What went well last week #3

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 Christmas, we played games and talked about Christmas traditions in France and also shared and compared Christmas traditions from France, England, Poland, Russia and Latvia - where some children are from.  

- Singing Noel Jazz

- Playing 'pass the parcel' : with KS2 we passed the parcel to 'Vive le vent' and with KS1 we sang a simple song 'Joyeux Noël, Bonne 

année

, to the tune of 'Frère Jacques' (Jo-yeux No-ël; Jo-yeux No-ël  Bonne année; Bonne année; Jo-yeux No-ël; Jo-yeux No-ël; Bonne année ; Bonne année).

In the parcel, there were words and questions taken from all the work we have been doing since the beginning of the year- this was great for revision. 

As a variation, in the bag I put words to do with winter/Christmas and on the board, I blue-tacked the matching pictures to do a matching up activity and set it up as a 'detective activity'. 

- Designing a 'Bûche de Noël' - as part of my presentation about Christmas in France I always talk about the food we eat and the 'Bûche de Noel' always get children excited (a chocolate cake for dessert!).

I put together a simple worksheet with a 'blank' bûche to decorate by cutting and sticking the decorations on the 'buche'. You can download it here. We started by googling pictures of 'bûche' to give the children some ideas of what it should look like. 

- Playing a beetle drive game with a 'Père Noël to re-build - great to revise body parts. Download the picture here all you need to do is to cut it out, get a big foam dice and number the body parts  (6 in total) 

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

What went well last week #2

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!

• Looking at this online advent calendar at the beginning of the lesson, I particularly liked the '2nd' where you have to decorate the Christmas tree. It's really good to re-inforce the work on days and months that we have been doing with Year 3/4 recently.

• Making Christmas decorations out of the days of the week or months of the year spiral - download here (Thanks Janet Lloyd for the idea!)

• Playing some miming games and freeze frames with the months of the year and having to think about what happens in that month to help the rest of the class guess (fireworks/november; valentine's day/february, etc. )

• Singing along to this song to practice months of the year.

I also used the song as a listening activity, the children had to listen carefully and put their hand up each time they heard the month of their birthday (not so easy as it goes quite fast...)

• Working on the Estate Agent project with Year 6 at Oughtrington CP School - as part of their creative curriculum topic.We have been working on types of houses, rooms, prepositions and after designing floor plans for their dream houses, last week we 'put the houses on the market' and filled an information sheet in prevision of doing whole class presentations next lesson.

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

What went well last week

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!

• 'read my lips' : Teacher mouth a number between 1 - 12, the class has to 'read' your lips and say what number it is, hand it over to the children after a few examples to play in pairs. 

• playing teacher vs class to practice saying how old you are. Teacher chooses a number between 1 - 12 (age) and the class has to guess how old you are, they have 4 chances to guess it right and it's first to 4 who wins.

• singing ('rapping') along to this with Years 5 and 6 to practice saying how old you are.

link to Youtube : here 

• making star wands with Years 1 and 2 to perfom 'Brille brille petite  étoile' ('Twinkle twinkle little star') at the Christmas assembly.
  

• playing playground clapping games with Year 6 as our greeting/starter activity. We'll be learning: Tiens voila main droite, etc. and 'Pierre, papier, ciseau' as well. (See Janet Lloyd Network hand out on games from last CPD session).

• Making mini books with flaps at French club about animal farms and the noises they make as in 'Dans la ferme à Mathurin' (Old McDonald had a farm).

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

Noël - Celebrating Christmas #1

Bonjour!

This year we will be singing a fantastic (and really catchy!) Christmas song with Year 5 at St Peter's C.E. Primary School in Newton-le-Willows which I didn't know about until Janet Lloyd (who is always on the look for fresh/creative ideas...) sent this link to our team of language assistants/teachers.

Here are the words to the song :

Noël jazz Noël, c'est comme un rythme de jazz Ça commence tout doucement. On n'entend que la contrebasse Comme le cœur d'un petit enfant. Et sur ce rythme-là: NOEL Chantez tous avec moi: NOEL Chantez tout bas tout bas: NOEL Joyeux Noël, DOU-BI-DOU-WA! Noël, c'est comme un rythme de jazz Ça commence tout doucement. On n'entend que la guitare Comme le cœur d'un petit enfant. Et sur ce rythme-là: NOEL Chantez tous avec moi: NOEL Chantez tout bas tout bas: NOEL Joyeux Noël, DOU-BI-DOU-WA! Noël, c'est comme un rythme de jazz Ça commence tout doucement. On n'entend que la batterie Comme le cœur d'un petit enfant. Et sur ce rythme-là: NOEL Chantez tous avec moi: NOEL Chantez tout bas tout bas: NOEL Joyeux Noël, DOU-BI-DOU-WA!

Game ideas #1

I'd like to start a series of post on game ideas and what games work well in primary MFL. 

I've listed 3 ideas below for games you can do with any year group, any topic, and involve zero preparation (other than flashcards or a powerpoint presentation that you're using to introduce vocabulary) 

• 'Montrez moi' (Show me)

 

It is a very simple game that we used this half term to learn and practice numbers in French from 0 - 10.

 

How we play it : 

The teacher calls a number in French and repeats it a number of times : cinq, cinq, cinq, cinq... This gives them thinking time however when they hear you saying 'Montrez moi' their thinking time is up and they have to show you the correct numbers of fingers.

Then the teacher calls 'Regardez moi' (Look at me) and count out loud and on his/her fingers to reveal the correct number. The children get a point if they got it right.

 

We have also played this game with numbers up to 20, children played in pairs and had to make up the numbers using both their 2 hands.

• Plus vite ! (faster!) : 

We used it to review previously learnt vocabulary such as colours.

 

How we played it : 

The teacher asks for a volunteer who think they can name all the items of a presentation (i.e. colours) correctly. 

Go through the slides of a powerpoint presentation whilst the child name the items. 

The next person is then asked 'plus vite?' (faster?) if they think they can do it faster than the person before them - they reply 'plus vite' (faster) 'pareil' (same) or 'moins vite' (less fast). 

The game continue until nobody can do it faster than the person before.

• Chaud/froid (hot/cold):

We played this game in KS1 to learn and practice colours

 

How we played it : 

Once you have introduced and practiced some colours send a child out of the room whilst you hide a flashcard in the room, ask the child to come back in and the rest of the class helps him/her to find the card by whispering (if 'cold', far away from the card) or shouting (if 'hot', close to the card) the colour : rouge, rouge, etc. 

What about you what games have you played lately?