Monday 10 November 2014

Ring out those bells tonight! Christmas greetings

Getting ready for CPD and thinking of ways to practise simple language with beginner target language learners and with a Christmas focus and also to encourage the development of listening, speaking and reading skills I have put together these two simple ideas.
The first ideas was based upon counting stars and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star 

The  idea below is based on Christmas bells and singing a simple song based on Christmas greetings.This will work in all languages .



The example below is in Spanish .We sing this style of Christmas greetings song in French and German too and it's to a very familiar refrain "London's Burning".It's all about getting the children familiar with how to say "Happy Christmas" to family and friends.Here are the Spanish words,you just need to put them together and into an order that suits the refrain!


We will be using this  as a possible song to sing with the younger children at Christmas etc.add actions and sing in the round- but it will make a great listening and responding activity too with KS2.

  • Show the children the three main phrases from the song .I have added a bell symbol to represent the bell - but they would be really great if they were printed out on hand size bell shapes ......


  • Ask the children to practise each phrase with you as if they were bell ringers- it would be great to have some bells and chimes for this activity too.Each syllable to the tune of the refrain is a bell ring or chime- so each syllable must be a movement as if ringing bells.
  • Now invite three children to the front to be the bell ringers.Give each child one of the key phrases and ask them to listen out for their key phrase as you sing the song as a class and they must ring their bell throughout the whole time their phrase is being sung.
  • Now give out bell cards to all the class and ask the class to listen out for their phrases and to ring their bells when they hear their phrase.
  • Ask the children to walk around their room with their key phrase card,saying their phrase from the song that is written on the card and find other children who are saying the same phrase.Can the children gather together and make a group with the same phrase.Now we have carol singers and bell ringers! Simply sing the song and ask the children in each group to wave their cards as if they were bells as their phrase is sung in the song.Sing the song several times.
  • Time to add some percussion too now I think ......

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