"Rudolph and your nose so bright" guessing game

Just found these Rudolph pictures on the internet! 
Brilliant for a simple warm up game in a December language learning lesson.
The objective of the lesson will be to ask and answer questions based on colour of Rudolph's nose!

Here is the link

1. Just print out a class set and cut out each Rudolph so that you have enough cards - one per child.
2. Make yourself three large versions of any of the Rudolphs for yourself and make them into finger puppets. 
3. Ask the children to greet the first Rudolph you show them and to ask him how he is feeling.Respond as if you are Rudolph. ask the children the colour of Rudolph's nose
4. Can the children guess the colour of the nose of the other two finger puppets you have made?
5. Now set up a simple game for the children ,based on "Knock, knock , who is there?"In French we are going to say:

                                                                       Toc,toc,toc!

                                                           Qui est là?

           Rudolphe avec le nez ……..?

    Le nez .......

Oui/non

(The child who is guessing the other partner's Rudolph and the colour of the nose says the phrases in red.The child with the Rudolph being guessed says the phrases in blue)

In Spanish we are going to say :

¡Pon,pon,pon!

¿Quién es?

Rudolph con la nariz ……

La nariz……

Si/no

Adding extra challenge?

Have you noticed that the Rudolphs on the sheet at the top are also wearing ties? 
Well now this will work brilliantly in French as we can look at the adjective spelling change for some of the colours and the way we therefore pronounce them , when we use a "le " noun or a "la " noun.
Now we can add a DfE POS objective based on understanding basic grammar too and use this activity across all our language learners from KS1 and beginners to moving on learners with differentiated challenge !

And in Spanish? Well we can use la nariz with adjectives that agree and change the tie to a soft neck scarf and use the masculine noun el  pañuelo

Finally in German! We will need to tweak the verse abit for younger learners but can add a differing degrees of challenge with adjectival endings for more advanced learners....

Klopf,klopf,klopf!

Wer bist du?  

Rudolph und meine Nase ist .....

............

Ja/ nein

To be more challenging add the preposition"mit" and practise the positioning of the adjective before the noun with the correct adjectival ending

( Rudolph  mit der ...........Nase) 

Or to add even more challenge introduce the changes in the definite article too by using die Nase and also das Halstuch ( e. mit der .....Nase/ mit dem........Halstuch) 

Christmassy questions,answers.engaging in conversations and puppet shows

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

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

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

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

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

How can we use these festive paper puppets?

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

With beginners:

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

With moving on learners:

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

With advanced learners:

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

 

The magic of Christmas! Watch, read and write .....

Here is a video clip that shares with its audience the magic of Christmas for a young child (it's based upon a visit to Lapland) and it's an opportunity for us to develop some reading and writing activities with our more advanced primary language learners or with KS3 Year 7 pupils.No words are spoken in any language,but the short clip tells the story of the magic of Christmas for this little child!
Let's make our own"Magic of Christmas " advertisements!

Here is the link to the video clip

In the clip we can see a little boy asleep, who wakes up, gets out of bed , goes to the window and sees the snow.He goes outside to play in the snow with his dad and then goes back inside.Father Christmas arrives , the little boy see him and receives a present!

So let's make our own video clip,using these reading and writing activities based on nouns and verbs. 

Step One 
Let's watch the clip and then arrange the key nouns in the target language from the video clip as a story ladder from beginning to end.Share each noun in the target language with the children (may be they need thinking time or bilingual dictionary time to understand the noun they can see).Ask the children to sort the nouns in to the correct order they saw them in the video clip , 
Key target language nouns to source : bedroom,bed,boy.window.snow.sledge,father, house,Father Christmas, present)

A drama and language activity opportunity
Create freeze frames of the key target language nouns or actions associated with the key target language nouns 






Step Two 
Give out the key phrases that describe the action.Ask the children to use their prior knowledge of daily routine phrases from their work on their own personal routine to locate and identify the key verbs and target language.Give each pair a set of key verbal phrase strips,so that the children can make a verbal phrase rolling script of the events as they watch the clip again (in the third person singular - or as less of a challenge in the first person singular) 
Key target language verbal phrases in third person singular: he is sleeping,he wakes up,he gets up, he walks to the window, he sees the snow, it's snowing, he plays with his father outside, he goes inside, Father Christmas arrives, he sees Father Christmas, he receives a present) 

A story board script
Collect in the verbal phrase strips and blu-tac a pack of them to the flip chart or white board.It's important that three phrases are missing from the pack of phrases.Ask the children to read what they can see and working with a partner can the children identify and remember which phrases are missing and  write them on individual white boards or rough paper. Take feedback and  then reveal the missing strips.



Changing the script
Now ask the children working in groups of four to write their own story board scripts.They are allowed to use four of the verbal phrases exactly as they are written in the activities above.They must change two of the items in the story on two other phrases and they must try to add two new verbal phrases of their own( e.g a change of weather or an additional piece of information about the weather and who the little boy is playing with outside in the snow).

The magic of Christmas !
Using the picture at the top of the page as the back drop or illustration they can now tell their own story about the Magic of christmas as a spoken or written text...........

Ring out those bells tonight! Christmas greetings

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

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

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

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

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

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

Starry night and counting stars

Getting ready for CPD and thinking of ways to practise simple language with beginner target language learners  with a possible wintry or  Christmas focus which also encourage the development of listening, speaking and reading skills I have put together these two simple ideas........

The first idea is based upon the song "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to practise numbers 0-12. This is an idea that can be used in KS1 and also in KS2 .
In KS1 there is a very obvious and simple Maths link too as I have made and laminated some simple domino counting star cards.

My domino stars are in three colours (as you may also like to link numbers and colours and ask the colour of the stars too).The stars are dominoes( 0-12) on one side and on the reverse have the number written as a figure.All my domino stars will be popped in to a starry night sky bag to be pulled out by volunteers one by one  because Ii am ljnking this simple language work to Van Gogh and ......

I am using the Van Gogh painting "starry night" too: 

Practise the song Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in your target language. We will be using the French,spanish,German or Italian versions of the song.

• Ask the children to hum the tune of the song
• Ask the children to make stars in the imaginary night sky with their hands that twinkle as you him the tune
• Ask the children to now sing with you the numbers 0-12 in the target language to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and to make their fingers twinkle like stars in the night sky
• Show the children the famous Van Gogh painting and ask them to look for the stars which he painted in the night sky.Can the class help you to count them?
• Explain that you are going to add coloured and numbered stars to this sky.
• Now invite volunteers to pick a domino star from your "starry bag" and to count the domino side of the star.What number do they think that they have and can they say this  in the target language?Turn the card over - were they correct? Does their counting match the number they can see? 
• Ask the children ,who volunteer, to stick (with blu-tac) the star to the picture wherever they would like to and to make sure it is domino star side up. 

• 
• 
  
• Now sing your number version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star but at the end of a verse , invite two children up to locate two stars.You say the number they must identify the star by looking at the domino stars
• The children select the star and then take it in turn to say the number and turn over the star and look at the number on the reverse.Does the class agree that they have picked the correct star?
• Time to create your own starry night display ....and add stars in the night sky of your own,but this time each child creates a star out of the written target language number in the shape of a star! You could ask the children to come and place their star on the starry night picture and make a silent wish too!

My second idea is based on Christmas greetings and Christmas bells

Paper puppets with a purpose

There have been some fascinating posts recently on Facebook and Twitter about the use of puppets in primary language teaching.Recently I bought all the associate teachers that work with me new puppets as our puppets were beginning to be not only very well loved but also some what worn out!Our younger children love the puppets, singing with them ,talking to them, watching the language assistants and teachers whispering or asking questions with the puppets etc.

The recent posts made me think about how years ago (1995 to be exact!) I created "paper puppets with purpose" for my language learners in UKS2. 

I started creating paper puppets with my Year 5 and 6 in primary,after watching a local playschool teacher using paper puppets to support a reluctant speaker.I was amazed by just how precious the children in Year 5 and Year 6  found them in their language learning.Indeed these puppets were still being made and used by my language learners in 2012- with the same effect!

As a learning tool they help with language retention and language practise.They make what might be perceived as simple or silly questions more sensible because you ask the puppet and they create opportunities to have simple dialogues between the puppets and the puppeteers. Plus every child had a learning tool that belonged to him/herself. 

They are brown paper envelopes - hand size 

and if you depress the top two corners and push the fold inwards carefully ,you can make a mouth and operate this from inside the envelope.

The children can make them into their own characters and customize them - clowns,sports stars, animals, cartoon characters etc. 

All my children's puppets had  an appropriate target language name linked to language we practised - so animals, foods, clothes, colours etc were very popular.

We kept our puppets in our class drawers and brought them out to learn with use very language lesson.

Mine were called "monsieur baguette" and "Herr Hamburger" as we used them in French and German.They even travelled to the Primary Languages Show in 2001!

• The children could make the puppets talk of course!
• The children could make the puppets whisper or talk in target language too by beating out the syllables in words using the mouth of the envelope opening and shutting in time with the rhythm of the words. 
• They loved walking round the room practising dialogues and new questions- one paper puppet talking to another.
• They used their puppets to participate in class songs 
• They helped me to retell stories or add the repetition to stories

And finally let me introduce you to  a very old and good friend of mine ."Madame souris" She belonged to a pupil from 1997,Jennie B.Sadly you can tell that she is quite old now as the colour is fading etc .I often use her even now to share this idea with teachers and teacher trainees. 

 Simplest ideas are sometimes the best!

Function machines and the processing and recording of grammar knowledge

One of the best things about working with groups of class teachers is often the links that teachers make with language learning using tools and focuses across the primary curriculum.On the first day back after October half term Emilie and I worked with a start up school  in their first year of rolling out primary French.When we work with schools where languages are new this year,we often hear them ask  "what about the grammar?"

Well today we were considering nouns and I have in the past blogged about ways we can approach breaking down the understanding the function of nouns and how to support children to grasp that in other languages there is more than one word for "The" and"A" (Teachers are often afraid too!) (Here is my blog from June on nouns and definite/indefinite articles or the washing machine grammar device)

Over the last couple of CPD sessions Emilie and I have been asking the teachers to realise that nouns in French have "tags" .

Emilie explains how she is teaching her own little boy French and always introduces new nouns with a tag (un cochon/la tante) never a noun alone!

We make sure that the teachers can see that words "masculine" and "feminine" do not mean " male and "female" and we ask them to visualise pulling nouns out of  "masculine" /"feminine"  tag labelled drawers.The idea of physically opening the drawer and being able to select a noun, take it out and use it seems to work well.Teachers also like the idea of the tag being a "function button" on a virtual drawer.It works.We can quite easily  get the teachers to see the link then between the  le/un  or la/une.We love it when the teachers then feel that they confidently use and also explain nouns over a period of time to young learners. They can see and identify the stages in the process of practising and becoming confident in the use of nouns too! It's a lightbulb moment!  

  

Today I clarified this with a flow chart .... and then that was the magical moment,when a teacher amongst the staff who enjoys the logical process of maths suggested she would like to add "function machines" to the children's learning journals we had been discussing. She explained that this would help her and the children she teachers and then receives the following year to progress through the stages of learning from beginners, to moving on to advanced! She explained that clear diagrams help her to process and use information and data.Do you know I completely got this! Faced with teaching Year 6 Maths whilst on supply along time ago the class and I created function machines not just to help the children but to help me as the teacher who wasn't an expert to understand how to grasp new mathematical concepts!

And do you know I think that this will work for lots of us - teachers and children in language learning.Hence the robot machine at the top of the page as here is our link to functions and processes.It's also a learning tool that we can pass from year group to year group and even pack in our virtual suitcases at the end of the academic year. 

We then went on to explore how over four years we could build up these function machines on nouns, adjectives and verbs so that in Year 5 or 6 a teacher can ask the children to refer back to their function machines to independently look for and use new language! It gives the teacher in every KS2 year group and especially up in UKS2 a point of reference and support too!