Phonics activities and the school year calendar

Throughout last academic year I wrote up a series of blog posts linked to times in the school calendar about activities we either had already used or were developing, to practise phonics and phoneme -grapheme/ letter string -spoken recognition in the target language.


At the start of this new academic year I have collated some of these  activities and blog posts so that we can revisit and use these as we work through the academic year 2015 -2016.

Autumn Term

We went on Autumn sound walks and hunted card leaves with key letter strings from target language colours 

.....and we used a favourite KS1 language game too.It's called Crocodile Paths but became our Autumn leaves march :

Crocodile Paths -listening and responding- can the children make a marching rhyme of their favourite sounds. Create stepping stone cards om the floor of the sounds - repeated several times so for instance if we are using 6 sounds then we can have 4 sets of each sound so that there are 24 stepping stones. Ask the class to march across the stepping stones and say/sing their marching rhyme.Call "crocodile" and the children must freeze. Pull a one of the sounds written on small cards out of a bag or a box and say the sound for the class. any children stood on that sound stepping stone must sit out ...as the "crocodile has  caught the child

We practised sounds with our Firework rhyme n KS1 and our Firework poem in KS2

KS1 Rockets and Firework Colour Song 

Fireworks LKS2 performance poem

We created a simple Christmas greetings song and broke the song down in to sounds and bells and created a "Ding Dong Bell Phonics and Song activity

Ding !Dong! Bell!

Spring

We began the year with na celebration of epiphany and created letter string "galette des rois" and "roscon de reyes"

Galette and Roscon de Reyes Letter Strings 

For Carnival we had our wonderful stretchy letter and sound carnival balloons!

Take a look Stretchy sound and letter carnival balloons

We hunted Easter egg sounds to create target language Easter greetings

Easter egg sounds

Summer 

We went fishing for sounds Fishing for sounds

Wave sounds,words, reading and writing

We are going to be sharing ideas on "Seaside" at our DFE funded WTSA/JLN local network meeting twilights this next  half term. You would be very welcome to attend if you are near to one of these CPD twilights on the Training Schedule

Here are a few simple ways I think we can create some letter string and sound synthesis and then reading comprehension activities for beginner and moving on learners linked to "waves" in the sea.finally our young language learners can write some target language wave messages for other children to  decipher too!

Wave words 

This is a really simple idea! It involves the way the words sound.

This activity is about enjoying the shape and the sound of the words.with each word suggested ask the children to close their eyes and repeat the word after you and imagine that the sounds are waves coming to shore!

• Ask the children to think of words they know in the target language that sound like a small wave gently moving toward the sea shore or a bigger wave that rolls along toward the shore or a huge wave that crashes to toward the sea shore .
• What we are actually asking the children to do is remember and recall the "sound" of the word and the effect it makes as it is said 

e.g.

 deux - is a small short word and makes a gentle thud

pomme is also a small short warm sound that could be a gentle wave at the sea shore

ananas has louder and more solid sounds and could be a wave that makes more movement as it comes to shore 

brouillard is big and strong and rolls mightily to shore.

Wave word shapes 

You need to consider the words that your children already know in the target language and then add the final sounds from the words to wave shape cards- a small wave, a larger wave , a big wave.

Here is an example of a completed wave word shape card.(I have thought of the words "moi", "lapin" and "grenouille" in French for the three waves here).

You will need 6 different wave word shapes and sufficient cards for one between two- 6 sets of 6 cards will work for most classes.

• Ask the children to look at their card ,working with a partner and to think of three words that fit the waves.The words must end in the correct final sound and be soft gentle words ( for the small wave), bigger more syllable words for the medium wave and large exciting sounding words for the largest wave.
• Once they have three words they can share these with the class .
• Now swap cards and start the activity again , each pair having a new ste of lettre strings on their wave word shapes.

Reading waves

This is an activity that we have used before as snake shapes, where the children have to identify and break up the words so that they can understand the message written down.

This time we will use wave shapes and messages about the seaside .

Take a look here!  It actually says "J'aime la plage car je peux nager et jouer au ballon!
the children need to identify each word to understand and read the message.and they can add their own wave message underneath following the original wave pattern as a writing and prompt frame.

Fishing for letter strings and sounds

A few years ago we trialed this sounds activity with Year 3 and it worked so well that we will be using the activity again during our "Seaside" focus CPD with the DFE funded WTSA/JLN project.
It is so simple .....and great fun too.
First of all you need to create a class magnetic fishing game .

You need a rod with string attached and on the end is a magnet.

You need a pool /pot pot bowl with no water in but with card fishes in it

Each card fish needs a paper clip nose so that when you pop the "fishing rod over the side of the pot,pool etc you can "catch" a fish with  the magnet and its paper clip nose.

Each fish needs a letter string written upon it.

Now go fishing with your class.

• Put the rod in the pool, pull out a fish and then as a class look at the letter string.What does this letter string sound like in the target language?
• How many fish can the class  catch and keep because a member of the class can think of a word with that letter string in it? If the class can't think of a word then the fish goes back in the pot,pond,pool!

Add more challenge.How many fish have you got in the net?

• Add to the challenge, how many fish can they catch as a class .... this means how many words can they say and write that have the specific letter string in the word in the target language and put in their imaginary "letter string word net" ? Count them up? this is how many words the class can catch as fish in that particular net
• Try a new fish from your magnetic pool.Which letter string word net contains most fish at the end of the game? . 

Table games 

• Ask each table to write down on a shared mini whiteboard the target language words they can think of that contain the letter string.
• Allow the table three minutes bilingual dictionary time too.Can they find new useful words with this letter string in the word.(They must be able to say the word and tell the class the meaning of the word too when it comes to sharing time!)
• Each table shares their words with the class and then as a class the table with the most words that are real target language words are counted up and that's the number of fish that class can catch with this particular letter string in the words.

Table against table game 

• Make it a table against table fishing challenge- so the table with the most words , wins the magnetic card fish.This is a memory activity so differentiate the ability of the children on the tables to make this a fair game.Also words can not be looked up in the bilingual dictionaries this time , so this game would follow on well, from the game above.
• Which table has the most fish at the end of the game?

Hunt the Easter egg sounds ! (Beginners)

Nearly time to think about Easter and here is a very simple activity that  encourages children to look for the sound- spelling links in unfamiliar language.
Really simple idea.....

1.In the target language practise a traditional Easter greeting phrase- say the phrase in the style of Easter rabbits, melting chocolate, delicious Easter eggs etc
2.Share with the children the written target language phrase, but blank out a key sound-spelling link in the target language phrase:

In French blank out the "eu" in "joyeuses" and in Spanish blank out the "ce" in "felices".

3.Ask the children to listen to you say the whole key word (i.e "joyeuses" or "felices" ) and anticipate with a talking partner the missing letter string .Encourage the children to use prior target language knowledge of sound spelling links to do this.

e.g joy..ses 

     feli..s

(I would expect the children to make the link in French between the sound "eu" they can hear in the word "joyeuses" and their prior knowlegde of "bleu" or "deux" or to make the link in Spanish with the numbers "once" or "doce")

4.Now you can reveal the whole phrase - have the children anticipated the missing sound spelling link correctly?

5.Now divide the phrase into separate letter strings on coloured Easter egg cards and hide these coloured Easter egg cards around the room.For example here is "joyeuses" as letter string coloured Easter eggs ,ready to be hidden.

6.Ask for volunteers to hunt the Easter egg cards around the room and when he/she finds an Easter egg card to bring it to the front and to help you to reconstruct the key Easter phrase piece by piece (or egg card by egg card).

7.Allow the children 60 seconds to remember the colour and the key sound spelling written on the coloured egg shapes.Now turn over the eggs and muddle the order of the egg cards.Can the children say the colours in the target language of the eggs in the order that they think the Easter phrase should be reconstructed? 

Place the eggs letter side down in the order the children have decided .....

8.Turn over each egg one by one and reveal the letter string,say the sound together and anticipate the next sound. Where the children correct and does the order of the turned over cards create the Easter greeting phrase? 

9.And now the children can create their own Easter card chain greeting - using the letter strings in the eggs they have been hunting to put together the key greetings phrase .You can make this a differentiated activity with the same written outcome either with increased challenge from memory or as an activity where the coloured letter string cards have been muddled up but remain on view or as an activity where the eggs are laid out in order but two eggs and the letter strings are missing.

Adding Drama to Language Learning

Drama and Language Learning and reasons to explore language through performance

The aims of the new DFE POS for languages encourages us in both KS2 and KS3 to develop learners who can :

• Understand and respond to spoken and written languages from a variety of authentic sources
• Speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity,finding ways to communicate what...want to say
• Write at varying length for different purposes and audiences,using the variety of grammatical structures they have learnt
• Discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied

During this session at Ililc 2015 I intend to look at how we can develop communication skills in language learners from KS1,KS2 and KS3 and provide learners with a vehicle of self expression and creativity adding drama to language learning.I hope also to suggest APPS and use of IT to enhance the drama/language learning process and outcomes along the way too.

Drama and dramatic devices used in language learning promote:

• Better and more confident communication skills
• Inclusive participation
• Team work and appreciation of each others' creativity and performance
• An understanding of why intonation and pronunciation matter and how these can enhance character and covey meaning and emotion.
• Importance of the links between dialogue and actions to convey meaning
• Platforms upon which to develop independent creative writing
• Understanding of the importance of punctuation and accuracy in the choice and use of written language.
• Deeper and more creative understanding of text
• A purposeful reason to explore the skills of memorisation and  tools to support the recall of language

Early language learning

1. Voice Machines - sounds of the language and our voice machines (Audio Boom to capture those sounds!)
2. Sunflower song active learning of simple language- numbers 1-10 linked to Springtime and growing plants. (Story Creator to capture the sunflowers growing taller and taller)
3. Colour mimes and word association .Practising new language and finding ways to remember the sound and feel of new language. (Yakiyt for Kids)
4. Stretchy sound and letter string balloons  (Audio Boom balloons) 

Exploring instructions and simple language. 

1. Parts of the body and puppeteers - listening, responding.
2. Using Educreations APP to generate physical performance
3. Mirror mirror on the wall (Step Five )
4. Creative spoken language
5. Flowing mime machines with rhythm and beat accompaniment and spoken word.

Asking and answering questions,speaking in full sentences and engaging in conversation

1. Paper Puppets
2. Superstar sketches.
3. Puppet Pals APP to bring our conversations to life
4. "Fancy dress" Quiz Quiz Swap (I-FunFace APP)
5. Stage set triaramas  with cultural speaking and writing attitude .Use of I-nigma APP to create spoken speech bubbles for the characters.

Now let's get dramatic!

1. If a picture paints a 1000 words Anticipation Emotions displays (FotoBooth1 to generate our own emotions and feelings)
2. Silent Movies , back stories and a taste of great literature (Capture the performance on Camcorders and IPads)'
3. Going on an Autumn walk with poetry
4. "Six characters in search of an author performance  and  a PicCollage to create Story Boards written outcome.
5. 3D Art (Tiny Tap APP) (stage one, stage two, stage three.)

Stretchy sound and letter string carnival balloons

I am getting ready for the first of several local network meetings where we will look at some of the new POS learning objectives and put these in to real language teaching and learning contexts.Our theme is "Celebrating Carnival" and our learning objectives look at how a young learners develops the skills of communication in the target language.We are considering help young learners to move on and become independent users of their developing language skills .Each session we take time to consider an activity  which supports the learners to explore these learning objectives  from the new DfE POS: 

Explore the patterns and sounds of the language

Develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that others understand when they are reading aloud or using familiar words and phrases.

So here is my carnival theme idea! It's based on "The blue balloon" by Mick Inkpen.

This interactive book encouraged the children to see the balloon as having ,magical qualities - you could stretch , pull, squash , fly with this blue balloon but you couldn't pop it and in the end it becomes a rainbow balloon.

Here is my magical colour stretchy sound and letter string balloon.On one side it has the colours and on the other side it has the letter strings that make up the colours.It starts off as a concertina with just the single picture of balloons and then it stretches to become one very long balloon of either the colour words or on the others slide blocks of colour in the same order as the colour words.

To make a balloon like mine, you will need four A4 documents for six colours.I have shared two my templates here.The templates  have two lines- one of colour filled blocks and a second line which has letter strings from the appropriate colours. These are the letter strings from key familiar colours (or any language content you prefer- although I think colours and balloons fit best together here)

You need to cut out the templates and stick the 4 strips together end to end to make a long continuous  strip.

Fold the balloon template length ways between the solid colours and the letters

Fold the strip in to a concertina using the external thin solid fold line and the internal fold lines.

The children will either be able to see all the coloured blocks or all the letter strings when it is pulled out as a stretchy balloon

Now you are ready to share your magical carnival balloon

1. Remind the children of all the key colours they know in the target language and ask them to think about how some of the key sounds are written in the target language. Write these up on the whiteboard and then remove these letter strings before playing the balloon games
2. Share with the children your very special carnival balloon and explain its magic qualities 
3. Show the children the first picture on the word side of the stretchy balloon- it's some balloons - but what colour do they think your balloon may be?
4. Explain that the balloon is stretchy and long so how many colours might it be made up of and what colours might it be? 
5. Can you ask the children to stretch out the sounds of the colours in the target language , to squeeze the sounds of the colours in the target language , to twist the the sounds of the colours in the target language, to wave the sound of the colour in the target language  etc.... - just like the magical balloon
6. Time to investigate the colours as letter strings.... only reveal one letter string at at time - can the children say what they see, discuss with their talking partner and then anticipate the next letter string and the colour.You may like the children to write down on mini white boards what they anticipate as the next letter string.
7. Can the children remember the colours ? Squash up your balloon again and this time ask the children to whisper the letter string to a partner and then the partner can give the thumbs up if that is the letter string that is revealed.Partners to take it in turns to be the speaker or the listener here.
8. Now fold up your stretchy balloon one more time and ask the children to write down on their whiteboards the order in which they think the colours will be revealed - as you open up the colour block side of your balloon.Ask the children to read aloud their lists to their partner or volunteers to read out loud to the class.

And finally .....

Ask the children to create their own letter string word balloons so that they can play partner and table games with their classmates to anticipate target language familiar colours.

Easter Egg Trail and beyond. (Moving on learners) Adapting an Epiphany idea !

In December ready for Epiphany I wrote the blog post "Pass the galette or the roscon de reyes", It has proved to be very popular and I have really enjoyed looking at people's ideas and ways of adapting the activity to suit their own learners.A delight!

You can read the original blog and ideas here galette or roscon de reyes

All these shared wonderful ideas made me think a bit more about ways to adapt the activity.You see I think it's important to revisit and reuse familiar activities to allow the children to explore the language in more details.

So here are my notes to self!

Easter time 

Let's create an Easter Egg trail with the same type of activities, in the shape of an Easter egg maybe or one of those wonderful "Easter egg" clocks I always wanted as a child.This is a circular clock with each small egg representing one of the numbers on the face of the clock (so twelve eggs in total).

The treasure hunt idea  would work wonderfully in German trying to look for the Osterhase or in French looking for the bells from Rome that fly the eggs in to the gardens!

Handing the activity over to the learners 

I do think it is so important that we remember that the actiivities are purposeful and about encouraging the learners to play the games and do the activities so that they either learn something new or consolidate prior learning. 

To this end I think that this would be a great activity to ask the children in UKS2 to engage in the making process equipped with the principles of the learning activities e.g. recognising and using sounds and letter strings and revisiting familiar language.

The UKS2 children can then make a gift galette/ rosocn de reyes/Easter egg trail etc for their younger LKS2 classes .Cutting, sticking and glueing- yes- but also thinking through links between phonemes and graphemes and remembering previous learned language!

Thanks to everyone who has made me think through the potential  of these ideas a little bit more!

And should you want to use ready made templates then thanks to Sue Cave,she has shared here phonics galette template in smart notebook on this page of Sharing Primary Languages

Pass the galette or the roscon de reyes

We will be celebrating Epiphany and the customs and traditions of the target language countries at the start of the New Year.

Let's play "Pass the galette" or "Pass the roscon de reyes"

We can revisit familiar language and remind children of the sound letter combination links in the target language you are learning in school whilst celebrating the culture.

It's a really easy game that involves the children working in teams and they have loved it when I have played this before.

• You need two circles of card. One circle is made of white card and the second card circle is made up of at least 12 different colours.
• Cut the second card circle into 12 slices (each a different colour)

• On the reverse of five of the pieces of coloured card, glue a picture of one of the three Kings.
• On the other side of each piece of coloured card from your cake,add sound- letter combinations from words that you know you have practised and used during last term in the target language with the chilren(e.g sound- letter combinations from numbers/colours/months/days/shops/subjects etc)

• Blu-tac each of your card pieces in the shape of a circle back on to your white card circle with the Kings hidden on the underside and randomly placed in the circle.
• All the sound - letter combination clues should be visible to the children

And now to play the game 

• Show the children a real picture of a galette or a roscon de reyes or even better share a real cake with them !
• Explain that normally the children take a piece and hope to be the child who finds the special counter to become King for the day.
• Show the children a picture of the three Kings 
• Split the class into teams of six.Explain that they are now King seekers
• The team that wins the most Kings (up to a maximum of three Kings) will be the winning King team for the day.Remind the children the object of the game is to win the pictures of the three Kings hidden on the underside of  the pieces of your card cake  
• Each team must ask politely for a piece of your cake.They must ask for the colour of the piece of cake they want and then the team must look at the sound -letter combination and think of a word they know in the target language that has the letter combination they can see written  on their piece of cake.
• Ask a member of the team to say the word out loud and to try to write it up on the white board
• Does the class agree that this word has the sound- letter combination in it ?
• If they are correct they win that piece of cake and can turn it over .If it has a King on the back then they have won one of their three Kings and can keep the piece of card.
• If it does not have a King pop it back in your cake circle 
• Now it's the turn of another team
• The game ends when one team  has collected three Kings 
• At the end of the game if there is no clear winning team then which team has the most Kings?

You can play this game multiple times and also with children at different stages of language learning with different clue types on your pieces of cake..It's great fun and allows the children to revisit familiar language and make those all important sound- letter links in the target language.