"Stepping Stones" and a first lesson back!

Time to get back to learning and to build on prior learning and move on forwards.

Here is a simple context that can help all our learners no matter how much or how little they have already learnt in the target language.Take a look at the picture above .....

Ask the children to look at the picture and to see the stepping stones in the picture.

Should we as a class find out how securely we can stand on the first three stepping stones 

Stepping Stones.

Stepping Stone One:

Reflect on what we already know - our numbers,our colours, our greetings....

• Think of a rhyme, a song or a game we can create .use or do to allow us as a class to practise the language we already know.(Great way for a new class teacher to find out the strengths and knowledge of a class from the previous language learning)

Now we are standing securely on our first stepping stone.....

Stepping Stone Two:

Recall and remember an authentic song or rhyme that we learnt last year.

• Can we still sing it or say it? Are there actions to go with it?
• How does it feel to be able to remember the song or rhyme from last year and to still be able to join in with the rest of the class and perform it?
• Can the class teach the teacher the song or rhyme and its actions?

Now we are standing securely on our second stepping stone.......

Stepping Stone Three:

Recall and  remember the questions and ansqers we can use about ourselves and to find out about others.

• What can we say about ourselves? How can we help each other to remember the answers?
• What questions can we ask about others?How can we help each other to remember the questions? 

Now we are standing securely on our third stepping stone.......

Stepping Stone Four:

Take a look at the picture at the top of the blog post again.

Take a look at the picture with the children - the stepping stones are about to turn a corner.

Let's use the fourth stepping stone to lay down the ground rules so that we can move securely from stepping stone to stepping stone and off in to the distance!

Let's ask ourselves:

• Why was the game or the song or the rhyme enjoyable and how did this help us remember language?
• Why do we like learning authentic songs and rhymes?
• How do actions help us?
• Why do we like being able to ask and answer questions about ourselves?

Stepping Stone Five:

Now we are ready to step off and move in to unknown territory and our final stepping stone needs to be something new..... over to you and your class! 

From policy to practicality.Primary languages and beyond!

Last week at CPD in London delivered by Lisa Stevens, Sylvie Bartlett Rawlings  and Julie Prince and myself ,we shared with colleagues some effective and creative ways to bring story,cross curricular learning,technology and phonics and literacy in to the primary classroom.
In the room with us were primary and secondary colleagues, all of whom identified with what we had to share and could see pathways forward for their own learning environments! Thank you Lisa,Sylvie and Julie! 
Lisa made Sketch Notes of presentations and here are her Sketch Notes of my presentation.....and below listed in point form are the points I raised.

Policy to Practicality Points to Consider and Reflect Upon.....

1. What does language learning and thought of it make you feel? How was language learning for you at school? Why should this inform your approach in the primary classroom? 
2. If you are a secondary languages teacher - how can you make sure that your language teaching practice in the primary classroom is language learning for all and not those who pick it up quickly or in certain way?
3. If you are a primary specialist teacher then look for all thse wonderful links to literacy that you bring so readily to the classroom.
4. If secondary linguists and primary non speicialist language teachers talk and share - it will make and does make already in certain instances magic! 
5. Are languages a bit like driving a car? I learnt in a Fiat Panda and when my father asked me to reverse the Rover off the drive to pop the new Fiat Panda on the drive - I froze! why ? Well I had learnt in a Fiat ~Panda....could I really reverse a different type of car? Of course I could - slowly and stutteringly but safely .... I had learnt to drive a car hadn't I? What a sense  of pride I felt once I had done this! Even to this day I know that I can drive cars- albeit stutteringly at first in a new or strange vehicle!!
6. Pupils want to move forward .Self efficacy makes learning a "self" perpetuating need as learners achieve and want to learn more and get better.They like feeling successful- that goes withoit saying really! What we need to do is provide the tools so they can be successful.
7. Self efficacy demands that we listen to what the children want to say and we must consider what age and stage our learners are at and what they can already do.A young child for example wants to tell you that he /she has hurt his/ her knee or his/her head hurts and not that he/she has a temperature or may have a stomach upset! Young children generally want to talk about things that are relevant in their lives: sweets,toys, family and  today and tomorrow and probably not talk about things that have no relevance in their own lives.
8. The Purpose of Study in the DFE POS  is a powerful paragraph.The opening line about the "liberation from insularity" is our green light to explore the World with the children.It's the WOW factor!Tasting,investigating,meeting,speaking,singing ,dancing, understanding more about the world and moving away from the small world of the child in some instances! Breing the world in to the classroom - virtually or with real experiences and make it age and stage appropriate!
9. Balance the learning between "Listening,Speaking ,Reading and Writing". Acknowledge that not very many people are purely auditory learners.Sometimes the best primary practitioners are those that have to find lots of ways to facilitate learning of limited language because they themselves have got to re-learn or learn for the first time the language they are teaching- which helps them to understand the needs of the learners very well.
10. KS1 practitioners are fantastic at seeing the links between basic building  bkocks of sentence building in english and the transfer of these activities to KS2.They all seem to love the Sandcastle Sentence Building that we do with our KS2 Y5/6 learners in the network! It seems to me we all have so much to learn from each others' expertise!
11. Our young learners told us in a school learning journey programme a few years ago that they wanted to be able to talk to other children their own age and they wanted to hear what they have to say about their lives.This was how they saw being successful in language learning.Age and stage appropriate,this is a wonderful way to engage the language learners of the future! Personal information is still important and we need to provide them with the scaffold of questions and answers and show them how to constrauct dialogues and conversations.
12. Be imaginative and creative.I have most certainly been asking children to be "language detectives" all my teaching career with what ever stage or age of learner I have been working - indeed with adults too! Make the learning memorable.
13. Problem solve - not you but facitate problem solving for the children .I know of course  that not all children want to "do drama" (even though I love this approach!) and I advocate providing a very mixed diet of learning.
14. Encourage reading for pleasure and listening just to listen - don't always look for results and progress ....Maybe it happens without us noticing sometimes?
15. Link language learning across the curriculum - embed the learning in the curriculum and take time to  share this with the wider community.Are you looking at pirates as a school theme? Well what about going on a treaure hunt in languages and  go on a word treasure hunt as pirates gathering new treasure from their "pirate bilingual treasure chests - the bilingual dictionary".
16. Take time to meet the demands of "emerging, meeting and exceeding" statements we so often here now.Notice that I am suggesting we take time! Let's make learning accessible to all.Remember languages spiral up and spiral down- like Maths - as a learning process.If you rush it, you will lose some on the way! Share the magic tricks (if you are a linguist) - explain that you don't know every word or you don't know how to say every word or get the gender right every time.Share the tricks of phonics, synthesis , bilingual dictionaries, watching , mimicking, having another go , tryong to use new language in different circumstances, memory skills, jusing our voice machines....language learning skills ( any one remember those?) .If you are a non -specialst then go on a languages learning strategies journey with your children.Give them time to share and discuss these strategies - as this will help them if they swap languages too.(Remember my analogy -the Fiat Panda?)
17. Plan for progress.In KS1 we look at "education of the ear".In KS2 plan for progress with grammar.Make it one of the most exciting and memorable journeys that children take .I mean -how exciting is it to find out that there is more than one word for "THE"!!! ??? And if you are a languages' expert I believe that with a little help all faciliators of language learning can facilitate  basic understanding of grammar- we just need to hep others! 
18. Moving on in to Year 7 consider the progress and build on the foundations laid.Talk (perhaps work) with your primary colleagues.Don't knock the building blocks down, but review, reflect and then build upon the language explorations the children have taken part during their primary language learning journey.  

Let's not try to square the circle.One Key stage is different to anothet ,but let's enable each of us to put building blocks in place,so that children can move forward and access joined up thinking that takes our young language learners on a very exciting skill development journey ...becoming a linguist!

 Some of us remember the last time we felt the "language learning train had set off  from the station" ... this time in my opinion we must all keep going on the journey!
I picked a lego train on purpose (left) because we all have something valuable to contribute and we must join up the dots to make progress.  
Linguists like recurring patterns,problem solving, puzzles and communicating with others - so we should be able to do this!

Assessment

Emerging , meeting exceeding....assessment......foundation subjects !
I spend a lot of time meeting with colleagues, discussing the implementation of primary languages in their individual schools.Recently I have spent some time beginning to help KS3 colleagues to understand what is happening in KS2 and to look at how we can create an effective learning continuum for the specific high school and link primary schools .

During the last two terms more and more frequently, I have had conversations with primary colleagues, who tell me that  they are beginning to or are "assessing" or being required to assess primary language progress.

I welcome the fact that we need to demonstrate progress.
I recognise the challenges in doing this effectively and efficiently.
I identify that the assessment needs to demonstrate real progress in the language learners linguistic skills.

Why do I welcome "demonstrating progress"?
Well it means we have arrived!
It makes language learning real and a part of the whole primary curriculum and announces that we are part of the learning landscape!
It means that the "quantitative data" that we can pass up through the school will ultimately impact upon KS3 language learning.
It means that children will hopefully have a sense of "self efficacy" which means they are ready and confident to continue learning and can identify their own next steps.

Why do I recognise that there are challenges to overcome?
Well firstly it is a question of time - if you are only with a class for 30 minutes,then just how do you do this? 
Even if you have more time,just how much more time do you have?
Secondly how do you create assessment as an integral part of the teaching and learning and adhere to the philosophy that all children can make progress and that language learning in primary should be a primary creative learning opportunity? 
Thirdly do you assess all  the children or a sample of children?
Fourthly just what should you assess, how and why? How do you then use this data to inform next steps or future remedial steps?
Fifthly what if you are a school that is just starting off and getting to grips with how to make languages an integral part of the timetable etc?

Why do I want to see a "demonstration of real progress in lingusitic skills"?
Well firstly I think we need to consider just what are we measuring.
Can we use his data to create the next learning steps for the children?
Can we use the data to inform us of our young learners strengths in language learning?
Can we use the data as a picture of progress and as information to help us create next term's/year's language learning across the year groups?
Can we as primary colleagues use this data to populate our dialogue with secondary colleagues and can we all find ways to use the data effectively, in a way that is fair to all children and promotes future progression and success?
Could data around linguistic skills help MFL departments inhigh schools to understand their new Y7 cohort better? I am thinking here particularly if the school at KS3 teaches a range of languages and the banding of children is not determined by which language they learn at primary?   

I realise that I have raised alot of questions here and each of these questions demands reflection time on your part and in your individual setting or even better as a shared dialogue between settings and key stages!

As part of my work I am able to draw on the experiences of lots of other teachers in primary schools and some secondary schools who are grappling with these questions.
Here are my observations both current and from previous academic years,which may help you on your way to solving your own challenges. 

The emerging picture

• The general consensus seems to be that the three descriptors in red at the top of the blog "emerging , meeting exceeding" are the  preferred levelling descriptors.
• The schools are feeding the assessment data in to the specific assessment recording programme that is being used across school for all subjects.
• Schools are having to work out the best fit within this data collection and review system when primary languages are a subject that only need to be formally taught from Y3. 
• Heads want quantitative data (in some instances already) .Therefore a base line is required so that a percentage outcome at the end of the year or during the year can be drawn.
• The baseline needs to be captured when the children start their formal language learning and the DFE POS requires this to start term one Year 3.Quite a few of the schools I work with teach from YR but in my opinjon we need to see the formal procress and trackong of progress starting from Autumn Y3.The baseline is then a snap shot of the skills the children have already, but based on the content,context and activities of September language learning.
• Schools that I work with are looking at the skills of learning a language (transferable linguistic skills as we are preparing each young language learner for languages we do not yet know he/she may need to learn in his/her own lifetime) 
• Currently there are lots of schools ,where pupils in UKS2 are at the same level as pupils in LKS2 and also in some schools LKS2 children may have learned more language than children in UKS2. 
• Amongst the schools I work with there are schools that hjave yet to address assessment as they are setting off or still finding their way in language teaching and learning.what is apparent though is that pri ary colleagues bring an understanding of data analysis to the table.Once they begin to collect data they are able to use this effectively and are not afraid to adapt and adjsut assessment processes to find the best way forward.  
• Currently secondary schools I am working with ,ant a picture of a primary Year 6 class as a whole and they are not setting classes using this data or using this data to monitor inidividual pupils progress. This could and should change as the implementation of Year 3 to Year 9 language learning progresses.they recognise this and are working through ways to adjust their Y7 teaching and learning as the data changes and progresses between Y6 and Y7 over the next couple of year.
• Some schools are trialling APP models and some schools are monitoring every pupil.
• What is apparent is less is more and where cplleagues have created huge lists of assesmengt focae the picture is confused.
• Schools who are tracking four skills (L,S,R,W) and have now begun to consider progress in basic grammar(nouns,adjectives and verbs) have a clear,simple and informative picture of progress.

A possible way forward!

• Look at the DFE POS learning objectives- these are skill descriptors just like we had in the KS2 Framework but concertina style! (The DFE POS runs across KS2 and KS3 and therefore should lead us along a learning continuum from Year 3 to Year 9) 
• Think of the four main language skill areas.(Listening Speaking Reading and Writing).
• Identify the four main skill strands - listening ,speaking ,reading and writing.
• Populate these four main areas with the learning objectives from the DFE POS
• Expand these skill descriptors (you may need to look at the KS2 framework objectives to do this) and therefore explore the stages of learning required to become competent in each skill at the level described in the DFE POS learning objective.For example what stages can a child develop thorugh to becpme a competent language pupil in Y3,4,5 or 6 in listening and responding ?
• Look at the CEFR descriptors A1 and A2 for listening,spoken interaction ands spoken production reading and writing.Chart level A1 and possibly A2 against the skills and the DFE POS learning objectives.
• The Assessment in MFL guidance from the ESAG suggest that these documents in the last four bullet points are key pathways to explore.
• Focus on generating one descriptor of expected progress per stage of "meeting the expected competency" per skill (can do .....).Give children somewhere to go to - that si allow for progress beyond the skill descriptor that you decide upon for that stage of learner.
• In mixed age classes especially you will need to offer more than one stage of skill competency.
• Keep assessment tasks simple and integral to the lesson and primary appropriate - simon says , bingo . APP recordings for speaking, performances, creatve writing activities , reading sorting/seeking activities.
• Make evidence collection integral to the lesson and for speaking use recordings and post it records 
• Build in opportunities for children to share their growing knowledge of grammar and how to use bilingual dictionaries - don't force the activity , see where the activity lends itself to such an assessment opportunity. 
• Depending on the school requirements -plan to track all or a sample of the class- record using simple tick charts with evidence kept and activities highlighted and dated in planning etc.
• Baseline assess your sample group or class at the start of the first year of formal language learning- start next year with Year 3! Allow the children time to settle and to practise language first - so we are looking at end of September.
• Keep the assessement "skill" not "content" driven
• Track  progress in these skills across the year
• Plan to assess atleast three times in the year and want to see the use of each skill a certain number of times across the year by the specifc child or children in the sample group.
• Remember we want childrren to succeed.Learning a language is a life skill so in my opinion at the early primary stages of language learning we want children to develop self efficacy and to do this they need to feel confident and that they are developing communication skills.

In real practice!

Remember some schools are just starting off!
Schools are looking at the DFE POS and the learning objectives and tracing these objectives back to the 4 core skills and grammar

Some schools are tracking two skills often listening and speaking to see how it works in practise.

Schools are keeping activities very manageable ( a table game/ a quiz/a Quiz quiz Swap observed activity)
Where schools work with our asscoiate teachers the class teacher is asked to support with the tracking and assessment and in some cases work alongside the language teacher. It is my opinion important that the teachers in school can see porgress and align this with the whole development of the young primary learner.

Schools are keen to report progress to parents and find the "can do " skill statements easy to use for this purpose.Reporting of content and transactional language progress is also shared.

Keep it simple - if you have to explain progress to SLT baed on what you have assessed then it needs to be easy to follow and evidence kept needs to clearly demonstrate progress.

Where effective tracking and recording is taking place,it is empowering and it allows the coordinator to show the value of language learning across the curriculum to other members of staff and SLT/ governors.

Where dialogues are beginning to develop between primary and secondary schools based on skill progress then a bigger picture is created of the young developing language learners.
With some colleague we have discussed hiw assessment in languages and then drilling down to see where gaps are ,could help teachers to support children with commnication challenges or see strengths that they didn't obviously notice in other areas of the curriculum. This I feel is a really interesting area to investigate.  

KS3 colleagues are becoming more interested in the stage of competency in linguistic skills with their next year Y7 cohort.This does raise challenges but being persistent and looking for solutions is key! 

There is mileage in the use of the CEFR alongside the DFE POS learning objectives as both a diagnostic and summative tracking and assessment tool from Y3 to Y7 and beyond.

KS3 colleagues can use anecdotal and informal evidence of content and languages covered to inform how they approach similar topics and content.

Spin the wheel with German nouns and articles!

This is a simple game for UKS2 or KS3 German language learners who are exploring the relationship between articles and cases in German.

All you need are pictures of nouns you are practising e.g foods and a "Spinning Wheel" made of card - see my diagram- with an arrow that can move and is fixed to the centre of the circle.



Step One
Divide you class into differentiated ability teams of 6 children

Step Two
Place a picture of a noun or place the object itself in the centre of the Spinning Wheel Circle.
With the arrow at 12 o'clock invite a member of a team to say the noun  for the class (1 point)
Can the team decide and say the definite article that goes with the noun? (1 point)

Step Three 
Turn the arrow to one of the other written phrases.Can the team now say the noun after the word or phrase with an accurate definite artcile in the correct case? ( 2 points)
Can a member of the team explain why they have used this definite article  e.g it is how you say it after "ich habe..."  (1 point)
They can double the score if they can say what "case" they have used- Accusative or Dative  

Noun Nets and German

The challenge of nouns and definite/ indefinite articles in German and cases with young learners can seem like a huge challenge but I think we need to break this down and look for small steps of progression over four years.
The beauty of German is that there are very clear rules as qe use nouns in the nominative, accustaive, dative and genitive cases
I think that over four years we can help the children in primary German rto have "basic understanding of nouns"
What I am describing below will take the four stages ( four years of primary language learning to develop.

• Let's go catching nouns , like you would catch butterflies.Preciuous , to be looked after carefully and to be  examined and observed!
• Let's make it exciting - I mean how exciting is it that there are three types of nouns in German masculine , feminine and neuter.Let's make it an exciting exploration!!
• Let's make sure from the beginning that the young learners do not asscoaite thes three terms with sexual gender but see the titles "masculine","feminine" and "neuter"  as tags or labels.The blog post here on tags and labels for nouns may help you too .Nouns, definite articles,indefinite articles and colour card tricks
• Let's keep on talking about nouns, revisiting and reviewing nouns with our young learners too- across content and contexts and year groups and stages of learning.
• Let's put our nouns and finding about nouns as we explore the four cases - Nominative,Accusative,Dative and Genitive in to noun nets and let's reviit and explore them throughout the year and then across the year groups as we find out more! 

Noun Nets One!
In our first noun  net with stage one / beginner German learners Let's just collect singular nouns  and let's collect tags or labels.
Let's put the nouns we are learning (e.g. animal nouns) in to one large net as written word cards with the definitie article
Let's take the nouns out of the net one by one and examine the nouns carefully.Can we spot the different definite articles? 

Why not use my idea of the magnifying glass for this? 
The mysterious World of grammar and the maginfying glass

Let's add a new category and add plural nouns and the definitie article "die"
Let's explore plural endings and how we can spot the difference between for example "die Schlange" and "die Schlangen" 
Let's catch and sort our feminine nouns in two different nets! 

Noun Nets Two!
Let's sort our nouns! 
Can we categorise the nouns and place them in three nets - "der/ die and das" nets.
Let's be honest with the choldren and explain that the nouns have speical titles "masculine,feminine and neuter" 
Let's right from the start explain that the masculine does notr mean male etc
We can continue over four years to gently remind our learners so they have lots of chances to understand the "basic grammar facts "



Let's sort nouns using the game in this blog post I Spy Nouns- we can revist this activity many time too! 

Noun Nets Three!
With stage two , moving on learners on Year 4...
Let's look at nouns after the verb "haben".
Let's be positive and let' use "ich habe...."
Can we spot the difference in the spelling of the definite article 
Can we  create four new nets and place these below the first four nets that we already use. 
Where are we going to put the nouns now?
Ich habe den Hund
Ich habe die Schlange
Ich habe das Kaninchen
Ich habe die Katzen


Let's apply the rule we have made as a class and see if it works with a question..."Hast du....?"
(Maybe at this point you want to talk with the children about the "object" of the sentence... answering the question "What item are we talking about?" )
Remember it will be important to keep on talking about nouns, revisiting and reviewing nouns with our young learners too- across content and contexts and year groups and stages of learning.

Let's apply this rule to indefinite singular article nouns too now ......
Bring out I Spy Nouns again- a familiar activity but a new challenge to ask and answer questions with the verb "haben" and to use indefinite articles with the nouns....before sorting in to "noun nets"!

Noun Nets Four!
With stage three, moving on learners  at the start of Year 5 ....
Let's introduce some important prepositions and the effect that these prepositions have upon the definite and indefinote articles....
Break this down - don't bombard them- start with an accusative preposition "für"and investigate and apply the rules the children already used in"noun nets 3 
Now make it exciting....spot the changes and track the family of the nouns definite article- introduce a dative preposition "mit".
Can the children create the next layer of noun nets - "dem / der/ dem/ den!".

Take time over the year to explore some more useful prepositions and their relationships with definite artciles - zu / von / nach .Try to keep these  explorations to prepositions that don't change from Accustaive to Dative.
do talk with the children about these fascinating words "Nominative" "Accusative" "Dative " use them just like with UKS2 you might use the term"Algebra" or "Fraction"
Give your learners the chance over a period of time to just see these words as labels and signposts and useful as list headings for prepositions.....

You may like to use the Spin the Wheel Game to practise use of Nominative,Accusative and Dative Definite Articles.

Noun Nets Five! 
With stage three or four , moving on learners  at the end of Year 5, moving in to Year 5 ....
Let's explore the Genitive case ....
Let's once again use all our apporaches from Noun Nets 1,2,3,4 and let's make it an exciting discovery .
Ask the children if they can define for you what power the definite article in the Genitive has .... Can they suggest a sense of belonging or ownership? Lead them to see this relationship 
And guess what set up your Noun Nets again!

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!

It's not rocket science! Implementation of primary language learning

"It's not rocket science!" This seems like such a great phrase to describe effective implementation of primary language learning in an individual school.

This afternoon I have been reviewing progress in one of our network schools during "one to one" consultancy time as part of the JLN membership entitlement.Find out more here.
Janet Lloyd Network Membership

The JLN member school subject coordinator asked me to go in and spend 2 hours reviewing what the school has achieved and where the school is going to next with language learning.

The local school has implemented effective language teaching and is now ready to take on the challenge of assessment and tracking progress.

Here are the ingredients that have been built up,over time and are helping the school to be effective in French language learning so far:

1. Networking,sharing,learning
2. SLT and governor support
3. Appointment of a subject coordinator
4. Receive training on the DFE POS and use this as sign posts to aid implementation 
5. Using subject coordinator tools to guide and inform next steps 
6. Effective language teaching and learning
7. Progression across KS2
8. Links with literacy and creativity
9. Whole school buy in
10. Subject coordinator and experienced French language teacher working together
11. Celebrating language learning with display and events
12. Keeping a record of achievements
13. Using AfL to inform next steps
14. Trialling tracking and assessment
15. Considering how to implement tracking and assessment

The school has 

• Has a comprehensive SOW in place.This school is loosely following our JLN SOW.Take a look here 

JLN SOW

• Is a member of an active and focussed network. The school belongs to our network in the North West.Take a look here  Janet Lloyd Network
• Does listen and draw upon others ideas and experiences.
• Receives virtual support , blog posts and Network News which keep this coordinator up to date. Take a look here.Network News
• The subject coordinator works alongside the PPA French teacher and also delivers his own French language lessons , helping him to keep up to speed with the progress and the challenges of implementation.
• Encourages members of staff to be aware of their own class progress in the language, using the tools and resources that accompany the subject coordinator's pack.(The school does not overburden staff)
• Is building year on year on effective and successful practise and is moving towards more adventurous ways of approaching the language , for example with our "Blogs to go" or "APPS to go" SOW overlays.
• Has built a  substantial resource bank of stories that allow for creative exploration of the SOW content. Take a look here at these two examples of support: Reading in the target language is great  New Spanish books and reasons why I selected them
• Has display created by the children in the school to promote their language learning

 Today at school during our "one to one consultancy time" (part of the membership entitlement) we considered 

• the progress and next steps of the school and the coordination of language learning using the Primary Self Audit Tools.
• identified the "establishing tracking and assessment" area as the next step area for the coordinator and the PPA teacher 
• considered how the JLN SOW tracking sheets can enable the whole school/ staff to have an awareness of content , transactional language progress and skill development.

The one to one time with the subject coordinator allowed 

• the opportunity to dig deeper and understand what progress will look like across stages of learning and how to quantify the skill development
• the opportunity to look at other network school approaches and find the best fit for this school and its current language learning foot print.
• the opportunity to decide what will be the French teacher, the subject coordinator's and the class teacher's roles in the roll out of tracking and assessment next year

You see it isn't rocket science ,it's just sensibly paced and supported primary appropriate next steps........

Seaside Sequencing Story.Languages and Literacy

In sharing this animated sequencing story, I have to thank several people! 
Firstly Ana Lavado Garcia for her drawings and the original story power points some of us have used as part of the resources for JLN member schools.Secondly Ana and Emilie Woodruffe for their native speaker voices and time to put together authentic language in the simple story .Thirdly Little Red Languages for their work alongside WTSA/JLN to bring the "Alien family at the Seaside " story to animated life!

We love our extra terrestrial family and their adventures.
This year as part of our third local network meeting for the DFE funded WTSA/JLN language project "Language Learning for Everyone " we met the family at carnival for our "Carnival Triarama Conversations" 

Thanks to all the wonderful people above we are able to share this animated sequencing story about the seaside with you all.We hope you will enjoy exploring the story with your children in French and/or Spanish the following DFE KS2 POS learning objectives




DFE POS LOS: 

• listen attentively to spoken language
• speak in sentences,using familar vocabulary,phrases and basic language structures 
• read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing
• appreciate stories ...in the language
• broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words

So here is the story - a short sentence or two per page with animations and sound files.

Take a look......

la famille extra terrestre

La familia alien va a la playa

Thanks to Little Red Languages - you can pause the script, conceal the script, replay the sound file , go forwards , go backwards and watch the characters appear on the screen!

Spot the "space " theme throughout the pictures ( starry glasses, planet ice creams ,rocket sandcastle etcetra....thanks Ana!)"

Ways I would use the story file!

(Well it links so well with story telling in Literacy to be truthful!)

• Share the front page and look for cognates in the story title.
• Brainstorm words we may already know about the seaside and might expect to find in the story.
• Categorise the words- nouns, adjectives, verbs, masculine/ feminine etcetra.
• Encourage the children to look up words they really hope are in the seaside story.

• Explore the instuctions on the second page and look up the key words forst in the bilingual dictionaries before actially clicking in the icons to see what they do and therefore understand the instructions 
• Discuss and identify which words are adjectives, nouns and parts of verbs.

• Listen to the story all the way through with the text and add actions for each page on a second hearing.

• Listen to the story to explore the text on each page- show the text on each page, pause on key words, hide the text , practise as a class re-telling the story orally trying to be as exact and true to pronunciation as possible.
• Explore replacement words and phrases- can we change the weather for example or describe dad's sunglasses or baby's enormous ice cream in more detail?

• Spot the sequencing words.
• Discuss the role of the sequencing words in the text.
• Give out strips of card with the sentences written on the cards
• Can the children in pairs put the story back together in order.
• Listen to the text but this time conceal the words- can the pairs wave the correct sentence strip to match the sentence they hear?
• Ask the children to rewrite the text in the order they want it to happen - moving the sequencing words around and therefore changing the order.

Of course as you may know I love drama - so.....

• Let's learn the text and let's act it out 
• Let's change the text and tell the story as a performance
• Let's draw our own story and add our own sentences and sound files! 

We really hope you enjoy using this story and are able to join us next term if you are in the North West for one of our Local Network Meetings.

More details here

Language Learning for Everyone LNMs DFE/WTSA/JLN

Going to the Seaside and exploring DFE POS Learning Objectives

We have had the brilliant fortune over the last year to work with WTSA to develop a DFE funded project to support teachers as they get to grips with the DFE POS and the learning objectives of the KS2 PoS.

Each term we have hosted and led a series of local network meetings around the designated NW area and had as a core theme "seasonal content" for whichwe have created packages of learning linked to the DFE POS Learning Objectives.If you are a teacher in the North West then you would be very welcome at our LNMs next term (Autumn 2015).The dates of the twilight meetings held in local schools during the first half term will appear here DFE Training Schedule


This term our theme has been "Going to the Seaside" .We try to share ideas that are suitable for beginners ,moving on and mofre advanced learneres.I have tried this year to share these ideas with a wider audience through my blog posts.The ideas and activities are intended to  help primary and secondary teachers understand more about the approaches and types of activites which will support progress in primary language learning 
Here are some of the activities "going to the Seaside" activities and the DFE POS Learning Objectives I think you can try to explore in more detail through the activities:

DFE POS LO: Explore the patterns and sounds of words

Seashell sounds and sand treasure hunts
(Thanks to Jo Shore for the pictures from her network meeting that she leads in Mid Cheshire.Brilliant!)

Fishing for letter strings and sounds
(Jo added additional ideas of her own with this game.I love this as it is about networking, growing and sharing etc)







DFE POS LO:Broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words
DFE POS LO:Understanding basic grammar

Sandcastle Sentence Building








Jo tried it out in Italian too!

You may also like the following activities too:

DFE POS LO: Speaking and writing in full sentences

Under the sea triarama for speaking,writing and a puppet show







DFE POS LO:Describe people,places,things orally and in writing

Seaside geography comparison,verbs and sentence structure
An interesting way to not only look at the seaside and language about the  seaside but also to compare two towns not far from each other- one is French (Biarritz) and one is Spanish (San Sebastian) 



Now it's over to you!
How do you want to use these activities in your work around the theme of "Going to the Seaside"?
Or maybe... how do you want to to take the idea and change it to fit different content and contexts, but still explore the specific learning objective with your language learners?

Going back, to get to the future!

Strange title I know - "going back,to get to the future" but this is a possible learning opportunity with Year 6 during this final Summer half term !

I am very excited about the work some of my colleagues will be undertaking this half term with their Year 6 language learners! 

Some of my local colleagues have decided this half term to work with their Year 6 classes to explore other target languages - 

• to excite and enthuse  Year 6 learners with a new language 
• to see how language learning skills  are transferable and can help access a new language
• to help our young language learners realise that they are now ready for secondary school and KS3 language learning and maybe a new language challenge!
• to encourage our young learners as they leave primary to see that they are at the start of a very exciting language learning journey not necessarily stuck in one foreign language!

Take a look at this message from our Janet Lloyd Network Facebook page from @Deprezprez on 31 May this year !

Looking forward to starting to teach Spanish to my Year 6s at Burtonwood CP and Locking Stumps CP this half-term after many years learning French!! Will be a great challenge for them and interest after the SATs come down!

In my opinion learning a language involves risk taking and involves the transfer of both prior learning and skills.

We all need to be able to make mistakes and feel that we can try again and certainly be able to overcome the feeling that if it's not perfect use of language then there is no communication! 

Primary language learners need to be able to take risks, make mistakes,have another go and try to improve!

The experiment is a sort of "blast from the past" for myself really!
In  1995 I began working as a primary languages teacher with Year 6 children in a local primary school.The children were in a feeder school to a language college where half the children would learn French and half the children would learn German in KS3 Y7. I decided to teach half a term of French followed by half a term of German througout the school academic year.The same content and activities were used in both  half terms but in alternate languages.So many of the children thought German was more fun and that it was easier and at first as a Germanist I was very excited about this .I had obviously created lots of "German" language  enthusiasts...then I realised what was actually happening.The young language learners were relaxed during the second half term as we re-applied skills and participated in  very similar activities from the first half term.  In my opinion they were relaxed and learned effectively because they had already practised the language learning skills in French!

Let's go back to when I started teaching in 1985... maybe a similar thing was happening there too? 
Our "top sets" learned a second foreign language and were called the "accelerated language learning group" because they started their second foreign language in their third year at high school.
"Mmm?"I ask myself as I look back , maybe other children could have achieved this too? Should we have identified more clearly the skills that we were practising with all our language learners? Just a thought!

And if we go right back in to my past..... why am I a Germanist? Well,I learned French as my first foreign language alongside Latin and then two years later- German. I thought I was better at German- but was I? 
Maybe I  applied skills effectively that I had already practised in French and this helped me to access German more quickly (memory,recall, listening,speaking, reading aloud confidently,using a bilingual dctionary etc)?  This was probably on reflection proven at University ,but I didn't realise this at the time.It was expected that we studied Dutch or Swedish for two years whilst studying German and within those two years we  reached A Level standard in the language. I love drama and reading texts such as  Miss Julie by Strindberg in Swedish was a delight and that has always stayed with me! Did I realise at the time that I was using transferable skills?

It seems to me that skills help make you more confident to try to communicate in another language.In the last couple of years I have had to begin to understand and communicate at a limited level in Spanish and I find my understanding of the transferable language learning skills so useful and so powerful! 

And why do I believe that this is for more then just the "linguistically" able?Well the truth is that I am a "trained" not "true" linguist!
Yes I love languages and exploring languages and helping others to do the same! 
My first love is being able to communicate and be creative with language and text! 
On reflection I have become very adept at transfering skills and analysing language and looking for grammatical and structural patterns.

So this half term is maybe less of a great experiment and more of a great celebration! 

The Year 6 learners are about to start the next stage in their great  language learning adventure. We hope our activities this half term will help our young learners see the links between languages and how the mystery of language learning, isn't really an unsolvable mystery and that language learning skills and tools are transferable life long powerful assets!

The experiment does demand that the children trust us,are confident and excited about exploring a new language/culture and  want to see how the practise of language learning skills during their primary career can be used to access language a new language.

Skills? Well ....here are a few for starters!

• listening and responding in a new language
• looking and listening for similarities between languages to aid comprehension, 
• knowing how to listen to and practise the sounds of the new language
• accessing bilingual dictionaries to find the words to aid comprehesnion and comminication
• trying to accurately copy the sound and the spelling of new language

It also demands that the teacher is confident enough in some cases to say "I am the facilitator" not the expert- let's explore this new language together.Let's consider the skills and tools we have been developing and let's step out in to a new language and see if we can communicate at a simple level in this language". Life skills I think that could be invaluable to all concerned! 

Who knows what language someone may need to understand or speak during the course of their own lifetimes!

Language Learning for Everyone .Second term's report

(Link to Autumn term 2014 report)

Summer term is upon us and hopefully like myself you have had a good Easter break.The DFE WTSA/JLN project Language Learning for Everyone is about to deliver the final Local Network Meetings of the year.These are CPD twilights based on the DFE POS Learning Objectives with a specific primary context focus.This term it's all about "Going to the Seaside".You can find out how to register for one of these twilight CPD events if you are a North West primary classroom practitioner or a secondary colleague interested in primary language learning here Going to the seaside LNM event calendar

Firstly a huge thank you to absolutely everyone who has taken part or trained or supported us on this CPD journey so far!

We are delighted to say that we have secured the DFE funding for next academic year too and that these LNM CPD twilights will continue once per term in at the moment 8 different local venues throughout the next academic year.This is just one part of the CPD that we are offering as part of the DFE WTSA/JLN project. 

It's time to review last term's CPD and reflect on our success, next steps and  what we can do to improve the CPD.We have now reached over 500 local North West teachers and have run local network meetings each academic term this year as well as upskilling in French and Spanish and pedagogy and cross phase CPD.Each meeting is different and the size of the audience varies, but the enthusiasm,determination and commitment is obvious!

Local Network Meeting Review
We have realised that it suits teachers and schools to have the LNM CPD if possible in the first half term of an academic term.The coordinators that attend these meetings can then go back to school and plan to share and use the resources and activities effectively in the second half term. 

Last term our LNM focus was "Carnival and World Book Day".Thank you so much to all the schools that hosted one of these meetings and to Jayne,Emilie,Jo and Claire for their time and effort as they learn how to be lead trainers at these events as part of our "teacher led" CPD.Thanks also to the teachers who presented at the events - to Carmelina, Capenhurst CE and Fran!
As always the opportunity to network and share is popular.

Below are two examples of how activities we share at the CPD has an impact on the local delivery of languages in primary.The activities we share are intended to help all colleagues focus upon the ways that they can adapt and use the ideas to deliver effective language learning back in school in line with the Learning Objectives from the DFE POS.

Our carnival stretchy balloon to focus on sound spelling links proved very popular .I loved the fact that teachers at later CPD events brought their class stretchy balloons to show and share - where they had taken the original content , changed the content and created their own learning resource.Brilliant! Exactly what we hope will happen!

Stretchy balloon and letter strings

Here is one teacher's take on this idea- based on fantastical animals! She shared this with me at our Literacy and Phonics session in March with Julie Prince .Thank you!

The carnival triaramas to develop speaking and writing in full sentences were a great hit!

Carnival conversations using triaramas

So many of your children created their own versions!Everyone reported that the not only was the activity enjoyable but you found links with culture and primary creativity.some of you felt that the activity allowed you the chance to demonstrate and collect evidence about how the children could independently say ,write and understand purposeful target language. Here is just one example of children's own work!

Language Upskilling Review

As well as our local network meetings we offer teachers from the North West the opportunity to attend CPD with our native speaker primary specialist language teachers.We have offered Beginners and Intermediate French and Spanish during Spring term.(In the first term we offered Beginners French and Spanish and Intermediate French)

Teachers take away  from this CPD a year's worth of language teaching and learning resources too - for themselves and also so that they can help their staff back in school to make a start or progress.

The teachers at the sessions practise the spoken language with Emilie and Ana and then take sound files and pod casts back to school so they can listen to Ana and Emilie independently and revisit what we practise.

It's been a delight to watch Emilie and Ana grow in confidence as teacher CPD trainers! The response from the teachers at the Beginners French (delivered solo this time by Emilie) was overwhelmingly positive-  a native speaker starting right from basics and making sure that the CPD is linked to effective primary practise!

Intermediate upskilling is really rewarding as teachers go away feeling confident about their understanding,use and  ways to explore in a primary context nouns, adjectives and frequently used verbs in the present tense.

Below is our Cinderella and the verb "to be" dice game that we play.

Cinderella masks and carnival time and the verb to be

Making a potion with the verb to have and animals to create our wizard allows the teachers to explore how they can use a variety of content to link grammar with a primary approach! 

The verb to have and a wizard's potion

We delivered sessions in French and Spanish at intermediate level during Spring term.Here is a review of what we explore.

Activities to take a closer look at phonics,nouns,adjectives and verbs 

We look forward to working with colleagues next year as we roll out the second year of Beginners and Intermediate French and Spanish.Some of our colleagues have requested conversational upskilling too! 

The great news is that we are now establishing a German primary sub-network too, run by one of our local colleagues,Barbara Foerster,a native German primary language teacher and teaching assistant at a local primary.Barbara has worked with us for seven years! The first informal meeting is planned for this Summer term ,so do get in touch if you would like to go along to the meeting!

Pedagogy and Cross Phase CPD

We want to bring KS2 and KS3 colleagues together.We have established dialogues with secindary schools and colleagues and Jo Gierl has begin to keep a record of her observations,conversations and reflections in her blog: JoBeeG73.
To bring primary and  secondary together we are offering CPD that we feel ,has value to both primary and secondary colleagues.In Autumn term we invited Joe Dale to share his vast knowledge of APPs and technology and how we could use this as ,a shared language learning tool between stages and ages of learners. 

APPs and links between KS2 and KS3

Cross Phase Spring Term CPD 

This term we invited Julie Prince to share her vast knowledge and understanding of phonics and literacy.she helped us to look for a continuum in skills and learning activities and helped us make those links between key stages of language learning.Brilliant sessions! I say sessions because we offered either and afternoon or a twilight session to keep numbers at a level where the teachers could be really hands on and engage with the activities! This picture shows a primary and a secondary  colleague learning together! Thanks Julie!

Here is my Storify report of all the wonderful activities Julie shared.Phonics and literacy in KS2- KS3 .Easing transition and JoBeeG73 wrote her own secondary blog post on the CPD too An afternoon with Julie Prince   

We all received training and our developing trainers and native speakers learned so much too.Can you spot Emilie and Beatriz? If you know who they are of course! 

Ensuring Primary Progress CPD 

This term we ran a repeat session of "Fit for Purpose and getting started with the new DFE POS". I then delivered a more in depth and "moving on" session for coordinators on progression.

I have to say that I am always amazed by my teaching colleagues determination to make sure that primary language learning is effective and addresses the needs of the primary language learner.We have been working closely with our Warrington colleagues as a network since 2011 and before that as a Warrington network led by myself as a Primary Strategy Consultant.I think in total if you add in the years when I was a Primary Languages AST,it's actually over 14 years- if not more! 

Over the course of this time we have watched some young linguists flourish and are now in the position to be able to share how we track,collect evidence across 4 skills and assess progress.Our Ensuring Primary Progress CPD was oversubscribed and we had atleast 42 delegates in what was really a small room (sorry!).

It was however a chance to consider what progress and the assessment of progress can look like in line with the new DFE POS (and without levels).

We shared ways we track and record progress.Here is a blog post on keeping a creative spoken record of progress

It was CPD that posed and raised questions and what was wonderful was that some colleagues felt confident enough to ask difficult questions and challenge ideas!

We were all learning and sharing!

It's led to us setting up a small working party to look at what and how we assess work.It's also led to  colleagues being able to go away and set up activities that allow schools to make a start with primary language tracking and assessment.It meant that we were able to take a look at how the DFE POS ,the CEFR, the KS2 Framework Objectives can all dove tail together to create a more comprehensive picture of progress- even if we need longer to reflect upon best ways forward in our own school settings.

Here is one simple activity we tried to see if we could use this to demonstrate and collect evidence of progress  with more advanced KS2 listeners:

Making progress with listening  

   

This CPD will be offered again next academic year and we hope to have new elements that we can offer as follow up CPD for example to feed back from the small working party or to share ways local schools have been trialing assessment as an integral part of the classroom teaching and learning.

Making Links Abroad

We will also be offering "Making Links Abroad CPD" a second time too! Thanks to Erzsi Culshaw, Graham Butler and Odette Hunt for making this twilight CPD so effective and informative.

Teachers learned so much in a short time about Erzsi's ETwinning projects....

Opportunities to take part in Erasmus Plus CPD in the target language countries......here is Odette and PQ France

.....and ways to link classrooms and schools through funding from the British Council , through the International Schools Award, Connecting Classroom projects and global learning CPD. Thanks to Graham of course for sharing his immense knowledge! 

I think it's really important to share the key CPd more widely so i have been Storifying our guest speaker events. Here is the Storify report of the session Making Links Abroad.

Once again thank you!

So my reflections as we set off in to Summer term 2015 and begin to plan for "Language Learning for Everyone" for the next academic year are:

• We need to keep sharing, and the network meetings will allow us to do this.
• We need to keep on supporting colleagues to feel more confident in their ability to deliver or reinforce a specialist teachers delivery of the target language - so we look forward to offering language upskilling next academic year.
• We need to keep moving forward,so the CPD in "Ensuring primary progress" and a possible follow up session for those that attended the CPD this March are both really necessary.
• We all need to keep learning and to keep on exploring language learning.New teacher led CPD trainers need to continue to be nurtured so that fresh approaches are shared and also the impact of projects like this are long lasting and ensure that language learning from age seven is sustainable! 
• We need to keep primary language learning "primary" .Creative activities and outcomes appropriate to the age and stage of learner will remain a key focus of this project.
• We need to share our CPD and learn from others too,so links via social media- Twitter,Facebook, blog posts and You Tube are vital.
• We need to continue to strengthen our cross phase work.Languages need to be seen as  a learning continuum from KS2 Y3 to KS3 Y9 and beyond.Content,context and skill development needs to be age and stage appropriate.To this end  we need to be continue to offer discussion seminars and workshops to  strengthen dialogue and "listening"/ "sharing" between KS2 and KS3 colleagues. 

  

Sandcastle Sentence Building

One of our focus themes this next term is "Seaside" and synonymous with the seaside must be building sandcastles! As teachers of young language learners we are endeavouring to develop children's understanding of basic grammar and sentence construction.

Seems to me that "building sandcastle sentences" could be  a great way to enable our moving on and advanced language learning KS2 children to reflect  upon and apply their  growing knowledge of how language works!  
As the class teacher you can decide on the appropriate context,content and the structures (nouns,personal pronouns,parts of verbs, adjectives, conjunctions etc).

We can build simple sentences, sentences made of two clauses, sentences requiring conjunctions to make their more complex and apply word order rules and build our own new sentences with words and structures we select and  want to use .Just like we will fond lots of sandcastle building competitions on war m teachers in target language countries such as France and Spain then we can hold our own sandcastle sentence building competitions and set challenges that match the level of our language learners!

The "Sandcastle Sentence Building Challenges below are based on: 

• context - describing what we eat at the seaside
• content- ice creams
• grammar focuses- identifying and constructing simple present tense sentences using the personal pronouns and the verb " to eat"

In developing the following activities with your class, you must consider the language and word order of target language sentences, consider the punctuation of the sentences as signposts to the construction of the more complex sentences and select a context and content base that fits with your own class' target language knowledge.

Sandcastle Sentence Building 

Share with the children the building blocks of an empty simple sentence.

Can the children discuss with you how many parts the think are going to be in your sandcastle sentence (five in this sandcastle).Set the scene- if we are describing eating an ice cream ,do they think with a partner they can discuss what might words and phrases  be in the sandcastle?(Encourage them to think of words like je / manger/ glace/ flavours of ice creams)

Explain that every good sandcastle needs a flag to mark the spot and to go on top of the sandcastle.

In our sentences explain that this is going to be a personal pronoun.

Share with them the blue flag shape with the personal pronoun you want to use,written on it.I have chosen "Je" in French in this case.

Can they tell you the meaning of the word and explain its function in the sentence?

Give them pair talking and thinking time to do this. 

Now share with the class the building blocks of the first "sandcastle sentence".Can they decide in which order the sandcastle, starting with the personal pronoun flag at the top, should be built?

Why do they think that the word "mange" is written on an orange piece of card? 

Discuss with the class what this word represents as a structure ( verb) and why is it important  in the construction of a good sandcastle SENTENCE? 

In their heads can they "virtually" build your sandcastle?

Who wants to come out and build the sandcastle? 

Does everyone agree with the construction? 

What is the the sandcastle message?   

Share with the children a second personal pronoun flag.What does this allow us to do as sandcastle sentence builders? (We can build a new sentence).On mini whiteboards can the children try to build a new sandcastle sentence about a different flavour of ice cream?

Remind them of the importance of the orange building block in the sandcastle to make certain that they are building a SENTENCE .

Listen, look and share as a class some of the sandcastle sentences they have constructed and drawn .

Now share your new building blocks for the sentence that you would like a volunteer to construct as your new  "two tower sandcastle" made up of two clauses, so this time it will have "two tower sandcastle".

How does the class know which personal prononun to start with (capital letter on "Je")

How does the class know which flavour goes with the first ice cream here ( comma after "au chocolat,") 

How does the class know which is the final word of the two tower sentence and why? (Well it is the correct word order but also it has a full stop "vanille.")

Invite a  volunteer up to build what is now the "two tower two clause sandcastle sentence"!  

Can they cut out and write in pairs a "two tower two clause sandcastle sentence" as a challenge for another pair?

Sandcastles often have bridges and become more elaborate.We can introduce the use of conjunctions in this way too to our "Sandcastle Sentence Building" challenges.

Here are two conjunction bridges in French below.

Discuss with the children what role these two red bridges play on the sentence and identify that they have target language conjunctions written in them. Make sure that the conjunctions are familiar words for the children.

Can they change and improve the  "two tower two clause sandcastle sentence"above with one of these conjunction bridges ?

Which conjunction would they like to use?

For my example  below , I selected the conjunction bridge "et" in French to join my two clauses.

Can the class design and build their own "two clause conjunction sandcastle tower sentences" to share with the rest of the class?Their designs must also be based on the content you have been practising.

With more advanced language learners set up a "Sandcastle building challenge".

Give each pair a set of sandcastle building blocks in random order as below, to construct a "three tower,two conjunction sandcastle complex sentence". 

Here the children need to select the correct part of the verb to match the personal pronouns and to identify which flavour can not be at the end of the sentence(because of the comma) but also to decide which of the other two flavours will be at the end and make sure that they remember to add that full stop!

They need to decide where and how they want to use the two conjunction bridges- maybe they want to use two new conjunctions.....

........and then they can construct their "three tower,two conjunction sandcastle complex sentence".

Now it is time for the class to get on their construction thinking hats and build new sandcastle tower challenges for the rest of the class!

The class can now hold their own "Grand Class Sandcastle Sentence Building Competition!"