Christmas Cracker Content!

Christmas Crackers have always entertained my friends from other countries! They love them! This year I thought we could make a simple UKS2 lesson on similarities and differences in Christmas traditions and add a focus on sentence structure and grammar too.



We are going to create a box set of christmas crackers - each containing a full sentence made up of a part of the verb "to have", a noun and an adjective.The noun and the adjective are the surprise content of the cracker and the children are going to be able to determine the content! 

In this activity children will be practising

• nouns, 
• adjectives and adjectival agreement 
• and the verb "to have"

You may want to practise the verb "to have" before you attempt the activities below.Here is a festive approach to practising the verb "to have"Christmas Cracker and Christmas Carol style !
Christmas Carol Verb Singers






You will need Christmas crackers made as follows for this activity:

Plain card tempates - two per cracker.

First template is the base, 

Second template is cut in to three sections - two ends and a middle.

On the left hand end write part of the verb to have.

Gather all the right hand templates together and also make a pile of the centre sections you put to one side.

On each of the right end templates you are going to write adjectives that agree with the nouns you will write on the centre sections .

The activity

The children are going to be able to select a noun and an adjective that agrees with the noun to complete the class "Christmas Crackers" .

Each noun should be a festive object and you should aim to have examples of masculine and feminine singular nouns and plural nouns too.

Randomly place the christmas crackers with the parts of the verb on the board 

Can the children help you to create a Christmas box of crackers - so that the crackers on the board are in paradigm order?

Now ask the children to select nouns for each cracker (perhaps even the objects you find as presents in the cracker or characters and objects we associate with Christmas).

Can they now add the correct adjective- remind them that the spelling of the adjective must suit the noun they are describing!

Blu-tac the noun and the adjective to the cracker selected by the children

Can you make a box set of crackers each with the object and its description!

Time for your own crackers! 

Ask the children to design and create their own "Christmas Crackers Selection Box" ,creating their own full sentences and adding a picture of the object on the reverse of the cracker. 

You can support children by allowing them to use the language you have practised or you can stretch children by asking them o think of their own objects , find the noun and describe the noun with their own choice of adjectives.

Christmas Carol Verb Singers!

This activity is a stand alone activity or can be part of the Christmas Cracker lessons for UKS2
The aims of the activity are to practise the parts of the verb "to have" and create a simple carol performance in which children identify the singular and plural forms of the present tense of the verb"to have".




You will need to introduce or revisit the verb "to have" :christmas cracker style! 

• Draw  8 2D Christmas Crackers on festive paper and the same on plain card.
• Cut out  the shapes.
• On the plain paper in the centre section , write one part of the present tense of the verb paradigm  "to have" in  the target language.
• Cut the festive paper crackers in half.

• Stick the outer edges of one of the festive Christmas cracker on to one of the plain paper crackers - so that the festive cracker can open and shut in the middle.
• Put the finished festive crackers on the board. 
• Ask volunteers amongst the children to select a cracker.
• Open the cracker with the children.

• Look at the phrase written in the middle. Do the children recognise any of the phrases?Can they identify that hes phrases are parts of a verb?
• Can they help you to organise the crackers in to a paradigm of the verb (singular line of crackers and plural line of crackers) ?
• (You may need blu tac to keep the festive crackers shut when you want to conceal the phrases written on the plain paper).

A Christmas Carol 

• Practise the verb "to have" in the target language by opening the festive crackers one by one from the top of the singular line through to the bottom of the plural line of crackers.
• Can the children see any patterns emerging? 
• Hum with the class the tune of "We wish you a Merry Christmas". Pause occasionally and select a festive cracker.Can the children remember the phrase that is inside the cracker?
• In pairs ask the children to try to fit the paradigm of the verb "o have" in the target language to the tune of "We wish you a Merry Christmas!"(It will work in French,Spanish and German if you make it a "merry" and sometimes "exagerated" sounding song").
• Ask volunteers to share their songs.Select a class favourite from the songs.
• Now practise the song as a class group of carol singers!

• Make it a Christmas Carol singer performance- ask the children to stand in rows of six making a crescent shape.
• Sing the chosen version of the "to have" Merry Christmas song and ask the children to shake hands with one person on the left or right on singular parts of the verb and to cross arms and join hands with partners on either side and shake hands ,standing in their rows for the plural parts of the verb

Christmas heroes!

My previous blog post about Mog the hero of the Christmas night has got me thinking!


What about creating descriptions of christmas characters as heroes of the celebrations?
we can explore the verb "to be" , adjectives and the agreement of adjectives with the masculine and feminine characters!


Step One 

• Show the children part of the clip of Mog saving the Christmas celebrations in the Sainsburys advert for 2015 or discuss with the children what Mog has done to save the celebrations without viewing the clip.
• Discuss how this makes him  a hero!

Step Two 

• Brainstorm or share adjectives with the children in UKS2 that we associate with heroes.
• Look for cognates and semi cognates 
• Check for false friends

Step Three

• Write them super hero style in the sky - so the children are looking at the spelling and practising the spelling

Step Four

• Show the paradigm of the verb to be to the class.
• Practise saying the verb "super hero" style
• Idenitify the parts of the verb yoou will need to say "He is...." and "She is..."
• Ask the children to tell a partner a super hero sentence for Mog in the target language and then to write  the super hero sentence in the air. 
• On the board with the class write 5  "Mog the super hero sentences" - use the "He is ..." part of your paradigm of the verb "to be" plus five of the adjectives you have been investigating
• You could stop here and create Mog the superhero christmas posters or .....
• Ask the children to create a poster about their own superhero character (Rudolph the reindeer or Father Christmas or a Christmas elf- the character must be a masculine noun.Again you could stop here and create your own super hero posters or .........

Step Five 

• Introduce the Christmas fairy .(This must be a feminine noun). 
• Using the "She is ...." sentence from your paradigm above and the adjectives you used to describe a super hero,write some super hero sentences for the fairy on the board.
• Can the children read the sentences with a partner
• Can the children in pairs now say the sentences in their own preferred order for the Christmas fairy from most true to least true
• Can they cross refernce the sentences abouty the Christmas fairy and one of the masculine christmas super heroes you have prepared sentences about (see above).Can they spot the spelling changes to the adjective?

And now using the People Pillar Poem activities from blogpost in May 2015 you could  create your  own Christmas superheroes pillar poems and 3D characters !Ths time focus on the 3rd person singular of the verb to be and the correct agreement of the adjectives to describe the character's super powers! 

People pillar poems and template

Mog, negatives and positives at Christmas

Most of us will by now have seen Sainsburys Christmas 2015 advertisement.It stars Mog the cat.There is a beautiful story by Judith Kerr about Mog at Christmas too- a much less disastrous story!
Here are some ways I think we can exploit the video clip with moving on and advanced learners in UKS2.

Let's take the clip and use the footage for language learning purposes before Christmas in UKS2.
First watch the clip and look at the language content- house,home, kitchen,food,decorations, actions,emotions etc....
First why not try out some of the observation reading activities I wrote about here:

You can revisit familiar language, explore new vocabulary (house,home,verbs ,adjectives, empotions, adverbs etcetra etcetra!)and broaden vocabulary and then get the children to observe the clip and identify when they see key written language.
Revisiting language observational games







Let's be a bit negative!
The clip describes how everything is spoilt by a fire in the kitchen.....
Why not practise the negative with the children in UKS2?

• Look at the structure of the negative using "there is/there are "in the target language.Ask the children to watch the clip and pause the clip at points and ask the class to write individually or in pairs or with TA support a negative sentence e.g pause as the tree falls down ... can the children write "There is no tree".
• Share the sentences!Ask volunteers to share their sentences either in spoken or written form.Write them out clearly on the board.
• Now let's add a touch of positivity! 
• Can the children help you to change their negative sentences to positive sentences! 
• Write the positive sentences out clearly too! 

Let's be melodramatic! 

• Ask the class to practise with a partner saying a negative sentence from your list and then the opposite "positive" sentence" from your list
• Can they add emotion in their voicesand facial expressions?
• Can the class mimic what they hear and see as children volunteer to perform their melodramatic negative- positive sentences?

Let's share the good news!

• Create simple negative- positive lift the flap strips - 
• Ask the children to write a negative statement on the top flap and a positive statement to rectify the situation on the bottom  flap
• Encourage children to find new target language vocaubulary for items associated with celebrations!  

Spider's web.Reading and Writing Creative Game

On a walk the other day a good friend of mine took this fabulous photo. We saw this web and we knew it was a spider in the middle but look carefully and you could ask yourself ....."Is it a spider , is it a tiger....?" The colourings and the dew mislead you! 

As it is Autumn and some of us will also be looking for ideas for Halloween ,I thought this idea would fit well with writing in UKS2 in the target language.It makes a great guessing game and an interactive reading display too!

1. Show them the picture and ask them which animals they can see.
2. Ask the children to think of imaginary spider's webs and mystical powers.Ask them to look up in their bilingual dictionaries possible animals and adjectives such as colours and shapes to describe them.
3. Ask the children to note down their findings.
4. Brainstorm other possible animals that you might see in an imaginary spider's web
5. Discuss the possible colours , size and shape of the animals
6. Note down the language you discuss on the whiteboard
7. ask the children to write three inetersting setences about the animal that they want caught in the spider's web 
8. Ask the children to draw a spider's web.Can they then write their sentences clearly and carefully long the threads of their webs.
9. In the centre they need to create their spider.Under the spider will be a picture of their own animal that they have described.
10. To create their spider they must fold a piece of paper in two and on the outside flap draw the spider.Cut out the shape of the spider.It must be a size that can sit in the centre of the web the child has drawn.
11. Now the child should add on the inside of the folded paper a drawing of the imaginary animal that is described in the written sentences. 
12. The folded spider flap needs to be added to the web
13. Each child is now a spider's web creator and must find partners in the class to work with
14. The partners in the class must read the sentences, draw on a mini whiteboard what they expect to see caught in the spider's web.Then the partner can lift the flap of the spider picture in the cnetre of the web and see if the drawing matches the original drawing of the spider's web creator?
15. The children swap roles and the reading activity starts again.
16. The children can swap partners several times and once you collect in the webs you have a wonderful display! 

Chocolate Bar Chats

Thanks to Sylvie Bartlett Rawlings I have been thinking about chocolate a lot today .Sylvie is hoping to create a language learning unit on chocolate in KS2 Primary Languages.....
This got me thinking about why not make the chocolate bar work for the language learner? !!

Here are my ideas for "chocolate bar chats"!

Create simple card chocolate bar shapes.
Here my shape is 3 x 3
Each  chocolate bar  is in its own wrappper.A piece of wrapping paper with a title on it or a re-usable envelope with a title on it - this is the theme  of the chocolate bar chat e.g. clothes/ food/ party/ etc
Each square in the block contains a word.
Each word needs to be able to be used in the  questions and answers determined by the title on the wrapping of the chocolate bar.
This is an opportunity for teacher AfL too - just how do different children use the key word prompts in their sentence construction etc?


Working with a partner can the children hold a "chocolate bar chat" based upon the wrapper theme and using up all the chunks of chocolate  in the chocolate bar questions and answers  to hold their own chocolate bar chat.
I would suggest that you have a maximum of four types of chocolate bars so that children in the class can be working on the same "chocolate bar" and the same words in the squares, but each convesation will be unique to  each pair of children

Show the four different wrappers to the class.
Ask the children to perform their chocolate bar chats for the class!
Can the class spot  which wrapper the chocolate bar has come from (i.e the theme)?
Can the class spot the the similarites and differences between the conversations?

Delighted that Sylvie loves the blog post and here are Sylvie's chocolate bars that she made following the instructions of the blog post.What a star!

Physical Tour de France Grammar Game !

The class need to decide on three symbols to represent nouns, adjectives and verbs.

Stand up right for a noun, wiggle your body for an adjective and pump your arms for a verb 

(just like you would have symbols in Charades for book, film, musical etc).

Warm up the class first -

• Show the written word for a noun (discuss this) and ask the children to show you the correct actions
• Show the children the written word for a verb (discuss this) and ask the children to show you the correct action
• Show the children the written word for an adjective (discuss this) and ask the children to show you the correct action.
• Show the same cards again but don't say of these are nouns/verbs or adjectives.Ask the children to demonstrate the action. they think matches the word type.

Divide your class into “Tour de France t-shirt teams- different coloured t-shirts . No team should be le maillot jaune/la camiseta amarilla or das gelbe Tshirt. This one is for the winners at the end of the game! 

Let’s brainstorm nouns, adjectives and verbs that we associate with sport and particulary with the Tour de France. You couod suggest that the children check and access these in the target language in bilingual dictionaries first!

Here are some to start us off  ……….

Nouns Cyclist , bike , wheel, tyre, puncture , race ,helmet , t-shirt , shorts ,road ,city ,start, finish ,speed, power….

Adjectives fast , fit ,tired, thirsty, determined , exciting, powerful , competitive ,breathless,sporty

Verbs to push , to pedal ,to race ,to compete, to challenge , to cheer, to watch , to participate, to win , to lose , to pass , to crash, to celebrate

Put the individual words as written target language words on to cards in a bag.Select five nouns, five adjectives and five verbs .

Check that the children have had time to look at and remember the meaning of the words with a partner in their team before you put the words in the bag. 

Rules of the team competition!

1.  A volunteer  from a team selects a word from the bag and decides if it’s a noun, an adjective or a verb. 
2. They must mime the word type action to their team.
3. The team receive one point for guessing this correctly
4. The volunteer must mime the meaning of the word- one more point for the team if they can guess and say it in the target language.
5. If you play this UKS2 Year 6 or with KS3  there are two bonus points if they can put the noun or the adjective in to a simple sentence e.g the helmet is blue (etc)
6. There is one more bonus point if the team can create a first person singular present tense statement if the volungteer has pulled a verbmout of the bag! (e.g. I push , I pedal, I race etc )? 

Superlative Tshirts!

Look at the tshirts awarded in the Tour de France - explain that the tshirts are awarded for the fastest cyclist  up a mountain, the fastest on the road, the person who wins the most races during the tour etc.

Discuss in English what the "most" really tellls us- it means that on this tour no one can do better in that particular race or on the whole tour.

Share le maillot jaune with the class

Take a look at how to form the superlative in the target language!

It's a good activity at the end of Year 5 or Yerar 6 and would work well in KS3 Year 7 too.

Search for characteristics

Ask the class to help you to find adjectives in the bilingual dictionary that describe "positive " qualities in a person (e.g helpful, kind, funny, friendly, supportive,organised, tidy, sporty etc)

Take vote

Give out card yellow tshirts as voting cards - one per child.

• Ask the class to take a vote on the most important characteristic they have found in the list of adjectives you have compiled if ..... they needed help learning something / wanted to be cheered up / wanted someone to keep them company etc

• Now take a vote on which four characteristics have been most important in your class this week/ this half term/ this term/ this year?

Who is the most .....?

Practise with the children creating the superlative of the adjective. for "the most organised boy" / " the most organised girl" ,"the most creative boy " "the most creative girl etc - the tidiest , the most helpful, the kindest.

Can the children spot the changes when we are describing a boy and when we are describing a girl?

Design your class tshirts 

Ask the class to design a tshirt to award to their partner to say what the best quality of this person is.

They must design the tshirt and add the superlative phrase

Our class reward tshirts

Now can your class help you to design reward t-shirts for the duration of the Tour de France?

These can be awarded on a daily basis for the “superlative” people in your class during the Tour de France!

Display the t-shirts with their superlative labels for all to see and add the faces of the children who win these t-shirts one by one.

Abracadabra Adjectives and Magic Tricks!

Here is one post unashamedly for my colleagues who teach German.
Grammar in German can be such fun! You just have to think of ways around the adjectives and the cases.
Let's make magic with adjectives!
We have a lovely short sketch that we use with Year 6 in our JLN SOW for German about a magician and his hat and all thew wonderful things he pulls out of his hat ....but not the rabbit he is looking for!
The activity below will help you to reinforce adjectival endings used with singualr indefinite nominative nouns or with indefinite accusative nouns, create a performance and hopefully have some fun!
There are probably 3 - 4 lessons of activities here.
You may also like to practise the verbs "haben" and "sein" prior to these activities.The following blog post have activities


Cinderella,carnival masks and the verb "to be "

The verb "to have" and a wizard's potion

Magician's steps:
You will need 

• a magician's hat or bag
• 6 animal cards - each animal all white balnk pictures ( a dog,a fish, a cat , a snake, a rabbit and a guinea pig)
• 6  more of the same animal cards - but each of the animals must now be a different colour -(e.g a red dog , a green cat , a purple guinea pig)  

Step One 
Practise the magic word- all magicians need a magic word "Abracdabra!

Step Two
Introduce the animal cards for your magic trick (two masculine , two feminine and two neuter nouns.)
Pop them in your magician's hat and ask the children to say the nouns as they disapper in to the hat.

Step Three- the magic word!
Create a speed chant - saying "Abracadabra and the noun for the animals in your magic hat/bag as they appear - using the singular indefinite nominative case e.g. ein Fisch, eine Katze , ein Kaninchen etc.
Say the magic phrase and nouns with "gusto"!  

Step Four- the magic signal trick!
Now add a magic signal to identify masculine nouns maybe a twirl of the hand , for feminine nouns maybe a swipe of the forehead, for neuter nouns a click of the fingers.Ask the children without your help to say the animal nouns with their magic symbols as you pop them back in the hat/bag!
Invite volunteers to come out and be magician's apprentices - can they say the magic word and then pull an animal out of the hat/bag.Can they say the correct singular indefinite nominative article and the animal noun plus also make the correct magic sign? 
There should be a round of applause from the audience (the other children ) after each magic trick

Step Five - Magik Menu and adding a touch of white!
Pop your white animal cards on the flip chart.
At the top of the flipchart write the title "Magik Menu"
Write next to each animal the sungular nominative indefinite article plus the coluor white with correct adjectival agreement and the animal noun.
Ask the children to see if they can see a magic pattern?
Try your magic pattern with three new animal words ( one masculine, one feminine and one neuter)
Does the pattern still work?

Step Six- Magik Menu and adding a touch of colour
Remove the white cards and the key phrases you have written
Add the coloured card animal pictures
Can the children on whiteboards and working in pairs, write the Magik Menu list that they think is now required?
e.g ein roter Hund, eine schwarze Schlange , ein graues Kaninchen) 
See if as a class the apprentice magicians can complete the flipchart "Magik Menu"


Step Seven
The class is almost ready to try out a colour changing magic trick!
First they need to watch, listen and observe an expert magician - you! 
You need a magician's bag or hat with the six colured animal cards already concealed in the hat.We are goig to use the verb "haben" so that we can now share with the children the change in adjecrival ending when the noun has a singular indefinite article in the accusative (..... einen Hund/ eine Katze/ ein Meerschweinchen) 

You must use the following phrases to make the magic work
Show the white animal card to the audience 

Say : 

 Hier ist ein weisser Hund

Pop the card in the magician's bag or hat

Ask the class to help you say the magic word!

Abracadabra!

Pull out the coloured version of the animal and say 

Ich habe einen roten Hund 

• Ask the children to talk with each other about the words they have heard and the changes they may also have heard.Take feedback .
• Try the activity again with a second masculine noun
• Ask the children to see if what they think they notiiced happens again?
• On whiteboards start a Magik Menu with the phrase "ich habe..." and the animals , colours and the changes to the article and the clour they hear.
• Check and take feedback
• Ask the children ro try out the magic trick with the third masculine animal noun you have used in step five. 

Repeat the activities above with feminine nouns and then with neuter nouns!

With the class make some simple rules about the use of adjectives with nouns using the verbal phrase "hier ist ..." and simple rules about the use of adjectives using the verb "haben"  

Make sure that these are visible in the classroom for the next step.....

Step Eight - our magician's show!

Can the children working in differentiated abiloty groups of four create their own colur changing magic show but this time with fruits or vegetables and colours?

They must make the props.

Use the phrases in Step Seven and write their own scripts and then perform their "abracadbra adjective magic tricks" for the class!

Making a statement to describe jobs and roles in the future with Year 6 leavers

As our KS2 Year 6 get ready to leave primary school, next half term could be a wonderful time to ask them to reflect on what they want to be in the future.

It is also a time to celebrate what they can now do in a foreign language. 

Last week in Spain I found this wonderful book and it gave me an idea about how we can could create similar books with our Y6 language learners in all languages! 

They can demonstrate  how they can now use a bilingual dictionary to access the language they want to use.They can show how they can manipulate simple sentence stucture , nouns and present tense verbs too!

The book is made up of pictures of different types of people.You can see four characters on the front of the book .
As a concept itself it's a brilliant book- just to read and have fun reading and muddling up the sentences with the children on Spanish 

However the concept translates really well in to language work on sentence structure in any language.On each double page spread there is a bright colourful caricature picture of a type of person (pirate/cook/clown etc) and on the left hand page of the double page spread, the page is divided in to three sections and each section can be turned over individually.

The top section is the statement about the character (present tense of the verb to be in first perspn singylar e.g I am / soy / je suis /ich bin ) plus the noun  for the character (e.g. pirate / cowboy etc)

The middle section is the verb in the first person singular present tense associated with the character's actions ( e.g. cowboy - I ride   / cook - I prepare etc) plus the noun that is linked to the action ( e.g cowboy- I ride - my horse  / coook - I prepare - the meal) .

The third section is about where the character's actions take place (e.g. cook- in the kitchen/ in the restaurant etc)

(Turn over one of the three sections and the sentence  is correct grammatically -but the meaning becomes slightly odd or bizarre.That is part of the beauty of the book!)

I think we can use the idea of the double page spread though to create our own entertaining end of our primary school career book .
Each child needs to generate their own three section statement to explain what they want to be when they grow up.It's a description of the job, the role and the objects/people /place involved in the role.

Section one - first person singular of the verb to be and the appropriate nooun for the role or job chosen
Section two - present tense first person singular verb associated with an action involved in the role or the job plus a noun representing an object or person connected to the actipon
Section three - the place the action takes place

e.g"  I am a doctor/ and I help the patients/ in the hospital " 

• All we need to do now is create a large card book with double page spreads for each child in the class. The children draw a caricature on paper of the role or job they have chosen.This is glued on to the right hand side of the double page spread.
• The children then write their messages in the three sections which have been ruled  off on the left hand side of the double page spread.
• Once the book is complete all you need to do is cut to the centre fold the three sections along the ruled lines .

Now we have our own book! 

We can read it as it should be read or see also what types of entertaining sentences we can make by turning individual sections and understanding the new information  we read!

Countryside comparisons :location detective lists and poster presentations

Having spent some time last week in Pays Basque, visiting France and Spain, I not only found an ideal way to compare seaside between France and Spain,using the target language Simple seaside comparison with verbs, conjunctions and sentence structure , but I also visited Ainhoa!
What another gift!I realised that with UKS2 we could create a simple unit of work comparing Grasmere in the Lake district and this French/Spanish border town.



So why do I think that we can make a comparison between Grasmere and Ainhoa and why am I so specific in my choice? 
We are going to be "location detectives" and eventually create our own poster presentations.(It would work well using Book Creator too with sound clips etc)

Ask the children to keep two lists of key comparisons between Ainhoa and Grasmere.
Each list has a heading phrase "Ainhoa" or "Grasmere".These lists are called the "location detective lists"

Now let's start our comparison investigations.....

Here is the first clue! Take a look at this!

The Gingerbread shop in Ainhoa is in a very old building and is just a small counter where you can buy the flat oat- like gingerbread.If you have ever visited theSarah Nelson's Gingerbread shop in Grasmere you will know that this is a very small old building with a counter and the gingerbread is the same consistency.

So bingo! Here we have our first comparisons......

Step One :A "Gingerbread" investigation 

• Share this video of the Ainhoa shop and making gingerbread wth the children- just to give them a sense of the produce
• Taste some simple gingerbread biscuits
• Can the children collect adjectives to describe the look of the gingerbread and the flavours in gingerbread?

• Take a look at the buildings where the shops are in Grasmere and Ainhoa

Here is the Sarah Nelson's  gingerbread shop in Grasmere

And here is the building in which you find the gingerbread shop in Ainhoa.

You could also discuss the fact that we share traditional tales and listen to the shared traditional tale about the Gingerbread Man in French




Step Two
Make a comparison record on our "location detectives lists"

• Can the children working individually or a small supprted group start their comparison lists.
• Can they use infinitives of verbs to describe:

What you can buy (On peut acheter....) 

Where you can find this (On peut trouver le magasin dans un vieux magasin)

What you can eat and what it tastes like (On peut manger...... C'est ......)_

You may like the children to look at recipe for both gingerbreads and compare ingredients using bilingual dictionaries. 

Step Three 
Both villages are beautiful and traditional and are visited every year by many tourists.They are both situated in the heartof the countryside. So here we can make our second comparisons!

• Share pictures of the two villages - you can google pictures of the two towns to find the schools, the churches, the rivers , the hillside and the village/town centres.

• Ask the children to note down the names in French for the buildings- both villages have a church , hotels , a cafe, a primary school,shops
• And the countryside features  they can see in both villages? Both villages are surrounded by hills and mountains and there is a river in each village.
• What colours can they see? Ainhoa is red and white and Grasmere is grey stone with black and white buildings.
• Are there any other adjectives they want to use to describe what they can see? Give the children time to find these in bilingual dictionaries.

Step Four
Make a comparison record on our "location detectives lists"

• Can the children,working individually or a small supprted group,continue their comparison lists
• Can they use the phrase "il y a...." and the correct use of the indefinite article to describe:

The buildings and use colours / additional descriptive adjectives

(Il y a...........C'est .....)

The countryside around the town and use colours / additional descriptive adjectives(Il y a .....C'est ......)

Step Five 

You can also describe the local sports! 

In Ainhoa you can play pelota and there is a court on the side of the church building with seating for spectators.

• Try the game with your class.
• You need a tennis ball (rather than  the traditional hard ball) and  bats- for the  players.Play the game against a wall.

• Watch some of this lonely planet video , which shares the game of "pelota".(You may want to watch the video first to check you are happy to share this with your class)

• And now take a look at the Grsmere Games ( the sports of tug of war, wrestling, tossing gthe caber, and fell runnig all come to mind!)
• On You Tube you can find examples of "fell running" during the Grasmere Games ro show the children.Share some of the video clips of the Fell run with the class

Step Six
Make a comparison record on our "location detectives lists"

• Can the children explain the sport of "Pelota" in Ainhoa- ask the children to write down a simple description with the verb "jouer" - Where do you play? How many people play? What do they play with?
• Can the children explain the sport of fell running using the verb "courir"- Where do they run?(Up a hill/over a stream/ in the mud/ across fields etc) How many people run at one time?

Now it's over to your location detectives to create a poster presentation, comparing a country village in French Pays basque with a country village in the English Lake District!