Seaside Sequencing Story.Languages and Literacy

In sharing this animated sequencing story, I have to thank several people! 
Firstly Ana Lavado Garcia for her drawings and the original story power points some of us have used as part of the resources for JLN member schools.Secondly Ana and Emilie Woodruffe for their native speaker voices and time to put together authentic language in the simple story .Thirdly Little Red Languages for their work alongside WTSA/JLN to bring the "Alien family at the Seaside " story to animated life!

We love our extra terrestrial family and their adventures.
This year as part of our third local network meeting for the DFE funded WTSA/JLN language project "Language Learning for Everyone " we met the family at carnival for our "Carnival Triarama Conversations" 

Thanks to all the wonderful people above we are able to share this animated sequencing story about the seaside with you all.We hope you will enjoy exploring the story with your children in French and/or Spanish the following DFE KS2 POS learning objectives




DFE POS LOS: 

• listen attentively to spoken language
• speak in sentences,using familar vocabulary,phrases and basic language structures 
• read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing
• appreciate stories ...in the language
• broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words

So here is the story - a short sentence or two per page with animations and sound files.

Take a look......

la famille extra terrestre

La familia alien va a la playa

Thanks to Little Red Languages - you can pause the script, conceal the script, replay the sound file , go forwards , go backwards and watch the characters appear on the screen!

Spot the "space " theme throughout the pictures ( starry glasses, planet ice creams ,rocket sandcastle etcetra....thanks Ana!)"

Ways I would use the story file!

(Well it links so well with story telling in Literacy to be truthful!)

• Share the front page and look for cognates in the story title.
• Brainstorm words we may already know about the seaside and might expect to find in the story.
• Categorise the words- nouns, adjectives, verbs, masculine/ feminine etcetra.
• Encourage the children to look up words they really hope are in the seaside story.

• Explore the instuctions on the second page and look up the key words forst in the bilingual dictionaries before actially clicking in the icons to see what they do and therefore understand the instructions 
• Discuss and identify which words are adjectives, nouns and parts of verbs.

• Listen to the story all the way through with the text and add actions for each page on a second hearing.

• Listen to the story to explore the text on each page- show the text on each page, pause on key words, hide the text , practise as a class re-telling the story orally trying to be as exact and true to pronunciation as possible.
• Explore replacement words and phrases- can we change the weather for example or describe dad's sunglasses or baby's enormous ice cream in more detail?

• Spot the sequencing words.
• Discuss the role of the sequencing words in the text.
• Give out strips of card with the sentences written on the cards
• Can the children in pairs put the story back together in order.
• Listen to the text but this time conceal the words- can the pairs wave the correct sentence strip to match the sentence they hear?
• Ask the children to rewrite the text in the order they want it to happen - moving the sequencing words around and therefore changing the order.

Of course as you may know I love drama - so.....

• Let's learn the text and let's act it out 
• Let's change the text and tell the story as a performance
• Let's draw our own story and add our own sentences and sound files! 

We really hope you enjoy using this story and are able to join us next term if you are in the North West for one of our Local Network Meetings.

More details here

Language Learning for Everyone LNMs DFE/WTSA/JLN

Twizzle Stick Opposites!

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? 

  

Fishing for feelings

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.

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

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.

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!

Heute bin ich ......

Well the German book fest continues.We have the good fortune within our network to have two or three schools that deliver German as their primary foreign languages. so often we can neglect this and concentrate on French and Spanish. Over the last couple of days I have been able to browse German bookshops here in Germany and I have come up with some real finds!

Around about this time in the term with our  in Year 5,we begin to develop the children's ability to say more about how they are feeling and to extend their ability to say why they feel happy sad etc.





Here is a book that probably all primary (not just language) teachers - no matter what language would love to explore.It really engages the imagination and has the most wonderful chalk drawings.

It's called "Heute bin ich ..." by Mies van Hout

and it explores our feelings and links these feelings to drawings of lots of exotic fish.

Take a look here!

 You really need to buy the book and have the book as a turn the page adventure to appreciate how creative you can be with this text and its  visual element .

So how would I like our schools that teach German to use this book to enhance the SOW that they follow and to allow the children to be creative with the language and the pictures?

Remember the ideas below explore how we can link language learning to Art and physical performance but we also need to create opportunities for the children to use the new more exciting adjectives in extended sentences and responses too

• Each fish is a different shape, colour and has a different expression. Explore the adjectives physically or as shapes and colours on individual whiteboards - as a listening,identifying the key adjectives and responding with a facial expression or a quick drawing
• Create calligrams as fish shapes of the adjectives ,that the children feel portray the emotion.
• Create a class fish-tank display of the adjectives based on chalk drawing and German writing
• Change the animal and the adjectives and create your own  chalk picture display of the new words in the style of the new animal(s).

  .

Springtime story drama and performance

Springtime

Last year on holiday I bought this wonderful story Toujours rien and decided that it would be the basis of a sequence of lessons on Springtime

The story  is about an impatient gardener and how every day he expects to see shoots above the ground of the seed he has planted . Everyday he finds nothing and everyday a bird flies by too . Until he gives up and doesn't visit and that's the day the bird spots a shoot and picks the shoot and flies off and guess what the gardener comes along the following day ...... There is still nothing to see! 

Today I found this You Tube clip of a retelling of the story with animation and music by a class of French children

Why do I like this clip ? The children are  retelling the story , the story is animated simply and there is music as an accompaniment . Shown to the class , this could be the model from which our classes in UKS2 or Year 7 could create their own performance or their own photo story .

All you need is to read the story to the class, watch the story , cut up the story into sentences and ask the children to reconstruct the story .

Can the children make this into a recount with utterances from the gardener .

Maybe with language learner who are competent they could add asides for the bird. What's the bird thinking ( e.g j'ai faim / miam miam /  la plante pousse )

Combined with this recount of a story you could link the learning to science and use this resource about 

Le cycle du haricot

Or with younger children you could plant and grow seeds and practise this simple rhyme with actions from this French blog 

Le petit jardinier

Spanish KS1 ,Going Bear Hunting Rhyme and Game

Spanish KS1  ,Going Bear Hunting Rhyme and Game

1,2,3

Suish suash, glo glo glorogló

4,5,6

Plochi plochi plop

7,8

Túpiti túpiti tap , suu, uuuu

9,10

Tipi tip tipi tip

İAhhhhhhhh!  İEs un oso!

10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1

        The children are going normally going to listen to the story vamos a cazar un oso when we play this Going on a bear hunt rhyme and game .

But they love it so much that we often play it just for fun!

2.    

      Our children practise their numbers first .

3.       We set up a path of numbers across the classroom and the children step carefully across the path of numbers in a line. The numbers are repeated so we have three paths of numbers of  1-10 .the children sing / chant the numbers as they walk until the teacher calls stop!  The teacher calls out a number and if a child is stood on that number then they are out of the game and caught by the imaginary bear ! The teacher can call put more than one number.

4.       How many bear hunters will we have left after we have played the game three times

5.       Once we feel the children know their numbers well enough, we ask them to put on their bear hunter kit ( imaginary hat , binoculars , wellington boots) and we pretend to go out to see what the terrain is like .

6.        For each of the terrains – as in the book – we have a sound to represent  the terrain

Suish suash glo glo glorogló = river

Plochi plochi plop= mud

Túpiti túpiti tap= forest and owls

Suu, uuuu= snow storm

Tipi tip tipi tip = inside a cave

7.       We need to become good explorers , so we practise the sounds and add actions

8.       We ask the children to close their eyes and come with us on an imaginary journey through the different terrains .The teacher  tells the  story in English of their journey and the children join in  with sounds that “colour” in the terrain that is described . they are the sound effects.

9.       Now they are finally ready to become” Bear explorers “! They need to practise the rhyme , remember their actions and their numbers  too …..but when they get to the end of the rhyme they need to listen out for you to shout out / whisper / say very quickly etc the final line İAhhhhhhhh!  İEs un oso!

10.   When they hear you say the final line, they must freeze frame and stay very still until you have counted backwards very slowly from 10-1. If they move then the bear will catch them!

World Book Day Long Live Books

W

orld Book Day, Long Live Books!

The following lesson plan is based upon the story book "Vive les livres!" . I bought this last year in France  and have been waiting and waiting for World Book Day to use the book in all its glory .

Vive les livres!

It's a very simple book with one phrase per page but very powerful images which make readers think about what makes a good book ! It uses phrases such as "livre gros" ( and the image is an elephant on a page) and "livre petit" ( and the image is a mouse on a page ) and "livre chapeau" ( well that's a book as a hat!)

In French language learning classes we will read the story book to the classes both at KS1 and KS2 .

With KS2, I have used the book as a stimulus to encourage children to think about all the types of books they might read and what their favourite books are.

It involves mime, performance , memory , a rhyme and then with Years 4 , 5 and 6 some written creative work ideal for a World Book Day display! 

The children will have to consider types of books and think of their own favourite book.

The types of books we will introduce are based on the types of books that children will have exposure to in school e.g:

 big book, small book, sad book , funny book , scary book , rainy day book ,sunny book, happy book , sports book , geography book , history book , a book to share etc 

The story book "Vive les livres" ends by suggesting that there is a book for everybody at all times!  The graphics are wonderful and the hardback copy of the book is large enough for the whole class to see .Want to know more then you can get a flavour of the book here ...

Take a look inside

Here are the activities in the order we will deliver them in French, Spanish and German

NB: Activities in italics are for Y4, 5 and 6 and you may decide that some of these activities are appropriate for Y5 and Y6 only

• First activity will work best if you have real books that show the different types of books that we are describing and practising with actions linked to the book types. However you could use a mixture of real books and also pictures of the type book you want the children to guess, say and add an action for each type of book 
• Put the books / mixture of books and pictures or pictures on display at the front of the classroom

Getting to know the types of book

• Look at each book and say the book label phrase that matches the type of book you are showing the class and ask the class to decide what they think the label must mean
• Add a voice to the labels e.g .a scary voice , a big voice, a long and tall voice , a happy in the garden voice etc. Ask the children to say the phrases with you / without you / to a partner.
• Can they now think of an appropriate action for the label of the book .Each action must have a movement to explain the type of book and an open palm action to depict “a book”   (e.g. sunshine book could be: right hand high up in the air wide open and opening and shutting (to represent the sun) and then both hands at waist height as open palms to depict a book.
• Can the children work with a partner to create their own actions to represent the book labels ? 
• Now the children should create their own “visual performance book shelf” , saying each type of book with the voice and the action the class has associated with the type of book.

7.

With Year 4 , 5 and 6

share the written labels(as large labels ) for all the books – stick these to the flip chart or whiteboard or bring them up on the interactive whiteboard

.

Year 4, 5,and 6 activity – working in pairs - can the children in Y4 ,Y5 and Y6 see if they can recognise any of the labels and decide with which book they think the label belongs and with which voice and action the book label belongs.

Playing games with the types of books

• Play one or two simple games to recall the key language that all the children have spoken and practised : You could …..play a simple game of charades / a game of Simon says / a game of say it if the action I am doing matches what I say / Chinese whispers
• With Year 3 play this as a class game (where the teacher reads the labels and challenges members of the class)  and with Year 4,Y 5 and Y 6 play this as games on their tables or in groups of 4-6 children .Each table or group will need a set of book labels. Place the book labels face down . Children take it in turns to turn over the labels, say the type of book and then challenge another person to try to name a book they have read or can think of that matches the label . Encourage the children to think out of the box so for example a hat book – may be a book where the character wears a hat e.g. Room on the Broom has a witch in   a hat or Paddington wears a hat  and a garden book may be a book that they have looked at about flowers or a book where the children play in a garden  etc.

Year 4,5 and 6

:Can the children think of other types of books that they can describe  by being creative and inventive with language they know e.g. “animal book / sport book/ geography book /food book/ art book etc

My favourite book is ……

• Can the children tell their partners or their tables their favourite book title and the type of book it is . They must select from the books we have labels for !
• Now generate a rhyme with the story labels   and the final two phrases ”books are for always and books are everywhere “ in French , in Spanish or in German. The phrases should be said in the order they are on the chart first time through and with the actions the class or pairs have created

Two Extension Activities  .

• Either

All year groups 

…….Can the children pick out their favourite types of books from the label list and create their own rhymes always ending the rhyme with “books are everywhere and Books are for everybody “

• Or

With ………Y4,Y5,Y 6 a possible creative written activity

:

Year 4  -

 write a statement about their favourite book – my favourite book is (name of book . It’s a (type of ).book written with a design on paper or cardr to look like the outside cover of their favourite book.

Year 5

  - write a short message in a bottle about two favourite books and the type of books they are…. With a desert island disc theme – which two books would you want to take with you and then send to other people from your desert island in a bottle as a special message?.

Year 6- 

 write a draft tweet about a favourite book, the  type of books it is and why they like it..in just 140 characters ! Our classes love this idea!

You may want to let the children be inventive and use bi-lingual dictionaries for types of books. Children can include a picture with their draft tweet , either as a drawn picture of a character or the book cover or as an IT follow up activity where they write a draft tweet and add a  digital link to their favourite book etc

And the good news is that this book exists in German and Italian!Thanks to @lisibo for tracking them down!

Here's the Italian version too .....

Spring is on the way ! Growing number sunflowers

Spring is on the way ! Growing number sunflowers

Last year we introduced a very simple “sunflower song to our work with Y2 , which even when they got into Year 3 they still select as their class favourite when asked what do they want to sing and perform

The sunflower song

It’s really simple. In Year 1 and 2 we start to sing the sunflower song.All you need to do is put a sequence of numbers  to the familiar refrain of frère Jacques and explain to the class that the song is all about growing from a seed to a beautiful sunflower. 

I based it on sunflowers   because of the fields and fields of sunflowers I see when I visit Europe. 

We look at pictures of sunflowers and challenge the children once they know their numbers 0-10 to count as many as they can before they run out of target language numbers ….we often end up saying numbers beyond 10, but the number 10 is our class target!

Here are two of the pictures I use that I took on holiday .

One of my colleagues practised the Mandarin version  with her Year 3 children as an extension to their learning in French . They learned the song in French and then used the actions , the skills of listening for key sounds and the performance they already knew to create a performance song in Mandarin!

The Sunflower song and performance

The performance is simple .Children crouch down tight like seeds in the ground and grow slowly upwards until they reach 10 , when they should be stretched up tall with their hands and fingers spread out so that their hands are like sunflowers . One hand represents each sunflower on the number 10. In any language the song simply goes.....

1,2,3

1,2,3

4,5,6

4,5,6

7,8,9,

7,8,9

10,10,10

10,10,10

Sunflower maths

In Year 3 this Spring half term we are busy revisiting language with our classes and will use this simple sunflower maths activity with all our year groups to keep on revisiting those all important numbers .

I introduced and used this activity last year with classes and then shared it at the start of the academic year with PGCE Primary MFL ITTs at Manchester University  . I know that quite a few of them have gone on to use this activity and have found it very effective, whether they were specialist or non-specialist primary linguists .

In Year 3  we revisit numbers  from KS1 or introduce  for the first time numbers 0-12 in the first couple of weeks in Autumn term .Now we can revisit them and use this activity to consolidate knowledge and extend knowledge . 

We can link it to our Science projects of growing seeds and read a story about the cycle of the sunflower and engage children in very simple number bond activities.

I like to use these two stories in French and in Spanish ,Diez semillas /

dix petites graines to reinforce the cycle of the sunflower and its seeds

The sunflower maths activity is simple and effective....

Stage one : 

Show twelve individual petals on a flip chart . Ask children to discuss with their partners  the number that they think the numbers and the simple mathematical sentence on the petal represents

Stage Two :

Show them the sunflower pictures of the flowers in the fields. Ask them to join in with the sunflower song from KS1 (see above)

Now ask them to help you to grow your class maths sunflower .

Stage Three: 

Show the empty sunflower with no petals on your flip chart .

Ask the children to find for you the petals and place them in the correct position on the sunflower . 

Find “one” first  and then find “six “ next as this allows he children to see the order like the clock face. 

Even if you are using higher numbers or odds/ evens etc  finding the first petal and then  the petal with the number which goes at the bottom of the sunflower seems to help the children to position the other petals .You should expect the children to place the petals on the flipchart without support – which means they have to think about the order of the numbers and number bonds etc.

You should end up with an almost complete sunflower- with just one petal missing! 

Now ask the children to write on their whiteboards the possible number sentences for the missing petal (in this case the number “ten”) . 

Once the children know the words for plus/ minus / equals they can share their idea with a partner . (With older children expect more complex number sentences and teach the words or phrases for multiply and divide )

Pair and group activities :

Children can then create their own games and with some core language “find” / “where is ..?” they can play the game with a partner or a table of classmates

Moving on with higher numbers and more advanced learners

With Year 4 and 5 we can use the Pocoyo video clips for longer more engaged listening although the younger children like these clips too!

"Pocoyo la graine "

Or in Spanish "Pocoyo la semilla "

 or I love the French story book about growing seeds: toujours rien?

Here is a You Tube clip of the story 

We can link the sunflower activity to higher numbers and more challenging use of the four functions in Maths in mathematical sentences! 

Children can write the mathematical sentences as words rather than figures to add challenge both for the child writing and for the child reading the message on the petal

Cinderella, Masks, Carnival Time ,Drama and the verb " to be "

Cinderella and Carnival Time ,

Characters and Masks ,  

Drama and the verb " to be ".

This year we have been trialling approaches to the teaching of grammar in KS2 and we have focused our attention  recently in how we can engage young children with the active learning of high frequency verbs in the present tense  

As it's nearly carnival time though I thought that the lesson frame and the  resources I created based on "masks " and Cinderella characters might be something that some of you may like to try with your UKS2 children to find out more about the high frequency verb "to be" .

The lesson frame provides you with the key language in French, German and Spanish - should you be unsure, like I was,  how to say the "ugly sisters" in the target language! 

The activities take the children from being able to ask and say who a character is in the first , second , third person singular and plural to developing personalities behind the masks for the characters and adding performance and drama !

The aims of the activities are: 

• To introduce and practise the names of the main characters in the pantomime Cinderella, using the parts of the verb “to be “ in the target languages of French /Spanish or German
• To ask questions and give target language responses  with the characters’ names
• To create personalities for the characters through the use of the voice, actions and performance 
• To extend the character descriptions to allow the children to give the characters' personalities and feelings
• To create a simple performance ( groups of 5 children) based on the idea of a “masked ball

 The children can use our Cinderella masks (download the zip file of the five characters here) masks to create their own face masks for the activities , like the one below ......or as part of their carnival focus they could work out for themselves how to create a mask and design their own masks for the characters in Cinderella.

Here's the activity sequence Cinderella PDF to download and follow.Please note that on the PDf the phrase "Who are they?" in Spanish should read “¿Quiénes son?”

The children will need to make dice with smaller versions of the characters for several of the games they will play.   

With some of the network schools we have focused upon creating full sentences using a high frequency verb and nouns to create a poem such as
"A wizard's potion" . You can listen to a non-specialist linguist and Y6 class teacher describe the sequence of lessons she put together to explore the resource and the lesson framework I provided her with. Click here to listen to her describe  the work her class has done around the wizard's potion on JLN Network News.I will be sharing this sequence of activities at a later date on the blog should you like to try this . Will tweet about this when I put it up on the blog on @JanetLloydnet

Shadow Puppet Show Story Retelling and Performance

Shadow Puppet Show Story Retelling and Performance

Example :Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Activities that can be adapted for a sequence of lessons linking primary language learning and drama  with familiar tales for :

Early stage learners

 : Simple utterances of single words and phrases 

Developing language learners 

: simple sentence story telling

Established and moving on learners

 : using more complex sentences

It’s mid way through the year in our network and the schools have established patterns of language learning with their different year groups and stages not ages of learners across KS2 and also in KS1

We love story telling and we encourage performance by the children of the stories as this allows them to practise simple language , build questions and answers and create an outcome that demands they apply primary language learning and drama skills and techniques.

Last year we decided to develop puppet stories with KS1 and then later with KS2. We created a series of resources and stories based on mini beasts and sea creatures , which we all loved using. The children worked as a class to access the language and then in differentiated ability groups they worked together to  develop their own class and also group puppet performances of the simple stories to share with other classes.

I try to ensure that the stories we develop in school contains key and learner appropriate  transactional language within it which is transferable to general age appropriate conversation e.g. last year one of our stories was based around children looking for people to play a game (Who wants  to play?  Can I play? I don’t want to play! Come and join in with us!).

We are now getting ready  for work this year with the children on

storytelling of traditional tales

.We will focus for example on Jack and the Beanstalk, the Enormous Turnip and Goldilocks and the Three Bears .

We may show,share and read stories with the children containing quite complex language but in the lessons around the story I think it's important that we break the language down to the basic story line, so that all the children can participate ultimately in a performance based target language retelling of the story. 

Below are a sequence of activities /lessons based around the story of “

Goldilocks and the Three Bears” and a shadow puppet story

On holiday last year in France , I purchased this wonderful book – no words just simple black and white pictures . “Boucle d’or et les trois ours!” (Rascal – PASTEL publications) ISBN 978-2-211-06423-1

It’s absolutely brilliant! 

Boucle d'or et les trois ours Rascal Pastel

We can use it in French , Spanish , German , Mandarin etc in our network.

It led me to the idea that  to develop quality learning of storytelling and sequencing using target language learning 

this year 

I would develop a series of lessons based on shadow puppets and  silhouettes.

At a CPD evening with my language teaching colleagues from JLN , Joanne, suggested that the idea of shadow puppets would fit very well with her school’s Science project on “light and dark” !

She decided she would use the lesson sequence guide below with her shadow puppets to tell the story via an overhead projector and a screen link! 

So here are my stages of learning based on

Goldilocks and the three bears

and shadow puppets .My eventual performance and creative outcomes can support  the following stages of language learning:

Activities can be adapted to suit  :

1.Early stage learners

: Simple utterances of single words and phrases (possibly with the teacher or a child from a later stage of learning e.g .Y5 or Y 6 children working with Y3 as narrator )

2.Developing language learners

: simple sentence story telling using nouns, verbs and adjectives

3.Established and moving on learners

: using more complex sentences with adjectives ,conjunctions and action verbs , adverbs and possibly prepositions.

Support and sequencing of activities for the different stages

The sequence of activities will be the same for all learners and their stages of language development. The support may be different – so you may need:

• a speaking frame or prompt bubbles with key words and phrases for the children displayed at the front of the class
• you may offer children in stages 2 and 3 access to the bilingual dictionaries

Sequence of activities

1.

The story line

.Discuss the story the children already know in English to re-familiarise the children with the story line . Introduce your shadow puppets for the four main characters in the target language .Can the children say the characters names in the target language to a partner and link the shadow puppet to a character in the story book that the class has been reading in the lesson. 

2.

Shadow Puppet Parade

. Practise greeting the puppets in the target language , asking the puppets their names and how they are feeling – based on the story and ask for volunteers to offer possible responses. Select several children to come out and hold the shadow puppets and respond to the questions from the class on behalf of the shadow puppets .Encourage the more advanced learners to use more extended feelings e.g. I am hungry / scared /angry / frightened  etc (We teach extended feelings from the start of Y5 )

Say a phrase exchange

Give children their own smaller versions of the puppets and in groups of four ask the children to play a game called “Say a phrase exchange” .The children say a phrase that matches their puppet and each child in the group of four has its turn to speak and share and then the puppets are exchanged so the children give their puppet to the child to their right and the activity begins again . The only rule is that the next child can not say what the immediately previous child might have said. Once the game is established encourage the children to add voices for their puppets .

3.

Play

“Who is it?”

In this activity practise introducing the characters in a full first person sentence or a full third person singular sentence e.g Hello I am Goldilocks or Hello it’’s Daddy Bear”  and allow the children to practise the question “Who is it?. They may want to use both utterances in their puppet shows.

Practise the key phrase  “Who is it?“ with the children and then ask them to echo your character’s voice as they repeat the question after you. Can they decide by the tone of your voice – who is asking the question (Dad, Mum. Baby Bear or Goldilocks?).They must respond with a greetings phrase e.g Hello I am ..... or Hello it is ....

4.

Call a character

. This means the children should after counting 1,2,3 call out the question “Who is it?” and you should call a character and the children should respond with the key phrase “Hello I am ......” plus a character and a  correct tone of  voice. This can be played as pairs and in groups to consolidate

5.

Memory tray

This activity is so that the children can practise the names of the key items : chair/ soup/ bed/ house / and the characters . It’s just a simple game we have all played where we try to remember the items on a tray/ a power point slide / a flip chart and the items are removed one by one or replaced and other items are removed . Once you have practised all the items ,remove an item whilst the children hide their eyes  and then they open their eyes.Can the children say what is missing?

6.

Memory tray mimes

. Ask the children to work with a partner and   think of mimes and movements that portray the items from the memory tray game . Suggest that the mimes should portray the object or its use and ask them to add a physical  movement that conveys the  sound of the word e.g. is it a quick word, a smooth sound word, a hard quick sounding word etc. (They do not actually say the word but they should mime and move like the word). Their mime should reflect the sound and the object .Can the pair work with another pair and can the second pair name the objects and then share their mimes.They can then play a game of memory mime tray , where each child performs all the mimes but misses out  an object – which one is it? With developing and moving on learners ask them to use a key question “What is it? “ and  “What’s missing ? and for the response to use a full sentence “It is ....” and The .... is missing”

7.

Venn diagram descriptions

. Recall the story in English and then retell in the target language for the children using your original story . Emphasise and practise with the children the utterances by Goldilocks about each object e.g...

Chair-  too hard / too soft / just right

Soup – too hot / too cold/ just right

Bed-     too big / too small / just right

Now lay out on the floor in an open space plastic hoops with labels from above (too hot etc). Ask children to decide where each object  for each bear could be put  according to what Goldilocks thinks of the object– for example sometimes the children may decide to put an object in the link between too big and too cold etc  or juts to put the object in the hoop with the label too hot. Let the class decide  .

Give out paper versions of the Venn diagram and card cut outs of the objects (3 objects per items e.g. 3 chairs). Each child must select an object and working in groups of 4 can the children decide how to describe the objects . Early learners use simple descriptive utterances but developing and moving on learners say full sentence spoken descriptions of the items and place them on their Venn diagram . The group is in control of the descriptions and where they want to place the objects .  Ask each group at the end of the activity to share their  ideas with a second group and /or the class. They should say the utterances to describe the objects as if they were Goldilocks and demonstrate her reaction.

8.

Now the  children can create their own shadow puppet performance of the story .They will need shadow puppets. They should use all the language they have practised and must add emotions to the story by the use of their voices . 

They will need shadow puppets :

Objects such as the soup bowls to show the class or add to their stage set and scenery

They will also need story boards to support them to sequence their stories  with simple picture prompts. Here's an example of what some of the story board looks like .... (Children cud be give pictures to place into the sequence of the story in the order that they want to retell and perform it.

e.g