Tuesday 28 January 2014

Papier - pierre - ciseaux (rock - paper - scissors)

Bonjour,

Clare Seccombe blogged earlier this week about a powerpoint which behave like a 'random picture generator' and kindly uploaded the powerpoint on ther (amazing!) blog.

It got me thinking about how I could use and adapt this. I was planning a Year 6 lesson on sports and games also trying to incorporate playground games following some ideas that Janet Lloyd had presented at the last Janet Lloyd Network CPD back in November.

And this is what I came up with to introduce the game 'papier - pierre - ciseaux' (rock-paper-scissors). First I'll introduce the 3 actions and explain the rules in French, see my powerpoint below. 



And then, using the 'random picture' powerpoint we'll play round of 'teacher vs. class' before they can have a go in pairs.


Monday 27 January 2014

What went well last week #6


Bonjour, 

These are a few activities that worked really well for me last week. 

This is for me to remember in my practice what games, songs, etc. work and also to share ideas with you. 
Most of the ideas below are really simple, they are tried and tested in various schools and they work!

Writing ‘draft’ tweets

In Year 6, we are learning about sports and hobbies and expressing likes/dislikes. The children practiced giving their opinions (in writing) on sports as if they were tweeting about it – 140 characters no more! 
Who can get the closest to 140 characters? 
Download the template here.


Making songs up

In year 3 we are learning about animals and also trying to speak in sentences and say which animal we like. 
We’ve been singing along to this song to practice ‘J’aime…’ Et toi?’ 
(I voluntarily used the indefinite article as it is the way I introduced the animal : un/une)
Tune: 'If you're happy and you know it'

Then, each table had a verse of the song to adapt and perform adding actions. You can differentiate by giving the 3rd verse to your more able children as there are more words to think about.



Weather/Date

In KS1, we are linking months of the year and weather. The class teacher whom I cover for French, sent me this link and she will use it to follow up my lessons.

Also available in Spanish and Dutch here.

Colours

A few weeks ago,  I ordered some counters and dice to play board games and I received a big bag of 500 colourful counters, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with them… now I know!

In French club (KS1) we have been doing a lot of work on colours mainly through songs and games (listening/speaking). This week children were using their reading skills to match the word to the colours/counters. Download the template here

There are so many other ways of using the counters and I’m sure they will come in really handy.
The counters are from this website: £3.26 for a bag of 500 ! 

What about you? What worked well for you recently?

Monday 20 January 2014

What went well last week #5


Bonjour, 

These are a few activities that worked really well for me last week. 

This is for me to remember in my practice what games, songs, etc. work and also to share ideas with you. 
Most of the ideas below are really simple, they are tried and tested in various schools and they work!


New greeting songs

  • Alphabet song – I don’t normally teach the alphabet but this is a great song to do just that, it is also useful to learn some key sounds in French: ‘A’; ‘I’, ‘U’ , for example.

  • Salut salut salut – repetitive song and catchy tune, great for starting off the lesson and putting children in the ‘mood’ for French.



In year 4 we’ve just started to look at family through the story of the 'alien family' from the Janet Lloyd Network  – which is always a hit! We added actions and silly voices and acted out the story. We played some cards games to help us remember the names:

  • Memory/pairs – with 2 sets of pictures - facing down, can you find the matching pairs as well as saying who it is.

  • Montrez moi (Show me) – with 2 sets of picture (facing up) between 3 children, call out a family member and ask the children to show you the correct picture (there are only 2 correct pictures and 3 children so it can get messy!)


In year 5 we are looking at fruits and vegetables and describing them using adjectives: c’est rond, c’est long, c’est gros/moyen/petit. Qu’est ce que c’est? 
We’ve been making up riddles, and making lift the flap games to slowly reveal the fruit or vegetable, here is an example :  


Finally, we've been talking a lot about the importance of pronunciation and using word association or pictures to help us learn new words.Children were having problems with the word 'poisson', pronouncing it 'croissant', also the 'oi' sound (as in poire/pear) was a bit difficult for some of the children when we looked at fruits and vegetables, and in year 4 we were thinking about strategies for remembering family members. 

So, I've made some posters which I'm going to share with my classes this week, hopefully this will help them to start thinking along these lines. 




And you ? What worked well for you recently ?

Sunday 12 January 2014

What went well last week #4


Bonjour, 

These are a few activities that worked really well for me last week. 

This is for me to remember in my practice what games, songs, etc. work and also to share ideas with you. 
Most of the ideas below are really simple, they are tried and tested in various schools and they work!

Last week was all about starting the new year and wishing everybody 'Bonne année' also celebrating the Epiphany.

Happy New Year! : 
Using this fantastic Youtube clip join in the countdown to midnight and wish everybody ‘Bonne année’, starting from 15.
Quinze, quatorze, treize, ..., un ... Bonne année!

Épiphanie (La galette des rois) :

  •   Game :

Put some cards up on the board with numbers on one side (1 per card) at the back of some of the cards draw a crown ( do this on 3 or 4 cards out of the 10).
Choose * a child to say a number in French, if they choose a number with a crown at the back, that child becomes the king or the queen. Ask the child to come to the front to be ‘crowned’ ask them: “Comment t’appelles-tu?” They have to reply: “Je m’appelle le roi/la reine...” The class then say hello to their new king/queen : “Bonjour, le roi/la reine...” This person stays king or queen until someone else find the next crown. Then, both children come to the front and the first child asks ‘Comment t’appelles-tu?’ the other one has to say: “Je m’appelle le roi/la reine...” and the class say hello to the new king or queen. Carry on until all the numbers have been called out. 

*or ask the youngest child in your class to pick out the names out of the class pot of lollipop sticks with names on it (to link with the tradition of the ‘galette des rois’).


  • ·  Making crowns:

Make a simple paper crown out of 2 stripes of paper, write one it: Je m’appelle le roi/la reine....’ and decorate it.
Do role plays to revise personal information (pretending to be kings/queens)
Make a more elaborate crown using these templates: 1, 2, 3.


  • · Worksheet: 
A simple wordsearch to recap the vocabulary of “L’épiphanie/la galette des rois” and a picture to draw your own ‘fève’ in the “galette” and colour it in. Download here.

What about you? What worked well for you last week ? 

Tuesday 7 January 2014

Les poissons et les pêcheurs (the fish and fishermen)


This is an idea for a counting game ideally played outside or in the hall.

You need to choose 4 or 5 children to be ‘les pêcheurs’ (the fishermen) the rest of the class are ‘les poissons’ (the fish).

The fishermen form a circle (the fishermen‘s net). They secretly agree on a number. The game starts and the fishermen start going round in a circle with their ‘net open’(arms up), they recite the rhyme : 

Petits poissons, venez , passez, 1, 2, 3, etc. 

The fish go in and out of the net, until the fishermen reach their secret number and close their ‘net’ (put their arms down). Whoever is caught in the net becomes part of the fishermen group. 

The games continue until there is no fish left !

Have a look at these two videos to see a demonstration of French children playing the game. 

Allez petits poissons!!