stories

New Spanish books and the reasons I selected them

So last week I was in France and Spain and I spent sometime looking in book shops (as I always do). Here is my list of books from my last visit to Spain (Barcelona) Spanish books 1  but this time I had a specific shopping list. 

Here are my buys and my reasons why I selected the book(s)!


A book of simple KS1 rhymes
I wanted a book to refresh the rhymes we have been using in KS1 language learning.
This book has 6 traditional rhymes in it-one per half term as a new action rhyme to learn and practise with Year R/ Year 1 

  • a train rhyme (let's change the mode of travel too!)
  • hands and actions (verbs- possibly useful in Y3 and Y4 too!)
  • a rhyme about riding a horse ( we could change the animal here!)
  • a rainy day rhyme (que llueva,que llueva- we can learn and then watch from a clip on You Tube and use on rainy days whenever they hapen!)
  • a rhyme about ducks in the water- great for a lazy summer rhyme with actions!
  • a bedtime rhyme - one for the children to learn and                                                  then teach their parents!



A Colours book for KS2 (beginners to moving on)
We have lots of books aboout colours but i wanted to find a book in spanish that began to unpack adjectival agreement.
Lovely book which has two objects per double page with the spelling similarities or changes using on colour (e.g.fresa roja/bol rojo)
We are going to be able to use this as a model to discuss and then also to create our own booklets about colours and adjectival agreement!



A book to develop and extend vocabulary at word level (Y4)
We seem to have spent some time this hyear developing our yooung learners use of bilingual dictionaries and this very simple book allows us to investigate "opposites" 
I have written a blog post abpouyt a game I think we can create with the children using this book - or the concept of the book. 





A book to develop or reinforce  cafe language and roleplay  about the cafe (KS2)

If you read the blog mentioned at the top of this post you will know that I breally love this series of books.I bought " supermercado" last time!
This time I have bought the cafeteria.
It's got signage , language in speech bubbles , lists and the wonderful pull out roleplay frieze at the back , that makes in to a small cafe.
I think teachers will be able to use this frieze to create or adapt their own role play areas.
I see teachers across KS2 being able to use the book to develop roleplay , performance and signage for their own role play areas!





Links with maths (KS2)
This book packs a punch! I was looking for a book about shapes as we have probably got enough counting and number books and I wanted ot investigate another area of maths through language learning.
  • The book has a lift the flap page at the front with the names of the shapes under the different shaped flaps.(We could cretae our own books like this!)
  • It has double page spreads with a theme - at the port/at the circus /birthdays - so we can revisit thew book over and over again!
  • Each double page spread has simple questions- problems to solve (We could create our own simple problem questions!)
  • Plus there are maths problems such as how many sides/corners fo the shapes have! (We can do some                                                  shape/ sides and corner maths here too!


Year 6 Leavers and writing full sentences
The new DFE POS aspires to language learners writing independently sentences using  nouns, common verbs and adjectives.This book met the criteria I had as a coourful lighthearted book at the end of Year 6 to celebrate what our Y6 can do in the target language and to look forward to the future.
It is a book about roles and jobs in the first person singular describing thje role each character has / does.
Here is my Y6 leavers blog post with ways I think we could use this book  roles and jobs and statements



A book with instructional text to help us be creative and make items for special events (KS2)
I was looking for a book that had clear instuctions and pictures to guide non-specialist/specialist teachers and their classes in the target language as they made special items to celebrate events .
It contains colour,well laid out clear double pages for:
party bags
birthday cakes and candles
christmas cards
lanterns
butterfly mobiles
summer flowers
witches hats
pirates hats and eye patches 
etcetra!


Books that are just that bit more sophoisticated for UKS2 with links to other areas of the curriculum (UKS2)

I found two great books one about the faarm and one about castles by Usborne!!
What I like about these is there is detail e.g crops, machinery, seasons etc about the farm and in the book below aboit the castle double page spreads on key features of life in a medieval castle- a banquet/ the kitchen / the grand hall / the tower etc
Both books have flaps to lift and ask and answer questions







World Book Day and a celebration of languages and literacy!

World Book Day allows us a language teachers to open the window on languages and share with the children how language is a vehicle through which we can tell stories and encourage imaginative  communication.

This year we are focusing on three of the World Book Day 2015 themes: 

Elmer : 

Elmer Explorers

Pirates : 

Pirates ahoy!

Dennis the Menace : 

Dennis the Menace concertina characters

In previous years we have explored fairy tales,listened to and performed familiar texts such as the Hungry Caterpillar in different languages and  encouraged our local schools to invite people from the wider community in to school to read stories in other languages.

Last year,some of us explored this wonderful book :"Vive les livres",which exists in German and Spanish too!

Here is the blog post from last year:

Long Live Books !

Some other ideas to explore books and stories.........

You may want to explore other themes and stories so I thought I would pop here in the blog post links to blog posts I have written about "story telling and writing" and looking at books - both fiction and non fiction! 

We have recently been exploring "describing people in writing" and linking our UKS2 language work with Alice in Wonderland - to great effect!

Alice in Wonderland

We are exploring stretchy word carnival balloons- and this idea was inspired by Mick Inkpen's "Blue Balloon" 

stretchy balloon

.

Great way to link a story in English with language work in another language 

We love taking KS1 on a "Bear Hunt" and here is the example of the rhyme and game  in Spanish that we adapt and use in French and German too! Everyone loves this one!

Going on a Bear Hunt rhyme and game

Here's an idea to use shadow puppets to retell in a very simple way using familiar stories- in this instance-  Goldilocks and the Three Bears .

Goldilocks and the Three Bears shadow puppet show

"Toujours rien"

is a book I love and a great way to talk about Springtime and growing things .Here's my blog post from last year .

Springtime and growing plants

Maybe you have some target language non-fiction books on your shelves - like I do.The Noune" story above is available in lots of languages.Perhaps you could explore these in language learning.

Here are my thoughts about how we can explore non-fiction with UKS2 more advanced language learners 

non fiction in the target language and making language learning links

Or maybe finally you want to create your own "target language book shop window"....  writing full sentences  demonstrating understanding of basic grammar at the same time! Hope this blog post can help you..... 

Nouns, adjectives and verbs to create our own book covers and book shop window

Celebrating international literacy day



It’s “International Literacy Day” on Monday 8 September- so what better way to put a marker in the sand and make those cross curricular first steps between target language learning and literacy."Literacy and sustainable development" is the strap line and when you reflect on what we hope to achieve for our young learners it's that they will become competent young linguists who can communicate for work and business in another language sometime in their futures. who knows what communication and language challenges in their work and personal lives they may have to face.

Languages and Literacy belong together so this is an ideal opportunity to investigate and celebrate links between languages  and the structure of languages. Here are a few ideas we can easily incorporate in to our language teaching and learning next week – even if it’s a day or two after the official international literacy day!!

Possibility One :Exploring the World family of languages 


Who has the book below on their shelves.....somewhere?
Take the children on an exploration of another language  - maybe one that is spoken by children in school or maybe one that is unfamiliar to all your learners.
I love the fact that the subtitle says "talk your way around the world"!
The  book has short histories of each language , simple and useful phrases, pronunciation guides and a structure focus e.g in Turkish it’s explained that there are two words for “you” …..now how easy is that to link to French , German…..??


Possibility Two: a international story read by the author is his/her original language



Does it matter is the children don’t understand each word? In this instance it’s about the children seeing that stories exist in other languages. We love using this Eric Carle clip of the Hungry Caterpillar read in German by the author himself.


 Possibility Three: Taking a thought for a walk in two languages!



Why not explore some simple writing in the target language you teach in school. I love this cartoon and the blog I wrote last academic year is all about how we can encourage young language learners to take a thought for a walk in any language!

Possibility four  :Links between Literacy,target language grammar and drama














Reading in the target language is great

Target language books are great !

Reading story books with target language learners was a revelation to myself back in about 1997! At the time my children were young readers themselves and it seemed crazy that I hadn’t made the link myself between the types of colourful , engaging and repetitive stories that they enjoyed and re-read and the type of books that my young target language learners would enjoy and ask to read again and again.

The delight back then on  the Year 6 child’s face when we read la chenille qui fait des trous and the delight again  when the Year 8 child realised I was reading  Max et les maxi-monstres ! This was perhaps a mystery to me at first (although I have always loved children’s books and am also an avid reader of all literature )but then I realised it was because they felt they could understand and follow the whole story . They were revisiting books they had enjoyed in primary schools too! They even felt like competent translators of texts !

Now we work with a comprehensive SOW  from Year 3 to Year 6 and try to integrate target language story books as often as we can .  A tweet this morning from my colleague @EWoodruffe just made me smile. She’s been to  

Cultura

back home in France and bought some more books that we will be adding to our collection of stories next term. (Somewhat jealous really as love book hunting!)

The network news article from Sam the languages coordinator at St Philips in Warrington caused me to think about how reading crosses boundaries as an effective learning tool and how all children can appreciate books !  Sam  read and used my blog on Vive les livres for  Day 

World Book Day

 and created activities where children looked at and appreciated English language books but the children                                                     

categorised them with French language

Sometimes we use stories that we can sit, watch and  listen to  and appreciate with the children for example   die kleine Raupe Nimmersatt (

die kleine Raupe Nimmersat

 on You tube ) 

 by Eric Carle (actually read in German by the author

Les trois souris peintre s( 

les trois souris peintres on  You Tube ) 

 : The story of three mice who want to be artists read in Fren

ch

The German song retelling the story of Hansel and Gretel (

Hansel und Gretel Lied

 on You Tube)

Behind each story is a learning purpose – so the hungry 

caterpillar is a great

way to revisit days of the week and reinforce foods before making your own diary of a week’s food or your own books of the simplified stories 

The story about the mice allows us to listen for pleasure to watch the moving pictures and to reinforce our practise of colours with the children

And the Hansel and Gretel clip is an excellent tool to look 

for nouns ,

identify verbs and develop the children’s ability to follow 

and comprehend a story . 

Plus there’s the added bonus that they can practise the song 

and join in and perform this at a later date !

Here’s a link to the story books we will select from each half term to support the children’s language learning in French. We have similar plans for Spanish and some German too .

Books used from Y3 to Y6 in French language learning

And here are my   thoughts upon   why these books are appropriate   for the stage of the language learner and his/her development in the target language. These books are the gateway for the children in Year 3 ,4, 5 and 6 to familiar language in unfamiliar contexts , to creative opportunities to re-use language , to memorable stories with humorous twists , to familiar stories that the children haven’t before realised  exist in another languages as well as  English, to other cultures and to non-fiction with facts they really want to know or investigate!  Our learners reactions enable us to see what they find interesting and engaging and encourage us to use text in ever more 

                            creative ways .

We would certainly pinch the phrase from the DfE new POS and call them “great”. 

“great” to support learning , 

“great” to read with the children , 

“great” for independent reading 

“great “ as a platform to develop young language learners knowledge of a new language and its structure . 

The icing on the cake are the “great” traditional target language  stories such as roule galette when we celebrate epiphany in Year 4 les rats des villes et les rats des champs from Fontaine – a great favourite in “our town- your town” focus in year 5 or Astérix BDs we share with the children when we look at funfairs in Spring Year 6.

We start them early with target language books – we follow Uki from KS1 and puppets we make right through to a more grown up and argumentative Uki in Year 6  and we introduce the children to non-fiction too ……

With KS1 we enjoy traditional rhymes ,  tales and familiar stories . Here are my blogs on how we develop creative education of the ear learning opportunities in KS1 with 

shadow puppets and Goldilocks

 and 

We are going on a bear hunt in KS1

Spanish

We love "Mes p’tits docs " 

Our learners enjoy fiction and non- fiction and in the target language,using books created for the target language young audience we can read  and share facts about the target language countries .

From Year 4 onwards we will dip into and share mes p’tits docs – great non-fiction books to support our learning about the bakers and french bread, circus – what a French summer event , la station de ski ( a huge hit with our Y6 children!)

Books open our children’s minds to creativity . 

Take a look at my blog about one of my all time favourite books : Chapeau

chapeau and carnival time

Books allow us to  investigate core language through the engagement of the imagination – a choral performance of une histoire sombre

We can develop a class and group rewriting of key sentences in  il y a un alligator sous mon lit makes learning about rooms in the house so much more exciting! 

We make  creative DT displays based on Aaargh une araignée 

We can work with traditional tales combined with a  more mature investigation of fairy tale characters and fears through ” Même pas peur”  . 

Finally this year we have stepped out into trying to combine music and literature -indeed great music Au carnaval des animaux from Mozart with a great story about these animals going to a fancy dress party – funnily enough called au carnaval des animaux!

And guess what the target language results were great !

Please don’t read anything sarcastic into this above statement . 

We must select the books carefully  , encourage young learners to walk with us through stories , select books for their structure or their creative learning opportunities and then provide children with the supported learning environment to step away from us and explore simple target language audience stories on their own.  

As for me I will still be spending hours of pleasure in target language book shops finding the next great book to use in our language teaching and learning  . 

Must check my diary for when I am next abroad  !

Presents to make and writing to send in the target language for Mothers Day

Presents to make and writing to send in the target language for Mothers Day .........

I

t's nearly Mothers Day and I decided that the schools we work in should as always celebrate Mother's Day in the target languages .

We create simple cards and gifts for all the children to take home to their favourite carer !

These ideas from 

teteamodeler

 can only but inspire everyone  no matter which language you teach . It was the la fête de grand -mère on 2 March 2014 in France but why could we use the ideas below to celebrate our Mother's Day this year?

If you teach French then all the better because you can use the lesson with the older children in KS2 as a reading and following instructions and pictures activity.

Take a look at what you could make and then read my ideas on how you could develop a  target language writing activity linked to the present :

instructions for the bouquet of flowers in French

Bouquet of flowers 

On each petal of each flower the children  can write one letter of their message to wish their mum or carer "Happy Mother's Day " in the target language and say that they love them!

instructions for the photo frame

Photo Frame

A picture in the frame is pretty obvious but what about the children thinking of all the adjectives that describe their mum/ carer the best and looking these up in a bi-lingual dictionary or using a word frame .The children can  fill the frame with all the kind and caring adjectives and phrases they can find and think of for their mum/ carer . With UKS2 children encourage them to use adjectival agreement carefully for their female carer  . 

instructions for the boite d'amour

Boite d'amour

Ask the children to trace around their boite d'amour template and then make a card template which they should cut out and  draw around  on paper three times so that have  three paper  heart shapes that will fit in the boite d'amour

On each heart shape they should on one side write a simple "I like" sentence about something the child likes to do with their mum or favourite carer e.g. "I like to go for a walk with you  " " I like to listen to music with you"   "I like to cook with you " , "I like to play football with you " 

You should brainstorm these phrases first and make a collection on the flip chart or whiteboard .

On the other side of the heart they should draw a picture to represent what they have attempted to say in the target language on the heart .

Put all the hearts picture side up in the box and give as  a present on Mother's Day . 

And then don't forget to read for the children the most marvellous story in the third person singular about why "Mum " is a super hero according to the story by the wonderful Anthony Browne  

In French..................

In Spanish.................

story clip

In German .................