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?

0-100 percent! It's the Winter sales!

Les soldes!

It's January and it's the Winter sales - what a gift to help us practise familiar and new numbers between 0 and 100 with our moving on language learners. You can add a mathematical twist for our older learners too and revisit familiar content such as clothes, colours and Christmas gifts. 

These activities will work well with our Year 5 and 6 children but could also be useful with Year 7 too.

The steps are:

1. Practise those numbers 
2. Take virtual tour of a sale
3. Getting to grips with percentages and written numbers
4. Play the percentage converter game 
5. Convert the real price and find out where the sale tag belongs!

Simple first steps: practise those numbers! 

• Counting up in fives or tens from 0-100
• Counting down from 100- 0 against a count down clock in fives and tens  
• Un-muddling mixed up number words- e.g. which two numbers in French can you see below?

vtringteen

Why not take a virtual tour of the sales in the target language country? For example here are the sales in the French department store Galerie Lafayette for Winter 2015

les soldes lafayette 2015

Getting to grips with percentages and the written form of numbers  

• Step one with your class may be to practise percentages with the class in English 
• Now you need some cards or bags labelled like the bags you can see on the picture below. It works best if each table has a set of bags or cards to sort- so all the class are actively working with numbers.
• Ask your tables to sort the bags/cards in ascending order or in descending order
• Ask the tables to listen carefully to a percentage reduction you call out and to use two bags from their table to create the number you called out.

• Share written labels with the class and ask the tables to call out what they can read on your labels - loudest and most well pronounced "call out" wins the label for the correct bag on their table.
• We are asking our children to really think about how they read and write familiar spoken words so there may be an opportunity here to ask the children to Look, think ,link and read
• Ask your tables to label the bags in the target language with a written number card.
• Ask each table to place the cards they have written labels on into the bags or under the percentage cards- they can decide to out incorrect labels in to the bags / under the cards.Ask a second table to investigate the labels and bags and to reorder the labels correctly .

Where does the sale tag belong?

You will need some sale tags like the ones in the picture below and pictures of/ or real items that you are going to reduce on price.

• Try a percentage converter game in the target language.Say a cost and then ask the class to say the reduced cost when you write the percentage reduction on the flip chart .Let the children work in pairs or groups and use mini whiteboards to work out the new cost.
• Ask the class to help you convert the real price to a sale price on items of clothing that the children are already familiar with in the target language.This makes a great listening activity.Share items or pictures of items of clothing with the children.(You could make this a challenge by saying each item of clothing adds so many seconds on working out time in the game - e.g 30 seconds per item of clothing remembered accurately) On the flip chart share as a written percentage the sale reduction for an item - you say the item in the target language and the normal cost of the item and the class must work in pairs on mini whiteboards to convert the price to the sale price. Who is confident to come to the front and label the item with the new sale price? Does the class agree?

Autumn Markets and simple effective links with Maths and Literacy

For many of us in October in our own Primary Schools,it's the season of Harvest festivals, Autumn Fayres and celebrating the produce we have seen growing around us.
What a wonderful opportunity to practise those numbers ,colours, simple transactional language phrases we have introduced in our language learning plus an even better authentic opportunity to explore the fruits and vegetables of a target language country!I was in Germany a week or two ago and spent a very happy morning wandering around the local fruit and vegetable market looking at all the wonderful produce!

Simple ways to incorporate this into language learning

First of all.."What in the World is it?" Why not touch, feel and taste some of these new vegetables and sort them alongside more familiar tasting fruit and vegetables? Create your own  "Taste and Look Like Venn Diagrams" to record the results ....but in the target language of course! 

Number of.....: if you are just practising numbers with the children - when then an obvious activity would be to practise counting up what you can see in a picture or the fruits and vegetables you have brought into class

Number, fruits and vegetables  guesstimations : if the children are practising the names of the new vegetables and already know the name of some common fruits and vegetables ,then why not create guesstimation games where they have to say or write the number of each item they think may be in your "shopping bag" of  fruit and vegetable items.

Guesstimate!  You could guesstimate the weight! Guesstimate the circumference or length! Teach the children the key phrases for measurement and weight( in the target language) and apply the target language to a Maths challenge of guesstimation and compare the guesstimations to actual weight and measurement (circumference or length)

Investigating description: Use prior knowledge of language and the use of bilingual dictionaries to find and use adjectives alongside the names of the items and the verb "to be" to write your own class descriptions of fruit and vegetables,(best after a class food tasting of the produce of course!).Use both familiar and unfamiliar produce.   

Market Stalls Museums : create your own class display of autumn fruits and vegetables but use the target language to label the produce- colour, shape, size and name. Ask the children to create the labels (and you could make these moveable labels for simple individual reading activities so that the children can read and place the labels where they think they fit best) 

Spring is on the way ! Growing number sunflowers

Spring is on the way ! Growing number sunflowers

Last year we introduced a very simple “sunflower song to our work with Y2 , which even when they got into Year 3 they still select as their class favourite when asked what do they want to sing and perform

The sunflower song

It’s really simple. In Year 1 and 2 we start to sing the sunflower song.All you need to do is put a sequence of numbers  to the familiar refrain of frère Jacques and explain to the class that the song is all about growing from a seed to a beautiful sunflower. 

I based it on sunflowers   because of the fields and fields of sunflowers I see when I visit Europe. 

We look at pictures of sunflowers and challenge the children once they know their numbers 0-10 to count as many as they can before they run out of target language numbers ….we often end up saying numbers beyond 10, but the number 10 is our class target!

Here are two of the pictures I use that I took on holiday .

One of my colleagues practised the Mandarin version  with her Year 3 children as an extension to their learning in French . They learned the song in French and then used the actions , the skills of listening for key sounds and the performance they already knew to create a performance song in Mandarin!

The Sunflower song and performance

The performance is simple .Children crouch down tight like seeds in the ground and grow slowly upwards until they reach 10 , when they should be stretched up tall with their hands and fingers spread out so that their hands are like sunflowers . One hand represents each sunflower on the number 10. In any language the song simply goes.....

1,2,3

1,2,3

4,5,6

4,5,6

7,8,9,

7,8,9

10,10,10

10,10,10

Sunflower maths

In Year 3 this Spring half term we are busy revisiting language with our classes and will use this simple sunflower maths activity with all our year groups to keep on revisiting those all important numbers .

I introduced and used this activity last year with classes and then shared it at the start of the academic year with PGCE Primary MFL ITTs at Manchester University  . I know that quite a few of them have gone on to use this activity and have found it very effective, whether they were specialist or non-specialist primary linguists .

In Year 3  we revisit numbers  from KS1 or introduce  for the first time numbers 0-12 in the first couple of weeks in Autumn term .Now we can revisit them and use this activity to consolidate knowledge and extend knowledge . 

We can link it to our Science projects of growing seeds and read a story about the cycle of the sunflower and engage children in very simple number bond activities.

I like to use these two stories in French and in Spanish ,Diez semillas /

dix petites graines to reinforce the cycle of the sunflower and its seeds

The sunflower maths activity is simple and effective....

Stage one : 

Show twelve individual petals on a flip chart . Ask children to discuss with their partners  the number that they think the numbers and the simple mathematical sentence on the petal represents

Stage Two :

Show them the sunflower pictures of the flowers in the fields. Ask them to join in with the sunflower song from KS1 (see above)

Now ask them to help you to grow your class maths sunflower .

Stage Three: 

Show the empty sunflower with no petals on your flip chart .

Ask the children to find for you the petals and place them in the correct position on the sunflower . 

Find “one” first  and then find “six “ next as this allows he children to see the order like the clock face. 

Even if you are using higher numbers or odds/ evens etc  finding the first petal and then  the petal with the number which goes at the bottom of the sunflower seems to help the children to position the other petals .You should expect the children to place the petals on the flipchart without support – which means they have to think about the order of the numbers and number bonds etc.

You should end up with an almost complete sunflower- with just one petal missing! 

Now ask the children to write on their whiteboards the possible number sentences for the missing petal (in this case the number “ten”) . 

Once the children know the words for plus/ minus / equals they can share their idea with a partner . (With older children expect more complex number sentences and teach the words or phrases for multiply and divide )

Pair and group activities :

Children can then create their own games and with some core language “find” / “where is ..?” they can play the game with a partner or a table of classmates

Moving on with higher numbers and more advanced learners

With Year 4 and 5 we can use the Pocoyo video clips for longer more engaged listening although the younger children like these clips too!

"Pocoyo la graine "

Or in Spanish "Pocoyo la semilla "

 or I love the French story book about growing seeds: toujours rien?

Here is a You Tube clip of the story 

We can link the sunflower activity to higher numbers and more challenging use of the four functions in Maths in mathematical sentences! 

Children can write the mathematical sentences as words rather than figures to add challenge both for the child writing and for the child reading the message on the petal