Exploring sentence structure in primary languages grammar.How are we getting on?

We have been considering ways to support all our colleagues to deliver appropriate primary target languages grammar as part of the language learning in school.This fourth  round up blog focuses on sentences structure: nouns ,adjectives and  commonly used verbs. 

We want our teachers to be confident enough to share with children clearly and successfully how to use some verbs in the target language.Remember we stage the learning of verbs across four years of KS2 ...so the activities below represent work with different stages of learner and year groups. 


Teacher's guide to the ways  to a step by step developmental understanding of nouns,verbs and adjectives from the perspective of a young child in primary school.


We like to encourage the children to look at texts carefully and become independent language detectives!The magical magnifying glass allows us to ask children to find key language ... and the magnifying glass allows us to search a sentence for the clues we are looking for.



Here is a novel and useful language learning tool that can be used as a device over and over again to explore sentences- putting parts of sentences back together, categorising parts of sentences etc.It can be used with beginners,children who are moving on to the more advanced learners. The device could be an independent activity left in the quiet order for children to use or complete independent grammar tasks during the week etc.




Creating simple descriptive sentences using a  noun, a verb and an adjective in this instance to create  jungle animals for our display back drop.
The activity is transferable to  other contexts and content.




First steps to independent writing ,taking notice of punctuation in the target language.An activity that can then be developed to text based mind the gap writing for dialogues and more detailed text with moving on and advanced language learners.






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 .



A calligram activity to help us fill our suitcase with useful Summer holiday clothes sentences.
A creative writing  activity that can be transferred to other contexts and content and can be used with different expectations of sentence structure outcomes 


a device to track the progress children are making in their ability to write descriptions about themselves and to ask questions- linked to a specific theme .In this case we are collecting leaves as it's based around an Autumn time theme.




This is a great activity using familiar language, drama and grammar for children who are “moving on” in their language learning. It reinforces the literacy work that schools are engaging their children with to understand the grammar of a sentence and the construction of a sentences  . It’s an activity that demands correct pronunciation and intonation of the target language and asks the children to not just decode but also understand the message they read and to demonstrate this through performance! It’s also great fun!




This idea can be used across a wide range of language and contexts but it really made me think about how we can help children to improve their target language with physical prompts.
We were focusing upon nouns ( and definite articles) simple present tense common verbs ( in this instance "to be" ) and adjectives ( colours in this case) and how they need to agree with the nouns they describe in French and Spanish.




Can the children identify the verb, the noun  and the adjective in a song or rhyme?Can they now add their own new nouns ,adjectives ans verbs applying the grammatical rules odf the target language?




Writing sentences using bilingual dictionaries to create a sparkling description of a crown or an object(as activity is transferable to other contexts) Activity on three levels :beginners ,moving on. advanced 





Ways to support children to develop their own independent reading  and writing skills at word and sentence level.




What a marvellous starting point to develop creative writing with young language learners, who have a developing understanding of the simple structure and rules of a target language sentence!




Why not create a class book shop window "display" of target language book covers - one book cover for each month of the year with learners who are moving on.Take a look at nouns, verbs , adjectival agreement and the superlative.Take learning walk along the sentence.Using our magical magnifying glasses, we can analyse the text on the book cover





A creative way to read carefully and show understanding of words,phrases and write our own dialogues 



We can work toward creating with our young advanced  language learners a drama and grammar sequence of activities using nouns, adjectives, adverbs and creating spoken, performed  and written similes!
At the end of the sequence of activities the challenge is to create a "spoken simile silhouette poem" based on a specific groups of adjectives or adverbs. 















Verbs and Primary Languages Grammar. How are we getting on?

We have been considering ways to support all our colleagues to deliver appropriate primary target languages grammar as part of the language learning in school.This third  round up blog focuses on commonly used verbs in the present tense.

We want our teachers to be confident enough to share with children clearly and successfully how to use some verbs in the target language.Remember we stage the learning of verbs across four years of KS2 ...so the activities below represent work with different stages of learner and year groups. 


Teacher's guide to the ways  to a step by step developmental understanding of nouns,verbs and adjectives from the perspective of a young child in primary school.


Using a familiar technique of Maths' functions machines to enable children to keep a re-usable record of the processes they need to apply to access and use grammatical structures



We like to encourage the children to look at texts carefully and become independent language detectives!The magical magnifying glass allows us to ask children to find key language ... so here we could be searching for 
verbs in a text for example. 




Bring Art to life !Practise verbal phrases with beginner learners.I use these  activities mid way/ toward the end of the first year of target language learning .The children are confidently recalling and  saying verbal phrases and personal information sentences about themselves which all contain verbs in the present tense



I like to revisit the same picture with the children as they progress in their language learning and confidence . They can see how much more they are capable of achieving and also we are building a soap opera based on the characters we are getting to know in the picture 


Hot Seating! questions and answers leading to a third person singular description of the character of some of the people the children have explored in the famous  painting.


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 !



Exploring the present tense of the verb "to have" and creating our own potion.Easily transferable activity to another character e.g. "the Christmas fairy on the tree " etc.




How to create different questions to ask someone else a question using the second person singular of the present tense verb 




Physical and expressive ways to explore and internalise the meanings and use of the personal pronouns we require when working with verbs.



Scroll to the bottom of this blog and see how we can create a ssequence of activities where the children programme each other as robots , using the imperative of the present tense verb( commands)





Creating your own Easter movie based in a simple famous rhyme and practising the use of regular "er" verbs in the third person plural.Great with children who are just moving on to become more independent and able to use bi-lingual dictionaries to find the target language infinitives of verbs 




Investigating verbs, exploring meaning and reconstructing text .












Adjectives and Primary Languages Grammar.How are we getting on?

We have been considering ways to support all our colleagues to deliver appropriate primary target languages grammar as part of the language learning in school.This second round up blog focuses on adjectives.

We want our teachers to be confident enough to share with children clearly and successfully how to use adjectives in the target language -just like Ruth is doing here at CPD using her jungle animal shape sentences (see below)!


So how are we going about this? Below are some simple approaches that we are using to integrate the use of adjectives in to our language learning from Year 3 to Year 6.


Teacher's guide to the ways  to a step by step developmental understanding of nouns,verbs and adjectives from the perspective of a young child in primary school.


Using a familiar technique of Maths' functions machines to enable children to keep a re-usable record of the processes they need to apply to access and use grammatical structures.




We like to encourage the children to look at texts carefully and become independent language detectives!The magical magnifying glass allows us to ask children to find key language ... so here we could be searching for adjectives in a text for example. 




All the activities below can be transferred to new contexts and content!



Simple games to begin with based upon listening and responding,pronouncing accurately and saying out loud, reading and writing adjectives.The activities here are based on colours,but could be transferred to other adjectives too.



Creating simple descriptive sentences using a  noun, a verb and an adjective to create the shape of an object.Here we are focusing on jungle animals with Year 4 children.




A game we call "fisherman's trawl". Working as a team to recall and remember ,to read, locate and find  adjectives.



In this instance the game is based around Rudoph the Red Nosed Reindeer .The idea behind the game is transferable can be used with lots of characters and items of clothes or hair/eye/ colours etc.




Ways to explore the agreement of adjectives with the person we are describing in the target language. Activities for our more advanced young learners. 



An opportunity with more advanced learners to put together their knowledge of nouns and adjectives and create their own imaginative and descriptive sentences. 









Nouns and Primary Languages Grammar. How are we getting on?

We have been considering ways to support all our colleagues to deliver appropriate primary target languages grammar as part of the language learning in school.This first round up blog focuses on nouns.
Here are some of the ways we have done this......

Teacher's guide to the ways  to a step by step developmental understanding of nouns,verbs and adjectives from the perspective of a young child in primary school.

Using a familiar technique of Maths' functions machines to enable children to keep a re-usable record of the processes they need to apply to access and use grammatical structures.



Ways to help teachers to present nouns and the use of gender and definite/indefinite articles with young children who are just beginning to investigate the structure of language



Several ways to help  beginner learners engage with the importance of collecting and identifying nouns in the target language 




A game that can be used over and over again to help children who are moving on in their language learning .Children use  bilingual dictionaries to explore nouns.



Games and categorising activities to bring together knowledge of nouns as the children advance as young language learners. 



A group activity based on the use of nouns.Each group has the same nouns to investigate and use .The challenge is that the children need to create interesting sentences and performances so just like sculptors they create meaningful and creative spoken sculptures.This will help children to link nouns to adjectives and verbs

















Last week before Christmas simple language learning activities

For the week before Christmas ......here are some language learning activities that are easy to create and simple to use.


Stars,colours, numbers and a link to Van Gogh "Starry Night"




A target language song in French and Spanish to a familiar refrain to sing in the round,with a listening,speaking and reading element to the activity.



Using the song above,but breaking it down in to the sounds and letter combinations to create a listen, respond and reconstruct activity, based upon the theme of  "bell ringing"






"Knock! knock!Who's there?" activity/game with Rudolph pictures and a focus on the use of colours with ,masculine and feminine nouns. 



Using the simple open and reveal game to create "open and reveal "Christmas presents.
Take a look on this page too ,for the Christmas style open and reveal game 



One resource and three levels of Christmas character question and answer dialogues and conversations.












Language Learning For Everyone:First Term's Report



It's been quite a term with our new project "Language Learning for Everyone"!
A successful, enjoyable and very busy term!



Thanks to all who have contributed and supported the project so far - here is a review of what we have achieved - as a partnership between WTSA and JLN - bringing together colleagues from our local North West area and helping to develop primary languages and Y6-Y7  links with high school modern foreign language departments.

During the term we have trained over 300 delegates from 152 schools across the North West Area.

September

In early September we held  our first leadership planning meeting for the WTSA /JLN. We were very clear that this project had to be very much "language learning for everyone" and  we had to make sure there was CPD to suit different needs and stages of language teaching and learning:CPD and support for the class teacher,the TA, the language specialist, the non-specialist, the coordinator, SLT, KS3 colleagues and local initial teacher trainees.....

Our project is very much teacher led with active primary practitioners taking more and more of a leading role as  the project progresses.
So our first step had to be to make sure that we up-skilled and shared good practice and made sure that we were confident and ready to lead or part-lead CPD.
We held our first training and sharing good practice day in early September too


  • We spent time considering and reflecting upon the teaching and learning of primary languages alongside the new DfE POS.
  • We considered in detail the role of the coordinator and our roles and responsibilities within this team of trainers to support individual schools. 
  • Then we were ready for a new year of primary languages teaching and learning and we were excited about being able to share our experiences with colleagues through teacher led CPD! 
You can meet the team here 
  • WTSA held a launch of the project "Language Learning for Everyone" breakfast briefing where delegates who attended  found out more about the project, how to access support and they were able to sample types of CPD we intend to offer.
  • WTSA contacted 700 schools across the target area and invited them to participate in the two year project 
  • Primary schools were invited to complete a questionnaire (5 minutes on Survey Monkey) so that CPD can be tailored to schools and individual teacher needs.You can access the questionnaire here

October to December Local Network Meetings

We have held eight local network meetings across the local target area in  Wigan, Warrington, Knowsley, St Helens, Halton,West Cheshire and Mid /East Cheshire.The meetings have been hosted by wonderful schools and staff and we have met teachers across the region.
We have really enjoyed meeting all the teachers who are keen to re-establish links or learn more about how to implement primary languages or become part of a supportive group .

Our first LNM was at Rainford CE in St Helens. Thanks to Steph Stewart at Rainford CE for helping to get the local network meetings rolling!




  • At each meeting there has been time to get to know each other and discuss local challenges with primary language teaching and learning.
  • We have established a pattern of considering specific elements of the requirements of the new DfE POS


  • We spend time to explore learning activities that can provide quality teaching and learning activities linked to objectives from the new DfE POS. 
  • Teachers have  the opportunity to engage with a range of resources ,activities  and native speaker  provided sound files for different stages of language learners.
"Super ideas to take back to the classroom and to use with both key stages!"
"Great to see there's support out there for beginning of the language journey,to spread this throughout a team of teachers!"
Brilliant ideas and clearly delivered!Great to go through the DfE document.Really good to establish a local network."
  • The activities so far have been based on "Fantastic Fireworks" and "Christmas and all that Jazz".We have taken care to share ideas that allow for progression in language learning and that can be easily used by all colleagues.Ideas and activities are downloadable and some of the activities can also be accessed on the Primary Language Learning Today blog for example: 

All our resources and materials are being collated and shared here and will be accessible throughout the whole project on this training resources' page.

Teacher led CPD 
As the networks grow we are finding new colleagues to work alongside us to support the training and CPD of teachers .
Here is Jo Hilton at Kingsmead CP, now working with us as a network coordinator for Mid Cheshire.Jo was sharing some ideas based on triaramas and Italian language learning.


The local network coordinators are now establishing their networks:

St Helens: Claire Deprez
Mid Cheshire: Jo Hilton 
Halton: Jayne Dewsnip
Knowsley:  Emilie Woodruffe 
West Cheshire: Rob Hughes 
Wigan/Bolton: Catherine Simms and Joanne Hornby
Warrington: Janet Lloyd

The dates of LNMs can be accessed here in the left hand menu bar

Language Upskilling
We have held three Beginners French CPD sessions and one Beginners Spanish CPD session and an Intermediate French CPD session.

All the sessions are delivered currently by Janet Lloyd and either Emilie Woodruffe or Ana Garcia. Having native speakers working alongside a trainer really helps delegates build their own confidence.Here is the reaction from one delegate at Beginners Spanish:


"Lovely to speak with native speaker .Ana!"  




Next term Emilie will run the Beginners French as the trainer and Barbara Foerster and Janet Lloyd will offer twilight German beginners CPD. So next term we will be offering French,Spanish and German CPD!

The comments in the evaluations of CPD show us that the sessions are helping teachers to have a better understanding of the language  and we are pleased  to see that the teachers have chosen the relevant training for their own ability in the language.


"Exactly what I needed, looking forward to Intermediate up-skilling in December. Will be recommending training to colleagues. Many thanks"

"Enjoyed interactive activities / games / songs that can be applied in the classroom, good to be able to ask questions to French speakers, good to see how to access materials"

"Fabulous, great reinforcement of key elements of Year 3 SOW. Very enjoyable afternoon session. Thanks"

"Beginning to feel a bit less overwhelming - thank you, excellent"

"Fabulous - really practical ideas, loved hearing pronunciations (authentic), super resources"

"Wonderful - useful language & pronunciation. Lots of ideas to engage children"



We start our Beginners French and Spanish with greetings,numbers and colours and finish our beginners session with a look at nouns.
Here is a sample activity

We start our Intermediate French with question and answer forms and then move on to a more focused look at nouns,adjectives and some commonly used verbs.

"Much improved understanding of grammar! Merci!"
"CPD delivered in a super informative and enjoyable way!"
"Excellent ideas for teaching grammar"
"Nice to know I am doing the right things!"
"Very helpful and makes an area that can be quite scary more accessible and exciting!"
"Really informative,great lesson ideas,broken down into manageable chunks. "

Here are some sample activities 
Rudolph and your nose so bright


For all the language up-skilling delegates we have set up pinterest boards so that everyone can access additional materials and support.These boards will be added to as the two year project progresses. All you need to do is go to the home page of JLN and click on the pinterest link and select the correct board: Beginners French/ Beginners Spanish and Intermediate French. 

The courses mentioned above plus intermediate Spanish and a German twilight CPD are scheduled again next term and you can find out more here. Hope you can join us!

Pedagogy and the new DfE POS for languages

This term there have been two "Fit for Purpose" twilights in Warrington and in Nantwich, both well attended.The aims of the sessions are to support coordinators  and high school colleagues working with KS2 to consider the strategic planning in school to meet the requirements of the new POS and to ensure sustainable language learning in place in school.What is really pleasing,is to be able to train KS2 and KS3 colleagues together.


"super insight into POS and assessment"

"Just what I needed to consider next steps"
Very useful and online resources will be very helpful to guide me 
in direction for language learning"
"Really informative.Lots of ideas to help enhance MFL in school."


Now we are ready for next term and our "progression" CPD,looking at building progress across KS2 and into KS3 to help schools ensure that they can "lay the foundations" that KS3 "can build upon".

Looking at the foundations we are building in KS2 and supporting KS3 to be able to build sustainable and effective links in Year 7.
The project has allowed us to work alongside Penketh High School to investigate how we can develop shared language learning tools that benefit Y7 KS3 language learning.

A wonderful secondary colleague Jo Gierl,ex HOD  at the school,now works with us one afternoon a week in KS2 teaching Y6 French and is working with Janet Lloyd to investigate positive ways forward with KS2 - KS3 language learning.

Jo is writing a blog of her experiences.This term she has reflected upon her own skills as a KS2- KS3 teacher. She has observed and considered three primary language lessons French, German and Spanish in local schools. She has met and discussed challenges and issues with local HODs and has begun a blog on her investigations. Her blog is called MFL: From Primary to Secondary bridging the Gap.She will be drawing upon her growing knowledge and experience and the work she has completed this term to support KS3 colleagues to consider ways to bridge any gaps between KS2 and KS3. The first KS3 twilight will be on 10 February at Penketh High School.This will be the first twilight seminar for KS3 colleagues to share their current position with regard to KS2 - KS3 language learning challenges. 


Bridging the Gap Joint CPD Sessions 

During the course of the project we will host "Bridging the Gap" CPD sessions where we hope to bring together primary and secondary colleagues to look at the ways to "bridge that gap"!

We held our first twilight bridging the gap session in December - thanks to Joe Dale and his CPD on "Using APPS and technology in MFL. We shared Joe's notes and APP links here 



55 colleagues attended the CPD from primary ,secondary and ITT and we set the ball rolling for cluster contact and CPD using APPs and technology in language learning.


This blog post APPS and achievable links between KS2 and KS3 language learning will hopefully allow colleagues to begin to explore ways forward.



"Great training that was useful and applicable in our schools"
"A useful insight into using APPs as part of an assessment tool within Primary MFL.Will certainly be incorporating them into lessons"
"Excellent ideas for APPs and ideas to link with the local high school" 


Quite a first term! Once again thank you to everyone who has been involved, attended, showed positive interest and hopefully enjoyed building new links!  


It all starts again in Spring Term 2015, we look forward to meeting you  and working with everyone!
  











Aspects of winter in French poems and flights of the imagination

It's getting cold outside and I am certain that when we come back to school after Christmas we will be talking with the children about wintry weather, wrapping up warm and maybe even building snowmen.

Today I found this poem on this web page www.mespetitsbonheurs.com and thought that this would make a great poem to use in UKS2 and Y7. 




Les glaçons

Les glaçons qui pendent du toit


Dis-moi, c'est de la glace à quoi ?

Elle n'a pas de couleur,

Elle n'a pas de goût,

Elle n'a pas d'odeur,
Elle n'a rien du tout !
Alors, c'est de la glace à quoi,
Les glaçons qui pendent du toit ?


Corinne Albaut

  • What attracted me to the poem was the idea of icicles hanging from the roof of a house and the questions it caused the poet to ask about what is ice ......
  • I like the way the poet makes statements that ask questions but he/she doesn't give answers and suggests that the readers can make up their own answers.
  • I like the way we can use the text to look at the negative form of the verb and there is potential to investigate the use of more descriptive verbs to replace "avoir"

Let's focus on colour,scent and taste of the icicles in the poem.
We will focus our imaginations on these three negative verbal sentences in the poem:


Elle n'a pas de couleur,
Elle n'a pas de goût,
Elle n'a pas d'odeur,

  1. Read the poem with the children and locate the negative forms of the verb "elle n'a pas".Can they see the cognates and semi cognates used as nouns? (couleurs/odeur)? What do they think "goût" might mean? 
  2. Now let's investigate ice.Using ice cubes is the poet correct? If we look closely can see any colour in them?Is there any scent to them? What do the ice cubes taste of? 
  3. Now ask them to help you to create a magical Winter Wonderland scene( you can link this to Frozen the film for example, Narnia or the original story of the Snow Queen ).Ask the children to create magical icicles.......
  4. Give out paper icicle shapes and ask the children working on their tables to write their ideas on their icicle shapes and create magical winter wonderland icicles

  • icicles made up of magical colours,
  • icicles containing magical scents  
  • icicles with tastes and flavours. 
(You will need to remind children of how we linked scents and taste to work on ice cream flavours for example)

Now the children can recreate the poem and with your help can change the three negative statements which use avoir to positive statements e.g "elle n'a pas de couleur" becomes "elle a de couleur"
They can now add the information about their own magical icicles to make their magical winter wonderland poems following the writing template below:

Les glaçons qui pendent du toit


Dis-moi, c'est de la glace à quoi ?

Elle a de couleur,
.............................................
Elle a de goût,
.............................................

Elle a d'odeur,
................................................


Les glaçons qui pendent du toit ?

You now have your poems and your icicles for a magical Winter wonderland display or story book.



Jewels in the Crown .Adjectives and sentence writiing

With all our children across KS2 we are introducing them to and reinforcing their use of adjectives.
Making crowns for Epiphany is a great way to remind the children about adjectives and to ask them to use bi-lingual dictionaries to source new adjectives.




  • Show the children a picture of the three Kings and look at the crowns they are wearing
  • Give out crown templates to the children.
  • Talk about the jewels in a crown and how they make the crown special and give the crown a character all of its own. 
  • Ask the children to think about adjectives and how they make objects more interesting or give more detail to an object.
  • Give each child a crown template
  • Make sure there is access to bilingual dictionaries on the tables
  • Ask the children to add "jewels" ( adjectives) to their simple crowns that are befitting of a King's crown - below I have explained how this can be an activity for beginners, moving on learners and advanced learners.

Beginners
We have taught our beginner learners some colours - so let's ask the to recall three colours they like the sound of in the target language and fill three big jewels with the letters of the colour word over and over again - written in the correct colour of course.
Ask the children to find three new colours  that they want to create three new jewels from and to make three new jewels on their crowns.
Can they create a written band of the colours at the bottom of their crowns - with the colours written clearly in the target language?



Moving On
With children who can now write simple sentences - noun  verb adjective, let's ask these children to think of their three favourite  colours and fill three big jewels with the letters of the colour word over and over again - written in the correct colour of course.
Ask the children to find three new colours  that they want to create three new jewels from and to make three new jewels on their crowns.
Can they create a written sentence description as their crown band at the bottom of their crown? 
Encourage the children to think about the spelling of the colour because of the gender of the noun - in French it's la couronne, so the children must write for example:

la couronne est bleue,jaune, verte ...........

Now we can have a crown parade - with the children showing their crowns and saying their own specially written descriptive crown colour sentences -in the voices perhaps of majestic Kings and Queens .

Advanced learners
  1. Remind the children that adjectives describe objects and brainstorm with them the types of adjectives we may lie to use to describe a magnificent crown.
  2. Ask the children to  list in English on their whiteboards 6 interesting descriptive adjectives they want to use for their own crown .
  3. Ask them to look up these words in a bilingual dictionary and to practise reading aloud the adjectives.
  4. Bring the class back together and ask children to share their adjectives with the class and their meaning.Write these on the flip chart.
  5. Discuss with the children how you would say the words on the flip chart .Use our Look!Think!Link and read! prompt to help them
  6. Discuss with the children how the endings of the adjectives will have to change because of the gender of the noun "crown " in the target language.In Spanish for example it's la corona 
  7. ask the children to select three adjectives from your list on the whiteboard and become jewel designers
  8. Ask the children to create jewels as caligrams in a shape and a colour they think depicts the adjectives they have chosen - on rough paper 
  9. Talk about the position of adjectives in sentences using nouns
  10. Now can they transfer these to their crown templates and as a band at the bottom of their crowns write a statement that says for example in Spanish or in French:
"Me gusteria una corona blanca,grande y .........."
"Je voudrais une grande couronne blanche et ......."

Now you have the perfect crown jewel display and even a class vote on the best crowns of the day!
 










Pass the galette or the roscon de reyes

We will be celebrating Epiphany and the customs and traditions of the target language countries at the start of the New Year.


Let's play "Pass the galette" or "Pass the roscon de reyes"



We can revisit familiar language and remind children of the sound letter combination links in the target language you are learning in school whilst celebrating the culture.


It's a really easy game that involves the children working in teams and they have loved it when I have played this before.

  • You need two circles of card. One circle is made of white card and the second card circle is made up of at least 12 different colours.
  • Cut the second card circle into 12 slices (each a different colour)



  • On the reverse of five of the pieces of coloured card, glue a picture of one of the three Kings.
  • On the other side of each piece of coloured card from your cake,add sound- letter combinations from words that you know you have practised and used during last term in the target language with the chilren(e.g sound- letter combinations from numbers/colours/months/days/shops/subjects etc)



  • Blu-tac each of your card pieces in the shape of a circle back on to your white card circle with the Kings hidden on the underside and randomly placed in the circle.
  • All the sound - letter combination clues should be visible to the children
And now to play the game 


  • Show the children a real picture of a galette or a roscon de reyes or even better share a real cake with them !
  • Explain that normally the children take a piece and hope to be the child who finds the special counter to become King for the day.
  • Show the children a picture of the three Kings 
  • Split the class into teams of six.Explain that they are now King seekers
  • The team that wins the most Kings (up to a maximum of three Kings) will be the winning King team for the day.Remind the children the object of the game is to win the pictures of the three Kings hidden on the underside of  the pieces of your card cake  
  • Each team must ask politely for a piece of your cake.They must ask for the colour of the piece of cake they want and then the team must look at the sound -letter combination and think of a word they know in the target language that has the letter combination they can see written  on their piece of cake.
  • Ask a member of the team to say the word out loud and to try to write it up on the white board
  • Does the class agree that this word has the sound- letter combination in it ?
  • If they are correct they win that piece of cake and can turn it over .If it has a King on the back then they have won one of their three Kings and can keep the piece of card.
  • If it does not have a King pop it back in your cake circle 
  • Now it's the turn of another team
  • The game ends when one team  has collected three Kings 
  • At the end of the game if there is no clear winning team then which team has the most Kings?
You can play this game multiple times and also with children at different stages of language learning with different clue types on your pieces of cake..It's great fun and allows the children to revisit familiar language and make those all important sound- letter links in the target language. 





Starting to understand nouns

Emilie,Ana and I have been busy this term supporting colleagues to develop their own personal language learning skills and we have delivered several CPD sessions of beginners and intermediate French and Spanish. 

Here are some simple notes on nouns - once we have talked through these notes our colleagues relax and realise that nouns do not need to be an insurmountable obstacle.We hear colleagues say "the minute I found out there was more than one word for "the" I couldn't do languages any more" or they say " what's with this boy and girl thing with nouns?"

We have been asking the teachers to realise that nouns in French and Spanish  have "tags" .
Emilie explains how she is teaching her own little boy French and always introduces new nouns with a tag (un cochon/la tante) never a noun alone!Ana agrees with this when teaching her little boy Spanish too.

  • We make sure that the teachers can see that words "masculine" and "feminine" do not mean " male and "female
  • We ask them to consider that masculine and feminine are special tags of magic keys 
  • We ask them to visualise pulling nouns out of  "masculine" /"feminine"  tag labelled drawers.
  • The idea of physically opening the drawer and being able to select a noun, take it out and use it seems to work well.
  • Teachers also like the idea of the tag being a "magic key" or a "function button" on a virtual drawer.It works.
  • If we think of nouns collected in drawers as above or treasure chests or butterfly nets  we can quite easily  get the teachers to see the link then between the  le/un  or la/une in French and el/un and la/una in Spanish.
  • Plural words for "the" which we then explain are collectively called definite articles then don't phase them as they can open these imaginary drawers and have a look in and see the plural definite article inside the drawer. Easy in French as the word is always "les" and now no longer challenging in Spanish because in the virtual "la " drawer there is only "las "  that they can see and use for"the"  with a plural word and there is only "los" in the "el" drawer.
  • We love it when the teachers then feel that they confidently use and also explain nouns over a period of time to young learners. 
  • With our intermediate CPD colleagues we are ready to build on this and add adjectives.


Beginning with languages blog 4

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 

.

Take a look back at"beginning with languages" blogs 

one

,

two

 and 

three

Your checklists so far have been:

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

Mid October (end of the first half term), an additional 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? 

November (moving in to the second half term of language learning),we added a couple of new challenges to your checklist!

  • How successfully have you been able to build in "revisiting" opportunities to build the children and staff's confidence with the language you introduced last half term? 
  • Are you introducing,revisiting and re-using familiar games with familiar and unfamiliar language for example (e.g Bingo or Splat or maybe a game of Quiz Quiz Swap?)
  • Have you encouraged all staff to practise key language using sound files and songs?
  • Can all staff and children practise and learn a Christmas song or carol in the target language? (In beginning with languages blog three you can find links to You ~tube clips of a Christmas songl in French, Spanish and German

And now your December checklist bullet points(to review a term's progress and prepare for next term) are:

  • Encourage all your staff to try out a simple listening and speaking Christmas activity based on a Christmas wishes song 

Ring out those bells tonight

 (learning a simple Christmas wishes song and listening for key phrases to a familiar refrain of London's Burning)

Extend this activity to a listening,speaking,reading and phonics activity with your more confident staff!Follow the suggested activities in 

Ding Dong Bell Phonics

 using the same Christmas wishes song as in the activity above,but breaking down the words in to sound s and their letter combinations

Using the Christmas wishes in these songs ,you have the basis for simple Christmas cards from the children to friends and family .Now the children are listening,speaking,reading and writing familiar language!

  • Ask staff to see the links between activities we may use in KS1 when encouraging children to read and KS2 beginners language learning.

And forward planning.....

Next term as a school you need to plan to celebrate the cultural events in the target language country .Start with your first week back and Epiphany. 

Provide staff with the facts about Epiphany and the celebrations that will take place in early January  across Europe and particularly in France and Spain. Epiphany.

Let your children be Kings for the day!

The link here on the 

mama lisa blog

 will provide your staff with the French facts and information and a song to sing with their classes in the week of Epiphany 

The link here on the 

mama lisa blog

 will provide your staff with the Spanish facts and information and a song to sing with their classes in the week of Epiphany

Continuing to make progress

  • In Spring  first half term consolidate prior learning and build upon knowledge.Share the activities below with staff and ask them to select and use the activities to revisit prior learning: 

Listening sticks

 (numbers and colours)

Open and reveal for corners

 ( days/months/colours and numbers)

Sunflower song and maths

 (numbers)

Totem pole prompt sticks

 (personal information questions)

  • Now you can build in a new language content focus linked to a DfE POS learning objective "broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words ...." . Let's begin to look at nouns! 
  1. Select your content focus (for example animals I like and don't like) and create simple opportunities for children to explore nouns. 
  2. Ask the children to become language detectives and to become noun collectors.
  3. Encourage each member of staff to think of creative ways to collect nouns with the children and to begin to explore the ways that nouns can have different sounds and written words to represent the word "the" or "a" in the target language.
  4. Some of the idea here will help school to do this :noun collectors nets and treasure boxes

5. To support staff to understand more about nouns in a target language and the use of "the"  and "a" , share this blog post with them and put aside some time in a staff or key stage meeting to discuss what they have read and understood.

Starting to understand nouns

Look,think,link and read!

As we progress with our language learners and they become more competent in the target language we meet new challenges with the children.

One of these challenges is to revisit and address the need to make those important links between sounds we can identify and know in words.We need to remind our learners that are moving on to apply the strategies we have practised as games in our learning of the  phonics of the language as they reapply this knowledge independently in new word(and truthfully also in familiar words that we may not have seen for a while).In truth the strategy below will be very familiar to primary KS1 class teachers.

As I write this, I am thinking of all our learners not just the children that quickly pick up and understand the language as in my opinion we are trying to help as many young learners as possible learn the "tricks of our trade". In my opinion we need to make the stepping stone strategies explicit and give the children key prompts to be successful. Hence the challenge for the associate teachers after Christmas of holding "Look!Think!Link! "moments  with our young learners in KS2.

We are going to plan for and apply our "Look!Think!Link!" moments from the start of next term. I think this will become a prompt or a pause to say stop and think before you read out loud  for the children.


  1. What can you see written down?
  2. How many words?  
  3. Which words have you seen before?


  1. Can you break the words down in to letter groups that you know how to pronounce?
  2. Can you think of a word you are confident in saying which contains the letter string you are not certain about? (Say this word silently in your head and listen for the sound pattern you need for the word(s) you can see in front of you)



  1. Can you transfer the sound to the new word(s) and rehearse the word as a silent word in your head 
  2. Now can you read it out loud clearly and more confidently?