Nouns, opinions and descriptions with a PSHE/RSE twist

I first got to know the work of Elise Gravel when I came across Monstres en vrac in Montréal ten years ago.  When I was in California last week, I popped into a branch of Barnes & Noble to have a look at their Spanish section.  Considering how bilingual California is, it was a smaller section than I expected.  I purchased one book: El rosa, el azul y tú by Elise Gravel.  It's also available in French as Le rose, le bleu et toi !

The book offers us opportunities to discuss self, relationships and gender stereotypes with children, while also covering areas of language such as nouns and their gender, opinions, and adjectives and adjectival agreement.

For examples, here are some nouns which we could show to children without the images.  They could investigate the phonics and use their dictionaries to find the meanings.  They could also work out the grammatical gender of each noun.  Then, as is suggested at the top of the page, we could ask the children to sort them into "Things for girls", "Things for boys" and "Things for everyone".  The resulting discussions will have strong links to the PSHE/RSE curricula.

Another example is opinions, which can be approached as a true/false activity as suggested on the page.

Elise Gravel also offers some free posters on her website.  Among them there are two useful Spanish ones:

They show examples in practice of adjectival agreement and could be a starting point for discussions about gender stereotypes.

This book and these resources give an interesting twist to commonly taught grammar, and would give Key Stage 3 teachers a way of doing the usual in an unusual way for their new Year 7 students who have different experiences of language learning.

I would recommend speaking to your headteacher and/or PSHE coordinator before using these ideas in your lessons.

Adaptable Activities for your Language Lessons

 

I'm delighted to announce the publication of Adaptable Activities for your Language Lessons.

This pdf download contains 120 different activities that can be adapted to any language and to most ages of learner.  There are activities for listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar and phonics.

So if you've ever found yourself in a planning rut, wanting to try out something new but not sure what, then this is the publication for you!

Available now in my Sellfy shop: https://ideaseducationltd.sellfy.store/

Take a look at the index here: https://www.ideaseducation.co.uk/resources/Index.pdf

Gender and number: Trash or Treasure?

This year I inherited a Year 6 class who have done three years of French but no Spanish.  As they have done lots of French I am able to move them on pretty quickly, showing them how the grammatical notions that they know from English and French - number and gender - work in Spanish.

At the moment we are working on adjectival agreement with plural nouns.  So we know how to identify a masculine noun and a feminine noun and how we need to change some of our adjectives when describing something feminine.  We have read Los limones no son rojos which has lots of examples of plural adjectival agreement in action.  The children can explain to me why there is an extra s on some of the adjectives and why some of them also have an a instead of an o on the end.

I have designed the above Trash or Treasure? activity for the first lesson back after half term to make them think about what exactly shows that a word is masculine or feminine, singular or plural.  The words are a collection of nouns, adjectives and articles/determiners.  It’s not vital for students to understand the meanings of all the words - you are training them here to look for the clues that tell you about a word’s gender and number.

Each pair of students will need a set of the words and a Trash or Treasure board.  The following sorts are suggested:

• Words that are definitely masculine
• Words that are definitely feminine
• Words that could potentially be either masculine or feminine
• Words that are singular
• Words that are plural
• Masculine singular words
• Feminine singular words
• Masculine plural words
• Feminine plural words

Which words would you put in these different groups?  Can you think of any other sorts that could be done using these words?

You can find out more about Trash or Treasure here and the board can be found here. 

After this activity we will do the Spanish version of this French adjectival agreement activity, which I have also prepared and which is available here.

UPDATE 23.2.18:  I used both these resources in my Year 6 lesson yesterday.  We re-read Los limones no son rojos first, talking about why the colours are spelt differently to the ones we originally learned.  The Trash or Treasure? activity consolidated their knowledge about gender and number, and I enjoyed hearing them saying things to each other like "We need to find anything with an s on" or "Find all the words with an a on the end".  They then found the sentence-building activity quite straightforward, and were able to put right independently any errors.  Some pairs chose to use the "son" cards to extend their sentences in the same way as the book had, for example "Las fresas no son negras, son rojas."

Looking for feminine singular nouns

Looking for masculine singular nouns

130 Activities for the Languages Classroom

A week ago I finished and published this resource.  It was inspired by a teacher on the Secondary MFL Matters Facebook group who had been asking if there was a list of activities anywhere, and by other colleagues who have been saying for a while "You should write a book!"

All the activities listed and described are ones that I have used in the classroom or blogged about or both.  It was originally going to be called "150 Activities.." based on my original list, but the list was reduced when I saw that some activities could be put together.

Each activity has a key to show which skills it addresses - Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing, Vocabulary, Grammar, Phonics or Translation.  Here is an example of one of the activities:

It's available from my Sellfy shop now. I hope you like it, and that you find there some activities that you didn't know about, as well as some that you did know about but had forgotten.

Reading about Spain and Hispanic Culture

Sometimes I have a young class who need calming at the beginning of a lesson and at other times I need to fill a little bit of time at the end of a lesson when the children have finished all their work.

I read them a book in English about Spain or a Spanish-speaking country which also has a cultural theme.  Here is my selection of books:

Abuela's Weave  tells the touching story of Esperanza and her grandmother going to sell their traditional weaving at a market in town.  The story is from Guatemala and I read this to the children as part of our Guatemala project.

This is the tale of how chocolate was given to the Mayan people by the Jaguar god.  It has a bookmark in as this is the story I am reading with Year 2 at the moment!   

The moon falls from the sky and breaks into pieces.  The story tells how she was put back together again.

Lola's papi teaches her to dance flamenco.  There is a CD included with the book as well with music.

Ferdinand the Bull was the subject of one of the early Disney cartoons.  We read the book first and then watched the cartoon to see how they were different.

This is a great book for explaining why there are so many Spanish-speakers who don't live in Spain.

I bought this book because it reminded me of Nathalie Paris and her Bibliobook!  This is the true story of a librarian who took books to children in very rural areas of Colombia with the aid of his donkeys.

This story tells the tale of Gaudí walking around Barcelona and talking about his works.

The fox (Zorro) wants to eat the guinea pig (Quwi) but is continually tricked by him.  Year 2 really liked this one.

Another story from Mayan mythology, which tells how the first Mayan people were made of corn

I like to read this story on European Day of Languages.  Carmelita and her dog Manny walk down their multi-cultural street, calling out "Hello" and "Woof" in lots of different languages as they go.

And finally, The Legend of the Poinsettia tells how the poinsettia plant ("Flor de Navidad") came to be closely associated with Christmas in Mexico.

Thank you to members of the Languages in Primary Schools Facebook Group, who recommended a lot of these.  Do you know any others?

Reading about France and French culture

Sometimes I have a young class which needs settling at the beginning of a lesson or a class who finish all their work and need a little something to fill in the end of a lesson.

I have a selection of reading books in English but about France and French things which I read to them on such occasions. I thought I would share with you the books that I have:

Mr Chicken goes to Paris to visit his friend Yvette, and they go on a sight-seeing trip.  Nobody seems to notice that there is a giant yellow chicken in the city!  I think this is Year 2's favourite.

A little girl and her grandfather go on a walk around Paris.  There is lots of useful information about the sights of the city.

Adèle picks up her little brother Simon from school and they walk home through the city of Paris.  On the way, Simon manages to lose most of his belongings.

Anatole is a mouse who gets himself a job tasting cheese in a cheese factory.

A Lion in Paris is the (fictional) story of how the statue of a lion came to be in the Place Denfert-Rochereau in Paris.

Do you have any recommendations that I could add to my list?

More Spanish books

You know how it is, you go looking for one thing and end up finding something else!  It always reminds me of the "Even Better!" man on the Fast Show.

I was actually looking for a Spanish language book version of the Wizard of Oz for Musicals Breakout Week at school, but got sidetracked by these little beauties (above) on Amazon Spain.

They are board books, and written for very young Spanish-speaking children.  They are all from the series "De la cuna a la luna".  As such they are ideal for Key Stage 1 and could also be used for Key Stage 2 beginner learners.

Cocodrilo

(Sorry - Blogger's having one of it's "photos the wrong way" days)
Cocodrilo is all about colours, and has some lovely rhymes.  The Cocodrilo himself is verde, porque muerde.  As you can see, he is on the top of a pile of things which are all different colours, and which rhyme with the colours.  Children can join in with the colours, and you could swap in other things which are the same colours.  They don't have to rhyme!

Pajarita de Papel
Pajarita de Papel is a  little paper bird who is laying the table for a meal with his friend.  It would make a good introduction to eating and drinking, for example.

Cinco

This book practises the numbers 1 to 5, and starts "1 - Luna", then "2 - Luna y Sol", gradually building up the numbers and the number of rhyming objects.  It would be a great book for children starting to count in Spanish, and you could put it any words to help with the counting.

Miau
Miau is like a simpler version of Muu. Bee. Así Fue.  It has 6 different animals and the noises they make, finishing with a niño who says "Mamá Mamá"!

More new French books

Earlier this month I spent a week in France, which of course involved a trip to the Espace Culturel at the local Leclerc as well as the local Maison de la Presse.  Some books I purchased, others I photographed for purchase later on or requesting for my birthday.

This book was my best find.  Bonjour by Nathalie Dieterlé is ideal for using with very new learners.  Petit Loup says bonjour to everyone, until he gets tired and his mummy puts him to bed and says bonne nuit.  Then he shouts bonne nuit to everyone.  There is plenty for the children to join in with.

I couldn't decide which of these animal books to get, so I got both!  They have nice short texts about each animal, great for some non-fiction reading.  I'm going to be using the farm animals one with Year 6 over the next few weeks.

I found this one in the Rentrée section of the local Intermarché.  It makes a change from colouring by numbers, and I particularly like this colour by e, ê, é and è.  It will make children really look at the accented letters.

As it was still les grandes vacances, the Maison de la Presse had lots of magazines "Spécial Vacances".  I could have got more of these but was thinking about space in my luggage....  I bought this art one for the article on prehistoric art.  Regular readers may spot a pattern emerging.  I also enjoyed reading the interview with Botticelli, which might suit KS3 and KS4.

This is the first book that I photographed.  It's too complex for Key Stage 2, but would suit Key Stage 3 students who are starting to learn the Passé Composé. It's beautifully imaginative and amusing, with great illustrations.  There is another called "Je suis en retard pour l'école parce que...."

I also liked these Trotro books.  In L'âne Trotro fait du vélo, Trotro experiments with riding his bike with no hands, then no feet.  You can imagine what happens.  L'âne Trotro s'habille is good for simple clothes vocabulary, and children would love to join in with L'âne Trotro répète tout ce qu'on lui dit.  

New Spanish books

When I returned from 10 days in Cantabria yesterday, my suitcase was quite a lot heavier than it was when I left.  Why?  Lots of new books of course!

I was keeping a special eye out for things that I could use with Years 5 and 6, but that doesn't mean all the others got neglected.

First of all, not a book but a magazine.  It's an ¡Hola! special, full of Top 10s and other lists that will be useful for reading exercises, especially for Key Stage 3.

I'm not familiar with the work of Lara Jones's Poppy Cat, and so didn't recognise her as Lupe in this book.  Inside the sentences are nice and repetitive, and all about what Lupe likes to eat.  It would be easy for children to adapt this.

I work on minibeasts with Year 1, but it's the sort of topic that you can return to in subsequent years in greater depth.  This book (bargain at €3,95!) has pages which give basic information about each insect, and then you can fold out the pages to get much more information.  I'd recommend a look at the rest of the Enciclopeque series.

I've been very conscious this year that I haven't looked at any books with Year 5 and Year 6.  I have found these two non-fiction books which I won't use in their entirety, but which have many useful non-fiction texts.  Every page has some kind of lift-the-flap or fold out page.  They are part of a series of 32 books, covering themes as diverse as the Vikings and the 5 senses.

Year 3's new History curriculum is all about the Stone Age and Iron Age, and my own daughter, who has just finished Year 3, particularly enjoyed learning about cave paintings.  Last week we really enjoyed visiting the Museo de Altamira, a world heritage site and home to some of the most important cave paintings in the world.  I bought this book there.  It's very good, lots of lift-the-flaps and information, and excellent for technical vocabulary about Prehistory.  Again it's part of a series.

I already have a number of books in this series, and bought this one as a branch of the Camino passed through the area that we were staying in, and we passed a number of pilgrims every day.  The Flamenco one will come in handy for Year 2.

Some Spanish handwriting practice books, mainly to show the children.  I have something similar in French, which children always enjoy seeing.

Super Niño is a lovely book for introducing items of clothing with possessive adjectives.  Each page has a cut out, so that with each turn of the page you add an item of Super Niño's superhero clothing to Nina to make her Super Niña.  Only problem is, that leaves you with a picture at the end that some may consider inappropriate for use in school...

I hope you can see all the pictures and words OK - Blogger has been really misbehaving while I've been typing this!