Category: primarylanguages

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

I’m planning a lesson as part of Unit 17 Las cuatro estaciones unit of the QCDA schemes all about seasons and months.

The focus this week is describing the seasons and months using adjectives and making up short poems or possibly calligrams to show what we have learned.

I found these two resources that i think will be very useful to me!

Firstly a lovely wikispace http://springcolours.wikispaces.com/ which has photographs of the seasons and suggetsions of colours – not in Spanish but good collection of pictures.

And secondly, this clip from Youtube that not only talks baout months and seasons in Spanish, but also looks at how the seasons vary according to the Hemisphere in which you live.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_ctUMy9v6w

I will of course post the results of our lesson if it turns out well! And if it doesn’t, I’ll tell you what went wrong!

Today a new part of the Birmingham Grid for Learning (BGfL) website was launched. After a long wait, the Birmingham Primary Language (BPL) website was unveiled.

Offering sections of guidance, useful weblinks, documentation and training opportunities for coordinators and class teachers as well as a growing bank of downloadable resources including sound files, there’s plenty to investigate.  The site is in its infancy but will hopefully grow and grow, especially if the Primary Language teachers of Birmingham volunteer resources and ideas to add to the bank.

Lisibo’s been shopping again.  This time, though, it’s not IKEA that has inspired her but TK Maxx that has come up trumps.

In the sale (!) I found this Very Hungry Caterpillar felt set.

Ideal for –

• telling the story to the class
• getting pupils to follow the story actively by adding / moving/ substituting the felt pieces
• animating – and because it’s a felt board, you can do it horizontally or vertically
• small group work
• independent play

Sad that Year 3 have finished with that story for the year and we’ll have to wait until next September to ry it out with them.  perhaps it’s time I invaded Foundation stage again…

The Hungry Caterpillar is a great story to use with kids as it’s familiar and repetitive.  The vocabulary is simple and everyday – numbers, colours, food – and it looks at healthy eating as well as the life cycle of the caterpillar / butterfly, so very cross curricular!

There are great resources all over the place for this story including

• videos on Youtube – one two three
• a whole series of lessons here
• a page full of ideas here
• a lovely song here – with music file too
• a powerpoint of the story in Spanish
• a PDF of a teaching sequence including cross curricular links
• another PDF with ideas and the pattern for a caterpillar mobile
• some art / craft activities to do with butterflies and caterpillars

And that’s just gleaned from a quick Google search!

Perhaps this one will prove more useful at the moment!

A very catchy Christmas carol about the Wise Men arriving at the stable in Bethlehem.

Click the image to access the song with subtitles, or go here for the lyrics.

A bit late for Halloween this year but ready for next… another subtitled song!

Click the picture to go to the video.

What are your hopes for Primary Languages in 2011 and onwards?

Would you like to make your voice heard by ‘important people’?  By that I mean people who make policy and decide what the really important people ie the pupils get to experience at school.

In response to the White Paper released last week which more or less fails to mention Primary Languages, a number of people started a discussion about how we should respond to the invitation to comment.  One of those people was Catherine Cheater who sent a list of her hopes for the future of Primary Languages.  So well did she express the views that many held, she was urged to make an ecard that we could send to Michael Gove et al.

Here’s her message to us –

Dear colleague,
If you feel that our children in the UK deserve access to language and cultural learning during their primary school years, you might wish to send a message to:
•    Michael Gove (see www.michaelgove.com/contact)
•    Nick Gibb, Schools Minister (see www.parliament.uk/biographies/nick-gibb/25544)
•    your local MP (see www.parliament.uk/about/contacting/mp/)

Please write a message from your heart.
Please say in the message why this is important to you.
Please say how you contribute to this already (e.g. teacher, trainee, LTA, parent, publisher, LA adviser, organisation).

You may wish to include the following link in your message:

http://www.4d-studios.co.uk/primary_languages/card.html

Best wishes,
Catherine Cheater.
(With thanks to Richard Tallaron for designing the e-card)

So if you want to add your voice, the ecard link is above.

Last one – for now anyway!

A Colombian Old MacDonald called Tío Ramón.

You know the drill – click the picture and it’ll take you to the song!

And thank to 123SpanishTogether for the wonderful songs!

Another subtitled video – for those of you still hanging on to Autumn!

Hojas, hojas, again from 123SpanishTogether, is a lovely simple song about falling leaves and colours.

Click the photo and it’ll take you to the subtitled video.

I’m on a roll of finding little gems on Youtube!

Here’s an alphabet rap in Spanish – and it has a section on vowels too which I particularly like.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK8HBnUcbuQ