Writing for Purpose Smoke Signals

This is a simple activity that can be used on many different levels . You can work with the children with  key individual words,a series of nouns with adjectives, question , sentence , complex sentence or short text .

Seat the class on the carpet in front of you or with older children if they are sitting at their desks or tables  make sure that they can see clearly the children you select to participate in the physical activity who will be placed at either side of the room.

All the class are involved in this activity and it's based on the idea of sending messages by smoke signals.Select two pairs of children - one pair  to send the smoke signals and one pair to receive and interpret the smoke signals . 

It also means that you could organise the pairings so that a more able reader works with a less able target language reader and a more able target language writer works with a less able target language writer .

The children seated in the class are the observers, who working in pairs must whisper what they see and say it quietly to each other in the target language  and then  write on white boards what they think the target language message is that has been sent .

These two pairs should stand on either side of the classroom or carpet visible to all the children . Pair one has a smoke signal card with a message in the target language written clearly on it .They must not show it anyone else and they should be given 60 seconds thinking time to work out the meaning and to decide on a mime .Pair two have an empty smoke signal card and a pen. They will watch the mime , have 60 seconds thinking and discussing time and then working together write down in the target language what they think the message is . 

Meantime the children seated in  the class observe the mime, think of its meaning, discuss this with their partner and write down on their whiteboards the phrases they think were passed as smoke signals above their heads  from pair one to pair two .

Here's an example of the Smoke Signals that we will be using during the Summer term with Year 5 . They will revisit the weather and ice cream flavours during their going to the beach language learning focus.We are working on writing longer sentences and asking questions . The children will be creating spoken presentations and dialogues about going to the beach and reasons to go to the beach in the target language.

Here's the written message :

We  can play the game with different messages and can encourage the children to create their own table or group  Smoke Signal games , where working with a table of six children - two children create the written message and mime it , two children observe and record what they see and two children feedback what they think was sent as a message and should have been written down .

What do you prefer ? POP UP questions

What do you prefer….? Pop Up 

Practise of the key question:  Do you prefer .......? and offering choices from which to select a response

Today I have received this marvellous pop up book from the publisher Helium which has inspired me to create a simple sequence of activities that all teachers in every target language could use with their young learners .

This may be a target language book for very young children but it will be a really useful resource in French UKS2 to practise asking and responding to questions , developing a sequence of questions and answers and recalling familiar nouns and adjectives .

At the beginning of learning a language we often teach children a range of nouns  within a context – animals , foods, colours .

We  progress so that the children can use these nouns and adjectives  in a simple sentence e.g.  I like red / I like dogs / etc

And then we will practise with the children how ask someone if the  like something e.g. Do you like dogs ? etc

This simple story book in French will allow me a new way to practise the question “Do you prefer….? “ ( Tu préfères……? ) and to be able to create a range of choices  e.g.  “Tu préfères un chien ou un chat……?”  

What it will also do is allow me with older children in UKS2 to revsit familiar content and to encourage them to create their own choice options from this content .How will I do this?

Stage One : Which nouns ? Which adjectives?

A random word sort of familiar nouns (and possibly adjectives)  – foods/ animals / clothes/ ice creams and their flavours .

Give the children ,working in twos ,a set of nouns and adjectives on cards . Let the children decide how they wish to sort these nouns (and adjectives).

What categories will they come up with ? 

In previous activities like this one I have found that some children will immediately sort these as types of content ( foods etc) , some children will identify the gender of the noun , some children will list them in alphabetical order . 

In itself this is an interesting exercise to see how the children categorise and organise language . 

What if they are unsure of a word….? Well then they should use bi-lingual dictionaries and on line tools and  own reference material to access the meaning of the word.

Can the children identify the nouns and the adjectives and re-sort according to this objective? 

How do they know which are nouns and which are adjectives? 

This will work well in Year 6 for us  when the children can talk about their own personal characteristics.

Stage Two :What’s the question?

Set the scene   with the story . It’s a very simple story but it reinforces how to use the question:

Est-ce que tu préfères ………ou …………..?

The book poses the same question in different ways e.g Est-ce que tu  préfères.... ? and Tu préfères.....? Always offering item choices to select from

Here is an example :

  

If the target language you teach isn’t French then you could use cards or objects to demonstrate this. Why I like this book is because it is a very physical explanation of how to pose the question. 

Now ask the class , working in twos, to create questions of preference .Ask them to create at least three questions of preference.  To do this they must   identify two items in their categorised word lists from Stage One that belong  to a similar body of content and can they create a physical sentence? 

This means they must ask the question in chorus and then each partner should offer one of the possible choices to the class . Can the class give responses to their questions?

Stage Three :Our own POP UP prompt devices

The book uses different “pop up” devices  to pose questions for example look at the pictures below about ice cream flavours . 

Here it's a pull tag that operates the POP UP of the bottom half of the ice cream t change it from chocolate to vanilla

Discuss with the children ways to create pop up devices and to create pages in a pop up book. 

Now it’s over to them!

Can they create their own visual preference questions  on card and using the key target language questions and familiar content ? Would make an impressive display or could be used as question prompts for a class spoken Quiz Quiz Swap activity

Stage Four :

Asking others our questions and getting a response.

Keeping a record of our questions and responses 

   

Working with a partner and using the  Educreations IWB why not ask the children to draw symbols to explain their own preference question and record themselves asking the question at the same time?

Each partner should record at least two questions and each time  they should save their recording.

The pair should share their saved questions with a second pair who need to write a target language response to the recorded questions – either as a paper and pen activity or as an Educreation IWB written and  recorded  response.  

Making an Easter Movie

Making an Easter Movie 

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





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

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

Un petit,deux petits, trois petits lapins ,

quatre petits, cinq petits , six petits lapins

sept petits , huit petits , neuf petits lapins 

dix petits lapins sautent!

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

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

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


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

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

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

Extending listening sticks

Extending listening sticks

Last month I shared my simple resource of “Listening Sticks” and how these could be used to encourage children to practise listening and responding for key information.

Here's the link to my original blog Listening sticks 

You will need a master copy for all the activities where you are the speaker 

Here's a simple colours and numbers listening stick for one child

Since my first simple blog about listening sticks  I have been able to put together a sequence of activities that  help children to progress in their ability to listen and respond and that can be used along the way be as a simple device to create activities to track progress and to assess individual children’s developing skills .

Moving on and listening for specific words and phrases ……from the very simple activity described in my previous blog , I have explored using these sticks to listen for specific words and phrases – so for example if the objects (for examples the numbers on the listening stick) are printed in different colours – then we can ask the children to listen for two items – a number and a colour . You could not wave your stick if the colour of the number on your stick did not correspond to the information they heard.

Creating a recall listening stick …..Why not ask the children to create their own listening sticks to challenge children to recall language from prior learning during the year

Listening for key information in longer or more detailed texts  and identifying key language . This activity uses the same simple listening stick bit this time look at the stick below ….when would you wave your stick if this was the  text you heard ?

"Hello , I am called Paul Green and I am 7  years old.I have one brother and he is 9 years old .He has black hair and blue eyes and loves animals . We have 7 cats and dogs in our house and 1 rabbit ……"

Making a listening stick a writing stick!

Why not encourage the children to write a series of sentences themselves  to create a text which has to include each of the items on their listening stick !

The verb to have and a wizard's potion . Practical primary progresson

The verb to have and a wizard's potion . Practical primary progression

We are busy making practical primary progression in foreign language learning within our network . 
We are trying to support children in their language learning and  encouraging them to be creative and effective .

The new DfE POS specifies that children should make "substantial progression in one language in KS2 , that we should lay foundations for future language learning in KS3 and that we should enable pupils to understand and communicate ideas, facts and feelings in speech and writing focused on familiar routine matters, using their knowledge of phonology , grammatical structures and vocabulary



Over the last year I have been developing approaches to "Drama and Grammar" and "Creativity and Grammar"
In a previous blog I shared our Grammar Stepping Stones  nouns , adjectives ,verbs in the voice of the child which will allow you to understand more about our approach to the development of primary grammar.

This week some of my colleagues shared with secondary colleagues the creative approaches, activities and outcomes they have generated with their Year 6 pupils at a cluster transition meeting. This is what the secondary colleagues thought:

" The enthusiasm of yourself and all the primary cluster members really shone through and the work being done in KS2 is really impressive. What we all picked up on was how comprehensive the SoW in KS2 have become and how creative and innovative those in the primary school can be when delivering it." 

On Monday I will be sharing with colleagues how we have developed activities across four years of learning in KS2 so that with  UKS2 children who have been learning a language for several years we are now confidently exploring verbs and revisiting their developing knowledge of nouns and adjectives .

I work with some wonderful teachers and teaching assistants who take on the challenges , use the activities we generate and then create activities and facilitate learning in styles that best suit their classes. 

Here I will share first some of the materials we provide them with and then some of the outcomes that are from the real classrooms in Warrington!
Take a look at our Wizard's potions in French , German and Spanish.
(We also provide the teachers with sound files and key words where necessary)   



We offer our colleagues support in the development of possible staged activities .   

Here is our French potion poem 

Comment faire un sorcier

J'ai une araignée

Tu as deux grenouilles

Il a un oiseau

Elle a un chat

Maintenant ajoutons un peu de sel

et un peu de sucre

Ils ont cinq crabes

Et vous deux avez sept vers

Et de l'eau et un peu de poivre

Abracadabra!

Nous avons un sorcier!

.....and here are the Spanish and German versions of the potion

Spanish potion

German potion

Here are the two core focuses for the wizard's potion

A focus on nouns

A focus on verbs

And here you can listen to how a non-specialist language teacher was able to generate effective and creative learning revisiting nouns and developing children's understanding of the verb to have in French based on a wizard's potion!

a wizard's spell teacher talk

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

Using the Educreations IPad APP to explore commands 

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

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

It's important that

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

(with support and/or independently).

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

Yesterday thank to

@lisibo

 and her brilliant blog 

İ 

Vamonos

 ! 

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

Interactive Whiteboard APP

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

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

Here are a few examples of mine .

Walk 

Swim

Jump

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

In Summer Year 4 will focus on the

World Cup .

World Cup symbol

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

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

World Cup Actions

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

The Beach

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

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

Time on the beach

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

Who are you? First steps between Year 6 and Year 7

Who are you ?

First steps between Year 6 and Year

7 

Next week I meet with my primary and secondary language teaching colleagues from a local  cluster primary schools. Last year we worked upon a  simple project to develop transition links between Y6 and Y7 based on reading, comprehending and developing performances from play-scripts which revisited core language from the children’s KS2 language learning (cafes , animals , personal information). 

This was a

limited language activity

to allow all schools

no matter what stage

they were in their implementation of language learning to participate. It was highly effective as all the children enjoyed the activities and the High School teachers were able to revisit 

six weeks later

and explore the plays  and use this as a scaffold by which to develop Y7 pupils performances for the Y6 Autumn term Open Evening.

This Summer  the intention is to try to

develop this further

within the cluster. We will develop some  

spoken and written work

based on “WHO” with the children during Y6 Summer term” which they can then revisit and

use as a way to get to know their new classmates from other primary schools  

and their new language teachers.They are entering a new learning environment.

What we have to remember on our journey toward " Year 6 into Year 7 language learning" and it taking place effectively is that we need to support each other on this journey. Dialogues need to take place and colleagues all need to build trust. This is happening within this cluster and the meeting next week is the next small step. All the children need to be able to participate confidently in activities.Until we reach the point (hopefully in two or three years where all children have learned a language progressively for several years) we need to provide transition routes and platforms that are accessible to all the children.

Our network operates with a

SOW

 which provides a framework that allows the children to develop all four skills,knowledge of basic grammar and useful transactional language.We work with activities that link language learning across the primary curriculum.In

Network News

 we share our good practice and creative approaches between all colleagues both primary and secondary.Currently schools are at different stages of teaching and learning but we are working with practical and creative primary approaches.What we need for this year's step toward effective transition is the next simple point for collaboration between Y6 and Y7 colleagues in the cluster.

The following ideas were inspired by  a tweet I received on my home page from

@The _Mr_D

and work he has recently been  doing with his primary class  “Describing Fairy Tale Characters “.This is based on ideas and resources from the wonderful

@alanpeat

.

Year 6 are not in this instance describing fairy tale characters but are setting about saying "Who " they are and feeling confident  to take this forward just six weeks later and introduce themselves in their language lessons in Year 7. They are gong to look back over all the transactional language they have practised and the creative activities they have taken part in to put together something very personal about themselves.

Let's remember it's the final half term of a very busy year for Year 6! So  firstly …in Year 6 and possibly to be revisited in Year 7 we need a song to make a bridge and link the learning together. (This could also become part of the Year 6 Open evening performance).

And what better way to reinforce or teach them a useful question  to find out who someone is! "Who are you? " Probably one of the first questions the children will want to ask their new classmates in Year 7 and for lots of the children the question will be one they have used before (for example in Year 4 Spring 1 and family). And the song …. ? Well it’s got to be the chorus from "Who are you ?" by The Who! slightly more grown up and not a rhyme or childish song but songs help the children remember the questions so they are still very important.

First let’s teach the children the melody and the words from the chorus of the song  : “Who are you ?” also a very useful question when getting to know someone new , which our Y6 children will be doing on the first day at their new high school .This is the chorus  of course to the song:

"Who Are You"

Who are you?

Who, who, who, who?

Who are you?

Who, who, who, who?

Who are you?

Who, who, who, who?

Who are you?

Who, who, who, who?

And using the following questions it’s easy to use the melody to create a target language song with “teenage …almost” attitude!

We will use in the target language the following questions: French Qui-es tu? / German “Wer bist du? /  Spanish

¿

Quien eres?)

Here is the French version this cluster will practise and share…..

"Qui es -tu?"

Qui es- tu?

Qui, qui, qui, qui?

Qui es- tu?

Qui,qui, qui, qui?

Qui es- tu?

Qui, qui, qui, qui?

Qui es- tu?

Qui, qui, qui, qui?

And in Spanish it would fit to the melody like this …

¿

Quien eres?

¿

Quien?

¿

Quien?

With this cluster of schools it works because the cluster deliver French in KS2. We will be working with French as the target language.

There is the opportunity here immediately to extend the questions that the children already know to ask to elicit information about another person, Here is an opportunity to brainstorm what we already know and share this with the Year 6 class. (Maybe this will allow the children on entry in to Year 7 to share and compare questions with their new class and teacher)

The visual image I saw from 

@alanpeat

 was a large piece of A2 paper  in which the children had cut out a hole large enough to pop their heads through .Around the outside the children had created a series of comments and memos  that described both the physical and personality

characteristics of different fairy tale characters.

 It made me think of an old fashioned seaside photograph scene something like the one below….

We will call ours:

“Who are you?”

picture frames

This is what the primary teachers will attempt to achieve in Year 6 ….

1. To practise and discuss with the Year 6 classes the language they already know to describe themselves physically and to describe their characteristics. (By referring to the SOW - the teacher can remind themsleves of all the content that the children can explore to say so much about themselves , family, hobbies , interests "familiar matters") 
2. To generate with Year 6  descriptions using the key verbs : moi je suis / moi j’ai … moi j’aime ……./ moi je n’aime pas …..in speaking and writing activities.Some schools have already begun to explore verbs in the third person singular and plural so now is an opportunity to describe pets, family ,friends too!
3. To explore questions that take the children beyond "Who are you?" when the children engage in dialogues with their current Year 6 class and hopefully next year in Y7 .   

We will practise this first through whole class recall games , simple question and answer activities with a partner and then spoken sharing activities with the class

We will use our

“Who are you?”

pictures frames to keep a written record  for each child. Each child can record what they want to share about themselves . They will need at least four sentences – a name statement / a statement about their characteristics using je suis… / a physical description using j’ai…. and a like and dislike using j’aime… and je n’aime pas ….

Now it's time for a creative spoken activity.The Year 6 children are going to "speak through their picture frames" and describe themselves. How are they going to do this? 

Well there are a few options 

• a simple sound recording and photo shot of each picture frame loaded on the school VLE and IWB or computer of each child, 
• a simple presentation to their table using their paper picture frames as prompts , 
• a recording of their presentation made into a rap using the recording tool  Autorap Android version of Autorap or Itunes version of Autorap . 

Transferring this focus to Year 7

In Year 7 during the first couple of weeks we can use familiar language to ......

1. settle and get to know the classes with familiar activities
2. explore the pupils' confidence, knowledge and understanding of personal information and asking and answering questions and using bilingual dictionaries
3. refine and extend their spoken and written knowledge of core personal information questions and answers
4. consolidate their knowledge of some high frequency present tense verbs

 In Year 7 w

e can have the option of a background link song: "Qui es-tu?" as a memory trigger which will help some children.

We have practised with the children key phrases to be able to describe themselves, which can be recalled and revisited at the start of Year 7 by the class teacher and their classes . 

Pupils who have come from one primary school will have the language to be able to ask pupils who have come from other local primaries that initial question "Who are you?"and find out some simple facts about their new friends and classmates.They will be able to follow up with more interesting questions.

As an AfL activity the Year 7 teacher can ask the children to organise and sort simple questions that match the key statements. 

This year all the children in the primary schools will have practised already asking: How old are you? / What do you like? /What do you not like? What are you called?

This will be the expected minimum .... and so many of them can do so much more!

The Y7 teacher can revisit and consolidate these questions and introduce or revisit how to ask about someone else’s appearance and character.

This gives Year 7 colleagues the reassurance of knowing all the children can do this and platform on which to build and in this case adapt their current Year 7 SOW in the first few weeks.

Using bilingual dictionaries as a reinforcement and AfL activity ,the Year 7 teacher can ask the children to find at least two adjectives to describe how they are feeling in the first couple of weeks in a new school and also what characteristic they want to strengthen in Year 7 .

Once again this gives Year 7 colleagues the reassurance of knowing all the children can do this and platform on which to build and in this case adapt their current Year 7 SOW in the first few weeks.

It’s time now to ask the children what they think the next steps in their learning should be. 

How can they enhance what they can say about themselves and what do they need to practise, access or investigate and understand  to be able to this? 

(With the Year 7 teacher acting as the facilitator of these discussions, links are now being made with the learning focuses of the school’s Year 7 MFL curriculum) .

Either as a class activity or as a homework activity (if the children have access to IT facilities) the children can now create a more sophisticated written presentation of  their “ Who are you? “ picture frames that they created in Year 6 . IT tools such as on 

IPAd APPS

Popplet

 would be a great way to make a more sophisticated "Who are you?" picture frame 

The Y7 class teacher can differentiate and extend the written activity by  supporting and  encouraging pupils to:

• extend what they write ,
• develop a dialogue 
• swap picture frames and write about a new friend in the third person singular using the facts they can find in their new friend's  "Who are you? "picture frame.
• demonstrate and share with the children how they can write their near future aspirations and what they are aiming to improve or achieve in Year 7 .

So this is the next step in developing a trust and a dialogue between the schools and teachers. It's "stage two" in understanding what skills and language the children bring to Year 7 Autumn Term One. Next year the dialogue can only grow stronger and the transferable knowledge between colleagues will allow the Year 6 into Year 7 language learning programme to strengthen and develop.

Physical POP UP Poems le jour de la rentrée

Physical POP UP Poems

Many thanks to

@vallesco

for sourcing this poem “le jour de la rentrée “

le jour de la rentree

 on

pinterest

We love the use of the sounds to replace key present tense first person singular verbs and add a performance dynamic to the poem !

@EWoodruffe

 and myself have broken the poem down into a simpler French version for our young language learners to develop into a series of  performance language activities which links well with either of our UKS2

JLN

 learning focuses : school routine or daily routine.

Here’s our shortened version made into two verses: 

D’abord je me

hop hop

du bon pied .

Puis je

gloup gloup

mon petit déjeuner.

A l’école je ne

oin oin

meme pas,

Mais je

bonjour bonjour

tout le monde

Je

lalalala

des chansons en faisant la ronde,

Mais je

chuTTtt

aussi pour la maitresse.

Tout à coup la cloche

dring dring

l’école est terminée.

Je retrouve ma maman et je lui

blablablabla

de ma journée!

Should you want this poem in Spanish then thanks to Ana Garcia we have tried to put this into Spanish at the bottom of this page 

What’s the text about?

To work with this text we feel that the children need to first of all to explore the two verses of our poem by  :

1.Reading the text with the teacher

2.Identifying   key words they recognise – a simple highlighting activity

3.Sharing this knowledge with the class

4.Collecting  the known language on a class record sheet.

5.Piecing together as language detectives   what the text is about

Explore the Sound Text !

Now the class can check their conclusions by using the sounds in the text and the actions modelled by the teacher, to explore the meaning of each sentence.They will do this by just speaking and acting out the key sounds   from each sentence .

Can the class read the text below and explore /understand from this what the missing verbs in the text could be?

Can the children read the sound text below as a class and through teacher voice emphasis , can the children draw conclusions about the missing verbs?

Hop hop

(jump twice)

Gloup gloup

(hold pretend bowl to mouth and slurp)

Oin oin

(pull a face as if crying)

Bonjour bonjour

.(wave twice)

Lalalala

(make a gesture as if singing )

ChuTTtt

(finger to lips)

Dring dring

( move hand as if ringing big heavy hand bell twice)

Bla bla bla bla

(open and shut hand as if it’s a mouth -chattering)

Give the children the missing verbs as cards. Can the children link any of the verbs to the sound text above? Which verbs are left? Can the children help you to place these verbs next to key sounds and perhaps use the action s to help them do this? Are there any verbs left that the children need to look up in a bi-lingual dictionary? You will to help them by providing them with the infinitive of the verbs.  .

lève

prends

pleurs

dis

chante

me tais

sonne

raconte

Games with sounds and verbs

Play recall games with the sounds and the verbs ….

As a class the teacher should :

Call a sound and the children must do the action

Do an action and the children must say the sound

Call a sound and the children must say the verb that matches the sound

(You could also play the recall games in pairs or as small groups )

Create Physical POP UPS of the poem

We will be using the poem we abbreviated for this. Divide your class into   groups of four children Give each group one of the   8 sentences from the two verses of the poem. Each of the four children has a role to play in saying part of the full sentence from the poem   and making the POP UP sentence of the poem

Each group has two core sentence cards – the start of the sentence and the end of the sentence . Two children hold up the core cards – one holds up the start of the sentence and another child holds up the end of the sentence.

In between the other two children are responsible for the sound and the verb pop ups . One should say the sound and do the action and the other child should say the missing verb and carry the action on.

Here’s a diagram to explain what I mean  :

“D’abord je me

(

sounds/ action

)

(

missing verb/

action

) du bon pied “

Now the class can put together its pop up version of the whole poem .Each group saying  and performing their sentence in turn .

At this point you could film the class using props and performing their POP UP poem with sound effects as a  “ video of le jour de la rentrée”

Let’s take the performance further …….“Sound” “Vision” and “Target Language” performance

You may want to stop here or you may want to try out this series of drama and performance linked activities to create a  “Sound” “Vision” and “Target Language” performance .

Divide the class into 8 groups .

Ask them to perform their POP UP sentences from the previous activities

Now ask them to explore the rhythm , beat and cadence of their sentences as part of the whole poem.

To do this they need to identify the rhythm of their sentence – clapping out the syllables and the beat

Can they replace the clapping with their key sound from the sentence e.g.

D’abord je me hop hop du bon pied

could become …..

“Ho-hop hop hop hop hop hop ho op”

To this they need to add a clapping /clicking / tapping or stamping rhythm that matches

This forms the basis of their backing track for their sentence. Now two children are responsible for the backing track and the sound and clapping / tapping / clicking or stamping of the rhythm)

Now the group needs to add the spoken sentence on top of this rhythm .The other two children are responsible for the performance of the spoken sentence with actions and fitting it to the rhythm of the backing track they have created.

Can they perform this for the class?

Put the whole poem back together and perform this as a class performance – with backing track rhythms and spoken French sentences with actions.

What a performance!

The Spanish version of the abbreviated poem 

La vuelta al cole

Primero me quick quick con el pie derecho

Después ñam ñam desayuno

En el colegio no muaa muaa

Pero hola hola a todo el mundo

Yo lalalala las canciones

Pero  ssh ssh para escuchar a la profesora

De pronto  ring ring el colegio ha terminado

Encuentro a  mi mama mua mua

Y le bla  bla bla bla de mi dia 

Shape Sentence Jungles

Shape Sentence Jungles

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

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

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

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

Physical sentences

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

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

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

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

If it’s a snake  …….

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

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

Shape Sentence Jungle.

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

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

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

Mind the gap and get writing

Mind the gap : punctuation prompts

This activity is to encourage the children to write messages that they already know in the target language....

e.g a question , a statement , a command  or a spoken response

Before attempting the task the children need to be secure in their knowledge of spoken phrases.

You could try the activity at first with Y4 toward the end of the year of learning or Y5 and Y6 based on their knowledge of personal information questions and answers .

Children in the activity are being encouraged to show us what they can write rather than penalised for not knowing the correct phrase .

Just what can the children recall and attempt to write in the target language

At the start of the academic year in Y4 give children, working with a partner, strips of paper which just contain target language punctuation and an appropriate  gap for the missing words e.g.

• target language question marks
• exclamation marks
• target language speech marks
• a full stop
• a comma and a full stop

Here’s a Spanish example

¿........................................................................?

Increase the challenge 

Expect the children as they progress through Y4 and in to Y5 to work individually on an activity like this .

Give out two mind the gap challenges - so that children need to think of a question and an appropriate response

Increase this to four or five mind the gap strips and encourage the children to create a short written dialogue/ role play or conversation

You can differentiate the task by providing some children with a mind the gap text. 

An AfL Transition Opportunity 

This is an activity which could be used for simple AfL at the start of the Y7 academic year , especially if it's an activity the children have grow used to in UKS2 . Teachers can see what the children can recall , create and write.

Plant pot story actions and song

Plant pot story , actions and song 

Last year as part of a JLN  network project during the Spring term I created a series of simple activities to link to KS1 growing things science focus we developed a these materials and the activities below . 

Thanks to Ana Garcia Lavado who drew the pictures and Emilie Woodruffe @EWoodruffe, Barbara and Flora who  provided the target language phrases and Joanne who created the simplest of plant growing songs based on the familiar refrain of Frère Jacques.

Our Learning Objectives 

To understand how a plant grows and the conditions it requires 

To listen and respond to commands in a target language

To practise performing a simple sequence of actions in the target language

To learn a song in the target language 

(As some of our schools have now developed their own vegetable gardens and plots we found real examples from the target  language countries to share with the children .

Here is a project at a school in Limoges , where you can find a chart explaining what they planted and in which month and pictures of the young gardeners planting their vegetable seeds

Limoges ProjetJardinPotager.pdf

The Simple Lesson Activities

The activities below are based on  five simple pictures made in to a story that describes how we grow a plant from seed .Here's a plant pot pictures downloadable zip file 

Here is the   French plant pot story

.......and here are the PDF power point plant pot stories  in the other target languages : 

 French plant pot story

German plant pot story

Mandarin plant pot story

Spanish plant pot story

1. Discuss with the children the conditions required to grow a seed or a plant .

2. Look at crops from the target language country . We selected sunflowers in France, water melons in spain , Kohlrabi in Germany and rice in China. Share with the children pictures of these crops and compare the pictures of real crops with art work linked to the crops :  

And shared with them art work that depicted crops as paintings .Here is a goauche after Rufino Tamayo 

And don't forget the all time favourite Van Gogh's  Sunflowers

3. Read the story power point slides to the children . 

Here is a sound file of the reading of the story in Mandarin Chinese Mandarin plant pot story

Give out the pictures from the plant pot picture zip file to five children and ask the class  to help you to reorganise the pictures into the order that you saw them on the ppt story .Move the children holding the pictures into the correct order and then retell the story a second time . 

4. Order the plant pot pictures on the flip chart in the correct order . Ask the children to help you tell the  story this time .Can they help you to create actions for each story slide .

5 . We then shared with the children the simple song to the refrain of Frère Jacques in the target language .It's made up of the sentences on the power point.  For example in French we sang : 

Plante les graines

Arrose les graine 

Brille soleil brille 

Brille soleil brille 

Regarde comme elles poussent 

Regarde comme elles poussent 

Voilà vos fleurs 

Voilà vos fleurs 

Here's the sound file of the Mandarin version Mandarin plant pot song

We asked the children to stand up and listen and join in with the correct actions .

Then we encouraged the children to practise the song with us and try to sing along and join in with the actions

Finally the children were able to perform the song on their own!

You could go on to link this work with previous blogposts 

Growing sunflower numbers

Springtime ,story , drama and performance

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