At the #ILILC2 Show and tell this evening I shared this song, typical of Karneval.

httpv://youtu.be/R-_xXfjB3AM

http://www.ukgermanconnection.org/kids-fliegerlied

Download the words Das Fliegerlied and the worksheets from UKGermanConnection – worksheet_fliegerlied-1

Whilst reviewing resources on The TES resources website, I came across some that referenced Tools for Educators – Board Game maker  so I thought I’d investigate.

As is often the case, this site is not a language specific but it allows you to input your own language elements.

Whilst reviewing resources onThe TES resources website, I came across some that referenced Tools for Educators – Board Game maker  so I thought I’d investigate.

As is often the case, this site is not a language specific but it allows you to input your own language elements.

From a bank of images, you can choose to make a board game on a wide variety of subjects, using just images as in the fruit example, or incorporating instructions as in the mini beasts. These examples use the Galactic Challenge theme but there are three others from which to choose (it defaults to Galactic Challenge but all you need to do is go to the bottom of the list of topics and click on the board you’d like) The third and fourth examples show other board games.

These games can be printed and laminated for future use, then used for a variety of exercises.

For example, take the fruit one. It could be used for-

a)vocabulary rehearsal – everytime a learner lands on a fruit, they say the name of it in Spanish

b)giving opinions – learners give their opinion of the fruit on which they land

c)asking questions – learners ask one another if they like the fruit

d)shopping – learners must travel the board buying fruit – perhaps give them a list of fruit and they must keep going until they have all their fruit?

e)pronouns – ask and answer ¿Hay uvas? and response could be Sí las hay or No no las hay

f)colours/adjectival endings – learners say what colour the fruit is eg La manzana es verde or Hay una manzana verde; Los plátanos son amarillos / Hay plátanos amarillos

And that’s off the top of my head. I’m sure with a bit more thought I could come up with more ideas. If you have any, post them in the comments!

There are also Printable board games so that learners can design their own games. what about using the Loveheart game board for likes and dislikes – or for Valentine’s Day? The question cards can be edited to include your own images or questions. Or perhaps use the Bubbles theme for wishes or wants!

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Following on from a mentions here and here and a short review, I had my first article published in The TES today! So exciting!

Here’s the link to the article as it appeared. The original text is below – doesn’t look like it was edited much, a fact about which I am very chuffed!

I emailed Whitehouse Common immediately and told them – and within minutes it was on the school website.

Lots of lovely tweets too – thanks to @valleseco whose tweet was the first I knew of publication, and @bellaale @IrisConnect @davidErogers @matttodd1 @NajmC @suzibewell @whcps @bootleian @bgflnews @chrisfullerisms @TaskMagic @dughall and anyone else who’s tweeted it since I wrote this post!

Hope this won’t be my last article…

When I think back to my best experiences as a learner, they were memorable because they captured my attention and imagination. And it seems that many other learners have a similar experience.

I asked my pupils aged 3-11 what they enjoyed about learning languages, and they came up with many ideas. A class I taught in Reception who are now in Year 3 always want to play a memory game involving painted toenails because a member of their class holds the school record for the game (he was 4 when he set it!), and a Year 6 group remember retelling the story of El Nabo Gigante (The Enormous Turnip) when they were in Year 2 with silly hats and actions.

These were one off examples – when I asked a group of year 6s, they were more general, listing singing, rhymes and chanting as a favourite activity because they don’t do that in other lessons. They also said that they could better remember things that they had learned this way as they recalled the tune or the rhythm as well as the words. Towards the end of Year 6 we do a unit on a Spanish café and one activity involved rewriting a song about ordering in a café to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas. The task involved recalling vocabulary but was more then that as learners had to consider whether the rhythm of the words they were suggesting fitted the tune, making them concentrate on stress patterns and syllables. It also offered the opportunity to be imaginative as each group wanted to be the most original and perhaps funniest.

This type of creative task, using language in ‘unusual’ ways, is popular in other year groups too. In response to the story ¡Fuera de aquí Horrible Monstruo Verde! (Go away Big Green Monster), Year 3 used 2D shapes from their Maths lessons to create faces, feature by feature with a photograph taken at each stage. They then to wrote their own (simplified) version of the story saying hello to each new facial feature then telling it to go away using the photographs to create a comic strip. The sense of achievement – “I wrote a story in Spanish!” – was echoed in Year 5 when they rewrote a section of a famous Spanish poem, La Primavera by Antonio Machado, then went on to write their own poems about seasons in Spanish. Many of them were unsure about writing poems in English let alone Spanish, and here the language learning fitted well with their Literacy lessons. Year 4 were equally proud of their work in Healthy Heroes week, creating Superheroes Saludables (Healthy Superheroes), and building on their previous learning about sport and food in Spanish to create a clean living hero and unhealthy enemies. They did something no other class had done and, in a theme week, that holds great sway.

What do all these activities have in common? They were all led by the learners, all involved independence and imagination, and they all involved a challenge. The learners enjoyed themselves, feeling a sense of achievement when they’d finished, and I enjoyed ‘teaching’ them as each learner was able to stamp their individuality on the task.

Lisa is a Primary Language educator and consultant.  She is PLL and International coordinator at Whitehouse Common Primary School, and works with her LA (Birmingham) as a Language Coach supporting schools with their language provision. She is an Apple Education Mentor, an eTwinning Ambassador and BGfL MFL Curriculum Associate, and is on the Spanish Committee of ALL. 

(I know – that’s not all strictly accurate, but it was when I wrote the post!)

Zachary Jones’ site Zambombazo is a great source of inspiration for all things Hispanic.

And I love it because it proves time and again that there is always something to learn about a language you thought you knew quite well.

I’m often challenged by pupils when I can’t recall the word for ‘meerkat’ or ‘spark plug’ that ‘you’re supposed to know Spanish’ to which I reply I don’t know every word in English. Especially when it comes to colloquial useage. I mean, my son tells me that when he says soemthing is ‘sickage’, that’s great. I’m not so sure…

So, I particularly like this map that Zachary has made – ¿Cómo se dice ‘cool’ en español?

As he points out in his post, the answer to that question depends on lots of factors including the country or even region you’re in, your socioeconomic status as well as your age. The post also offers ideas on how you might use the map to increase vocabulary, to encourage intercultural discussion and to promote discussion of current linguistic useage.

Another nod to Neil Jones today for introducing me to the lovely Pimpollos, Peru’s answer to the Hoobs. Cheery, friendly and with ‘karaoke subtitles’, I think a very useful series.

On his blog, Neil has posted materials for using their song Las verduras. Great stuff!

There are many more videos by Los Pimpollos and here are a couple of my favourites.

1. Arriba abajo.

This song is about things that are either up (arriba) or down (abajo) and I can see Nursery and Reception enjoying dancing along to this. The video supports the language with visual clues and actions can easily be added to show which way -arriba o abajo – each object is found.

httpv://youtu.be/_PVbDErQkGg

2. Cada día se un poquito más

I like this song for the words, meaning every day I know a little more; when I’m older I’ll know millions of things, just you wait and see! Well, I’m ‘older’ and I still want to sing this song as I’ve still got plenty to learn!

Cada día sé un poquito más

Yo voy a aprender tú ya lo verás

Cuando sea grande voy a saber

Un millón de cosas tú vas a ver

Que yo voy a aprender

para poder ser mejor.

Cada día sé un poco más que ayer

Todavía falta lo sé muy bien

Pero poco a poco lo aprenderé

Si tienes paciencia  lo vas a ver

Que yo voy a aprender

Para poder ser mejor.

Cada día sé un poquito más

Yo voy a aprender tú ya lo verás

Cuando sea grande voy a saber

Un millón de cosas tú vas a ver

Que yo voy a aprender

para poder ser mejor.

httpv://youtu.be/7yGE_hGJOaI

I really enjoyed Neil Jones’ presentation at ALL NorthEast Spanish day.

You can find all sorts of ideas and resources on his blog – http://mfljones.wordpress.com  – well worth a look whatever phase you teach.

I loved some of the advertisements he showed.  Here are two of them.  Torres has been forgiven and I love funny dogs.

Pesi – Fernando Torres

httpv://youtu.be/nd7fc5iFL4g

Pancho, el perro que ganó el Primitivo

httpv://youtu.be/vwpbAsAzLf4

Following on from Rachel’s Hawkes’ reminder to me of my plan to teach phonics using her grid, another reminder popped up today when i was on Slidecast and found this short presentation courtesy of Clare Seccombe aka @Valleseco aka MFL Sunderland webmistress extraordinaire.

Phonics are key to our ability to read and pronounce unfamiliar words in a language -must ask Rachel if she has a phonics grid for German!

Another of the poems suggested by Joaquín Moreno in his presentation about poetry in Spanish teaching and learning was Nanas de la cebolla by Miguel Hernández.

He played us the poem sung by Joan Manuel Serrat – here it is below, along with a perfomance of it in spoken form and also the words.

Spoken version

httpv://youtu.be/ktZEWJAoai0

Nanas de la cebolla

La cebolla es escarcha
cerrada y pobre:
escarcha de tus días
y de mis noches.
Hambre y cebolla:
hielo negro y escarcha
grande y redonda.

En la cuna del hambre
mi niño estaba.
Con sangre de cebolla
se amamantaba.
Pero tu sangre,
escarchada de azúcar,
cebolla y hambre.

Una mujer morena,
resuelta en luna,
se derrama hilo a hilo
sobre la cuna.
Ríete, niño,
que te tragas la luna
cuando es preciso.

Alondra de mi casa,
ríete mucho.
Es tu risa en los ojos
la luz del mundo.
Ríete tanto
que en el alma al oírte,
bata el espacio.

Tu risa me hace libre,
me pone alas.
Soledades me quita,
cárcel me arranca.
Boca que vuela,
corazón que en tus labios
relampaguea.

Es tu risa la espada
más victoriosa.
Vencedor de las flores
y las alondras.
Rival del sol.
Porvenir de mis huesos
y de mi amor.

La carne aleteante,
súbito el párpado,
el vivir como nunca
coloreado.
¡Cuánto jilguero
se remonta, aletea,
desde tu cuerpo!

Desperté de ser niño.
Nunca despiertes.
Triste llevo la boca.
Ríete siempre.
Siempre en la cuna,
defendiendo la risa
pluma por pluma.

Ser de vuelo tan alto,
tan extendido,
que tu carne parece
cielo cernido.
¡Si yo pudiera
remontarme al origen
de tu carrera!

Al octavo mes ríes
con cinco azahares.
Con cinco diminutas
ferocidades.
Con cinco dientes
como cinco jazmines
adolescentes.

Frontera de los besos
serán mañana,
cuando en la dentadura
sientas un arma.
Sientas un fuego
correr dientes abajo
buscando el centro.

Vuela niño en la doble
luna del pecho.
Él, triste de cebolla.
Tú, satisfecho.
No te derrumbes.
No sepas lo que pasa
ni lo que ocurre.

httpv://youtu.be/z5UcV3BvbHQ

With a nod to Mr Steven Fawkes, language genius and the man who got HSM in Italian stuck in my head for weeks :oS

As a MYLO ambassador, I’m pleased to say that, following a long hiatus in proceedings caused by the change in Government, MYLO is live!

MYLO, the free online language learning resource for students aged from 14 to 16, is live and online.
MYLO is the latest way for students to learn French, German, Spanish and Mandarin through computer activities which include producing a TV advert, working in a French fashion house and designing a football kit. With practice materials, online dictionaries, phrase books, background information and plenty of hints and tips, learners have everything they need to complete tasks online. Crucially the site also provides opportunities for students to use their productive skills working on writing and speaking projects.
Kate Board, Chief Executive of CILT, the National Centre for Languages, says: ‘The fun, innovative and creative approach to learning that MYLO offers is an ideal way for young people to learn a new language. If we want to reverse the downward trend in GCSE take-up, we need to connect with young people in a way they can relate to – and show them how they could use languages in a whole range of situations in later life.’
MYLO has been piloted and developed with the input of a number of schools, educational bodies and teachers. They report that it gets young people excited about languages, and helps them develop skills in delegating, group work and project management. One Year 8 student from Bradford described the activities as ‘fun and cool and something we are interested in’, whilst another talked of how it is ‘very different to anything we do in language lessons.’
MYLO also has a social networking element that allows students to become part of a MYLO community. Once their school is registered with MYLO, students can create their own online profile, comment on the work of their peers, get feedback from their teachers online and even compete against other schools. Teachers will also be able to create special playlists of projects for their pupils, to tie in with their own study requirements and personal interests.
To sign up for MYLO, and get more information on how it will work, go to mylo.dcsf.gov.uk