The mysterious world of grammar and magnifying glass magic!

Yesterday I introduced a group of colleagues to my magical magnifying glass.It's the simplest of language learning tools but it works so well.It's so easy to make - just a magnifying glass template printed out,with the middle cut out so that you can see through as if the middle was glass, laminated  and cut out into the magnifying glass shape.

Here it is!

Why is it so magical?

Well like so many of us I have always encouraged children to be language detectives ...just like Sherlock  Holmes and what does he carry? Yes a magnifying glass to uhelp your class begin to solve the  great mysteries of grammar and step with excitement in to the world of grammar.

This magnifying glass can allow the children and you as well to step into text and to drill down and find out more magical knowledge about the text you have in front of you!

• You can ask a child to come to the whiteboard and with the magnifying glass identify and hover overnouns in the text,or hover over adjectives in the text or hover over verbs in the text.Can they identify these structures in the text?

• A child can challenge a child- so one child has the magnifying glass and finds one adjective , can another child be challenged to find a second adjective etcetra.

• As a class you can hover over one specific noun and find out more... step deeper in to the magical world of grammar! What might the noun mean? Is it a noun the class already know? Can the children decide from context or similarity to English? Can the class step even deeper in to the noun- what is to the left and right of the noun? Can the children tell you if it is a masculine or feminine noun and what proof can they see to left and right of the noun with the magical magnifying glass to prove this (definite or indefinite article clues/adjectival agreement clues)? Is it singular or plural and what does the evidence to left and right show us? Can the class use bi-lingual dictionaries to explore the noun further and verify their magnifying glass findings?

• Can you capture the verbs in the text with the magical magnifying glass and again dig deeper over each individual verb used,looking for personal pronouns to the left and the spelling at the end of the verb to the right? Can the children use the evidence they find with their magical magnifying glass to change the meaning of the text and  generate the same person and tense with new regular verbs that replace the verbs in the text? I think that you could make some amazing magical and sometimes nonsense but fun texts this way! 

• Can the children use the magnifying glass to hunt the footprints of a specific common verb in the text e.g select a text using several present forms of the verb to have  or to be and then ask the children to create their own verb footprints diagram (literally footprints with the verb written inside the footprints that put the verb in to the correct order in a footprint path)

And there you have it...... the beginnings of a magical language learning and investigating tool to help children step in to the exciting World of grammar in a target language! 

Using drama and grammar to go on an Autumn walk through a French poem

L’automne

L’automne au coin du bois,

Joue de l’harmonica.

Quelle joie chez les feuilles !

Elles valsent au bras

Du vent qui les emporte.

On dit qu’elles sont mortes,

Mais personne n’y croit.

L’automne au coin du bois,

Joue de l’harmonica.

Maurice Carême

This beautiful poem I find is lyrical and there is a hidden thread within the words of the music of Autumn.It's a piece of poetry that we can use in target language learning to explore nouns and the imagery of dance and music to create a magical picture of  Autumn.  

Walk through the nouns

1. Share with the children the fact that you are on an Autumn walk and the wind is blowing and the leaves are blowing around.
2. Ask the children to read through the poem and find the nouns in the poem and write them down on a rough piece of paper (just like they were collecting Autumn leaves)
3. Which nouns in the target language have the children found? How did they do this? What helped them to find the nouns (e.g definite articles or words that looked very similar to english nouns)?
4. Are there any hidden nouns that we need to look ? Use the clues of "du" and "au" to find the hidden nouns.(With more advanced learners explain the use of "du" and "au" and how it has been formed and how it conceals the definite article).
5. Engage the children in an imaginary Autumn walk.Explain that you are going to say each of the nouns they have found in the target language and you want the children to close their eyes and listen to the sound of the words and see a visual image of the word and the object or item or scene it describes
6. Now ask them to create a visual image of their own of each noun- they need to stand up find a space and create a movement and a facial expression to portray the nouns as you say them. Ask the children to repeat this and say the nouns with you and give the nouns "life" like the poet does in the poem.

Step into the Poet's World

Read the poem with the children and ask the children to listen for the key nouns and  “step” into the poem through their physical reactions to the nouns.

• Talk with the children about the types of weather they expect in Autumn. Ask them to help you find the sounds in the text where they can hear the  wind as it blows through the wood?
• Focus now on the use of the noun “l’harmonica”. Discuss with the children the sort of the sound a harmonica makes. If possible access the sound of the harmonica. Can they hear the squeal and sound of the wind as it plays? What type of wind do you think is chasing the leaves in the poem? 
• Look at this key sentence in the poem: “Quelle joie chez les feuilles, elles valsent au bras du vent!”  Explore the magic of the image in this line..........

1. Ask the children in pairs or on their tables to investigate the language they can see in the sentence when they read the sentence. 
2. First they must locate the cognates, the nouns and verb.
3. Then they must look up the key language they are not certain about. 
4. Finally can they create a visual translation of the sentence- a picture, a cartoon or a physical performance? Give the children a time limit of 15 minutes to unpack the sentence, understand the sentence and to create their visual translation. Watch or view some of the visual translations and practise the spoken form of the sentence with the children each time volunteers share their work.

Adding music, dance and movement to the poet's world 

Read in French and then explain to the class the meaning of the sentence : On dit qu’elles sont mortes, Mais personne n’y croit”.Ask the children to help you find the magic that brings the leaves to life in the poem. Allow the children time to realise that the wind is music to the leaves.

Can the children explore the rhythm and the beat of the sentence “Quelle joie chez les feuilles, elles valsent au bras du vent!”  and create the "drum beat of the dancing leaves"?

  Share the world of the poet with others!

I selected this poem because of the magic of the wind and the music and dance themes that run through the poem. The poet wants us to understand that the wind is bringing what appear to be dead leaves to life. Can the children help you to create these visual images and bring the music and the dance to the poem? 

• As a class read the poem and look for repeated lines and words
• Read the poem and stress the repeated lines and words
• Look and listen for the rhyme
• Give all the children the music magic and suggest that they all have imaginary musical instruments. They must help you now to read the poem with stress and intonation that brings the music of the poem to life and add the drum beat of the sentence where the leaves come to life and dance “Quelle joie chez les feuilles, elles valsent au bras du vent!” .
• As a class now re-read and stress the repeated lines ,words and rhythm
• Ask for volunteers to perform the poem as a mime whilst the rest of the class create the music of the poem by reading it aloud with the stress, intonation and rhythm you have already explore.  

Autumn Markets and simple effective links with Maths and Literacy

For many of us in October in our own Primary Schools,it's the season of Harvest festivals, Autumn Fayres and celebrating the produce we have seen growing around us.
What a wonderful opportunity to practise those numbers ,colours, simple transactional language phrases we have introduced in our language learning plus an even better authentic opportunity to explore the fruits and vegetables of a target language country!I was in Germany a week or two ago and spent a very happy morning wandering around the local fruit and vegetable market looking at all the wonderful produce!

Simple ways to incorporate this into language learning

First of all.."What in the World is it?" Why not touch, feel and taste some of these new vegetables and sort them alongside more familiar tasting fruit and vegetables? Create your own  "Taste and Look Like Venn Diagrams" to record the results ....but in the target language of course! 

Number of.....: if you are just practising numbers with the children - when then an obvious activity would be to practise counting up what you can see in a picture or the fruits and vegetables you have brought into class

Number, fruits and vegetables  guesstimations : if the children are practising the names of the new vegetables and already know the name of some common fruits and vegetables ,then why not create guesstimation games where they have to say or write the number of each item they think may be in your "shopping bag" of  fruit and vegetable items.

Guesstimate!  You could guesstimate the weight! Guesstimate the circumference or length! Teach the children the key phrases for measurement and weight( in the target language) and apply the target language to a Maths challenge of guesstimation and compare the guesstimations to actual weight and measurement (circumference or length)

Investigating description: Use prior knowledge of language and the use of bilingual dictionaries to find and use adjectives alongside the names of the items and the verb "to be" to write your own class descriptions of fruit and vegetables,(best after a class food tasting of the produce of course!).Use both familiar and unfamiliar produce.   

Market Stalls Museums : create your own class display of autumn fruits and vegetables but use the target language to label the produce- colour, shape, size and name. Ask the children to create the labels (and you could make these moveable labels for simple individual reading activities so that the children can read and place the labels where they think they fit best) 

Primary Physical Target Language Maths

This week at a local primary school,where the staff are working together to establish a pattern of language learning delivered by the class teacher I wanted to look at some simple Maths activities to help the teachers see how language learning can be both useful and easy to link across the curriculum.

Physical Maths

Last week I was reminded by my colleague Emilie in her

bonjour madame blogpost

 how much the children love "physical maths in the target language".  

This tried and tested activity led to discussion amongst the staff about how this would make a good simple AfL activity both in the target language and listening /responding and also if we then thought about how this could become a Maths pen and paper activity.Here are a few of these very simple and easy to manage ideas..... 

• You could  ask the children to write on their whiteboards the mathematical sentences that they have just watched in the physical target language maths
• You could give out mathematical sentences and ask children to create the physical French/ Spanish/German etc maths performance for other children to then say in the target language  
• You could give out a written French/Spanish /German maths sentences and ask pairs to create the physical performance which then the class need to write on their whiteboards as mathematical sentences and compare against the original card instructions.

Months and Physical Bar Charts

We then went on to consider months of the year as this is part of our

SOW

 next half term Year 3.The teachers were all very comfortable with the idea of physical bar charts and counting up children to see who had a birthday in which month etc. We added a twist - because the months of the year labels were randomly placed around the room and the teachers had to first find their birthday month, reading and recognising their month of the year in French.

Once the teachers had gathered around the correct month, they had to put themselves into calendar order.This meant that each birthday month group  called out its month in French and one volunteer listened and organised the groups into calendar order and then into a bar chart formation.

All they had to do then was count up the number of birthdays in each month and create a written target language record - month and number!

Months,physical bar charts and dates 

With Year 4 onwards I have added a challenge to this physical bar chart in the past. With children who knew numbers 1-31 or with children who can form the date in the target language then the individual month groups can share with each other their birthdays e.g "10 August" and put themselves as a birthday month in to numerical order within their bar chart line!  

This allows you now to  handle data - by asking children to say their birthdate in French/ Spanish and German etc and asking a volunteer to spot the same date but different month - so let's put all the children who have a birthday on the second of a month for example together etc!

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

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

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

Take a topical picture...maybe this one 

Or maybe this one ......

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

Or this one .....

Or humorous like this one

Firstly do the class know who the two people are?

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

Fictional not all fact dialogues 

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

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

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

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

Now they can share their dialogues with another pair !

Fact not fiction flap files.

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

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

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

KS1 Rockets and Colours Firework Song

Today I am working with a school getting ready for next half term French language learning in KS2. the KS1 staff are keen to be involved and as our first focus will be Bonfire night I am going to introduce them to the simplest of songs using colours that they can practise and perform with their KS1 classes!

It allows teachers to practise four colours in the target language with the children: blue,red.orange and yellow 

Each colour is a rocket firework - so we have made them sound like they are zooming off in to the sky . If you are a network member or coming along to DfE CPD then there is a simple sound file too to help - but really it's probably not needed here.

We have used the song "The Farmers in his Den" to fit the French and Spanish words to  a familiar tune 

You could decide to add more too and the children could think of the sounds for these colours too!

You will need coloured rocket cards like these:

• Practise the colours of the rockets with the children, play familiar games like hot and cold hide and seek and detectives in the room- who is hiding the colour.
• Practise the sounds of the colours zooming off in to the sky on Bonfire Night
• Sit the children on the carpet in front of you and play the tune of "The Farmers in his Den" and pass the coloured rocket cards around the children .When the music stops- can the children holding the cards tell you the colour? Start the song again and continue the game.
• Now you are ready to practise the key phrase : les feux d'artifice ( in French) and los fuegos artificiales (in Spanish) and die Feuerwerke (in German). Practise and add clapping for each syllable and the rhythm . 
• Make the clapping and the spoken words sound like pretty fireworks in the sky etc!
• Practise the target language Firework Song below (to the tune of The Farmer's in his Den" with the children and ask them to make the colour repetition sound like fireworks disappearing in to the sky.
• Now your class is ready to perform the song. 
• Ask the children to stand in a circle and give the coloured rocket cards to four children.Can they remember the colours in the target language. As a class sing the song and when the children hear the colour of the firework if they are holding the card they can either pass the card on to the next child and the next child and the next child until the  song moves on or the child holding the card can make the firework rocket move and dart up in to the sky. 
• You may even have a class assembly song and performance here too!

Firework Songs in French and Spanish

French

Les Feux d’artifices

Les Feux d’artifices

Les Feux d’artifices

Rouge, rouge, rouge, rouge!

Les Feux d’artifices

Les Feux d’artifices

Les Feux d’artifices

Bleu, bleu, bleu, bleu!

Les Feux d’artifices

Les Feux d’artifices

Les Feux d’artifices

Vert, vert, vert, vert!

Les Feux d’artifices

Les Feux d’artifices

Les Feux d’artifices

Jaune, jaune, jaune, jaune!

Les Feux d’artifices

Les Feux d’artifices

Les Feux d’artifices

Orange, orange, orange, orange!

Les Feux d’artifices

Spanish

Los Fuegos Artificiales

Los fuegos artificiales

Los fuegos artificiales

İRojo, rojo, rojo , rojo!

Fuegos artificiales

Los fuegos artificiales

Los fuegos artificiales

İAzul  azul azul azul!

Fuegos artificiales

Los fuegos artificiales

Los fuegos artificiales

İVerde, verde, verde, verde!

Fuegos artificiales

Los fuegos artificiales

Los fuegos artificiales

İAmarillo, rillo,rillo!

Fuegos artificiales

Los fuegos artificiales

Los fuegos artificiales

İNaranja, ranja, ranja, ranja!

Fuegos artificiales

German

Die Feuerwerke

Die Feuerwerke

Blau,blau,blau,blau 

~Die Feuerwerke

Die Feuerwerke

Die Feuerwerke

Rot,rot,rot,rot 

die Feuerwerke

Die Feuerwerke

Die Feuerwerke

Gelb,gelb,gelb,gelb

Die Feuerwerke

Die Feuerwerke

Die Feuerwerke

Orange,range,range,range

Die Feuerwerke

Un bon chocolat chaud! A settling and refocusing song at any time of the day!

It's the time of year when the children have settled in to class routines and you may be want to introduce a new class routine technique to settle the children when they come in from play or when they start again in the afternoon after dinner time.

Teachers I have worked with over the last couple of years have enjoyed using this song in French as a settling activity- especially in the Autumn and Winter months when it's cold outside!
Have a listen! 
It's catchy!.There is finger clicking and rhythm and it has the great phrase repeated within the song "un bon chocolat chaud"
Great thing is that hidden in this phrase is a small amount cultural knowledge about drinks we might enjoy in France and discussion around our favourite drinks and similarities and differences between France and England (not forgetting the ability to ask for  " un chocolat chaud"! )

How have the teachers used this song?

Some teachers have staged the introduction of the song and have explained in the first instance that they just want the children to listen to the song which has a special drink hidden in the song . the teacher can then explain that the song is all about going to the cow to get milk to make "un bon chocolat chaud" 

• First to play in the background as the children come back in to the classroom and to just have as background music.
• Then to encourage the children to join in with the clicking time with the rhythm and not to chatter as they sit in their seats or as they come to the carpet or as they line up 
• To add an action for "un bon chocolat chaud" which has as many movements in the action as there are syllables in  the phrase ( a great way to practise the skill of internalising rhythm,sounds and intonation)
• Next to locate the key phrase "un bon chocolat chaud" as it is sung in the song and to join in with the actions you as a class have created.
• To listen out for the phrase in the song and join in with actions and the phrase
• Finally to listen out for the next time it is sung and to continue to join in .

As the children settle - just turn down the volume until it's a quiet background music that can be heard  and all the children can be heard clicking to the rhythm , singing the phrase when they hear it and showing the "un bon chocolat chaud " mime that the class have learnt alongside the phrase.

Beginning with languages blog 2

Across our network we work with schools who are all at different stages of setting up and delivering primary language learning and each year we welcome new schools who want to set off on their own individual school's language learning journey.

This year these specific "Beginning with languages " blogs will try to offer "bite size chunks" of indirect help and support to schools, who are doing exactly that .... just setting off and implementing  a language learning curriculum .In September I wrote Beginning with languages blog 1"

In the first blog there was a checklist for the coordinator or teacher leading out the new primary language teaching as follows:

Sept - Oct (first half term) Checklist

• It's all about establishing a whole school support system for all your staff
• It's about small steps and simple language learning
• It's about children and staff beginning to enjoy language learning

Add a new checklist bullet point!

• So how are you all getting on? How do you know that primary languages are being implemented in all the classes and are the teachers and children having fun in their learning? 

Maybe the suggestions below will help you to see what progress is being made and also encourage the staff to try out creative activities to add a touch of Art , performance, song and fun!

Whole staff engagement and sharing success with parents!

Well it's October now and you will be in to your second month of primary language learning in school and maybe it's time to promote what all of you have been doing in your language learning in a school assembly.Or maybe school has space for a whole school display to celebrate the language learning that has been taking place? 

A whole school sharing and celebration of what you have already achieved !

So why not take the opportunity to link the learning  in the classroom to a common whole school focus before half term?

This half term you have probably been focusing upon greetings, names , feelings and possibly numbers and colours.

Here are some really simple ways that colleagues have created display and activities with their classes with limited language, which you could adopt or adapt! 

A collage map of the target language country by children  in each class for the classroom door- to say we learn about this country and its' language in our class this year!

Hold a "swap the greetings " week. During the week challenge your teachers and their classes to use the correct greeting for the time of day.Maybe the children could greet each other around the school and what about adding a question and answer about how they are feeling to - no matter which child or age group and don't forget the staff too!Put the greetings on display in each classroom and possibly in the corridor too and invite your classes to try to use a different greeting in the morning, in the afternoon and at the end of the day.Here are some French examples

Use puppets to create puppet shows of greetings ,name question and answer and farewell phrases.Great idea for a class or whole school assembly by UKS2 for younger children.

Don't forget some AfL and also an opportunity for the children to reflect what they have already achieved. Maybe there is an opportunity for simple personal reports by older children to take home for parents and carers to share what they have been doing during this first half term of language learning

Linking simple language learning to schools celebrations of Autumn

Try some autumn themed games and activities with the simpler language you have learnt or are practising . Have a read of this Autumn blog about numbers,colours, leaves etc and share some of the ideas with your colleagues.

Set yourselves an end of half term whole school singing challenge!

Why not take up the challenge to have a go at a song in the target language. Listening and practising the words you can hear in the clips we suggest and adding actions and performance too!Learn a whole school song to celebrate Autumn and provide your teachers with an appropriate sound file and clip to help them.

Once you have set a date for a whole school assembly,the classes can practise the song until they can sing along confidently with the clip!

In French........

In Spanish

In German

 Beginning to keep evidence 

Whatever you do don't forget to take some photos and clips so that you can begin to create your own school portfolio of evidence as you go along on this language learning journey, ready to set up a sharing with parents' area on your school VLE etc.

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).

  .

Gute Nacht Gorilla! A brilliant KS2 Year 6 taster story to explore

Well I am in Germany and having a great time looking around for the books we need to support our local schools where they teach German in KS2.

Firstly I wanted a really simple book that has a sophisticated punchline for taster German learners in UKS2 that @JoBeeG73 can use when she goes out from her secondary school to her local primary cluster and Year 6.See her blog for as she shares her German taster sessions over the course of the academic year.

This morning I found it and I love it! (It does exist in English but in German there is so much to unpack and allow young language learners to explore when they have been learning a different foreign language at primary school throughout KS2)
It's called "Gute Nacht Gorilla! "by Peggy Rathmann

Such a simple story but with Year 6 beginners,who have acquired language skills in a different foreign language in KS2 you can continue their skills development and :

• practise simple spoken language :greetings and farewells,
• transfer the skill and look for cognates/semi cognates in a new foreign language: in the jungle animal names between English and German
• transfer the skill and practise key sounds in German for example (Nacht /Löwe/Hyäne etcetra)
• transfer the skill and practise using a German- English bi-lingual dictionary and change the animals and practise the pronunciation
• continue to be grammar explorers and look at the use of capital letters at the start of all nouns
• allow the children to share and create with you simple recall games,based on games they have enjoyed in their previous target language learning in KS2
• practise pronunciation,intonation and memory skills and create your own memorable and humorous spoken performances of the simple story (perhaps to share with a younger year group)  
• create a written record as a cartoon strip and allow independence so that the children can add their own animals or change the greetings or the visual  punchline
• take a cultural tour of zoos in Germany and compare the animals with those we see in zoos here in England 

And so it's over to you now Jo! I loo forward to reading your blog reports!

KS2 to KS3 language learning.Beginning to make sense of the many windows on this World

To be able to look for practical ways forward in how we build and disseminate the possible constructive and effective links between primary and secondary languages is both an exciting and also challenging opportunity.   

I love this picture below.It makes such a statement!It tells me about building blocks and layers and colour and diversity and different shapes and sizes all coming together and all having windows on the world.I think this translates well as a a visual depiction of how we are trying to bring KS2 and KS3 together as windows of opportunity on the world of language learning

"Aren't there many windows on the same language learning World!"

As I write,I am in Germany- getting the "language buzz".Why? Well, German is my foreign language and I love the language with a passion.It's the reason that I continue to speak French and that I can try to access Spanish and generally love languages.It wasn't the first foreign language I learnt, but all those skills I continued to practise in French were so much more easily accessible when I was learning German.I  relaxed in to the second foreign language and my learning was accelerated.

Even now at 52,I am still learning the skills of communication and still enjoy puzzling out the structure of language.When you are in the actual country you are reminded how you don't always have to be absolutely accurate to be understood,how you can rephrase or say something again,how it's okay to make a mistake,how there are always new words or phrases to take on board and first and foremost how very important it is that you feel confident when communicating.

This year as part of our DfE funded Warrington Teaching Schools Alliance project I have the great opportunity to work with Jo Gierl. Jo has been a HOD in one of our local high schools for several years and now teaches German and French from KS3 to KS5.She has two young bi-lingual children and already on a personal level see the bigger picture of the value of language learning from an early age. 

We are very fortunate that Jo now works as an associate primary languages teacher within our network too - one afternoon a week in KS2.
Jo's first challenge was to start a blog diary of her observations this academic year(2104-2015) as she explores the language world of KS1 and KS2 and also as she disseminates her findings to her own department and then meets and shares with other local HODs and their colleagues..Jo's blog already has me hooked From Primary to Secondary.

What is so very real and refreshing about her observations are that she is looking at primary language learning as it really is happening - not on special occasions but  as it is really happening and planned for on that day in the week she visits the schools.Jo is able to look at the learning she has read about and heard me speak about for herself . She is seeing the different approaches to the same big picture in 3D....

To help Jo when she works with her KS3 colleagues it will be important that she can share concrete examples. so over the last couple of weeks Jo has observed French,Spanish and German primary language learning here in Warrington.
Here are some of Jo's observations so far that are beginning to colour in the bigger picture for her of what language skills Year 6 children can already use or are developing.

Two weeks ago she observed @joanne_hornby delivering Spanish in a local primary school. 

"Pupils knew how to use the bi-lingual dictionary, a skill we teach in Year 7 as many children have never come across them in previous years. 
Cross-curricular links and further dictionary skills were made via Roald Dahl’s book titles in Spanish and the children had to recognise words and use the dictionaries to find out the English book titles. Pictures of the Spanish books were shown and the children were commenting on how front covers differed in Spanish compared with their English counterparts."

The following day,she observed @EWoodruffe as she taught primary French.I love the fact that watching KS1 was a revelation to Jo in this blog but here are some very specific comments about what she saw in Year 6.

" This was a full-on lesson…their previous knowledge ensured a prompt start to greetings and general conversational questions. A physical warm up conducted in French, demonstrated by Emilie ensured they were all up and participating, followed by a game of tennis, whereby the questions were batted out and a speedy whole class response was expected in return! When it came to the introduction of school subjects, they knew of cognates, pronunciation rules, grammatical terminology and ways to decipher meanings".

This week Jo has observed German with our very own Barbara Foerster:

"They were asked to match likes and dislike questions with their answers and most pupils were aware of looking for correlating words and patterns in the language. Connectives “und” and “aber” were slipped in and pupils were extending sentences within minutes. Negation was looked at “nicht” and “keine” readily identified by pupils. My partner had a super accent, mimicking that of Barbara and was so confident speaking to me in German"

Jo is beginning to see the bigger picture.She has identified in the snippets of her observations that I have copied and pasted above -taken from her blogposts -that the Year 6 children,who we would describe as "moving on " learners(not beginners) have developed skills that can not be ignored in secondary language learning.

Our big challenge this year is to see how we can take the diverse and language rich learning of KS2 languages and support KS3. Jo and I hope to explore and look for the "real" links between KS2 and KS3 language learning in our own local settings and then to share our observations and  potential ways forward.
Yes we will need to ask children to learn the same or a different language at the start of KS3, but we need to plan for ways forward that mean children will be able to return to another coloured seat -if they have changed languages or select a completely new seat and try a new language challenge.The option to explore other languages too and move to the other coloured seats successfully needs to become the success story of KS3!  

Take a simple authentic rhyme and explore language learning skills

On Thursday this week I will be looking at how one simple resource can support the introduction, practise and revisiting of many language learning skills . We will consider how progression can be built in to primary language  learning very simply and we will look for links with literacy and/or across the primary curriculum.

For teachers, just setting off on the road to delivering effective primary language learning or supporting staff to do so, the activities will hopefully act as  sign posts to help the school plan sequences of meaningful and purposeful language learning activities.

Schools, where staff have limited target language skills can plan to use authentic texts which have been carefully selected because they are  not too challenging for the non-specialist.We find that such texts should repetitive language,clear sound support files if possible,introduce key language and words and not be too "wordy".

Above is the authentic and familiar rhyme "tengo dos manitas" , sung clearly with the words appearing on the screen in the clip.The clip is repetitive and uses simple language.There are obvious actions to the text. 

Word warm up 

Practise the key language from the text preferably with actions/ movements or a physical routine .

Here we have core body parts' language (manitas/ojos/nariz/boquita)

and two key actions (aplaudir and sonreir)

Add a fun, memorable element immediately.

Ask the children can they smile / clap using the body parts in the rhyme

e.g. Pueden sonreir con los ojos/la nariz/la boquita/las manitas

       Pueden aplaudir con los ojos/la nariz/la boquita/ la manitas

Get to know the rhyme and make it your own!

• Practise the rhyme- as this rhyme has a clip to accompany it , when you feel the class are comfortable , turn down the sound and ask the children to be the sound file to the clip!
• Add actions and focus on rhythm.
• Practise in pairs with the words and the actions
• Practise in fours and make the rhyme "your own". Each group can decide how they want to say and perform the rhyme
• Performance time- one group of four performs for a second group
• As a class perform the rhyme and as this rhyme repeats the verse over and again let one group lead the whole class each time - sharing their own special version and actions etc.

Class warm up song or recall song

Now you have a rhyme to say , sing or perform at the start of a language lesson over the next couple of weeks or to use to recall children and bring them back together after another activity.

Take another look!

Languages are not always about racing on.Learning some language and then moving to the next goal doesn't make confident young language explorers in my opinion.

Let the class enjoy the rhyme and actions and then plan to return to the rhyme and activate memory to use the rhyme to explore languages further.  

Missing words or Volume control games 

Come back to the rhyme or song at a later date and this time ask the children to miss words out or to observe you as you operate a pretend volume control ,so that there are times when the children whisper or don't even say the words but do the actions instead.

Rhythm raps 

Can the children help you to create a new version of the rhyme - a rap - made up of the beats and cadence of the rhyme- no words just the beat and rhythm of the text?

Go sound fishing!

Identify the key sounds in the song or rhyme for example here I would identify:

j/o/qui/re/ir/au/iz

Can the class work in pairs and say the rhyme to each other and spot these key sounds as they say the words?

Can they decide in which order the sounds are heard and how often?

Can they spot the key sounds in the written words displayed by you at the front of the classroom.

Bringing the written word together!

Using their knowledge of the rhyme and their visual knowledge of key words can the children reconstruct the written text ,putting the text back together from word cards.