They shared the story of Le Chasse à l’ours. As we listened to the story, we had three tasks.

1. to pass a bear every time we heard the word ‘l’ours’

2. to repeat ‘la vie est belle’ everytime we heard it

3. to repeat the sound effects

Some of the techniques they suggested are familiar to any primary (and even secondary) teacher – repetition, using actions and mimes, looking at language and punctuation, being animated and expressive and so on. Some activities mentioned included Bang Bang – also known as Splat! – Fruit Salad, matching pairs, dressing up games and chopped up text.

We looked at Talking tins, Easispeak microphones and Chatterblocks – dice with six recorded sounds and pics, one on each face. All these resources are great for speaking and listening activities. I think some of those Chatterblocks will be on my shopping list.