Festive Freebie 3

Festive FREEBIE number 3 is a Xmas Jumper sentence description power point with native speaker sound files ….and a TWIST. In it’s simplest form, it’s a game of “Guess Who?” and being reading and listening language detectives.

Below are two sample slides,one French and one Spanish.

It’s available now to download in both French and Spanish in the Primary Languages Network Active Lingo Shop.Here are the direct links to the resources, ready to download.

French “Mon pull de noel”

Spanish “Mi jersey de navidad”

The activities described below in this blog post will help you get the most out of the resource and are ideal for UKS2 and Year 7, although you can also use these with LKS2 too.

Plus they fit beautifully with the Save the Children Xmas Jumper Day on Friday 4 December

Suggested Sequence of Activities

1. Listen and read along with the native speaker sound files.
2. Go on a noun hunt/ spot familiar and unfamiliar nouns/ use bilingual dictionaries to find unfamiliar language, revisiting each slide one by one.
3. Go on a colour hunt/spot familiar and unfamiliar nouns/ use bilingual dictionaries to find unfamiliar language, revisiting each slide one by one.
4. Listen to the native speaker sound files and spot who is wearing the jumper described on each slide.
4.Listen again and try to remember the sound of key words and say in your most Christmassy voice.Sell the jumper.Invite volunteers to read aliud the sentence on the slide in their best sales persons’ voices.

5. Draft write a Xmas jumper sentence to read aloud to a partner,using the sentences on the slides as models or writing from memory, dependingb on level of learners.
6. Design your own jumper and write your own descriptive sentence. 
7. Colour in. and cut out the jumpers.
8. Hang up all jumpers on a class washing line or place on a display. Number the jumpers.Invite volunteers to say their own sentence . Can class link the jumper design to the child who says the sentence?  .

Festive Freebie 2

So simple and so current.For KS1 and for Year 3 beginner target language learners in French ,Spanish and German in our Primary Languages Network Active Lingo Shop.

Download the FESTIVE FREE template in your chosen target language from the Active Lingo Shop and use this week to celebrate St Nicholas Day.

And then you are ready for your St Nicholas Celebrations lesson on or around the 6 December.

At St Nicholas’ parties for children and grown ups forfeit games may be played .so let’s use this opportunity to practise and revisit some basic numbers and colours and learn a Xmas greeting.

Ideas for your St Nicholas Lesson:

• Sing the numbers 0-5 in the target language to the tune of Jingle Bells.S

• Sing the colours (red,white,blue,green.yellow and black) to the same refrain.

• Divide your class in four and sing each song as a canon.

• Practise saying the target language Xmas greeting from the bunting in your best St Nicholas voices- loud, jolly , silly , kind etcetra.

Now you are ready to try some simple forfeit game:

• Create a lucky dip bag with a variety of multi link towers and focus pn 6 core colours (red,yellow,green,blue, white and black) and counting multi loiunk from zero to the number five. number 5.Ask a child to pop his/heer hand in to the bag and take out a multi link block .They need to count the number of cubes and say the colours they can see.Once they have completed the task then ask the class to call out in their best St Nicholas’ voices the Xmas greeting.

And then it’s time to make your St Nicholas bunting ,to either take home to decorate their own bedrooms or to display in class.

We hope you enjoy this secind festive freebie .

Watch out for more from Primary Languages Network this festive season!

Power of Primary Languages!

It was a delight to start the ALL NPLS 2018 conference in York on Saturday 1 December. My brief was to “enthuse” and “inspire” .

Everyday. I am enthused and inspired by the power of primary teachers and the work they do around primary languages ,shared with me as founder of Primary Languages Network.

I led the delegates through a series of steps to reflect upon the “super powers” of primary languages teaching and learning and how important it is in my opinion to harness these powers and to make sure the “primary” language learning voice is heard.

Reaction from the delegates was really pleasing and I hope as you read and look at a brief resume of the speech that this blog post “enthuses “inspires” and “empowers” you too.

What a brilliant first session #NLPS2018 @YorkStJohn - @JanetLloydnet a languages force to be reckoned with! Thank you x pic.twitter.com/3TnoVFbgcq

— Suzi Bewell (@suzibewell) December 1, 2018

As teachers and educators,we all have the power to make a difference in the lives of young learners.The importance and power of helping young children in KS1 and KS2 to explore and have the confidence in learning languages even in later life can not be underestimated. During the presentation we considered:

Firstly we considered our super powers.What we do,what we bring to our work and how powerful this can be.

I shared my own current super powers thanks to Primary Languages Network:

• run a specialist primary languages’ traded service, supporting mainly state and but also several private schools.You can find out more about the team here.

• currently 314 network members and schools

• lead and employ a team of 20 associate language teachers, working in 49 primary schools.The eys and ears of the network and the support system for all 314 schools.

• oversee a comprehensive service,centred around our online virtual learning environment “PLN VLE”

• The VLE is the heart beat that allows us to reach all the classrooms and schools and support schools across a very broad spectrum and at their own point of need.

I invited the delegates to reflect upon their own “super powers” as PFL practitioners

We took time out to explore the brand new PLN 21st Century resource , Bitesize Mindfulness resource in French, Spanish and French and joined in with the French native speaker and focused on our breathing and explored a brand new planet of colours and feelings.

We considered how this simple activity is becoming an integral part of primary schools’ ‘Wellness” packages and that the use of a foreign language is not a barrier to this being used as just a normal part of everyday primary life. A very powerful 21st Century resource indeed.

Plus the primary languages’ power of this resource is also in the fact that teachers can use it over and again, can explore reading and listening skills, comprehension skills, preparation of texts and performance of own simple mindfulness activities , plus use this as a platform for creative writing in Literacy. What power!

Next I asked the delegates to consider the power of being able to discuss and share with colleagues that you feel comfortable with and respect.

I explained about the PLN associate team’s Whats APP group and how imoortant this .That we can share snippets here, that may have issues within them that we want to discuss.For example a clip that shows the memory skills and use of correct structures but may contain some inaccuracy in pronunciation even though taught by a native speaker and how it helps to discuss and share and become empowered and understand it can happen in any classroom and with the most able of pupils too and that it’s okay to fail, reflect and try again both as pupil and teacher.

All the examples I shared are from the last couple of months and are a small part of the powerful evidence we are collecting to show the power of primary languages and how primary schools are empowered to “think out of the box” and be brave and be heard across the school and the wider school community.

Wonderful to share the work of @caroltaylor722 for anti bullying week, using French as the medium to convey powerful messages🤗#NPLS2018 https://t.co/3su90i6HeN

— Janet Lloyd (@JanetLloydnet) December 1, 2018

From powerful messages in French posters during “Anti-bullying Week” written down on posters to convey the right reactions, feelings and responses to prevent or stop bullying.

To commemorating the lives and personalities of soldiers from WW1 in Remembrance people pillar poems.

To “Wellness” days for both children and staff.Here are the staff from Merton Bank CP, joining in with Irene,our native speaker QTS teacher also a yoga teacher,during her Spanish and Super Day activities with the whole school.

We took a moment to think about possible first or next steps towards engaging the whole school and creating simple activities with powerful messages that resonate positively across school.SLT and the wider community.For example Art displays and MFL or target language roleplay areas are engaging and can be supported by all staff.

Primary languages and the primary learning environment allows us the scope to fit in with the whole school calendar from EDOL on 26 September (here is our theme in 2018)

And the video that one school made of all the languages spoken in their school , celebrating the diversity in school, using our EDOL song 2018 is in this blog post thatr rounds up ideas and activities individual schools created,using “Everyone smiles in the same language” as their starting point:

Plus in primary we really have wonderful opportunities to share all the special moments in young children’s lives.Thanks to a PLN conference speech by Therese Comfort in 2017 on the “tooth fairy~” and it’s importance in young children’s lives ,we created our own tooth fairy package.

This packs a punch every time a child loses a tooth in class and goes home to mum or carer and is a reminder that in our classrooms we learn other languages too and share similar life moments with all children around the World.Pretty powerful I think!

At the end of every academic year we hold a conference in North West England.This is a power packed day of great CPD, provided by both national and local speakers.In 2018 , Paul Philips, DHT, at a school in Ellesmere Port shared how his school had set up and held a two day Spanosh and interactive community event.All the children had worked on Art and performance linked to the Ready Made Spanish SOW in our VLE.

From QR codes and press button speech bubbles to help feed the hungry giant (Year 3 Summer 1 focus) to an “outside in the grounds” performance of the PLN Year 4 Summer 1 “Walking in the Jungle” story with papier mache masks of jungle animals.

You can watch the short video of the performance here: Andando por la selva

The thing is that these are often isolated moments in the whole school year and the real power of primary languages teaching and learning needs to continue to be effective, creative and well planned week on week activities. The VLE is the heart beat of our networking community but it is also so important that there is rigour and clarity in all that we do.The VLE helps teachers plan,focus on progression, revisit, consider learning skills , develop these skills and stage by stage enable children to become more confident in how across the four skills of listening,speaking ,reading and writing they can understand. manipulate and produce sentences in the target language.

Celebrations, fairy dust and magical creative moments add the sparkle but we need to see this sparkle in our lessons throughout the year.If we are to be taken seriously we need established and effective practice that we are happy to share at any time with SLT, governors, parents and dare I say it …OfSted. We took some moments to consider how we are tackling this challenge and empowering teachers in the primary language learning classroom.

What a brilliant first session #NLPS2018 @YorkStJohn - @JanetLloydnet a languages force to be reckoned with! Thank you x pic.twitter.com/3TnoVFbgcq

— Suzi Bewell (@suzibewell) December 1, 2018

You can find out more here on our Primary Languages Network website and maybe reflect on your own practice and the ways you already feel empowered or wish to become more “empowered” in your practice. We are now offering Pedagogy CPD to network and non- network members too.

“Self efficacy” of both learners and teachers is in my opinion key to the power of continued,respected and sustainable primary languages and the key to keeping the essence of the learning “primary”.

I can’t achieve this on my own .

There is the “PLN team” behind me.I shared photos of Catherine, the Network Coordinator, first point of contact for all 314 schools and also Primary Languages Development Award mentor, and also some of the associates’ team who are now becoming CPD providers. Over the course of a term Emilie and Will also observe all the assoiate teachers and confer on what they see and how this need sto be shared with network schools.Powerful and positive1 The team are now the future power,momentum and sustainability of the success we achieve alongside the supportive network of schools. There is so much knowledge and experience amongst everyone mentioned that it needs to shared and heard.It’s a powerful voice .We have now set up a podcast programme to begin to share this voice and the voice of other powerful practitioners and experts too. I was the first guinea pig! You can subscribe here.

If yu are interested in working with us and helping us build this momentum then please contact us here. Contact us via the link here

The system we have developed is powerful and reaches in deep in to schools. From 1 to 1 coordinator webinars, creative webinars and face to face CPD, local network meetings and events plus virtual VLE tours but there would be no positive power if schools did not engage.

I mentioned earlier that we are a traded service and just like teachers in the real classroom we are held to account at the end of every academic year or during and after inspections and governor reviews. We gather evidence and share and celebrate this. Here is my most recent compiation blog post of evidence of progresss in Autumn 2018.

Accountability means that there needs to be :

So ,finally take a look at this case study of a school in St Helens where the whole school has embraced the power of primary languages and to their absolute credit is developing language learning fit for the 21st Century.

Queens Park CE/URC Case Study and Blogpost.

My message at the end of the presentation has to be “Please do not dismiss primary language learning but take away from what you have read here or seen in your school that there is so much power in primary languages when it is implemented well.It is and shlouod be an integral part of learning for young children and can have a powerful and positive impact across the curriculum. Primary language learningshould provide a clear and supported pathway to learning languages in secondary school and beyond.

Primary Languages Podcast #1 'A child only gets one opportunity of being 8 years old' - Janet Lloyd

Episode #1

With Janet Lloyd

Janet has been involved in languages teaching for 30+ years, and throughout has occupied the role of teacher, consultant, university lecturer and now business owner, listen to her inspiring story about how she carved out a role tailor made for her ability, creativity and intuition. However, she will be the first to tell you that the plot of her lifelong passion was never planned as expected!

Customer demand of her ability to teach and consult helped create and develop primary languages network through the years, and now the business that was once just a cluster in Warrington is beginning to grow into something that she really could never have imagined it to be, no matter how creative she is!

Listen to Janet speak about the journey she has undertook to reach the point of where she is at today, enjoy insights about what she thinks is important within the classroom, and learn more about what the business that is Primary Languages Network offers to the primary languages world through its associate teachers, teacher training and online resources!

Making real progress 2

Colour coded lollipop sentence structure game

The evidence shared by Primary Languages Network teachers shows examples of the four core skills and language learning skills.The examples have been captured in the classroom on the day that the learning took place from KS1 to UKS2. We hope that these examples help primary schools have confidence in their own primary languages teaching and learning plus we hope that the evidence in the “making progress” blogposts (Making Progress 1) so far support secondary colleagues in their developing understanding of the language learning in primary schools.

The evidence in this post has been gathered from a sample of our 330 plus Primary Languages Network schools in French,Spanish and German (KS1 to UKS2) between October 2018 and end of November 2018 .

Our listening and responding activities this half term have challenged the learners to use their developing listening skills not only to listen and join in but also to apply familiar language knowledge to new learning experiences.Here’s a perfect example of this!.

Year 6 enjoying Yoga in Spanish @MertonBankP @JanetLloydnet pic.twitter.com/z2FzirjyoJ

— Mrs Weatherby (@MrsWeatherby_mb) November 12, 2018

You can find out more here about our PLN Super Days with Yoga.

Learning languages,enjoying stories and becoming confident listeners is an integral part of the progress we help children to make throughout the year in primary language learning.Starting early in KS1 enables the children to build their confidence in listening to both familiar and unfamiliar language.

Y2 are learning to say how they feel in Spanish today, we loved listening to the story ‘El monstro de colores’🌍🇪🇸🎨🙂😡🙁 #StGerardsSpanish #StGerardsMFL @JanetLloydnet pic.twitter.com/xF5X3VvPLp

— St. Gerard's (@StGerardsWidnes) October 31, 2018

The teacher in the photo above is a native speaker of the language.You can find out more about the role our associate teachers play in 49 of our network schools here: Primary languages classroom teacher service

Throughout our language lessons across the academic year we revisit and practise sounds and spellings of the target languages.

Sound spelling links with a fireworks and colours link in Spanish this week with Y3 and Irene. Practising writing and saying colours and focusing on j,v,r,z. Sometimes simpe activities are the best! @EWoodroffe @BetsyBelleTeach @robert_mfl @SWilson_MFL pic.twitter.com/iwKZYYkQrH

— Janet Lloyd (@JanetLloydnet) November 6, 2018

We are now beginning to focus upon reasoning and mastery of sound spelling right from the start of learning a language in Year 3.

Practising pronunciation of Spanish with sound spelling challenge for beginner learners from the brilliant @robert_mfl . Part of his work this year for PLN pon evidencing mastery.Don't miss his next creative webinar on 8 Nov! See details on Primary Languages Network events page. pic.twitter.com/BkhkJzxCfB

— Janet Lloyd (@JanetLloydnet) October 10, 2018

Our Ready Made SOW enables teachers to use everyday language in new ways.We love the robots and commands in Year 4 and so do the children and it’s that time of year again for Year 4 to programme their robots.

From listening and responding to speaking single words, phrases and sentences the focus this half term is upon familiar language being revisited and new language being intorduced and used in creative and memorable learning opportunities.

All of my P4 robots carried out their instructions very well🇫🇷😊 @JanetLloydnet @QueensCoEURC @Miss_BurkeQP pic.twitter.com/ntI424OlRO

— Mrs Taylor QP (@caroltaylor722) November 8, 2018

Asking questions to a robot 🇫🇷😊@QueensCoEURC @Miss_BurkeQP @JanetLloydnet pic.twitter.com/eOMYQznHdt

— Mrs Taylor QP (@caroltaylor722) November 8, 2018

As the year progresses we never forget the basics.Year 4 have been revisiting numbers and linking this to simple number sentences in Maths. Year 4 and 5 have been exploring more complicated number sequences and exploring and practising their listening skills with a fantastic Disney learning hook!

Yet more great number sentence work in #primary #Spanish with Irene today. Part of the Primary Languages Network Ready Made Spanish SOW pic.twitter.com/bUrYbPx4Qz

— Janet Lloyd (@JanetLloydnet) October 4, 2018

Year 4 spin on Disney Hotel. We created new rooms and telephone numbers and wrote them down. One little girl was so engaged that she did 5. The hook of relevance to their world really helps.Thanks to associate teachers, Andrea and for the original idea Robert pic.twitter.com/EMx1xf5o0M

— Janet Lloyd (@JanetLloydnet) October 4, 2018

It wouldn’t be PRIMARY languages if we didn’t ensure that we celebrated along with the whole school community.This term offers so many opportunities to develop language learning skills, build language knowledge and share in the whole school celebrations calednar too.Here are some of the examples shared with us of children making progress in listening.speaking ,reading and writing linked to special annual events this term.Plus this year we couldn’t help developing 3rd person singular writing skills in Year 5 linked to our work on verbs and personal information to celebrate the visit of”The Giants” to Liverpool!

Year 3 enjoying singing Les feux d’artifices! in their French lesson. pic.twitter.com/kQUOtDqo5Z

— OLPS Widnes (@olpsprimary) November 5, 2018

Les feux d’artifices! Primary Languages Network Associate Teacher ⁦@SWilson_MFL⁩ and children ⁦@Pewithall⁩ . Singing, reading and joining in and enjoying making progress🤗 pic.twitter.com/JlhLQJT4gY

— Janet Lloyd (@JanetLloydnet) November 7, 2018

Spooky fantastic descriptions by Tyldesley CP of their "spooky" friends .Great practise /consolidation of use of adjectives and nouns.Real evidence of progress working with our PLN associate teacher Mme Pierre! @EWoodroffe @NickGibbUK @IanBauckham @BetsyBelleTeach @SWilson_MFL pic.twitter.com/p2CDYqNUdj

— Janet Lloyd (@JanetLloydnet) November 6, 2018

Celebration of current local events in #primary French language learning and Year 5 St Margaret’s. “Writing about people, places and things” and the incredible giants that visited Liverpool in October. Yet more #evidenceofprogress in #primarylanguages pic.twitter.com/l3F217D0Cf

— Janet Lloyd (@JanetLloydnet) October 28, 2018

It’s a pleasure to see how the learners are exploring unfamiliar language and combining this with their growing confidence in writing in a target language to be creative and to create class display and even to write their own simple poems with scaffolded support.

Spooky selection of creative Y6 writing at St Peter’s with our associate teacher Steph Pierre. Great examples of range/#evidenceofprogress after 4 years. Brilliant use of infinitives/ nouns / bilingual dictionary work and use of near future in French. pic.twitter.com/9zrClojxRo

— Janet Lloyd (@JanetLloydnet) October 28, 2018

Fabulous French fireworks poems based in the Ready Made French SOW Y4 Autumn 2 ⁦@Pewithall⁩ with ⁦@SWilson_MFL⁩ associate PLN teacher and CPD Coordinator. Contact Susanne for information if CPD in school for your staff. pic.twitter.com/x2UEqOnM99

— Janet Lloyd (@JanetLloydnet) November 7, 2018

Fantastic evidence of progress in French and writing by Year 4 at St Benedicts with our associate teacher MMe Pierre. Class are busy writing letters about Halloween to their French penfriends in link school. @SWilson_MFL @EWoodroffe @BetsyBelleTeach @IanBauckham @NickGibbUK pic.twitter.com/JIKyXZQSbR

— Janet Lloyd (@JanetLloydnet) November 6, 2018

Fantastic French #primary #poems written by #primarylang learners at Nutgrove CP, using our Autumn poem as the starting point to develop own poems. pic.twitter.com/vZiHJYPFK8

— Janet Lloyd (@JanetLloydnet) October 19, 2018

Great German firework poems from Y6 Sankey Valley St James plus evidence of progress - alliteration,adjectives, conjunctions . Great work ⁦@SWilson_MFL⁩ pic.twitter.com/XGxsA7XZSN

— Janet Lloyd (@JanetLloydnet) November 8, 2018

Remembrance Day people pillar poems in French - “ un poilu ... “ . Great to see Ravenbank CP put my original blog post to great use 🤗 pic.twitter.com/TwJaD6OgIr

— Janet Lloyd (@JanetLloydnet) November 8, 2018

Pudsey, colours, numbers and key phrases in Spanish at Holy Family Primary. Getting in to the spirit of #childreninneed2018 pic.twitter.com/9kuKy0VwMQ

— Janet Lloyd (@JanetLloydnet) November 16, 2018

As always we continue to develop children’s understanding and appreciation of the cultures and communities in which the target languages are spoken as first languages.

Two wonderful examples we received recently are shared below.

Garden of greetings' spoons.Fantastic whole school project @BradshawCPS to create a European Day of Languages Greetings Garden pic.twitter.com/lvvxDqcCDd

— Janet Lloyd (@JanetLloydnet) October 4, 2018

Year 6 teaching Year 2 Spanish as our nod to the Fiesta Nacional de España. Every child engaged and enthusiastic. They stole the show after planning their activities last week & delivering them today #MFL #learningdesign #interdependance @JanetLloydnet @GuyClaxton https://t.co/m9RmieqGaD

— Nicola Suddaby (@NKSuddaby) October 16, 2018

Thank you to all contributors.

All the work is based upon the Primary Languages VLE and the Ready Made SOW plus our Seasonal Specials,KS1 materials and Cross Curricular materials,

Festive freebies

Our festive “Rudolph Bookmark Corners” are a FREEBIE for everyone in the run up to the festive season. Use as a beginners’ consolidation reading and writing activity and revisit basic numbers and colours and practises the spelling of a target language Xmas greeting. Make them and take them home as a gift too. Ideal for Year 2 or Year 3 language learners.

They are also one of the simple resources that will make up the” Primary Languages Network Xmas Bundle 2018” on the Primary Languages Network VLE. this year.Network members will find them in Seasonal Specials Autumn 2 and non-network members can download them for FREE from the Active Lingo shop - here’s the quick links:

French Rudolph Bookmark Corner

Spanish Rudolph Bookmark Corner

German Rudolph Bookmark Corner

It's a Christmas Rescue!

Refresh your Xmas primary language learning activities with these brand new Xmas French and Spanish bundles and original story resource.Listening,speaking,reading, writing and performance activities based upon our original and simple “Christmas Rescue” story. Santa’s sleigh has broken down and the alien family and their space ship save the day!

The resources and lesson guides practise:

• nouns (focus on presents the children may like to give and receive),

• ordinal numbers when sequencing a story (literacy reinforcement and fronted adverbials),

• listening activity based on the “Ordinal Number “lesson power point version of the “Christmas Rescue” story,using native speaker sound files

• pronunciation and intonation practise with the native speaker sound files

• listening and enjoying story in French or Spanish

• reading aloud and joining in with the Xmas story

• memory and recall skills

• story retelling with our story map,

  You may wish to learn more about the resources and lessons.Click here to listen to the CPD webinar “All I want for Xmas”.

  Plus the additional resources:a letter to Santa using our Santa’s wishlist letter and designing brand new Xmas jumpers for the superheores of the story resource - the alien family.It’s your choice whether you use these two additional resources separately or as a lead in and celebration of the story in a sequence of lessons in the run up to Xmas.Take a look below at examples of the resources……

Explore the story in Spanish ,French and English .The French and Spanish stories have simple sentences and native spekaer sound file support as the alien family help Santa deliver presents to the elf , the gingerbread man and the polar bear after Santa’s sleigh breaks down.

Use the story map and the sentence bricks to rebuild and then retell the story. Explore listening skills with the “Ordinal Number” version of the story and link this to your class’ work in Literacy on fronted adverbials.

Explore the presents and the nouns in Santa’s sack with our Xmas nouns flashcards and native speaker sound files.Set the scene to the story and write your letters to Santa.

Finally design your own Xmas jumpers for the Candy Cane company and also for the alien family.

All the resources are available in French, Spanish and English from our Active Lingo Shop on the Primary Languages Network website.Plus our PLN network members can access all these materials as normal for free in the Network Resources area of the PLN VLE .

Non- network members can buy these resources as a bundle from our Active Lingo shop for just £4.99.

In French

In Spanish

Plus we now have the Christmas Rescue Story resources in English with WAGOLL text and Writing Checklists for just £2.99.

Remembrance

As Primary Languages Network we teach Primary French to thousands of children each week.Our “People Pillar Poems “ about soldiers in WW1 is enabling us this week(and possibly next) to explore with UKS2 language learners, “Remembrance of WW1” and “Armistice”.

The activity is based upon the blog post I wrote in 2016, “People Pillar Poems “:nouns and adjectives to describe specific types of people and creatvely used in pillar like poems.

Our native French speaker associate teacher,Steph Pierre, used this blog post as a spring board to create a complete lesson powerpoint for all our Primary Languages Network teachers to use describing the soldiers (les poilus) in WW1.(If you are a network member then the whole resource is on the PLN VLE in Seasonal Specials Autumn 2).Below are some FREE materials from the resource that everyone can use to create their own people pillar poems.

Share and discuss facts about Armistice.

Use bilingual dictionaries to look up the highlighted adjectives and understand the simple poem about a soldier (slide above).

Use the gap filler template below to write poems.

Finally write out the poems and making a class display of the people pillar WW1 soldier poems they have created.In instances children are dedicating the poems to their own ancestors who fought in WW1.The template for the people pillar poem is in the blog post.Thanks to Clare Seccombe who created the template after I wrote the blog post.

We hope you find this FREE activity useful .

Sparkle time!

November school days can be dark and cold. Add sparkle,action and illumination to the school day and your primary languages teaching and learning with our “Let’s Sparkle” performance poem. Plus there is an activity guide on creative and active ways to exploit the simple spoken and written text from KS1 through to Year 6.Could help you create a performance for a Winter assembly,Diwali and festivals of light weeks or even a Christmas show!

Why not listen to, join in with, practise and perform our “Let’s Sparkle” poem and revisit core language that every foreign language learner will have met in first couple of months of language learning?

The poem has a repetitive verse and practises greetings,simple feelings, numbers 1-10 and some common colours. More details and the downloadable documents are available here in our Active Lingo Shop in French,Spanish ,German and English (with text and native speaker sound files too).

Let’s sparkle poem, sound files and activity guide. French

Let’s sparkle poem, sound files and activity guide Spanish

Let’s sparkle poem ,sound files and activity guide German

Let’s sparkle poem,sound files and activity guide English

“How have we used the resources?
A class listen and join in activity.
Writing our own new verses with core target language.
Creating our own actions and performances
Creating a class video to add as a QR to the class Xmas greeting card home
To celebrate Diwali”

And if you are already a Primary Languages Network member and use our Ready Made SOW then you will find that it is already part of the Year 4 Autumn 2 SOW too.

Physical fireworks

Listen ,respond and create physical firework displays in your French and Spanish language lessons. Combine simple gymnastics and creating shapes with target language listening and physical responses.

We have created a simple three step lesson guide ,written by a PE specialist and based on creating three gymnastics movements (stretch, pike and tuck) with accompanying phrase and sound files by native speakers.

Plus the alien character prompt cards will support your children as they create the physical shapes and will reinforce the gymnastic poses they are practising.

The three activities lead to the creation of group work where the children produce their own physical firework displays , based on well known types of fireworks they might see at a local firework display.

Why not work alongside the PE specialist or coach in school? One of our network schools,Bradshaw CP, combined Spanish language learning with a PE coaching session and the Spanish teacher worked alongside and supported the non- Spanish speaking PE coach to develop a sensational sequence of gymnastics and Spanish language learning .This is what Gwyneth Wellings, the Spanish teacher, had to say:

“This afternoon our year 4 children enjoyed a PE lesson in Spanish. Tom Dore our PE assistant used the Physical Fireworks with Spanish plan from the network. He isn’t a Spanish speaker but he made a real effort to use all the commands and to pronounce them. Afterwards he told me how much he had enjoyed it. He is hoping to use the plan for years 5 & 6 later in the week. I am thrilled - at last Spanish is being used for cross curricular purposes and not just in the Spanish lessons
”

You can access this resource as Primary Languages Network Premium Member on our VLE in the PE and Languages Pack or you can purchase the resource for just 0.99 pence from our Active Lingo shop in French, or Spanish.

Spooky goings on!

Spooky sentences, both spoken and written in target languages in school allow your classes to make links across the curriculum at this time of year. Yes we are working with limited language but gosh we can be creatibve with this language!

The photo above is of “spooky party tooters” seen in a French shop last year. Great opportunity to use the photo as a stimulus or hook to create spooky chants, spooky voices, spooky greetings and farewells.Why not record these spooky sayings and create your own spooky statements cauldrons too in which children can keep a record of their “spooky spoken phrases and sentences” as written ingredients to a potion. We have created a simple activity sheet and teacher’s activity guider for this.Network members can find these in our Seasonal Specials on the Primary Languages Network VLE and this year non- network members can download the activity sheet as a “freebie” from the Active Lingo shop (just select your target language) and search for the sheet “Spooky Statements”. (link here goes to the sheet in the Active Lingo French shop).

A spooky poem anyone? Why not practise and perform our spooky poems?

And then engage the class in special language detective work,using our “messy magic” sheets to help the witch put ingredients in her cauldron for her spell. Network members can access these poems in French and Spanish on the Primary Languages Network VLE .Non-network mebers can access the resource in our Active Lingo shop here: French: poeme fantomatique and messy magic sheet or Spanish poema fantasmal .

And what about a story about a witch’s day at school?

As Primary Langauges Network members , take advantage of the Seasonal Specials Halloween folder resources : our snakes and ladders game (practising numbers and commands) and our witch’s day at school story with audio and lesson plan activities in our Ready Made SOW Year 5 Autumn 1. Non network members you can access the story here in the Active Lingo Shop Witch’s Day at School in French or Witch’s Day at School in Spanish .

Enjoy some spookily successful language learning.