A new mini series starting today of ‘thoughts’.

This is increasingly what I aim for in my lessons – for pupils to discover for themselves, and to accept that there isn’t always an easy answer, that I am not a walking dictionary and Google is not the source of all knowledge.

Image from Colette Cassinelli

Following my post last night about Little Bird Tales and the problem with the accents on the title page, I received two comments before I woke this morning – one from Amiee Klem, co-founder of Little Bird Tales saying that they would sort out the accent issue I’d highlighted, and then another a coupel of hours later from her husband Michael telling me the problem was sorted.

THAT is good service for you!

This ‘story’ is a particular favourite.

Called El hecho y la opinión, it’s not really a story but a collaborative exercise in which 2nd grade pupils give a fact (un hecho) and an opinion (una opinión) about a picture in the book.

Good exercise to distinguish between facts and opinions – and an interesting use of the site!

And then there’s this great combination of storytelling, plasticine and history!

• Click to view my story.
• 

Gracias a @rubiales62 for sharing this wonderful storytelling site on Twitter.

Little Bird Tales is a storytelling site which allows you to write, illustrate and narrate stories and then save them to a public gallery or embed them on your own site. Your illustrations can be uploaded from file (so it’s possible to use photos or pictures made elsewhere) or you can use the on site paint box to draw your own. I’ve written a quick example below in which I imported a picture from my iPhoto library and then drawn on top. I found another Spanish story, and a French one,  in the Public Gallery too.
I like the way you can record a voiceover within the site -this adds an extra dimension to it as a storymaking site.

Good news – accents work well in the storybook.
Bad news – for some reason they don’t work on the title page!

 

• Click to view my story.
• 

Thanks to a tip off by Jane Baybrook on MFLResources for this video.

Very catchy!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFbWPMDLWlc

A really interesting video here from the RSA Animate series on how we use language.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-son3EJTrU

Warning – contains innuendo and (cartoon) nudity!

Postcard courtesy of Landsbankinn

Final saying in our series today –

A forty year old can do anything

Well, at least anything a forty-year-old can do.  Every language seems to have its own version of this phrase. “Life begins at forty” is equally true and equally paradoxical.  we embrave optimism and energy in all people regardless of age.

Hoping to prove this to be true later in the year.

Postcard courtesy of Landsbankinn

The penultimate saying in the series –

A nation knows when three know

So never tell more than one person your secrets; preferably keep them to yourself altogether, to be on the safe side.  News and gossip have always travelled fast among the small population of Iceland.

Especially as two thirds of them live in Reykjavik!

This week sees the launch of a really lovely offering on the CBeebies website aimed at 4-6s – and I’m very excited that I’ve been involved in it (along with many others!)

As the blurb from the BBC says –

‘The Lingo Show’ introduces different languages to a pre-school audience, sprinkled with a bit of culture.  Play fun games and learn new words whilst helping ‘Lingo’ the ultimate show bug and his performing bug friends prepare for the ‘Big Bug Show’. Featuring French, Spanish, Mandarin, Welsh, Urdu, Punjabi, Somali and Polish. It’s a bug-lingual adventure!’

This week the site is launched with French, Spanish and Mandarin to be followed by Welsh on St David’s Day, Urdu and Punjabi on 14th March and Somali and Polish on 28th March.

I am really excited that the site is finally live and hope that it is enjoyed as much by the users as it was by the four children in Reception on whom I tested it in its early stages. And I look forward to seeing what may happen to Lingo, Queso, Jargonaise, Wei and the other bugs in the future!

bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/lingoshow

At the MFL Show and Tell on Saturday night, I shared this song from the UpToTen website.

It’s a very simple song that can easily be adapted to include any animal – or noun in fact! – and any verb.

For example –

Peux-tu marcher comme un éléphant?

Peux-tu sauter comme un robot?

Peux-tu manger comme un dinosaure?

I’ve captured the song from the site here in case you can’t get online – Peux-tu marcher comme un canard