Sunday 15 December 2013

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 ? 


Sunday 8 December 2013

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 ? 








Sunday 1 December 2013

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 ?