On the Preservation of the Pencil Case

It has not escaped my notice that this week is National Stationery Week.  Those who know me know that I am very interested in stationery, and, indeed, that I have a lot of stationery.  The above picture shows just one of the trays of pens, pencils, rubbers, rulers and associated bits and pieces that belong to my daughters.  So it must run in the genes!

My younger daughter recently celebrated her birthday, and during the Easter holidays we had to go to the shops in Newcastle to spend her birthday money.  She dragged me into Smiggle (surely the most heavily-perfumed, headache-inducing shop known to mankind) where she purchased a pencil case and some pens and pencils to go in it.  When I returned to school today after the holidays, the first thing a lot of my Year 4s did was to show me their new Smiggle pencil cases.

Children are very interested in pencil cases and all the many lovely things that you can put in them.  Yet "pencil case" has become a byword in Languages teaching for everything that is dull, banal, uninteresting and unmotivating.  It is spoken of disparagingly as an example of all that is perceived to be wrong with Languages lessons.

In the olden days I used to teach "pencil case" to Year 7.  Remember that page of Avantage 1, anybody?  These days I teach it to Year 3.  We do it to introduce nouns, gender, indefinite articles and dictionary skills.  The vocabulary is useful for primary children, and inherently very interesting to them.  The structures are a fundamental part of language learning in Key Stage 2, the blocks on which the next three years will be built.

The topic is less interesting, though, to secondary students. They have usually got past the stage of wanting brightly-coloured, glittery and perfumed stationery, and stick to what is more practical.  At their (slightly) more advanced years they have other interests and other priorities.

In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with teaching "Things in my pencil case", as long as it is appropriate to the likes and dislikes of the children in the classroom, and as long as the language being practised is appropriate to the linguistic level of the children in the classroom.

I will use this to shield myself from the flack that will now, undoubtedly, come my way:

Making a leaflet

 

At the UKLingua conference this weekend, amongst the other goodies in my goodybags (yes, plural!) was this leaflet about Salamanca.  Now, at the moment I am teaching the unit 'Then and Now' to Year 6 Spanish for the 5th time.  We finish the unit with a piece of independent work which depicts and describes a town in the past and the same town in the present.  I haven't yet found a way that I really like of presenting this work.  So I am going to try a version of this leaflet this year and see how it turns out.

We're going to make it with one sheet on A4.  I'll probably use card as paper always gets a bit fragile with all the felt-tipping.  If you want to use A3 paper, double the initial measurement and all subsequent steps will be the same.  You will need a very long ruler though!

1.  With your A4 paper landscape, measure 8cm down from the top right corner.

2.  Draw a line with a long ruler to join your 8cm mark and the top left corner.

3.  Cut off the small triangle.

4.  Fold the paper in half along the long, bottom edge.

5.  Fold the shorter edge back in to the centre.

6.  Turn it over and fold the long edge back in to the centre.

7.  Turn it back over and you'll see your finished leaflet.

High-frequency French vocabulary for KS2

In my last post, I looked at the most commonly occurring verbs, nouns, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions and adverbs in Spanish, and thought about the words on each list that we are teaching in KS2 or that we should teach in KS2.

For French, I have consulted this list of the top 100 words in French, and the webpage also includes the top 25 of various word classes.

Verbs

The first 21 of these French verbs are in the top 100 words.  I have also added on the end aimer, which is not on of the 25, but which is very frequently used in KS2 and elsewhere.  Would we also want to add penser or croire for giving opinions and jouer for talking about sports and music?

		KS2	curriculum area
1.	être to be	yes	description, identification Qu'est-ce que c'est?)
2.	avoir to have	yes	age, possession, family, pets, money, physical description
3.	pouvoir can, to be able	yes	classroom instructions and language
4.	faire to do, make	yes	household chores, sports
5.	mettre to put, place
6.	dire to say
7.	devoir to have to, owe
8.	prendre to take
9.	donner to give
10.	aller to go	yes	places in town, transports, holidays
11.	vouloir to want	yes	food, shopping, classroom equipment
12.	savoir to know
13.	falloir to take, require, need
14.	voir to see
15.	demander to ask for
16.	trouver to find
17.	rendre to render, return, yield, give up
18.	venir to come
19.	passer to pass
20.	comprendre to understand
21.	rester to stay
22.	tenir to hold
23.	porter to wear, carry	yes	clothes
24.	parler to speak	yes	countries and their languages
25.	montrer to show
	aimer to like	yes	opinions

Determiners

I have added onto the end of this list the determiners to go with le, un and mon.

		KS2?
1.	le the	yes
2.	de some, any	yes
3.	un a, an, one	yes
4.	ce this, that
5.	tout all, very
6.	son his, her, its	yes
7.	autre other
8.	leur them, their, theirs
9.	deux two	yes
10.	premier first	yes
11.	mon my	yes
12.	aucun none, either, neither, not any
13.	quelque some
14.	notre our
15.	certain certain
16.	trois three	yes
17.	tel such
18.	quel which, what	yes
19.	chaque each
20.	plusieurs several
21.	votre your
22.	quatre four	yes
23.	cinq five	yes
24.	ton your	yes
25.	dix ten	yes
	la the	yes
	les the	yes
	une a, one	yes
	des some	yes
	ma my	yes
	mes my	yes

Conjunctions

There are only 23 conjunctions in the top 5000 French words.  Again I have added to the list some which are used commonly in the classroom, not only in KS2.

		KS2?
1.	et and	yes
2.	que that, which, who, whom
3.	mais but	yes
4.	comme like, as
5.	ou or	yes
6.	si if, whether
7.	aussi too, also, as	yes
8.	quand when	yes
9.	donc so, then, therefore, thus
10.	soit either ... or
11.	car because	yes
12.	pourquoi why
13.	ni nor
14.	comment how
15.	lorsque when
16.	or now
17.	cependant however	yes
18.	puisque since
19.	toutefois however
20.	combien how much, how many	yes
21.	sinon otherwise, or else
22.	néanmoins nevertheless
23.	quoique although, though
	qui who, which	yes
	parce que because	yes

Prepositions

		KS2?
1.	de of, from, some, any	yes
2.	à to, at, in	yes
3.	en in, by	yes
4.	pour for, in order to
5.	dans in, into, from	yes
6.	sur on, upon
7.	par by
8.	avec with	yes
9.	avant before
10.	entre between
11.	moins less
12.	sans without
13.	après after
14.	pendant during
15.	depuis since, for
16.	contre against
17.	sous under
18.	jusque to, up to, until
19.	vers toward
20.	dès from, as soon
21.	devant in front, ahead
22.	chez at, with	yes
23.	près near, nearby, close by
24.	selon according to
25.	parmi among

Adverbs

(Although I take issue with the description of some of these words as adverbs.)

		KS2?
1.	ne not	yes
2.	pas not	yes
3.	plus then
4.	tout there
5.	mais still, yet	yes
6.	comme so, therefore
7.	si only
8.	y here, there
9.	avant more
10.	même same, even, self
11.	aussi too, also, as	yes
12.	bien well	yes
13.	où where
14.	encore again, yet
15.	déjà already
16.	grand great, big, tall	yes
17.	moins less	yes
18.	très very	yes
19.	quelque some
20.	non no, not	yes
21.	alors then, so
22.	après after
23.	peu little
24.	bon good	yes
25.	depuis since, for

Pronouns

I am surprised that je is only in at no.9.

		KS2?
1.	le him, her, it, them
2.	un a, an, one	yes
3.	en in, by	yes
4.	que that, which, who, whom
5.	ce this, that
6.	il he, it	yes
7.	qui who, whom	yes
8.	se oneself, himself, herself, itself, themselves
9.	je I	yes
10.	tout all
11.	autre other
12.	on one, we	yes
13.	nous we, us	yes
14.	leur them, their, theirs
15.	y there
16.	elle she, her	yes
17.	même same, even, self
18.	celui that, the one, he, him
19.	où where	yes
20.	vous you	yes
21.	cela that, it
22.	me me, to me, myself	yes
23.	aucun none, either, neither, not any
24.	lui him, her
25.	dont whose, of which

Again, all thoughts welcome via the comments.