Add some fascinating facts of your own- to break up the repetitiveness of practising new words and to add a new dimension to the learning

Set up a challenge!

Be first to spot the longest word
Be first to spot the shortest word
Be first to remember all the words that start with a vowel
Be first to spot the words with two syllables
Be first to spot all the masculine words / all the feminine words/ all the plural words
Be first to remember all the phrases using the same verb

Make a noise!

Make learning the sound of the words and the phrases fascinating

Give words and phrases a beat or a rhythm .Ask the children to identify the words/ phrases just by their beat or rhythm.Make it a pair activity
Make the words silent - just repeated in silence in your head
Add radio control - loud or quiet responses
Silly voices
Put the new words in to a nonsense rhyme and add to the rhyme as you add new language.
Create an English story interspersed appropriately with the new phrases and words and ask the children to see if they can retell the story to each other.

Peter Lloyd

25 January 2015

Ways we developed learning based on the book Au carnaval des animaux Marianne Dubuc

Peter Lloyd

25 January 2015

So how did we get the animals to the carnival party......?

As this is all about a party , last year I based some simple Year 3 language learning on party games based upon animals.

Listen,imagine and explore the kingdom of the animals.
Well last year before looking at some of story- as it's a long story " au carnaval des animaux "or "el carnaval de los animales" , we listened to some special music by Saint Saens "au carnaval des animaux" to see if we could imagine the animals that might be in the music.We then went on an animal thought walk .

Which animals did we already know in the target language?
Which animals did we like?
Which animals might be in the story?
Which animals might we need to look up in a bi-lingual dictionary because we think they may be in the story?

...and then we made our own freeze frame pictures of the animals we had discussed.I called out an animal in the target language and the children took the pose of the animal .They had to stand very still for a count of ten ...or they were out and had to sit down and be a freeze frame statue judge with me.

We took a vote on our top ten invite animals to the animal party and made a tally chart with the written target language noun at the top of each column.

We wrote out the words for the top seven animals we wanted as a class to invite to the party

We lined our top seven animal words up in alphabetical order - ready for party invitation printing....

....and then as a class we investigated soe of the story.What happened to the animals as they put on their fancy dress?

We took the first five animals and their fancy dress and listened a second time to these pages of the story and drew the animals in the air- as they appeared before the fancy dress and then with the fancy dress.

We looked through the story for the magical fairy tale characters and played Simon says with the names of the animals and the fairy tale characters and actions we agreed upon to represent each character.(I didn't do this but wish i had ... and this was to create posters of the fairy tale characters with their eyes/nose/hair/teeth etc made up by different parts of different animals )

C Our challenge was to get the animals we had chosen to the party!

I gave out animal name cards and asked the children to remind me of the names they knew of animals and what had happened in the story book.

We listened again to some of the music from Saint Saens.Take a look at my original blog post on this theme

Exploring a story based on Saint Saens and au carnaval des animaux

I asked the children to pass the names of the animals around a seated circle until I paused the music and then they had to mime the animal on their card for the person sat next to them.Could the person guess the animal? We then carried on with the game.

We then played a memory chain game .We looked at our top seven animals for the party and practised with a partner the names and the actions for the animals.seven volunteers were then lined up at the front and each children had to try to say a different name of an animal .They could phone a friend for help too. Once the children were confident then it became a one against one play off of the game at the front- two children saying animal nouns in turn...who would dry up first?

The sound -spelling of the animals

We played several sound -spelling games:

Animal sounds - walking round the room with a letter string card from the nouns of the animals , quietly saying the sound of the letter string to find other children with the same sound.Once all the children are gathered in to their correct groups- each group shouts out their sound and the class decides which animal picture displayed at the front of the classroom this sound belongs to.

Build the animal

I divided the nouns for the animals into letter strings- preferably two per animal noun.All the children had a card with a letter string written on it from an animal noun on it.They walked around the room and found someone who had the other letter string so that put together it became a complete animal noun.Once they had found the whole word, they had to draw on a mini whiteboard a quick picture of the animal and sit down with their hand up.Who would be first or last to do this?

I used my game "Open and reveal" to anticipate the name of the animals and to link the learning to other familiar language

Open and reveal four corners puzzle

Making masks and practising the key phrase to explain the disguise

....and then we made our animal masks,ready for our Saint Saens carnival parade.

We practised the key phrase from the book in the target languages "I am disguising myself as...." and used our "animal" voices (voices that sounded like the animals).

If I make them again I think that we should have two animals on each mask....who the children want to be before the fancy dress and on the reverse the animal they want to disguise themselves as.

Peter Lloyd

21 January 2015

The aliens have definitely landed! Year 4 Spring term observations.

Peter Lloyd

21 January 2015

We have an alien family in our JLN SOW.We introduce Year 4 to the family in Spring and then the children meet the aliens to practise language across all four skills and grammar at points later in Year 4,5 and 6. We love our aliens and they never fail to disappoint! Here is part of the family at carnival later in the school year! I say part of the family as our young learners keep on making us new members of the family.I have met the family several times in the last couple of weeks and what is remarkable is that each teacher adds their own style to the introduction and practise of the language around the aliens!

Have a look at the difference in approaches between Ana's Spanish Year 4 lesson on the family.Janet W's Year 5 beginners French lesson on our alien family ,Emilie's Bonjour Madame blog post on her alien family lesson and the use of a Voice recording APP and now here below Joanne's Year 4 lesson in Spanish on the "familia alien" - full of drama and performance!

As you may know if you have been reading my blog posts on observations, I am currently undertaking a routine series of observations of the language assistants and teachers who work alongside me in our primary schools.They deliver primary language learning on a weekly basis.It is such a rewarding and pleasurable opportunity to see what is really taking place in schools.

This series of blogs is an additional support mechanism for these colleagues,as they can't be in each others classroom and as a team we meet once per half term for a twilight CPD,So you can hopefully see that these blogs (with a cup of tea and a biscuit back at home) offer them an insight in to each others classrooms and schools.

Joanne's "Familia alien" lesson

A warm up greetings song packed with actions and whole class singing , as they gathered on the carpet for the Spanish
Personal information questions and answers - using "the guest" (that was me) as a person to get to know.Praise for children - particularly those who don't always speak Spanish confidently to new people in the classroom.
Incidental language all in Spanish and reminders to " sentaos" to a couple of children not quite sat down or "escuchad" and "miradme" and then an instruction to discuss with their talking partners the language they had met for the first time last week "la familia alien" .....
Looking for links (e.g papa/ mama or hermano and hermana) and praise for correct use of definite articles with reward " a star-cash" for someone who really thought hard before sharing a correct article!
Now the whole class was moving around and being the characters with the actions the children had chosen for the characters last week .As many actions as there are syllables in the nouns reminded Joanne. A wagging finger for mama, hands behind the head and a yawn for papa, football kick for hermano and disco dancing for hermana and tiny moving fists and feet for bebe! Stereo -typical (as Joanne pointed out) but chosen ,owned and liked by the children and acted out with gusto!
Now we started to use the question " Quien es?" and full sentence responses were expected " hola soy el bebe alien" etcetra...always in character , always with actions,accurate pronunciatrion expected and reinforced and always performed well.
The children were so engaged that they just listened ,joined in and responded to incidental instructions without even noticing that these were in the target language.
Today "abuelo" and "abuela" joined the family! This was a big moment in this particular school,because when Year 6 were in Year 4 they designed the grandma and grandad to complete the alien family for us.It was their idea! They are precious to the school!
Joanne introduced "abuelo" and asked the children to look at the slide from the familia alien ppt and work out how to say "abuelo" before she shared correct pronunciation ... and what we heard was excellent!
Then she asked the children to be language detectives think about what they thought grandma might be in Spanish .... and with their talking partners we could hear them say "Well it's hermano and hermana so perhaps the word ends in "a" (etc).Back came the response "abuela" and now Joanne could introduce Grandma.
Of course the class needed actions for the characters and decided on an action that conveyed what one of the children described "Ooh me back" for abuelo and for grandma the class decided on a knitting action.
"Can we play a dramatic Pedro dice?" asked one child. What a good idea was Joanne's response.Off they went to their standing spaces and how did the children own the game! Performance filled,volunteers as Pedro dice who had to say whole sentences for the rest of the class.One volunteer won a "starcash" reward for excellent pronunciation,intonation,speed of recall, use of complete phrases and correct use of "o" and "a" for our new characters - abuelo and abuela. How proud was that person!
Time for performance in groups.On their home tables,the children had to create a performance introduction to the familia alien for the rest of the class.Each child had to be a character from the family , keep and enhance the actions and add their own alien voice.Joanne clarified that what she was looking for, was clear confident introductions to the familia alien.
As support she offered children the familia alien photo sacks (small card pictures of each character to help with recall of the nouns) but only if the children felt that they needed to use them .
As additional challenge the children were encouraged to add their own sentences - names, ages, feelings etc....maybe even questions for other family members.
And off they went to spend 10 minutes creating their entertaining Spanish familia alien performances for the rest of the class!
Thank you Joanne and Year 4.The aliens have definitely landed!

Peter Lloyd

20 January 2015

Elmer Explorers with KS1 and LKS2,listening,speaking and writing

Peter Lloyd

20 January 2015

I am busy thinking of ideas for World Book Day and as Elmer is one of the books that children will receive,I decided that this was an ideal focus for our KS1 and also KS2 Year 3.It is also an ideal opportunity to share with students I train how we link across curriculum areas and can take one focus and develop primary language learning games,songs, role-play and our own writing opportunities - if we just think out of the box a little!

Dressing Elmer with KS1!

With KS1 , we can practise our colours and our colour question"Which colour is it?" with a dice game where we roll the dice and say the question together and then the colour the die lands on.

Now we can add a patch to our class Elmer( who as you can see is colourless at the moment!)

Going on a colour hunt with KS1 and Year 3

We can pretend to be jungle explorers and hunt round our classroom for coloured elephants.With KS1 let's play "hot and cold" and hide coloured card cut outs of elephants.

With KS2 Year 3 let's make it an Elmer treasure hunt and hide our multi coloured elmers around the room and ask two volunteers at a time to follow simple instructions to find the coloured Elmers (left ,right , straight ahead, turn around, stop , hot and cold).The class can hide the elephants and then help you call the directions as the two volunteers look for the elephants.

Singing an Elmer song

We have found a great Elmer song in French.,

Here are the French words

French

E.L.M.E.R. je m’appelle Elmer.