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

Mille feuilles moments!

Inspired by the Great British Bake Off  yesterday evening I realised what great fun we could have with writing in the target language - creating our own mille feuilles ! 

It is such a simple idea and would work with children writing at different stages in their language learning and although it is very much a French cake , I can't see why we couldn't use this in other target languages too!

• Each layer in our mille feuilles will be a layer of paper.
• Each piece of paper will have some special writing upon it .
• Each layer of filling will be the additional information we want to add.
• The icing decoration on top will be the "Word Art" depiction of the writing we have done throughout our layers- it will give our readers a  taste - a clue to what they are about to read!
• As with all good cakes the proof is in the eating! So we are going to let our class friends read our writing and decide if the word art gave us the correct clue to the writing

How will this actually work?  

1. Identify the content you want the children to write about- personal information, likes and dislikes, family , the weather, animals etc.(Simple familiar content for beginners...perhaps more challenging content with more advanced learners)
2. Brainstorm key language with the children
3. Give each child five strips of paper or ask the children to cut paper to the correct size to make a mille feuille cake.Show the children what one of these cakes looks like.

I have selected two current focuses from our own VLE and SOW 

Beginners: Simple Colour Cakes
Now we are ready to make our cakes.Our cakes are going to be about colours.

Bottom layer - a strip of paper.Write our first sentences -a sentence to tell someone a colour we like.
Filling layer- second strip of paper- a pictionary of items in the colour we have just written about.
Third layer - new strip of paper- a sentence about a colour we don't like.
Filling layer- a pictionary of items in the colour we have just written about
Top layer- our Word Art decoration- just how are we going to add our icing and decorate the top of the cake so that our readers have an idea about the messages we are giving when they geing to read the cake and deconstruct the cake layer by layer?!

Moving On: Autumn Cake Walk Poems 
This is going to be an Autumn poem using commands, counting and colours.
Bottom layer - a strip of paper.Write our first sentence: a command, colours and numbers to set us on our walk.
Filling - a strip of paper that has simple sentences about leaves we find on our walk
Third layer -a new command, colours and numbers to continue on our walk.
Filling - a strip of paper that has simple sentences about animals we find on our walk
Top layer our Word Art depiction of our poem and the type of walk our readers are going to go on, when they start to deconstruct the cake and read the information!

Autumn sentence trees

It's just a pile of Autumn leaves - or is it?
In this pile are many spoken and wrtten Autumn messages.Just how many can your children create?

Let's make an Autumn sentence tree

You may find my previous two blog posts help too!
Autumn word sorts and game

Autumn descriptive sentences with the verb "to be"


In this activity the learners will create spoken and written interesting sentences about Autumn using nouns,adjectives, common verbs, a conjunction and possibly an intensifier.

Your learners will need to have access to bilingual dictionaries and will need to be moving on or advanced primary language learners.They will be  at a stage where as a class you are exploring adjectives and agreement and  parts of verbs to be and to have.You could take this further and explore common regular verbs in the present tense associated with Autumn too.

Each type of leaf represents in this activity part of a sentence: 

Nouns associated with Autumn or Harvest time

The verbs "to be" and "to have" and /or verbs about harvest time

Adjectives to describe Autumn

Intensifiers and conjunctions to make our sentences more interesting

• Discuss with the children what each leaf shape represents.
• Write on the whiteboard clearly a sentence in the target language about Autumn which uses the following:

noun,verb,adjective,conjunction, noun, verb intensifier ,adjective

(e.g. the apples are red and the apples are very sweet)

(e.g.the birds fly fast,but the hedgehogs are very tired)

• Read the sentence aloud for the chldren .Can the children identify what type of sentence you have written- does it compare two Autumn objects or does it give more than one descriptive detail about a Autumn object?
• Can the children help you to read aloud the sentence and then identify which leaf shape represents each of the part of the sentence.Place each leaf shape above the correct part of each part of the sentence.
• Give the children time to re-read the sentence and to try to remmeber it.Cover spme of the parts of the sentence with the leaf shapes.
• Can the children say the sentence to a partner and remmebr what is behind the leaf shapes?
• Can the children write out the sentence?
• Share with the children a leaf shape sentence like below:

• Can the children create their own interesing Autumn sentences which follow the leaf shape sentence structure ?
• Ask partners to check each others sentences
• Now ask the children to draw and write out their sentences ,placing the words in the correct leaf shapes they draw. 
• Now you have your Autumn sentence tree drawings ready to go up on an Autumn sentence tree display.

  

Autumn descriptive sentences with the verb" to be ".

It's just a pile of Autumn leaves- or is it? In this pile are many messages both spoken and written.Let's explore!

Take a variety of Autumn leaves and create explorations of sentence structure and creative comparisons! Here is the second blog post....Take a look here at the first blog post Autumn word sort and game
 My Autumn leaves pile allows us to explore sentences and to say and write sentences of our own and create a decriptive comparison of Autumn.

Each leaf shape represent a structure within a sentence.
In this activity the leaf shapes represent the following:

An Autumn noun: a leaf,fruit (s), vegetable(s), animal connected with Autumn (e.g squirrel,hedgehog,bird)

Part of the present tense of  the verb "to be "  in the target language

An adjective to describe our Autumn noun

You may at this point want to play the gathering game from the previous blog post Autumn word sort just  to gather nouns and adjectives and as a class to identify parts of the verb "to be" and the verb "to have".

Autumn twig sentences 

Can the children on mini whiteboards write their own Autumn sentences: a sentence using the verb "to be"  (noun,verb,adjective)

The sentence can be checked orally with a partner or the class and then the children can transfer their spoken sentences to their own visual display sentences.These are twig sentences to go on our class display of the verb "to be " Autumn tree.Take a look here:

Daisy Chain Clauses and Conjunctions

This idea has been on my list to write for quite a while now! 
I have selected a daisy chain because it reminds me of Summer.It's now that we have the opportunity to assess what our moving on learners can  say and write.

They are going to write about their likes and dislikes with nouns and adjectives and use conjunctions to join their sentences together.

Take a handful of conjunctions in the target language:in French let's use "mais,et, car, pourtant,"

• First let's physically feel and make the sentences.
• Ask the children to make a list of favourite things - using nouns thye know for foods,clothes,animals or finding new nouns in the bilingual dictioanry 
• Now ask them to list adjectives ,two per nun thjat they would use to describe the nouns they have sleected.
• Ask them to think about the adjectival agreement with these nouns.Are the nouns masculine, feminine and in German neuter? 
• Do they need to use each of the nouns in the plural or singular?
• Ask then to check their adjectival agreement against the criteria above.

A physical daisy chain
Now it's palm of your hand time.
You make daisy chains with your hands so we are using our hands as the physical planner for the daisy chains we will make later.

• Ask the children to open up the palm of their left hand and wiggle their fingers.
• The index finger on the right hand is their pen with invisible ink!

• Each finger and the palm of  the left hand represents a key part of the sentence

Thumb- personal pronoun 

Index finger verb

Middle finger noun

Ring finger first adjective

Little finger second adjective

Palm of your hand conjunction

• Ask the children with the index finger on the right hand to touch each finger on the left hand as they say their physical sentence to themselves quietly.
• Now they need to add the conjunction in the centre of their sentence by drawing a circle in the plan of their left hand with their imaginary pen and the index finger of the right hand.
• Can they now add the next part of their setnece - using their fingers again as the prompts for the parts of the sentence?
• They may need to reorder their finger roles if they use in French adjectives that precede the noun.
• Once again they add their conjunction and move on to make their next physical clause in the long sentence.
• If they can they should make five  clauses using the four conunctions.

A visual daisy chain!
And now they can make their daisy chains.

The centre of the daisy is the picture of the item- the noun they like.

There will be 5 petals on each daisy .One for the each a part of the sentence and the green stem of each daisy is the conjunction leading to the next daisy .
Now you have your daisy chain!    

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!

"Mon ,ma ,mes" and a little poem about chocolate!

So when do you use mon,ma,mes in French? So often we are asked this question
With Year 4 and 5 we will be buying Christmas presents in French  using the JLN SOW for our family and friends - so this poem could be a great way to reinforce when you use the three little words mon,ma, mes ........

I love this poem by Maurice Carême. It's all about who this child loves and how chocolate is the mood changer in his/her life! It's also a great way to practise "mon.ma,mes"

J’aime mon père

J’aime ma mère

J’aime mes soeurs

J’aime mes frères

De tout mon coeur

Et tante et oncle

Oui tout le monde

Oui tous sauf moi

Quand je n’ai pas

Mon chocolat!

How should we use the poem?!

• Let's read the poem with the children and spot the members of the family!
• Can the children help you to understand the punchline- how important is chocolate to the child in the poem and can they spot it's not just anybody's chocolate - it's "mon chocolat!" This will help you to talk to the children about the three little possessive pronouns in the poem "mon,ma,mes".
• Let's go on a " mon,ma mes hunt" , maybe using our magical magnifying glass.
• Let's colour code our " mon ,ma, mes finds"! for example blue for mon. green for ma and yellow for mes
• Let's be dictionary detectives !Ask the class to help you find clues as to the use of mon,ma ,mes by looking up the key nouns and seeing if they are masculine, feminine singular or plural nouns.Can we make up our rules for the mon,ma,mes mixture and when to use each of the words? 
• Let's try it ourselves! Can the children identify two more nouns ij the poem( oncle and tante) and try the mon/ma/mes mixture that we have decided upon.Ask the children in pairs to write on mini whiteboards what they think the word should be?share and compare
• Read the poem again with the children and ask them to add the feelings and the emotions that are conveyed in the poem by the use of the three possessive pronouns "mon,ma mes" 

Now we can create our own new poems using the familiar content of personal possessions ( e.g dolls/toys/ toy cars/ ipads/clothes etc) as we learn about Christmas presents or perhaps we could use another focus such as  animals.

Use  the poem as a scaffold and encourage the children to replace the highlighted words with the new content making sure that the content matches the mon ma mes - by checking in those all important bilingual dictionaries!  

J’aime mon père

J’aime ma mère

J’aime mes soeurs

J’aime mes frères

De tout mon coeur

Et tante et oncle

Oui tout le monde

Oui tous sauf moi

Quand je n’ai pas

Mon chocolat!

Take a simple authentic rhyme and explore language learning skills

On Thursday this week I will be looking at how one simple resource can support the introduction, practise and revisiting of many language learning skills . We will consider how progression can be built in to primary language  learning very simply and we will look for links with literacy and/or across the primary curriculum.

For teachers, just setting off on the road to delivering effective primary language learning or supporting staff to do so, the activities will hopefully act as  sign posts to help the school plan sequences of meaningful and purposeful language learning activities.

Schools, where staff have limited target language skills can plan to use authentic texts which have been carefully selected because they are  not too challenging for the non-specialist.We find that such texts should repetitive language,clear sound support files if possible,introduce key language and words and not be too "wordy".

Above is the authentic and familiar rhyme "tengo dos manitas" , sung clearly with the words appearing on the screen in the clip.The clip is repetitive and uses simple language.There are obvious actions to the text. 

Word warm up 

Practise the key language from the text preferably with actions/ movements or a physical routine .

Here we have core body parts' language (manitas/ojos/nariz/boquita)

and two key actions (aplaudir and sonreir)

Add a fun, memorable element immediately.

Ask the children can they smile / clap using the body parts in the rhyme

e.g. Pueden sonreir con los ojos/la nariz/la boquita/las manitas

       Pueden aplaudir con los ojos/la nariz/la boquita/ la manitas

Get to know the rhyme and make it your own!

• Practise the rhyme- as this rhyme has a clip to accompany it , when you feel the class are comfortable , turn down the sound and ask the children to be the sound file to the clip!
• Add actions and focus on rhythm.
• Practise in pairs with the words and the actions
• Practise in fours and make the rhyme "your own". Each group can decide how they want to say and perform the rhyme
• Performance time- one group of four performs for a second group
• As a class perform the rhyme and as this rhyme repeats the verse over and again let one group lead the whole class each time - sharing their own special version and actions etc.

Class warm up song or recall song

Now you have a rhyme to say , sing or perform at the start of a language lesson over the next couple of weeks or to use to recall children and bring them back together after another activity.

Take another look!

Languages are not always about racing on.Learning some language and then moving to the next goal doesn't make confident young language explorers in my opinion.

Let the class enjoy the rhyme and actions and then plan to return to the rhyme and activate memory to use the rhyme to explore languages further.  

Missing words or Volume control games 

Come back to the rhyme or song at a later date and this time ask the children to miss words out or to observe you as you operate a pretend volume control ,so that there are times when the children whisper or don't even say the words but do the actions instead.

Rhythm raps 

Can the children help you to create a new version of the rhyme - a rap - made up of the beats and cadence of the rhyme- no words just the beat and rhythm of the text?

Go sound fishing!

Identify the key sounds in the song or rhyme for example here I would identify:

j/o/qui/re/ir/au/iz

Can the class work in pairs and say the rhyme to each other and spot these key sounds as they say the words?

Can they decide in which order the sounds are heard and how often?

Can they spot the key sounds in the written words displayed by you at the front of the classroom.

Bringing the written word together!

Using their knowledge of the rhyme and their visual knowledge of key words can the children reconstruct the written text ,putting the text back together from word cards.  

Emotions and "doodle senses" poems in French

I am looking for poems for Year 6 which evoke senses and emotions and encourage them to collect good memories of their time in primary school.

I found this beautiful poem by Pierre Gamarra- Mon cartable 

What a brilliant idea with Year 6 !
Simple and effective!

First there is a great game ......
A blindfold game :guessing by taste or smell or touch.

• First share with the class a tray of items of familiar target language items.
• Ask children to come to the front and label these  objects on the tray.selecting the correct noun from a variety of h target language word labels . 
• Now hold a smell,touch and sense experience guessing game,where you challenge volunteers to touch , smell and sense the items without being able to see them.
• Allow children to come to the front and put on a blindfold and guess:

1. What fruits they can smell?
2. What foods like chocolate or coffee they can smell?
3. What smells and touch sensations of classroom equipment they can guess (crayons/paints/pencils/paper/books)?

Rmember that you should use items that the children already know as target language word.Enourage the children to utter their guesses using full sentences or questions(if they are uncertain) too? 

A poetry reading 

• Share the text with the class and read the poem for the class.
• Ask them to smell and sense and imagine that they can touch the items mentioned on the poem.
• Can they tell you some facts about the poem and the smells and objects are mentioned?
• You could create a pictorial list of the items on the flip chart as the children read about the objects in the poem.
• Find out more about the poet! Can they tell you whether this is a person living in France or somewhere else in the World and how do they know this( e.g.bison/cow boys)

Creatimng "Doodle senses poems".
How are they going to do this ..?
Ask them to create a "doodle senses poem".This is a poem where the children literally doodle or scrobble on the written poem, to remove some of the text and leave a [partal text that shares the message of the poem.In this instance the children should be left with the key items and memories of the poem.

• They will need copies of the text and a black pen or a pencil.
• With a black pen or pencil they need to colour out words they don't know and then see what doodle smells and senses they are left with. 
• Some children may want to work in pairs and you may decide to ask a TA to work with a small group of children to guide them through the text.

I feel that our children should after four years of language learning have most of these words in brackets "undoodled"because they are familiar to them.
(mon cartable/odeurs/la pomme/le livre/la gomme/ les crayons de couleurs/l'orange/le bison/le nougat/la mandarine/le papier (d'argent ou d'or)/les bateaux/ le port/les cow-boys/ les noisettes/le caramel/les confettis de la fête/les longs cheveux/ ma mère/ mon papa/la rose /le chocolat)

• Ask the children to read their comppleted doodled poems to each other.This will be essentially the list of language they have left.

Mon cartable: a place to keep their own happy memory sensations of primary school. 

• Now ask the children to fold a piece of A4 paper or card in half and create their own cartable.
• Inside they need to write  the phrase

Mon cartable a cinq odeurs.....

• Can the children then add five objects,five colours and  five smells or tastes of school that they know they won't forget and that will be good memories when they think of school in years to come?