Transitional Teaching: Ideas for Autumn

Just by looking out of the window now it is very clear that autumn is in full swing, which is why our Autumn 2 SOW for Years 3 and 4 celebrates all things that this season brings us. From bonfire night to the crisp golden tones of the leaves, let our languages learning guide your classes through the seasons.

  • Leaf Stepping Stones: This can be used to practice both numbers and colours - write numbers on coloured cut out card leaves and secure with blu-tac on the floor and create stepping stones. Then, ask the children to walk around the room standing on the leaves. When you call out a number or a colour if they are stood on or next to a leaf with that number or colour written on it, then they are out! Ask a volunteer to take your role and call out the numbers and colours.

  • Harvest Sounds: To practise sounds in numbers and colours in the target language, on one side of cut-out card leaves, write a key sound from target language that you have been practising. On the reverse, write out the full word for the item. Divide the class into teams and stick all the leaves with the sound side up to the board or flip chart. Take it in turns in teams to guess what is on the reverse of the card. Turn the card over and if the team guesses correctly, then the team wins the leaf! The team with the biggest pile of Autumn leaves at the end of the activity has won the harvest.

  • Autumn Action Activity: Ideal for practising simple actions and commands associated with harvest time, such as to smell, look for or taste. Create actions and play simple games such as Simon says or last farmer standing, where children freeze-frame in their own chosen action and if you say that action the children in that particular freeze-frame must sit down. Who will be the last farmer standing?

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  • Leaf Letters and Harvest the Word: For this brilliant spelling game, split the class into groups and ask each group to select three favourite target language words, and then with a focus on accurate spelling and write out the words in rough. Check the spelling and transfer the words letter by letter onto leaf shapes. Cut these out and muddle up the three words and pass this pile to the next table. The challenge is to identify the three words and reassemble the letters. Ask the team to pass the pile (with all the leaf letters muddled up again) on to another table and the challenge can start again. When the game is over, a great way to finish off this activity is to create a display of the favourite words of the class as leaf letters on branches of a tree.

European Day of Languages: Our Favourite Day of the Year!

Although the 26th September falls on a Sunday this year, European Day of Languages is a great way to celebrate both the languages learnt in school, and those spoken by children at home. This year especially Walk with Amal is a great focus point for fostering an international celebration.

How to plan your celebration

European Day of Languages is a fabulous reason to set aside some time for a celebration of languages in your school. Whether you make it a half day or full day celebration, it is a really good reason to expand MFL learning from just what happens in class, and to celebrate the home languages of students.

A good way to make it feel like a real celebration is to involve a tried and tested favourite – food! You could get the kitchen staff involved, or just grab some croissants and pain au chocolat for an easier option.

Take full advantage of the return of the assembly and use the opportunity to sing a song. This year we have a new Sea Shanty song which you can find on the VLE, but there are loads more options from our past years’ celebrations.

Resources to help

If you’ve not already, Network members should take a look at our Seasonal Specials page on the VLE, where you can find a whole section of resources for European Day of Languages. This year’s theme focuses on Amal, and features activities and videos to fit with this.

Greetings are a really accessible way to introduce new languages for this day of celebration – under the 2019 section here, you will find resources detailing an international physical greetings activity, as well as one of our old favourites the Greetings Garden.

Our VLE also features a Try Another Language section, with nine different languages for your pupils to have a go at. Featuring basic language and audio support, this is a great resource which is perfect for this celebration.

 

The main thing to take from European Day of Languages is that language learning is fun! Use it as a chance for your pupils to get creative, and as always, please share what you all make with us on Twitter @network_primary.

Let the ‘language genies’ out of their bottles

At the start of the school term, we need to spend some time recalling prior knowledge, to allow young learners a platform from which they can fly high with their language learning. Hence, think of them as genies trapped in bottles! We have an activity on this theme, available for free, both in French and Spanish, and this blog post will explain ways to use this resource. For those who are already PLN members, you will be able to access this on the VLE under Seasonal Specials’ Autumn Term 1.

Who should use the resource?

It is designed to work on three levels - answers are provided, so all staff can use the resources. They can be used at home independently or with parents/carers leading learning too.

How to use the activity

For near to absolute beginners, Stage 1 is a simple “sequence solving” set of activities for the learners with numbers, days of the week, and greetings. Solve the missing letters and release the language learning genies from the bottles.

For learners who can already speak and write some simple full sentences about themselves, under Stage 2 or 3, there is a sequence of activities to create your genie personalities in order to release them.

For learners who are more creative and independent, Stage 3 or 4 allows them recall familiar language, whilst exploring the unfamiliar using online word tools or bilingual dictionaries for the ‘magic potion’ activity to set the genie free.

Bringing the genies to life

Remember the activities are just the beginning. Bring the genies out from the page by getting your children to read their potions and personalities aloud and recording this, making sure they use their ‘genie voices’. For those who followed the Stage 1 activity, the simple sequences can be extended to make their genie performance unique.

The idea of the genie is one which can take you through the academic year – you could make a book, produce your own genie avatars, or create a whole display. The year ahead will allow young learners to fly beyond their own boundaries with languages, so to remind them of this starting place is a great reminder of how far they have come out of their own bottles.

We love to see what you and your learners come up with, so tweet us or contact us via our website.

Reading Roald Dahl: How to Celebrate in Cross-curricular Style

September is Roald Dahl month, and it will be 105 years on 13 September since he was born. This is a fabulous opportunity to allow children to realise that stories we love in English are loved in other languages too! So, we have devised some activities to celebrate the occasion – the Popcorn Birthday Cards are brilliant specifically for his birthday, and What’s the Story is great for cross-curricular discussion of which Dahl book is best!

 

 

Popcorn Birthday Card Celebrations

1. Ask the children to think of adjectives to describe the characters in one or more of Dahl’s stories. Write them up in English on the board.

2. Select the best ten adjectives.

3. Which of these adjectives do the children already know in the target language?

4. Using bilingual dictionaries look up the adjectives that the children do not already know.

5. Write up these 10 adjectives on the board next to the meaning in English.

6. Write the adjectives on pieces of paper and then scrunch them up, and pop them in a box, like popcorn. Play a game of Roald Dahl popcorn charades. Can the children take it in turns to take a scrunched-up piece of paper and act out the adjective so the class can guess the meaning, and locate the target language adjective?

In the style shown in this Tweet, ask the children to make their own popcorn style birthday cards for Roald Dahl. They can include their five favourite adjectives from the list you have made, as ‘whizz pop banger words’, which are zooming out of the popcorn box.

 

What’s the Story?

1. For a reading recognition activity, a simple idea is to share the front covers of Dahl's novels in the target language, and ask the children to decide what the title in English of each book must be. Many of the foreign language covers are still recognisable, so this is a good way to introduce young learners to unfamiliar language.

2. To practice speaking and listening skills, make a class survey as to which is their favourite Dahl book. Make the survey a simple tally, where children interview each other and ask each other which their favourite book is – use the titles that you have already introduced in ‘What’s the story?’, so the children are familiar with the titles!

3. A good way to get some bilingual dictionary work in class is to build an adjective profile of some of the most famous Roald Dahl characters. This activity can then be developed into creating full sentence descriptions of these figures for more advanced learners.

4. Ask the children to pick their favourite character, and to draw their silhouette outline. Then, get the children to fill the outline with adjectives that make up the character's personality. Encourage more advanced learners to expand to include adverbs and more interesting verbs. This activity can be further developed into a character identity parade, with the children introducing and describing their silhouettes in either the first or third person singular.

For those with access to the VLE, resources to support with these activities are located under Autumn Term 1 in Seasonal Specials.

International Literacy Day: Table Hakas and Traditional Rhymes

With International Literacy Day this week, now is the perfect time to explore options for celebrating cross-language connections with your class. Encouraging literacy not just in English, but in foreign languages is a fantastic way for children to learn more about the ‘international’ aspect of this day.

Below is a detailed guide of one of our favourite ways to celebrate this day, with a rugby-style ‘haka’ performance of rhymes from unfamiliar languages.

 

Activity Guide

1. Select for the class two target language rhymes. For non-members, in our online shop there are two Arabic and Welsh traditional nursery rhymes that you can download, featuring sound files and transcripts. For those who already use our Primary Languages Network Scheme of Work, in the ‘Try Another Language’ section, there are traditional rhymes available in nine languages, complete with sound files, target language and transcripts, ready for you to use in the first three lessons.

2. Set the scene. Make the literacy links between traditional rhymes in different languages. Talk briefly with the class about traditional rhymes in English and perhaps rhymes in other home languages of pupils in your class. Say a favourite English rhyme and listen out for the beat and the rhythm. Discuss the possible meaning of what appears a nonsensical rhyme.

3. Ask the class to listen to the two traditional rhymes. These languages will be potentially unfamiliar to your class, so play them all the way through and then ask them to listen again, but this time clap out the rhythm of each line.

4. Reveal the target language and the poem transcript. Continue to clap out the beat and get your class to investigate the potential meaning of the lines. To aid this, you can add actions to help understanding of the meaning of each line.

5. Practise both rhymes as a whole class and attempt to learn both rhymes. Add the rhythm and the beat. Sitting at their tables, you can decide if children tap gently on desks or clap hands or drum out the rhythm on the desk using their hands, pencils or feet.

6. Time for the ‘table haka.’ Divide your class in two. One half of the class (with or without the support of the native speaker sound file) performs one of the traditional rhymes and the other half of the class responds with the second traditional rhyme.

7. Expand this further to make it a dance activity. If you take this into the hall, and make use of the actions learned earlier in class to develop it into a small group performance, or with one half of the class performing to the other half.

Teach languages in the primary way!

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One of the most common questions we are asked here at Primary Languages Network is how can we teach languages at a primary level? Check out our list of top tips below.

1. Create a learning environment where every child feels valued and a ‘citizen of the world’

  • At primary level, we can celebrate diversity in the whole school community through cultural assemblies, practising simple greetings from around the world, exploring and learning about songs and stories from other cultures.

  • Enjoy the knowledge of children with home languages, which can help open the door to a wider world for children who have limited experience.

  • A very practical place to begin with teaching primary languages is to create a corridor display, where children can introduce themselves and the whole school can be proud of the shared learning environment.

2. Bring the target language country to life

  • It’s so important to see what the children know (or not even be aware that they know) about the target language country, as is celebrating any similarities and differences between nations.

  • Find opportunities throughout your teaching to highlight links to the target language and the countries. For example, highlight stories that are internationally loved, such as The Hungry Caterpillar or We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. Also, watch out for cartoons and characters from films and stories that children both in your class and in the target language country like.

3. Educate the ear

  • Native speakers are super important when it comes to introducing children to the sound of the language and reinforcing pronunciation – if you don’t have one handy, the internet or visitors from the community are helpful.

  • Revisiting resources is beneficial, as it allows children to see their progress, whilst starting at a familiar point; if needed, you can tweak the activities to make them more challenging.

  • Take time to play sound and action games to reinforce good pronunciation and borrow techniques that you may already use in Literacy for sound-spelling practice.

4. Start simple.

  • Primary languages are all about growing children’s confidence: we don’t know what languages they may need in their adult lives, so enthusiasm and a willingness to develop their language skills is the best thing to establish.

  • A good place to begin is with a song or game, and a focus on greeting each other. We know that both eye contact and speaking out loud can be a challenge for some young learners, so celebrate both the small and big strides forward.

  • Don’t be afraid of repetition: for example, singing the same song again and again over a period of lessons. Enjoy the process of your class growing more confident with the same material and bringing new energy to it with small changes.

5. Let the children explore

  • Wider cultural experiences are just as important as the language itself – by introducing kids to the food and festivals of the target language countries, you can develop their vocabularies as well as cultural awareness. With the help of your class, you could make a pictorial knowledge map to consolidate this learning as a display.

  • Further ways to aid the exploration of the target language countries include using technology – Google Earth is particularly useful, and we love seeing clips like the one below, which also make great additions to intranets or as welcome videos in your school foyer.

  • Encourage children to be language detectives – language learning should be fun, so let them play around with it to find solutions!

6. Think of primary approaches to learning

  • Primary level approaches to listening, speaking, reading and writing start in the classroom: children do not learn in isolation, so make links between other learning experiences, such as spelling memory tactics or what we learnt about nouns in literacy lessons.

  • Build language learning into your classroom routines - why don’t you sing the songs as you line up outside to come in from outdoor play or PE or greet each other in the morning or after lunch in the target language?

  • Art is a particularly useful way to embed languages into the classroom - we love seeing what your pupils come up with, so have a look at these examples below

These techniques are just the start – at its core, primary languages learning should be about having fun! Our VLE is setup to support you with this mission, and with over a hundred new games for the new year, there is so much to explore. If you are not yet signed up, get in touch here to arrange a free trial.

Explore "I spy nouns"

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“I spy nouns” is a fabulous activity that you can revisit time and again and practice how to look up unfamiliar language. It doesn’t have to end with “nouns”…….

Children will need a piece of rough paper or a white board between two, 2 pens and a bilingual dictionary or a reliable online word reference tool, and some sort of Battleships’ game type barrier to make sure there is no peaking , when one child is looking up a noun and writing down the target language.

If it’s the first time that children have used word reference tools then spend some time just exploring the tools. With bilingual dictionaries let the children find out for themselves about the “brand new books we are using “. Get the children to answer questions from “What do you think the book is?” “Is it like a normal dictionary?” “Where’s the English alphabetical list?” etc.

Remember that some children may already have seen their parents use or used bilingual dictionaries themselves

Best bit of advice too is to always apply the “Post It” rule.What’s the “Post It Rule”? It’s simple, it’s a post it or a slip of paper placed on the page where the target language words first end and the English words first start.

If you are using bilingual online word reference tools then once again you need to let the children do the exploring, ask similar questions and help them to see how you need to check what you find a second time and in a different way, to make sure you have the correct words.

And now to the game.

Step One

Give out the ”I spy nouns” sheet, we have provided.

Familiarize yourself and the children with the pictures and make sure that they know what the words are in English.

Step Two

Children work in pairs,

Partner A selects a picture for which he or she wants to find the target language word and then looks it up in the bilingual dictionary. There must be no peaking at the word from Partner B.

Partner A writes the word down in the target language for Partner B.

Partner B now looks up this word in the bilingual dictionary and reads aloud in English the meaning of the word and finally locates the picture representing the word on the picture sheet.

Partner A and Partner B swap roles and they start the activity again.

Build in

Moments to feedback: how the pairs are suing the bilingual dictionaries, what problems and challenges there are when using online tools or making sure it’s the target language first or second being used a s the reference source etc \.

Partner swaps: to enable a fresh partner to mentor or support or be supported by a partner who is beginning to easily access the reference tools.

Free resource

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I spy nouns
£0.99

I spy nouns/ adjectives/ verbs 5 minutes into future language learning lessons, to continue to reinforce children’s working knowledge of how to access unfamiliar nouns that they may want to use or understand.

Explore a "Sound Fruit Salad"

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5 Day Creativity in Languages Masterclass free sign up

In April PLN celebrate our 10th Birthday!

To celebrate this we want to host a free masterclass for all to join in teaching primary languages creatively.

From 1st-5th April.

There will be daily video demos and ideas shared by Janet and some of the team. And the opportunity to interact and engage with the team via ‘live’ sessions

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This is an ideal activity for KS1 and beginner KS2 language learners.It does not have to focus on fruit but on a group of words that you may have been practicing in your target language learning lessons. The important focus is upon core sounds within these new words.I have done this activity with nouns such as numbers, colours, days, clothes, animals etcetera.

First - prepare.

Practice the target language nouns and, focus upon sounds within the nouns with the class. Select 5 or 6 nouns and a specific sound in the spoken noun. You are going to divide your class in to 5 groups of 6 groups of children.Each group will work with a different sound and noun.

Step One.

Give each child either a written sound or go around the class and whisper a sound to each child.Ask the children to put their hand to their mouths and practice silently or as quietly as possible the sound you have given each of them.

Step Two

The children walk silently around the room, using their mouths to share the shape of the sound they have been given,The children must observe other children and one by one find and gather together with the group who have the same sound. Once the children are in groups, ask the group to identify the noun they think their particular sound belongs to. Each group should then share the sound and the noun with the class.

Download free resource

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Sound fruit salad
£0.99

Step Three

The groups must now work on the sound and try to convey with an action the nouns from which it originates.Ask the children to add “feeling” to the sound - so is it a warm sound , a long sound, a quick high pitched sound etc? Ask the children to practise saying the sound repeatedly and to add a beat and a rhythm to the way they say and act out the sound.

Step Four

As teacher, you are the conductor of the sound orchestra. The sound orchestra is made up of each of the groups performing their sounds as described in step 3.With your right hand and a pencil as a baton you bring in each group and with your left hand you indicate if the volume is high or low as the children repeatedly perform their sound.

If you have a TA in the classroom or can get a teacher to come into the class, then record the “Class Sound Fruit Salad Performance” and play back to the children.

Explore 3D Art

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But first! Free 5 Day Creativity in Languages Masterclass

In April PLN celebrate our 10th Birthday!

To celebrate this we want to host a free masterclass for all to join in teaching primary languages creatively.

From 1st-5th April.

There will be daily video demos and ideas shared by Janet and some of the team. And the opportunity to interact and engage with the team via ‘live’ sessions

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Bring a famous piece of Art to life. One of my favorite lessons of all time.An opportunity to combine language learning, observation and imagination skills, Art and Drama.

Potential pieces of Art to focus upon:

The Boating Party- Renoir.

Day in the Park- Seurat

The Corner Shop- Lowry

Sewing the sail - Joaquin Sorolla

Learning Skills explored:

Speaking , memory, recall (language learning)

Observation,imagination and creativity

Physical communication and performance

Working as a group

Language exploration and a “Brain Bank”.

Select your picture and then consider types of target language the children may already know that you can brainstorm with them e.g. greetings, feelings, emotions, requests, questions and answers, exclamations.

Create a “brain bank” of these target language phrases on board or flip-chart with the children.This will be a reference point for the children .Ask them to work in pairs and explore how you say these phrases.Challenge the children by asking them to say the phrases and express certain emotions (happiness, tiredness, fear, joy etc).

Explore the painting.Take a “walk talk”.

Show the selected painting on a big class screen. (The painting will be the backdrop to the drama too so needs to have space in front for the class volunteers to stand etc).

Opportunity here to share cultural information and facts about the artist of the painting. Give the children a few minutes with a partner in English to discuss thew painting and familiarize themselves with the characters and action.

Take a walk talk around the painting,.with beginner learners in English and with more advanced learners, you could use target language at the correct comprehension level.

Observations

Ask the children to read the phrases in the “brain bank” and observe the characters in the painting.Which phrases do they think the characters might be saying.How is each character feeling? What does the voice of the character sound like ?

Ask the children to share these observations with a partner and to say the phrases in the target language and convey the way the character is feeling.

Class demonstration

Volunteers,one by one to come and stand in front to the painting, select a character and take the “pose” of the character, exactly as the character is painted in the picture.This can be challenging for some younger children as they need to have their back to the painting and understand the exact position of the character.

Each volunteer takes it in turns to say the phrase he/she thinks best fits the character, in the voice,emotion and style of the character. Each volunteer must add an action that fits in with the character and it’s really great if you can offer a selection of props too (hats,scarves, cups, glasses, books etc).

Ask the volunteers to freeze frame in their chosen poses with ;props etc.

Teacher as artist.

Explain to the class that you are now the famous artist. i like to have an art brush in hand and even an art palette. When I point toward a volunteer with the brush, the volunteer speaks,does action and when i wave my brush at a volunteer, the volunteer goes back into freeze frame.

One by one, you bring the characters to life and then freeze frame the characters.

Now it’s time to bring the whole painting to life. Again one by one point toward a volunteer with the paint brush, but this time they must continuously say and do their action over and again until you wave your brush toward the volunteer.You are like an orchestra conductor bringing in more and more characters,voices and actions and then one by one freeze framing the characters. You have as a class brought the painting to life.

Group performances.

Divide your class into groups and ask the groups to create their own group 3D Art performances of the painting.

Make sure the group has a range of different confidence and ability learners across both languages and drama and performance.

Nominate one member of the group as artist and this person needs an art brush and palette.

Keep a record

Takeaway resource

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Explore 3D Art
£0.99

Film the group performances and using APPs produce a class series of performances of the painting brought to life.

Take photos of the children in the poses with props and create a class montage display of the painting brought to life with target language speech bubbles of the language the children selected from the brain bank.

Explore "number" machines.

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5 Day Creativity in Language teaching Masterclass sign up

In April PLN celebrate our 10th Birthday!

To celebrate this we want to host a free masterclass for all to join in teaching primary languages creatively.

From 1st-5th April.

There will be daily video demos and ideas shared by Janet and some of the team. And the opportunity to interact and engage with the team via ‘live’ sessions


Explore Number Machines

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Explore children’s knowledge of numbers and create a simple physical sequence of activities. A combination of language learning, physical movement and drama.By the end of the lesson, children will have recalled target language numbers ,explored the dynamics of the number sounds and shapes and created group performances of number sequences and potentially number sentences.

Decide which sequence of target language numbers your learners need to explore.

In the classroom:

Introduce or revisit a sequence of numbers in the target language (single digit, two or three digit numbers depending on the stage of the learners and their target language knowledge). Focus on pronunciation,rhythm and recall hooks.

In a large space:

In the hall,on the field or playground organise your class into differentiated ability groups, taking into consideration both language skills,drama/physical skills and confidence.

Explore shape.

Challenge the children to work in pairs within their groups. Ask the pairs to recall the target language numbers and explore the sound of the language and what the number looks like.Can they say the target language numbers in sequence and use their bodies to physically convey the shape of the number.

Explore the sounds

Challenge the pairs to recall the target language numbers and explore the dynamic sound of each number.Is it an explosive sound, a soft sound, a staccato sound, a sliding sound. Ask the children to add an action that conveys the sound of each target language number.

Show and share

Each pair within each group shows and shares to the other members of their own group the shape and sound sequences that they have created.

Group number sequences.

Each group combines the ideas of pairs and generates a “Number Machine”. The “Number Machine” is a dynamic, physical performance of the target language numbers in sequence with each child performing one or more numbers designated to him or her. The machine needs to be a sequence of machine -like / robot like number performances with a start and and an end group shape and sound.

Whole class show and share.

Ask the class to watch each group’s number sequence performance and to compare and contrast the shapes and sounds of each number sequence performance.

Add challenge. Number Sentences

Download the free resource here

Explore number machines pack
Explore number machines pack
£0.99

Introduce the notion of “Number Sentences”. Practice and agree on actions for the target language words for “plus”/ “minus”/ “equals”. Challenge the groups to create a physical “Number Sentence” machine.

How PLN will support you during lockdown - Newsletter

Perhaps this is not exactly the situation we thought we would be in, but here we are in a second national lockdown... I know you might be feeling confused or stressed so I would just like to remind you that we are here to support you.

Just as we have done in the previous lockdown, and as we have supported you throughout your teaching in schools, we are still here and together we will get through this.

(If you are not currently a PLN member, get a free trial to see if our resources could support your school. Get in touch!)

In this blog:
- Support and materials available to you NOW on the VLE
- Additional materials being made this week (available by the end of the week)
- Additional support opportunities available to you

Please take the time to read what is here for you, and we hope you will find this helpful during these unusual times.

Support and materials available NOW

We already have a great deal of materials for you to use in the 'Home and School' area on your Dashboard (see image below for how to access this area)

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In this area are lots of materials and resources (the headings are hyperlinks to take you straight to the mentioned resources):

Janet's Home Learning Overview video summarises what you have available in this area. This is definitely worth a watch!

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Circuit Breakers!

Available in French and Spanish for Autumn 1 and Autumn 2 (Spring 1 coming VERY SOON) these are perfect for children to practise their language learning skills at home. Each circuit breaker has a few topics to choose from for each stage of language learning (for each half term there is a Stage 1, Stage 2 and a Stages 3 and 4 Circuit Breaker) and in each topic there is a variety of tasks: Listen, Speak, Learn, Play and Remember.

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The children will revisit key language in a fun and engaging way, and all you have to do is download the Circuit Breaker you need and share it with the children on your school website, on a sharing platform or anyway you wish, and direct the children to the topic you would like them to practise.

You may wish to listen to Janet and Will's podcast as they explain all about the Circuit Breakers and how they can be used. Click here to listen to and watch Janet and Will's circuit breaker video podcast.

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LEAP activity packs are available with a variety of lessons to use with a mixture of abilities, along with a short video to explain how to use them. These will be PERFECT to use with any key worker children you have in school. Put simply, there is one lesson plan per theme, and four activity sheets pitched at the correct level for your Stage 1 - 4 learners so you can teach one lesson, and differentiate the tasks effectively. There are plenty of themes to use in French and Spanish.

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Retrieval activity grids for children to go back and challenge themselves on something they have learnt in the past, all linked to topics in the scheme of work.

Explore France/Spain with Space Miles is still there to use if you wish to do something more linked with culture. There is a series of lessons to use with any children you have in school... why not bring the country to the classroom and celebrate the culture of France or Spain with your language learners?

We also have a huge variety of Home Learning Activity sheets linked to the themes in the scheme of work and organised into Autumn, Spring and Summer.

We will be putting together some Home Learning activity booklets this week with a series of six activity sheets (one per week of this half term) which you will be able to share with any children who do not have access to a computer or the internet at home. There will be one pack per stage of language learning and these will be available by the end of the week in French and Spanish.

We really hope all these materials will help you organise home learning and get ready for any lessons with children in school. We do have more on the way too, so stay with me as I show you what you will be able to use from next week...

Additional materials on the way

I've already hinted at a couple of things, so here's a rundown of what is on the way:

Spring 1 Circuit Breakers

These will be available by the end of the week with topics linked to the Scheme of Work for Spring 1. You are still very welcome to use the Autumn 1 and Autumn 2 Circuit Breakers to revisit topics the children have covered, but along with Spring 1 you will have a variety of topics and tasks for the children to complete. Spring 1 activity booklets If you have any children at home who do not have access to a computer or the internet, you may wish to use our activity booklets which will consist of six activity sheets (one per week for Spring 1). There will be one activity booklet per stage of language learning which can be printed off and sent to children to complete, available in French and Spanish.

Lockdown Language Lessons

I am VERY excited about this! We are going to be offering some 5-10 minute lessons which will be recorded each week by one of our associate language teachers and will be available for you to use with children in each stage of language learning. The lessons will start off with some revisiting of topics from the Autumn Term, and nearer to the February half term holiday we will start on some new vocabulary from Spring 1. We hope you will find these really useful and interactive!

YouTube videos

As in the previous lockdown we will be releasing weekly YouTube videos which you can access on our YouTube channel There are still some great videos there from the last lockdown and I can already see some new ones, including the New Year's Rap in French and Spanish, Winter Colours Mindfulness video (this is beautiful and relaxing!), and Irene has also recorded a fab phonics video (Irene en casa Letters and Sounds 1.)

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We hope you find these really useful and watch out for more on the way!

Hopefully you are now thinking about all the options available to you and putting together a plan of what you can use to help reduce your workload over the coming weeks. We really hope you find all this helpful in the current circumstances.

Additional support opportunities available

I hope you can see how PLN is here to support you during these difficult times. For our network, there are plenty of materials available on the VLE, both for immediate use, and more on the way for you to use from next week. All CPD and arranged meetings are going ahead as planned. Please get in touch with catherine@primarylanguages.network if there is anything else we can do.

If you’re not a member, please contact us if you have any queries.

A recap of 2020- PLN

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Did the team at Primary Languages Network in January- February 2020 expect to be “teaching emotions behind the mask” or re-settling primary language learners on the return of all primary schools to in-school learning in September 2020 with our Rainbow Song, originally intended just for European Day of Languages? The short answer is no!

I’ve been challenged by the PLN team to share my ten most significant steps/ memories of PLN and 2020.

I think I must start by saying what a team and what team effort and this includes every member of 620 plus schools and teachers we work with too. Thank you to everyone.

Mid-March and we realised that schools were about to close. We produced our first home learning grid with online resources for all our network school children working at home.

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By the end of March, nearly all our young primary language learners were being supported by class teachers in schools, delivering distanced learning,using our learning resources.

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By end of March/ early April, we were up and running with our home learning YouTube channel “ PLN Kids” and the C’est Emilie and Es Irene videos, accessible to everyone regardless of whether or not schools and children belonged to Primary Languages Network.

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Schools, teachers, and children kept us inspired and keen to share more with the wider teaching and learning community.

By early May our Instagram page had become a way to share the joy and the ideas that have kept us motivated and determined to support everyone.

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Every year we hold our face to face PLN conference. Behind the scenes, a network school survey confirmed that teachers wanted to hold a virtual conference. We are very proud to say that we were “the first” to offer a virtual primary languages conference as a free CPD opportunity to the whole teaching community.

What we didn’t realise , was that we would have over 900 delegates per week and that as a team we would quickly have to become masters of Facebook Live for weekly questions and answers live chat about the week’s focus.

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Missed the sessions? Here’s the link to the Youtube clip of HMI Lead for MFL Michael Wardle’s presentation on Pillars of Progress and Ofsted’s expectations. And if you want to catch up on other sessions then you can still access these in the three network member reviews of the conference in the PLN blog. Just search for blog posts with headers like Natalie’s below.

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From March onwards, our team of class language teachers, led by Emilie, our Language Teacher Manager. have worked alongside schools to maintain primary language learning. It has kept our finger on the pulse and helped us to create suitable learning resources for key-workers, home learning, bubbles, socially distanced learning etcetera. It’s the “banarama effect”.

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In May we began to make home learning booklets for home and in-school side bye side learning, informed by our own team’s experiences during Covid19.

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And yet again we have seen how what we do,has a positive impact in schools beyond our normal reach.

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And by early Summer we were busy training and sharing as a team in Zoom and Microsoft Teams and delivering online lessons. Until look at us now, able to beam lessons into the classroom that are just right!

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and able to continue to deliver online successfully and creatively our menu of CPD, led by our CPD Account Manager,Susanne, for all our ITT provider, MATs and TSA partners.

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End of the calendar year and where are we now?

Well,all the experience we have gained from March until now has led to the creation of Circuit Breakers to enable everyone to step into 2021, confident that young language learners in or out of school can access high-quality language learning that matches their stage and needs in primary French and Spanish.

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