Having posted my presentation on the QCA unit El Carnaval de los animales earlier today, it seemed rather appropriate that I should find a free resource that goes with the unit this evening!

I knew that the Consejería de Educacción had a wonderful poster to illustrate this unit, but until now didn’t know that they had a downloadable animation that features the same wonderful illustrations. With files that are compatible with Mac or PC, the animation presents the vocabulary if you press the musical notes, then asks you to drag the correct word to the correct picture. If you make a mistake, there’s a lovely chorus of children saying ‘no’. Only does one thing but fun nonetheless.

There’s also an animation for Christmas featuring a Christmas decorated with baubles from the Spanish speaking world and the villancico Campana sobre Campana which is lovely, and an animated alphabet which is only downloadable on a PC :O(

Lots of other great stuff on the site for the primary classroom too. More at a future date!

The third of the tools I may or may not have time to mention at ICT Links into Languages conference in Southampton is DomoAnimate.

Below is an example in French, German and Spanish of how this tool has been used in other languages. Note lack of accents :o(

DomoNation.com: Mes Prochaines Vacances by Alex Olds

Like it? Create your own at DomoNation.com. It’s free and fun!

DomoNation.com: Schule by Sheridaan

Like it? Create your own at DomoNation.com. It’s free and fun!

DomoNation.com: Las Aventuras de Domo:El encuentro con los aliens1 by AlejoCortes

Like it? Create your own at DomoNation.com. It’s free and fun!

Also as part of my presentation at ICT Links into Languages conference I’ll be mentioning ToonDoo so here are a few examples of how it’s been used in MFL.

Mi Vida Loca

Comparisons on Mandarin

In this Spanish story, Charlie and Bon QuiQui go out to lunch.

And some French comic strips on introductions

And a couple of German examples –

After a tweet from @NeilAdam this morning inviting me to view a clip suggesting that cupcakes are the meaning of life, I discovered Fuzzwich.

Fuzzwich is an online tool for making short animations using backgrounds and characters supplied, plus speech bubbles.  The length of the animation seems to be limited to about 20 seconds and I have to admit to not having discovered all the features yet, but here’s my first attempt. (If it won’t work below, here’s the direct link!)

It’s rather fun!

Thanks to Lidija from Croatia, here are some brief highlights of the ‘TeachMeet styley thingy’ at #etwpdw, showing some of the people about whom I blogged earlier this week.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41T8Df33OnY

Thanks to eagle eyed @joedale for spotting it!

According to wikipedia, Plumíferos “is a 2010 Argentine computer-animated film made by Manos Digitales Animation Studio using Open Source software for all 3D models, animation, lighting and render process, under Linux operating system.”

It’s taken years to get to the screens with parts shown as early as 2005.

Some further bits to share-

great song!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysVtm9xBUOM

And very interesting to see the voice actors in this film.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8EEx-ITZJY

Doesn’t seem to be available on Amazon or iTunes yet though…. 🙁

People often ask me what eTwinning is all about, and, as an eTwinning Ambassador, I try to explain.  The eTwinning experience is tricky to put into words until you’ve experienced it, so this video is just the ticket.

It has no words and is therefore useable in any country, and it says a lot about what eTwinning can do for you.

As Alexander Meerkat would say ‘Simples!’

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj58uA4cjrQ&w=425&h=350]