Our suitcases of learning

In my last post I detailed the idea of packing a suitcase of learning before the summer - inspired by Janet Lloyd (see my last post here). 

I've now 'filled' my suitcases with 5 of my 7 schools - between 4/6 classes in each school... you do the maths :-) 

This provided me with really valuable feedback regarding what children enjoy doing in my lessons and I thought I'd share with you the outcome. 

      

I've compiled the list of the most popular : games, topics, songs and language learning activities. 

• Favourite games: What’s your favourite game to practice new language?

Most popular : 

Boys vs. girls and other team games

Splat

Corners (in the class or in the hall/large space)

Elevens

Stand up bingo

Also mentioned: 

Tour de France board game (on Janet Lloyd network website - simple board game to download also see my post here)

Jaques a dit (Simon says)

Pass the parcel

Bingo

Flashcard games (hide &guess, hot/cold, revealing from a ‘magic bag’)

Mini whiteboard game (responding game)

OXs

Authentic playground games (or adapted from other languages) : Papier pierre ciseaux (see my post here) and ‘café au lait’ (as ‘chocolate’ in Spanish)

Epiphany game (see my post here)

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• Favourite topics:  What did you enjoy learning about?

Most popular: 

Festival (Epiphany) and special events (Tour de France)

Food (fruits & veg, breakfast items, picnic, ice creams)

Animal: including mini-beasts, old Mac Donald had a farm, the very hungry caterpillar.

Flags and countries - We used the 'Mon drapeau' sequence from Lightbulb languages.

Kite festival for European Day of Languages  2014 (see my post here)

Alien family (on Janet Lloyd Network SOW)

Also mentioned:  

Weather

Clothes

Carnival

Town/ cities in France, virtual trip around France and Paris (see my post here) 

All about me (name, age, where you live, etc.) conversation

Months of the year and birthday party

Numbers/colours

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• Songs: What song(s) do you prefer singing? 

Most popular: 

Numbers to 20 (Alain le Lait)

Bonjour, Bonjour, comment ca va? (Alain le Lait)

Months of the year

Jean Petit qui danse

Pomme peche poire abricot

Also mentioned: 

Numbers to 10

Bonjour Madame

Quel age as-tu? Rap

Days of the week

Salut, salut, salut

Alphabet

Tchik Tchak

Check out my Youtube playlists: favourite songs to teach French and Greeting songs for all the links. 

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• Favourite language learning activity: How do you enjoy learning French? What do you like doing most in our lessons?

Most popular: 

Singing songs

Games and quizzes

Creative activities i.e making cards, mini-books, masks etc.

Also mentioned :  

Using new technologies (apps) See the presentation I gave at the JLN Primary Languages conference in June 2014.

Role-plays

Joining in stories

Let's pack our suitcase!

For one of my school it is already time to 'pack our suitcase' this week as this is our last French lesson of the year...

Inspired by a blog post Janet Lloyd wrote a few weeks ago about transition between year groups, we will be packing our suitcase with our favourite... game / song / topic / activity so we can pass it on to next year's teacher. 
I've created a simple powerpoint (you can download it here) to fill in with the class with their favourite activities (including links to videos, etc.). I will email it to their new teacher, ready to use on their first French lesson next year. 

This is what it might look like :