Category: christmas

Now I’ve broken up for Christmas holidays, I’m ill – isn’t it always the way with teachers? So, to get myself in the Christmas spirit, and because it is very funny – and true! – here’s the inimitable Stephen Fry explaining a couple of rather particular Catalan traditions. Perhaps not the clip to use to explain it in class though!!

Warning – these clips contain coarse language that may offend.

And here’s a clip of children attacking their Caga Tio!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LksInINGTVs&hl=en&fs=1]

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:

1. Introduce key words with the flashcards.
2. Play flashcard games.
3. Develop actions for each flashcard. Children repeat the actions whenever they hear the words in the story.
4. Distribute flashcards. Children wave flashcards when they hear the appropriate words in the story.
5. 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.
6. 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).
7. 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.

Stuck for a present for Christmas? Don’t want to waste your money on a present that will be discarded as soon as you’ve left? Want to give something with that will have a lasting value?

Here’s an idea, presented with all the cheesiness of a ripe Gorgonzola as only Mr P can ;o)
(Congratulations on the European Podcast Award win)

Alternatively, check out Oxfam Unwrapped or Send a cow :o)

You know you’re doing something right when you ask a class to write a Christmas poem and several kids ask you for a Spanish dictionary – in a Literacy lesson!!

I have to explain that as well as teaching Spanish, I teach other subjects too and whilst I like to integrate Spanish into other areas of the curriculum, on this occasion I had meant them to write in English. However, I wasn’t going to discourage them so off they went to fetch the dictionaries. I did advise them to stick to a simple structure and suggested ‘Navidad es….’ as a repeated line but otherwise left them to it!

Most of the class did write poems in English – although several finished their English one then wrote in Spanish too – but there were three or four Spanish ones. We shared our some of our poems and, using an Easispeak microphone, we recorded some of them (sadly didn’t have time for all of them but we’ll do it next week!) Then, at lunchtime, we made them into Voki. They’re on the school website, but here are two Spanish ones.

One is written as an acrostic using Regalos as its theme.

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Get a Voki now!

The other was written by a lovely girl who finds literacy very tricky so I was really proud of her!

AC_Voki_Embed(200,267, ‘dc8a0e377b89808645868c8b762622f7’, 1032816, 1, ”, 0);

Get a Voki now!

I was off line for the New Year so a belated Feliz Año Nuevo to you all. And whilst my in-laws have no Internet access, they do have SKY so I was able to see in the New Year at 11pm GMT with those in the Puerta de Sol in Madrid on TVEi – and eat my ‘uvas de la suerte’ just like Gretel (clever pooch!). I discovered that, as well as ensuring you eat all 12 grapes to ensure your good fortune, your underwear has a deciding factor in your luck for the coming year. If you wear red undies, apparently it will bring you good luck and love. In Mexico, if you carry a suitcase onto your balcony, you’ll go on lots of trips, and by putting money on you windowsills, you won’t be short of money. If only …..

Tomorrow it will be El Día de Reyes in Spain and other Hispanic countries, the day on which presents are traditionally delivered by the Three Kings. Epiphany is a big deal in Spain with parades called cabalgatas in most towns when the Reyes Magos arrive on their camels (or sometimes in a boat in Barcelona or Málaga) on the evening of the 5th before distributing presents overnight into the waiting shoes left out on balconies with some straw for the camels. For photos, check out El País.com where there are a number of good quality pictures from 2007. There are a number of clips of these processions on Youtube – there is a slideshow from Priego, Córdoba with stills and short clips of their parades accompanied by an interesting music (!) and one from Rociana in Huleva features some very generous Reyes who are throwing rather large parcels instead of the usual sweets into the crowd.

I also came across a couple of amusing videos. The first is El rap de los Reyes Magos in which they plot (and execute) the downfall of Santa who is increasingly taking over present giving duties – not recommended for use with young children! And the second below is entitled Los padres son los Reyes Magos.

On the subject of presents, there’s a short voxpop clip in Spanish about the cost of buying presents for Reyes – good for more confident learners or for gist. Perhaps listen out for presents, or for the number of children / grandchildren people have, or even for cognates. A good discussion starter.That’s a bit tricky for younger learners, but they could write simple letters to los Reyes with their present requests – two sites to do this online are El Boricua from Puerto Rico and espacio.ya.com – in English or Spanish – or even draw and label them.

Well – if it’s good enough for the Queen ……!

To wish you all a Merry Christmas, here are two videos that bring together several things close to my heart – languages, kids and Disney!

Hope you enjoy them and have a really great Christmas!

Multilingual Disney greetings! (very clever collaborative effort!)

¡Feliz Navidad!

I spend a fortune on resources for school so I’m always up for a freebie. Instant Display is a site well known to those that frequent TES staffroom and particularly the ‘Parasites Paradise’ thread, (so called because all the listed sites offer free resources.) Instant Display offers reasonably priced posters and resources such as labels for use in Primary classrooms (although, as with all resources, there’s scope for use with older kids too) – you choose your resource(s), pay by Paypal and the link to the resource is sent to you very promptly in my experience. There are a number of MFL resources available , particularly in French such as number cards, weather posters and classroom instruction cards, as well as some Spanish and German resources too. Each set costs £2.

And there is also a free section!! In this section you can find several French resources, including colours, counting, converting euros, weather and En France (things associated with France).

The reason I thought of posting at this particular juncture is that there are a number of free Christmas resources on the site including a set of Merry Christmas posters in 18 languages, and Christmas around the world, a set of posters featuring traditions from different countries, places and continents including Poland, China, Hawaii, Denmark, Bethlehem and Africa.

I’ve printed and laminated them, and made quiz trail around the school – greetings in KS1 and traditions in KS2. With productions etc at this time of year, there is a lot of lining up in corridors and spare moments to fill, so this seemed a popular idea. This week I’ve followed it up with questions on the school website – 5 per day – to encourage families to join in the fun. It’s all part of my strategy to raise cultural awareness in the school – and it’s also fun!

In case you want to join in, I’ll put the questions in the Goodies Box – or you can go to the Whitehouse Common school website .