My Resources Shop

 

I had the idea for Pocket Cards a long time ago, but didn't know how I would go about selling them.  Then I happened upon Sellfy.com as a way of doing that.  My first products were the French and Spanish Challenge Cards in 2014, followed quickly by the Pocket Cards.  I pay a monthly fee to Sellfy, but took on the Pro contract when they were offering a permanent 50% off, so it doesn't cost too much, and I only have to pay Sellfy 2% commission on sales.  The only downside of choosing Sellfy is that the shop isn't as visible as, say, TES or Teachers Pay Teachers, so forgive me if I do some publicising of my products on this here blog and on my social media accounts.

You'll know that literally thousands of my resources are available absolutely free on Light Bulb Languages.  I have chosen to charge for the resources in my Sellfy shop because they took considerably longer to make.

Here's a list of everything that is available in my shop.  Enjoy browsing! 

FRENCH	SPANISH	OTHER
Poésie: 25 poems in French for beginner learners More information here	Poesía: 25 poems in Spanish for beginner learners More information here	Everything you need to know about minibooks More information here
Box of French: les super-héros More information here	Box of Spanish: ¡superheroes! More information here	Everything you need to know about Tarsia More information here
On commence!  French lesson starters	¡comenzamos! Spanish lesson starters More information here	Everything you need to know about calligrams More information here
On commence! French Christmas starters	¡comenzamos!  Spanish Christmas starters	130 Activities for the Languages Classroom More information here
On commence! French number starters	¡comenzamos!  Spanish number starters
ma petite grammaire: part 1 nouns and adjectives More information here	mi gramática: part 1 nouns and adjectives More information here
ma petite grammaire: part 2 verbs, adjectives and conjunctions	mi gramática: part 2 verbs, adjectives and conjunctions
French Grammar Challenge Cards More information here	Spanish Grammar Challenge Cards More information here
French Challenge Cards More information here	Spanish Challenge Cards More information here
French Challenge Cards – Christmas edition	Spanish Challenge Cards – Christmas edition
Box of French: Je suis préhistorique ! More information here	Box of Spanish: ¡Soy prehistórico! More information here
Box of French: J’aime les sports ! More information here	Box of Spanish: ¡Me gustan los deportes! More information here
French Minibooks for Primary Learners	Spanish Minibooks for Primary Learners More information here
French Minipuzzles vol.1	Spanish Minipuzzles vol.1
French Pocket Cards set 1 set 2 set 3 set 4 set 5 set 6 set 7 More information here	Spanish Pocket Cards set 1 set 2 set 3 set 4 set 5 set 6 set 7 More information here
	Sonidos Españoles (phonics) More information here
	Box of Spanish: ¡A comer!

 

Messing around with text!

In the past I have written about practising word and sentence structure by mixing it up in some way and asking students to sort it back out into the correct order.  I have done this most often with missing out the spaces and making anagrams.

I have also asked my students to rearranged jumbled sentences into the right order so that they make sense, one of the ideas in my search for ideas for translation.  When I was preparing resources for Studio 1 (French Key Stage 3 course book) I put together worksheets like this one where I had jumbled up the sentence myself.

I was really pleased to see this tweet from@EClaire71247211 recently:

One of my favourite hacks - paste a load of TL sentences into this site and it instantly creates a sentence unjumbling exercise - good for making your own Conti-style 'sentence puzzles' or for scaffolded translations into L2. #mfltwitterati #langchat https://t.co/QhkT38WoCQ

— eclaire (@EClaire71247211) May 4, 2020

The Scramblinator is so easy to use - type in or paste in your sentence, hit the "Scramblinatorize" button, and it does all the work for you!  Resources are quicker and easier to put together.

It reminded of the Reverse Text Generator which is useful for messing around with text.  It also has a "Disemvowel" tool, which you can use to remove vowels or any other letters from your text quickly and easily (and which makes your sentences look like they belong in Only Connect) and a Word Scrambler / Descrambler amongst its Obfuscation tools.

Here are some of the effects you can get:

ORIGINAL SENTENCE	Je joue au foot avec mes amis.
Scramblinator	joue / foot / au / Je / amis. / mes / avec
Disemvowel	J j  ft vc ms ms.
Word Scrambler	Je euoj au ootf vaec mes asim.
ORIGINAL SENTENCE	Il fait chaud aujourd’hui.
Reverse	iuh'druojua duahc tiaf li
Reverse the wording	hui'aujourd chaud fait il
Reverse each word’s lettering	li tiaf duahc druojua'iuh
Upside down	ınɥ,pɹnoɾnɐ pnɐɥɔ ʇıɐɟ ןı

UPDATE 13.5.20:  I've found some more sites which can do similar things to your text:

To create word shapes, click here

NimbleText does disemvowelling and reverse text among other things (scroll down the list)

LingoJam puts your text upside down for you

The LingoJam Number Generator makes a number code out of your words

LingoJam will also disemvowel your words

Spellbackwards will reverse your text in various different ways 

Lumen's Language Challenges

If you' re after something arty or crafty to do during this period of lockdown, look no further than Lumen's Language Challenges - art and craft activities with a language focus.  Great for exploring languages, and creating a sense of wellbeing.

I've been doing them myself, and I'm going to put the results here:

#LumenChallenge1: Make a bookmark which features your favourite word or phrase in another language.

#LumenChallenge2: Find out how to say the numbers 1 to 5 in another language, then add them to the printable which you can then decorate.

#LumenChallenge3: Create a mirrored image of an animal word in another language, and decorate it to look like that animal.

#LumenChallenge4: Have a look at the Light Bulb Languages #LanguageLinks.  Choose one you like and illustrate it in your own way.

#LumenChallenge5: Print out your favourite letter from the printable, and decorate it.
In the white space around the letter, write some words in another language that start with this letter or have the letter in them.

#LumenChallenge6: Make an origami box.  Stick extra pieces onto your box to turn it into something else, for example an animal or something you might use in your home. You could also colour or paint it.  Find some words in another language to describe your modified box. 

#LumenChallenge7: Make a game of pairs (sometimes called memory or pelmanism) in another language and play it with a family member.  (This is me playing it with - and losing to - my 13 year old daughter.  You can download my game here.)

#LumenChallenge8: Make a piece of art inspired by Paul Klee's Once Emerged from the Gray of Night.  Divide your paper into small squares - 2cm squares are a good size - with faint pencil lines.

Find a phrase or saying that you like in another language, and write it in some of the boxes.
Then colour in the boxes and the spaces left by the letters to complete your artwork.

#LumenChallenge9: Make a minibook from a single piece of A4 paper and choose some words, phrases or sentences to put in it. Then illustrate your book!

#LumenChallenge10: Choose a short text, poem or rhyme in another language and create an illuminated text of it

#LumenChallenge11: Use an animation app and some objects in your house to make a short stop-motion animated film. Then provide a voiceover or subtitles in another language.

British Council Language Challenges

At the Language Show last month, I dropped by the British Council stand and found this gem - the Great Spanish Language Challenge.

If you go to the website given in the bottom left corner, you get to the Languages Challenge page, which includes similar sheets for Arabic, French, German, Mandarin and Welsh.  There is also a general challenge about all languages, and a blank proforma for students to make up their own challenge.