Following on from El pequeño petirrojo, here’s another idea for Christmas that is adaptable to a variety of age groups.
Courtesy of HGfL (Hertfordshire Grid for Learning) comes ideas for using Raymond Briggs’ Snowman in French, Spanish and German.
You can download a set of flashcards in the form of a Powerpoint, and also the script of the story in the above languages. Here are instructions for how it’s suggested you might use the resources:
The basic idea is to show the DVD, which (apart from the introduction) has no words, accompanied by a reading of the script. Some confidence and competence in the chosen language is required as the text, although in the present tense, presents some challenges as you need to understand when to pause to allow the film to tell the story. Some ideas:
- Introduce key words with the flashcards.
- Play flashcard games.
- Develop actions for each flashcard. Children repeat the actions whenever they hear the words in the story.
- Distribute flashcards. Children wave flashcards when they hear the appropriate words in the story.
- For older children you may want to introduce the written word and distribute word cards which the children show as they hear in the story.
- When the children have watched the film and listened to the script in the appropriate language several times, they could act out the story as it is being read (first of all with the film and then without the film).
- Older children could be given a simplified text, cut up which they then need to put in order. A similar activity could also be carried out using the smartboard or something similar.
I think this is a marvellous idea! Not only do you get to watch a classic, it also serves as a teaching resource.
And in case you haven’t got the DVD, here it is from Youtube – in three parts!
And here’s just the song – Walking in the Air – which I have just discovered was not originally sung by Aled Jones.
