What worked well last week #11

One of our focuses in KS2 this half term is school life; so far, we have been discussing differences and similarities and had a handwriting lesson to practice our French cursive handwriting.

 

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Last week, we were having a maths lesson… in French. We practiced our numbers to 20 and learnt the names for the symbols:

add = plus

take away = moins

times = fois

divided by = divisé par

equal = égal

We did some mental maths and some simple sums on the mini-whiteboard. We made it into a challenge by playing the countdown music and had to get our answers ready in 20 sec or so.

Then we had a go at some ‘physical maths’.  We showed the numbers using our fingers and used our arms to make up the symbols: cross shape for add, etc. It’s pretty easy to work out the actions for each symbol.

We did a couple of examples at the front with 5 volunteers, one person per ‘item’ in the sum:

i.e. 5 + 5 = 10

As well as showing their number or symbol they had to say what it was:

i.e cinq plus cinq égal dix

Finally, the children got in groups of 5 or 6 and prepared their own physical maths sum to test the rest of the class.

Another focus in Y6 is ‘all the about me’ including introducing a friend or classmate. We are trying to gently move the children (not beginners) from the ‘je’ form to the ‘il/elle’ form.

As a warm up/starter we had a game of ‘don’t break the chain’ with je m’appelle, il or elle s’appelle, etc.

First, I introduced the idea of the difference between je m’appelle and il/elle s’appelle by asking children ‘comment t’appelles-tu’ and then saying (and exaggerating) ‘il/elle s’appelle’ + pointing to the child. 

Pretty quickly they worked out I was taking about the 1^st pers. vs. 3^rd pers.

I set them the challenge on their table (4 or 6 children per table) to say what their name was, adding the previous person’s name and so on .i.e. je m’appelle… / il s’appelle / elle s’appelle… / etc.

We added an element of competition and tried to be the fastest table to say everybody’s name without breaking the chain (without getting it mixed up with je and il/elle). 

I didn't think it would be THAT much fun, but it was, and all the tables had a go at being the fastest

If you’ve been reading my blog you know I like simple ideas, well there you have...2 new – tried and tested- activities!