Beginning with languages blog 6

Across our network we work with schools who are all at different stages of setting up and delivering primary language learning and each year we welcome new schools who want to set off on their own individual school's language learning journey.

This year these specific 

"Beginning with languages "

 blogs will try to offer "bite size chunks" of indirect help and support to schools, who are doing exactly that .... just setting off and implementing  a language learning curriculum 

.

Take a look back at"beginning with languages" blogs 

one

 ,

two

,

three

 ,

four

 and 

five

Your checklists so far have been:

Sept - Oct ,(first half term) Checklist

• It's all about establishing a whole school support system for all your staff
• It's about small steps and simple language learning
• It's about children and staff beginning to enjoy language learning

Mid October (end of the first half term), an additional new checklist bullet point!

• So how are you all getting on? How do you know that primary languages are being implemented in all the classes and are the teachers and children having fun in their learning? 

November (moving in to the second half term of language learning),we added a couple of new challenges to your checklist!

• How successfully have you been able to build in "revisiting" opportunities to build the children and staff's confidence with the language you introduced last half term? 

• Are you introducing,revisiting and re-using familiar games with familiar and unfamiliar language for example (e.g Bingo or Splat or maybe a game of Quiz Quiz Swap?)

• Have you encouraged all staff to practise key language using sound files and songs?

• Can all staff and children practise and learn a Christmas song or carol in the target language? (In beginning with languages blog three you can find links to You ~tube clips of a Christmas song lin French, Spanish and German

December-January (moving forward) your checklist: 

• Did all your staff  try out a simple listening and speaking Christmas activity based on a Christmas  song?

• Have staff considered and been able to identify the links between activities we may use in KS1 when encouraging children to read and KS2 beginners language learning (sound-spelling links and activities)?

• Are KS2 staff building opportunities  in to activities in the New Year  to help learners to  "broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words ...."- Are staff in KS2  exploring nouns with their KS2 foreign language learners? 

February-March moving forward your checklist: 

• Try to deliver sequences of lessons based on simple content and language learning skills 

• Are your children beginning to participate on basic role play activities , asking and answering questions about themselves?

• Can the children ask a question  politely and give an appropriate response?

• Can you see evidence of signage and display created by the children in the target language?

• Has school celebrated a festival or whole school event (Carnival/World Book Day) and added a target language learning or cultural element?

And now we are at the end of the Spring term?

As a coordinator or the teacher in charge of developing primary language learning in school you need to reflect on what you have achieved,no matter how small the steps are.

• School has completed two terms of language learning.What does the overall coverage picture look like now in KS2?
• What successful  activities have been shared with you by other members of staff?
• Has school has begun to develop a formalised pattern of language learning.What are your next steps to build capacity and sustainabilty? For example do you need some language upskilling, pedagogy CPD input or to buy resources to support staff?
• The children have enjoyed a celebration or event where some target language and target language country culture has been explored. Can you now plan for an end of year celebration whole school focus and celebration in languages?
• Teachers have introduced the children to simple language learning based mainly so far on listening,speaking and some very basic reading and possibly writing.Can you now begin to introduce an element of story? Try using familiar stories to aid comprehension in a new target language and add an element of creative writing - a mini book, a poster, display of word art or caligrams? Here is one example that might genrate ideas of your own !Caligrams and holiday suitcases

So your next steps as you return after Easter could be ....

• Organise and lead a staff meeting/part of a staff meeting in the Summer term,where all staff  can  share,try out and discuss some simple games and activities that colleagues have all tried and enjoyed with their own class. 
• Ask colleagues to take a learning walk around school during one staff meeting to look at target language class display and signage.Can they think of ways that they can develop new signage with the children or produce a display created by the children in the target language?
• Introduce staff to clips online of famous stories read in the target language.Discuss how they could use these in their classrooms to explore a story book.For example here are three French,German and Spanish clips of the "Hungry Caterpillar".Discuss possible spoken and written activities that the teachers could try linked directly to the video clips e,g a diary of food eaten, a card concertina model of the hungry caterpillar and alternative fruits he could eat etcetra.
• This blog post may help you as coordinator to begin to forward plan for future effective  story reading in  target language learning classes (in line with the DFE POS Learning Objectives). Reading in the target language is great!

In German this clip is accompanied by music 

In French the children retell the story below 

In Spanish the clip is quite quick  so the music helps to tell the story too

Roll! Add! Write ! Number Game.

Our beginner learners are moving on! Time to explore numbers between 12 and 31!
Firstly we need to practise and explore the numbers , use them in listening,speaking and reading activities,write them individually and play games with the numbers to increase confident and accurate use.The game below will encourage accurate written use of the target language.

Here is a game that can be played again and again and will suit all ages of beginner learners.A game that can be used with higher order numbers if you add multiplication and division too so we can play this in Y7 as well

• Divide you class in to groups of four.These are now the teams. 
• Each child needs to bring a dice to the game!They need to make the dice.You can find an empty  dice template  here.They now need to add the six basic numbers 1-6 written as words in the target language.
• The game also requires a shared mini whiteboard  which has a line across the middle of the page.If the number the player has on his/her card is higher than  the number they can add up with the dice numbers rolled, the player who is "on" puts a tick above the line.Equally if it is less than the number added up , then the player puts a tick below the line- this helps the rest of the team guess the number.  
• Each player needs a mini whiteboard and pen or a piece of rough paper

1. Each child is responsible for writing a selection (three or four) of the numbers between 7 and 31 on to individual cards or pieces of paper.The children must put all the written target language number cards in the centre of the table.
2. The cards need to be proof read by the team for accuracy against a class reference - flip chart/whiteboard/poster etc list of the written numbers.(The reference document needs to be concealed during the rest of the game)
3. All these cards need to then be put into the "player's pot" (a box in the middle of the table from which the children take a card when it is there turn to be the "player" in the game.
4. Now each child takes it in  turns to be the "player".
5. First player takes a card from the pot and reads the umber but does not show anyone else. 
6. The player rolls the four die the team have brought to the table (you can decide that only 3 of the 4 die should be rolled).
7. Each member of the team adds up in their heads the total sum of the numbers revealed when the die have been rolled.The team members all write down on rough paper the total in the target language.They all reveal their whiteboards/ rough paper written totals .do they all agree? Have they all written the target language correctly?
8. The player now indicates by ticking above or below the line of the shared mini white board ( as described above) if the number on his/her card from the pot is above or below the total.
9. Now the rest of the team need to write down individually in the target language what they think the number on the card could be.
10. The player reveals the number on the card.
11. The rest of the team reveal their written target language guesses.
12. There are points to be won! A maximum of four points....Points are awarded as follows- who added up the dice correctly? ( one point),who guessed correctly that it was a number higher or lower than the player's number on the card? (one point),who guessed the player's number correctly? (one point), who wrote it out correctly?( one point)
13. Now it is the turn of a second player to select a card, roll the dice and the game starts again
14. At the end of the game (a time limited game) which team member/s have the most points?

Hunt the Easter egg sounds ! (Beginners)

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

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

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

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

e.g joy..ses 

     feli..s

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Beginning with languages blog 5

Across our network we work with schools who are all at different stages of setting up and delivering primary language learning and each year we welcome new schools who want to set off on their own individual school's language learning journey.

This year these specific 

"Beginning with languages "

 blogs will try to offer "bite size chunks" of indirect help and support to schools, who are doing exactly that .... just setting off and implementing  a language learning curriculum 

.

Take a look back at"beginning with languages" blogs 

one

,

two

 ,

three

 and 

four

 .

Your checklists so far have been:

Sept - Oct ,(first half term) Checklist

• It's all about establishing a whole school support system for all your staff
• It's about small steps and simple language learning
• It's about children and staff beginning to enjoy language learning

Mid October (end of the first half term), an additional new checklist bullet point!

• So how are you all getting on? How do you know that primary languages are being implemented in all the classes and are the teachers and children having fun in their learning? 

November (moving in to the second half term of language learning),we added a couple of new challenges to your checklist!

• How successfully have you been able to build in "revisiting" opportunities to build the children and staff's confidence with the language you introduced last half term? 
• Are you introducing,revisiting and re-using familiar games with familiar and unfamiliar language for example (e.g Bingo or Splat or maybe a game of Quiz Quiz Swap?)
• Have you encouraged all staff to practise key language using sound files and songs?
• Can all staff and children practise and learn a Christmas song or carol in the target language? (In beginning with languages blog three you can find links to You ~tube clips of a Christmas song lin French, Spanish and German

December-January (moving forward) your checklist was to: 

• Did all your staff  try out a simple listening and speaking Christmas activity based on a Christmas  song?
• Have staff considered and been able to identify the links between activities we may use in KS1 when encouraging children to read and KS2 beginners language learning (sound-spelling links and activities)?
• Are KS2 staff building opportunities  in to activities in the New Year  to help learners to  "broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words ...."- Are staff in KS2  exploring nouns with their KS2 foreign language learners? 

And now we are in February ......

• Reflection time for yourself as coordinator .Half way through the academic year reflection time for yourself as coordinator is needed: By now the school should be delivering some sequences of lessons and supporting each other to do so .This blog report Getting learning right  (from the start) may help you as the subject coordinator to consider and identify next steps in building a language learning environment that is supportive across the whole of KS2

• Ask your teachers to think of ways they can develop lessons that encourage children to explore simple "role play " in their lessons.This blog post may help you to forward plan Exploring role play  and see how we move from "asking and answering questions" to "engaging in conversations" and how this development takes time. These role play ideas will support staff to find simple ways to plan for role play activities with their classes:

Paper puppets with a purpose - asking and answering simple questions

Changing faces and Pop Art - UKS2 creative approach to basic personal information questions and answers

Totem Pole prompt sticks to help children stage their conversation building

3D Art and practising personal information spoken sentences

Who lives here? Pictures as prompts to create simple imaginative dialogues language

• Continue to plan foreign language learning as an integral part of the school calendar.Coming up this month and at the start of March are Carnival and World Book day

• Plan for a whole school celebration on World Book Day of simple language the children have learnt( greetings , personal information questions and answers, colours, learning a song in a foreign language, listening and responding ) and add a touch of writing and recording this simple language by making mini books. In this blog post there are ideas based around "Elmer the Elephant ", one of the selected books for World Book Day in 2015.Elmer explorers -listening ,speaking and writing

• Encourage staff to celebrate the culture of the target language country.Carnival is one of the best ways to engage the whole school and to introduce some language and culture in KS1 too.Look at these simple ways that you can link foreign language learning to other areas of the curriculum and continue to explore the Learning Objectives in the DfE KS2 PoS during carnival celebrations

Carnival:

Exploring the music of Saint Saens and the carnival of animals

Here is the opportunity to teach a sequence of lessons based on the

nouns

for animals and link language learning to Art/DT/Music/ICT and Drama

Stretchy sound and letter balloons

Here is an opportunity to continue to explore

sound- spelling links

and create your own strechy colourful carnival balloons too

Read carefully and understand words,phrases and simple sentences based on fancy dress

Here is an opportunity to begin to introduce the skill of reading and explore the DfE KS2 POS objective of "reading carefully and understanding words".If you are attending our local network meetings then you can access all the resources you need to deliver this activity in French and Spanish here 

Training Resources

Getting language learning right in school,is a delight!

I am currently undertaking a routine series of observations of the language assistants and teachers who work alongside me in our primary schools  delivering primary language learning on a weekly basis.It is such a rewarding and pleasurable opportunity to see what is really taking place in schools.

Today I was with my colleague Janet W and her Year 5  French beginners in a local St Helens' school.Two days ago I was with Ana in a Warrington school,observing Spanish .

This series of blogs is an additional support mechanism for these colleagues,as they can't be in each others classroom and as a team  we meet once per half term for a twilight CPD,So you can hopefully see that these blogs (with a cup of tea and a biscuit back at home) offer them an insight in to each others classrooms and schools. 

A little bit of background knowledge to set the scene
If you have followed my blog posts you probably already know that I work alongside a group of really committed and enthusiastic teachers and that we work very week of the school year in 37 schools to support the delivery of French ,Spanish and German. Part of my role is to guide and support the teachers and the schools as the project in their individual settings develops.

My observations below are about what I saw and experienced in a local school today and the Year 5 French lesson.The whole school ethos to language learning and the attitude and progress of the children in the class sprang pout immediately!This is our first year of working with the school. Today I felt like the "cat who got the cream" as the learning was a delight to experience !

Why was it a delight?

The actual lesson is probably a lesson you can all recognise.It was a well planned and paced lesson ,started with a new greetings song which contained lots of familar basic  language.Interestingly the children began to join in straight away and had no problem with singing and reading the words from the screen accurately.The class enjoyed practising questions and answers about themselves and this led to practising a less familiar question and answer (about age).Today the class wre introduced to the aliens- just like Ana's year 4  yesterday The Year 5  children today  are having a combination of year 3 and 4 learning to accelerate their content knowledge but keep the skills level of early learners.The introduction of the alien pictures is always great fun and there are opportunities to look for cognates and semi cognates plus grammatical links between nouns languages.The pair games to practise the new nouns and the new  question "Qui est-ce?" are  rounded off with a simple plenary to check the children have internalised key language.

So what made this lesson so "delightful" was the whole school positive attitude and focus upon learning to communicate in another language.It makes the learning of a language an integral, regular part of the children's learning and the school day.Therefore the participation and concentration and success is in my opinion very high.

Here are some of the factors I observed today that contribute to how I think the school is "getting language learning right".

• The school has a history of interest in international links,with an established and thriving link with China.As you walk through the school there is evidence in displays of links with China,children's work and information for parents.  
• SLT are committed to making language learning and communication an integral part of the school learning curriculum.They plan alongside us for progress and to make sure that it's primary language learning that suits all their learners needs.
• The children have previously learned some German and the school is committed to a quality language learning experience for all KS2 in French
• The school has set up effective liaison between the school language coordinator and the language deliverer (Janet W).
• Teachers and TAs are present and take an active part in the lesson, supporting Janet W, learning new language alongside the children and supporting children where necessary.The teacher and  TA participated in the pair work games  and sang the greetings song and prompted children to recall key responses to personal information questions and answers etc.
• The teacher and TA saw and made links between the new focus the children started today on the "family and family trees" with their Science project- (growing up).
• Janet W is an excellent deliverer of the target language and although she has only just started to work as part of our team ,she has been delivering primary languages as a teaching assistant in a local school.She has an understanding of pace,rapport with staff and children, using the primary classroom space and the understanding of working in a primary language learning context.
• There were natural pauses and opportunities for assessment for learning and a final plenary check of learning that had taken place.
• Children loved the alien family and delighted in creating "alien voices" for the characters as they learned the members of the family.One pair really enjoyed changing the game to make "Darlek voices" too.
• All the children loved the pair activities -guessing games, based on the question "Qui est- ce?" with the aliens."Ooh it's like Cluedo!" was one enthusiastic comment
• All the children participated well in the pair game and I saw the reaction from the children that you see when the children like the resource they are using, (colour laminated pictures of the aliens) holding them like precious playing cards.
• A link  was made  between local primary schools as it was explained that the grandma and grandad alien were created by Barrowhall CP Year 4 in Warrington .Now Parish CE Year 5  want to create additional family members and this got them thinking even as they walked out to the classroom.The teachers cleverly  popped it on the agenda for circle time too- so French language will be used later in the week and new words will be looked for!
• And the aliens ?Well this is the first of several appearances throughout the next couple of years of language learning. We have used these characters for several years now and they never fail to delight the children (and the teachers)! Today I saw what an engaging focus this  is for primary UKS2 children.Yes it's the family, yes we are learning words but this is la famille extra-terrestre ! Wow and just how did the children engage with the fact this was an extra terrestrial family! 

Starting to understand nouns

Emilie,Ana and I have been busy this term supporting colleagues to develop their own personal language learning skills and we have delivered several CPD sessions of beginners and intermediate French and Spanish. 

Here are some simple notes on nouns - once we have talked through these notes our colleagues relax and realise that nouns do not need to be an insurmountable obstacle.We hear colleagues say "the minute I found out there was more than one word for "the" I couldn't do languages any more" or they say " what's with this boy and girl thing with nouns?"

We have been asking the teachers to realise that nouns in French and Spanish  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!Ana agrees with this when teaching her little boy Spanish too.

• We make sure that the teachers can see that words "masculine" and "feminine" do not mean " male and "female
• We ask them to consider that masculine and feminine are special tags of magic keys 
• 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 "magic key" or a "function button" on a virtual drawer.It works.
• If we think of nouns collected in drawers as above or treasure chests or butterfly nets  we can quite easily  get the teachers to see the link then between the  le/un  or la/une in French and el/un and la/una in Spanish.
• Plural words for "the" which we then explain are collectively called definite articles then don't phase them as they can open these imaginary drawers and have a look in and see the plural definite article inside the drawer. Easy in French as the word is always "les" and now no longer challenging in Spanish because in the virtual "la " drawer there is only "las "  that they can see and use for"the"  with a plural word and there is only "los" in the "el" drawer.
• We love it when the teachers then feel that they confidently use and also explain nouns over a period of time to young learners. 
• With our intermediate CPD colleagues we are ready to build on this and add adjectives.

Beginning with languages blog 4

Across our network we work with schools who are all at different stages of setting up and delivering primary language learning and each year we welcome new schools who want to set off on their own individual school's language learning journey.

This year these specific 

"Beginning with languages "

 blogs will try to offer "bite size chunks" of indirect help and support to schools, who are doing exactly that .... just setting off and implementing  a language learning curriculum 

.

Take a look back at"beginning with languages" blogs 

one

,

two

 and 

three

Your checklists so far have been:

Sept - Oct ,(first half term) Checklist

• It's all about establishing a whole school support system for all your staff
• It's about small steps and simple language learning
• It's about children and staff beginning to enjoy language learning

Mid October (end of the first half term), an additional new checklist bullet point!

• So how are you all getting on? How do you know that primary languages are being implemented in all the classes and are the teachers and children having fun in their learning? 

November (moving in to the second half term of language learning),we added a couple of new challenges to your checklist!

• How successfully have you been able to build in "revisiting" opportunities to build the children and staff's confidence with the language you introduced last half term? 
• Are you introducing,revisiting and re-using familiar games with familiar and unfamiliar language for example (e.g Bingo or Splat or maybe a game of Quiz Quiz Swap?)
• Have you encouraged all staff to practise key language using sound files and songs?
• Can all staff and children practise and learn a Christmas song or carol in the target language? (In beginning with languages blog three you can find links to You ~tube clips of a Christmas songl in French, Spanish and German

And now your December checklist bullet points(to review a term's progress and prepare for next term) are:

• Encourage all your staff to try out a simple listening and speaking Christmas activity based on a Christmas wishes song 

Ring out those bells tonight

 (learning a simple Christmas wishes song and listening for key phrases to a familiar refrain of London's Burning)

Extend this activity to a listening,speaking,reading and phonics activity with your more confident staff!Follow the suggested activities in 

Ding Dong Bell Phonics

 using the same Christmas wishes song as in the activity above,but breaking down the words in to sound s and their letter combinations

Using the Christmas wishes in these songs ,you have the basis for simple Christmas cards from the children to friends and family .Now the children are listening,speaking,reading and writing familiar language!

• Ask staff to see the links between activities we may use in KS1 when encouraging children to read and KS2 beginners language learning.

And forward planning.....

Next term as a school you need to plan to celebrate the cultural events in the target language country .Start with your first week back and Epiphany. 

Provide staff with the facts about Epiphany and the celebrations that will take place in early January  across Europe and particularly in France and Spain. Epiphany.

Let your children be Kings for the day!

The link here on the 

mama lisa blog

 will provide your staff with the French facts and information and a song to sing with their classes in the week of Epiphany 

The link here on the 

mama lisa blog

 will provide your staff with the Spanish facts and information and a song to sing with their classes in the week of Epiphany

Continuing to make progress

• In Spring  first half term consolidate prior learning and build upon knowledge.Share the activities below with staff and ask them to select and use the activities to revisit prior learning: 

Listening sticks

 (numbers and colours)

Open and reveal for corners

 ( days/months/colours and numbers)

Sunflower song and maths

 (numbers)

Totem pole prompt sticks

 (personal information questions)

• Now you can build in a new language content focus linked to a DfE POS learning objective "broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words ...." . Let's begin to look at nouns! 

1. Select your content focus (for example animals I like and don't like) and create simple opportunities for children to explore nouns. 
2. Ask the children to become language detectives and to become noun collectors.
3. Encourage each member of staff to think of creative ways to collect nouns with the children and to begin to explore the ways that nouns can have different sounds and written words to represent the word "the" or "a" in the target language.
4. Some of the idea here will help school to do this :noun collectors nets and treasure boxes

5. To support staff to understand more about nouns in a target language and the use of "the"  and "a" , share this blog post with them and put aside some time in a staff or key stage meeting to discuss what they have read and understood.

Starting to understand nouns

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

Primary Physical Target Language Maths

This week at a local primary school,where the staff are working together to establish a pattern of language learning delivered by the class teacher I wanted to look at some simple Maths activities to help the teachers see how language learning can be both useful and easy to link across the curriculum.

Physical Maths

Last week I was reminded by my colleague Emilie in her

bonjour madame blogpost

 how much the children love "physical maths in the target language".  

This tried and tested activity led to discussion amongst the staff about how this would make a good simple AfL activity both in the target language and listening /responding and also if we then thought about how this could become a Maths pen and paper activity.Here are a few of these very simple and easy to manage ideas..... 

• You could  ask the children to write on their whiteboards the mathematical sentences that they have just watched in the physical target language maths
• You could give out mathematical sentences and ask children to create the physical French/ Spanish/German etc maths performance for other children to then say in the target language  
• You could give out a written French/Spanish /German maths sentences and ask pairs to create the physical performance which then the class need to write on their whiteboards as mathematical sentences and compare against the original card instructions.

Months and Physical Bar Charts

We then went on to consider months of the year as this is part of our

SOW

 next half term Year 3.The teachers were all very comfortable with the idea of physical bar charts and counting up children to see who had a birthday in which month etc. We added a twist - because the months of the year labels were randomly placed around the room and the teachers had to first find their birthday month, reading and recognising their month of the year in French.

Once the teachers had gathered around the correct month, they had to put themselves into calendar order.This meant that each birthday month group  called out its month in French and one volunteer listened and organised the groups into calendar order and then into a bar chart formation.

All they had to do then was count up the number of birthdays in each month and create a written target language record - month and number!

Months,physical bar charts and dates 

With Year 4 onwards I have added a challenge to this physical bar chart in the past. With children who knew numbers 1-31 or with children who can form the date in the target language then the individual month groups can share with each other their birthdays e.g "10 August" and put themselves as a birthday month in to numerical order within their bar chart line!  

This allows you now to  handle data - by asking children to say their birthdate in French/ Spanish and German etc and asking a volunteer to spot the same date but different month - so let's put all the children who have a birthday on the second of a month for example together etc!

Beginning with languages blog 2

Across our network we work with schools who are all at different stages of setting up and delivering primary language learning and each year we welcome new schools who want to set off on their own individual school's language learning journey.

This year these specific "Beginning with languages " blogs will try to offer "bite size chunks" of indirect help and support to schools, who are doing exactly that .... just setting off and implementing  a language learning curriculum .In September I wrote Beginning with languages blog 1"

In the first blog there was a checklist for the coordinator or teacher leading out the new primary language teaching as follows:

Sept - Oct (first half term) Checklist

• It's all about establishing a whole school support system for all your staff
• It's about small steps and simple language learning
• It's about children and staff beginning to enjoy language learning

Add a new checklist bullet point!

• So how are you all getting on? How do you know that primary languages are being implemented in all the classes and are the teachers and children having fun in their learning? 

Maybe the suggestions below will help you to see what progress is being made and also encourage the staff to try out creative activities to add a touch of Art , performance, song and fun!

Whole staff engagement and sharing success with parents!

Well it's October now and you will be in to your second month of primary language learning in school and maybe it's time to promote what all of you have been doing in your language learning in a school assembly.Or maybe school has space for a whole school display to celebrate the language learning that has been taking place? 

A whole school sharing and celebration of what you have already achieved !

So why not take the opportunity to link the learning  in the classroom to a common whole school focus before half term?

This half term you have probably been focusing upon greetings, names , feelings and possibly numbers and colours.

Here are some really simple ways that colleagues have created display and activities with their classes with limited language, which you could adopt or adapt! 

A collage map of the target language country by children  in each class for the classroom door- to say we learn about this country and its' language in our class this year!

Hold a "swap the greetings " week. During the week challenge your teachers and their classes to use the correct greeting for the time of day.Maybe the children could greet each other around the school and what about adding a question and answer about how they are feeling to - no matter which child or age group and don't forget the staff too!Put the greetings on display in each classroom and possibly in the corridor too and invite your classes to try to use a different greeting in the morning, in the afternoon and at the end of the day.Here are some French examples

Use puppets to create puppet shows of greetings ,name question and answer and farewell phrases.Great idea for a class or whole school assembly by UKS2 for younger children.

Don't forget some AfL and also an opportunity for the children to reflect what they have already achieved. Maybe there is an opportunity for simple personal reports by older children to take home for parents and carers to share what they have been doing during this first half term of language learning

Linking simple language learning to schools celebrations of Autumn

Try some autumn themed games and activities with the simpler language you have learnt or are practising . Have a read of this Autumn blog about numbers,colours, leaves etc and share some of the ideas with your colleagues.

Set yourselves an end of half term whole school singing challenge!

Why not take up the challenge to have a go at a song in the target language. Listening and practising the words you can hear in the clips we suggest and adding actions and performance too!Learn a whole school song to celebrate Autumn and provide your teachers with an appropriate sound file and clip to help them.

Once you have set a date for a whole school assembly,the classes can practise the song until they can sing along confidently with the clip!

In French........

In Spanish

In German

 Beginning to keep evidence 

Whatever you do don't forget to take some photos and clips so that you can begin to create your own school portfolio of evidence as you go along on this language learning journey, ready to set up a sharing with parents' area on your school VLE etc.

Gute Nacht Gorilla! A brilliant KS2 Year 6 taster story to explore

Well I am in Germany and having a great time looking around for the books we need to support our local schools where they teach German in KS2.

Firstly I wanted a really simple book that has a sophisticated punchline for taster German learners in UKS2 that @JoBeeG73 can use when she goes out from her secondary school to her local primary cluster and Year 6.See her blog for as she shares her German taster sessions over the course of the academic year.

This morning I found it and I love it! (It does exist in English but in German there is so much to unpack and allow young language learners to explore when they have been learning a different foreign language at primary school throughout KS2)
It's called "Gute Nacht Gorilla! "by Peggy Rathmann

Such a simple story but with Year 6 beginners,who have acquired language skills in a different foreign language in KS2 you can continue their skills development and :

• practise simple spoken language :greetings and farewells,
• transfer the skill and look for cognates/semi cognates in a new foreign language: in the jungle animal names between English and German
• transfer the skill and practise key sounds in German for example (Nacht /Löwe/Hyäne etcetra)
• transfer the skill and practise using a German- English bi-lingual dictionary and change the animals and practise the pronunciation
• continue to be grammar explorers and look at the use of capital letters at the start of all nouns
• allow the children to share and create with you simple recall games,based on games they have enjoyed in their previous target language learning in KS2
• practise pronunciation,intonation and memory skills and create your own memorable and humorous spoken performances of the simple story (perhaps to share with a younger year group)  
• create a written record as a cartoon strip and allow independence so that the children can add their own animals or change the greetings or the visual  punchline
• take a cultural tour of zoos in Germany and compare the animals with those we see in zoos here in England 

And so it's over to you now Jo! I loo forward to reading your blog reports!

Take a simple authentic rhyme and explore language learning skills

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

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

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

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

Word warm up 

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

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

and two key actions (aplaudir and sonreir)

Add a fun, memorable element immediately.

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

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

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

Get to know the rhyme and make it your own!

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

Class warm up song or recall song

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

Take another look!

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

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

Missing words or Volume control games 

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

Rhythm raps 

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

Go sound fishing!

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

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

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

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

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

Bringing the written word together!

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