Christmassy questions,answers.engaging in conversations and puppet shows

This week during CPD there is a Christmassy feel!
Here is a really simple way to engage the children in purposeful language learning whether they are beginners,moving on or advanced language learners....adding that Christmassy touch .

First of all tomorrow at a CPD session we will be exploring ways to use my paper puppets with older learners- but the idea below can be as simple or as challenging as you like and can be used across KS1 and KS2.
If you haven't already seen the paper puppets blog - here you go!

Paper puppets with a purpose 
And below is a very old but well loved Madame souris made by a young learner years ago!

Here is my new and very simple model! It's a Father Christmas example , but you could have rudolph, a snowman, a Christmas fairy etc!

All I did was source a Father Christmas face template , print it out and once I had made the basic paper puppet template stick the Father Christmas face to the template.Of course children could make their own and customise them too!

How can we use these festive paper puppets?

Well we can meet the objective in the new DfE POS of : engaging in conversation , asking and answering questions

With beginners:

• hold simple greetings, name, feelings and farewell question and answer dialogues between Father Christmas and the other festive characters the children have chosen to create.
• play "knock knock who is there?" as a class question to a child hiding their paper puppet , who reveals the puppet and says the name of the character and a Christmas greeting e.g "joyeux noel/ feliz navidad/ frohe Weihnachten "

With moving on learners:

• Ask the children to think about the likes and dislikes of the festive characters (food/weather/music.......!) and to create a conversation with a partner between two festive characters. Ask them to practise and memorise their conversations and then perform for the class the "festive puppet show" 

With advanced learners:

• Ask the children to create a question and answer conversation between two festive characters that explores the daily routine of the characters on Christmas eve and Christmas Day- what time do they get up ,have breakfast , what do they wear (Rudolph will naturally wear his red nose ...!) etc.What do they do on the two days and how do they feel at the end of the day? Brainstorm and record ideas first and write up with the children's support key sentences and questions that will be useful in the task .Encourage children to find and use new language alongside the familiar language.The children will need to write out their dialogues in pairs and practise so they can perform the dialogues with the written text only for reference if necessary. Children will need bilingual dictionaries to compete this task.Again there is the chance to share with the class.