Advent colouring books

 

The latest additions to the resources in my Sellfy store are Advent colouring books for French and Spanish.

The colouring books are good for you!  They contain no chocolate, and the colouring in will promote mindfulness and lower stress levels.  You will also learn about 24 ways in which the Christmas period is marked and celebrated in France and in Spanish-speaking countries.

Find the French one here and the Spanish one here.

Have a look at my other Sellfy Christmas resources here, and there are lots of free Christmas resources on Light Bulb Languages.

Christmas Balls

In the summer, @dominic_mcg described to me some poetry balls that he had seen.  I found a picture of them and filed it away on Pinterest for a later date.  Then earlier this week I was thinking about things to do with Year 6 over the next couple of weeks, bearing in mind that they have already done most of my Christmas stuff.  I remembered the poetry balls, and while my daughters were in the swimming pool this evening I had a go at making one.

Here are my instructions:

1.  Halve a piece of A4 card.  You'll end up with a piece of card 15cm x 21cm.

2.  Carefully measure and mark out 1cm strips, each 15cm long.  I started out with 21 strips, but found that was too many for one ball.  My ball on the left has 10 strips and the right one has 11 strips.  That's about the right number I think.

3.  Decorate each strip.  I wrote and illustrated Spanish Christmas words from my Spanish Christmas mat.  This will take the children some time!

4.  Using a single hole punch or the Blue Peter "sharp pencil into Plasticine" method, punch a hole in each end of each strip.  This needs to be done with care so that the holes are not on the edges of the strips.

5.  Cut the strips out and stack them in a pile.

6. Put a butterfly pin through the holes at each end.  (Check beforehand the the head of the butterfly pin is not smaller that the hole!)

7.  Carefully fan out the separate strips to make the ball shape.

It would be easy to fix a loop to the head of the butterfly pin with which to hang the ball.

UPDATE 27.11.15

Here's a template (2 to a sheet) to make it easier to make for those who might find the measuring tricky.

Christmas Ball Template

Be my Valentine

For the last few days people have been asking for Valentine's resources.  Then yesterday, completely by chance, I came across this Valentine's origami box on Pinterest.  I have simplified the idea to make a Valentine's card-cum-minibook, which would also be ideal for writing about likes and dislikes at non-Valentine's times of year.

To make it, first of all download the template from here.

1.  Cut out the shape, around the solid lines.

2.  Fold along the long, "internal" dotted lines.

3.  Fold out the two halves of the heart, along the dotted lines.

4.  Decorate the outside.

5.  Write inside!

UPDATE 15.02.15:  Due to popular demand I have created some more shapes for this design of minibook.  You can now download:

Easter Egg minibook
Christmas tree minibook
Smiley face minibook
Star minibook

UPDATE 31.03.15  A bell-shaped minibook for Les Cloches Volantes for Pâques.

Bell minibook

Christmas ideas for Primary French

This evening I had a planning panic when I realised that the two year groups I have for French this week, Year 3 and Year 5, have already done all my main Christmas resources (cards and mini-books).  I put out a plea on Twitter and the CfBT Primary Linguanet forum, and as usual they came up trumps, with enough brilliant ideas to last several weeks.  Many of the ideas came from Vicky Cooke, a primary languages teacher from Yorkshire.  I suggested she put them into a guest blogpost.  And here it is!

Every year I seem to run around looking for ideas to use across KS2 French. Some years I really struggle and others there’s too many to use. This year is a rich year, perhaps because I’ve connected to other teachers via Twitter and the Languages in Primary Schools Facebook page (join!).

Here are some of my current favourites:

Origami – always a winner. I search for ‘origami de noel’ in YouTube and there are plenty of clips that come up.

This one is pretty straightforward and you only need squares of green paper (in fact, I grab A4 and the first thing we do is make a square).  I tend to have them watch the video first, then discuss the steps, and teach/recap a few key words (plier, déplier, triangle, diagonal).  Then we watch again stopping at each step and repeating the instructions clearly while demonstrating.  I usually have to help those who struggle with manual tasks, or sit them with a capable friend.

Once complete you can then sing ‘mon beau sapin’ with a little forest of trees. Mister Toony has a version with lyrics:

Helen Williams on the Languages in Primary Schools Facebook page (have I mentioned it already..?) shared the Jeanne de la Lune Advent Calendar.   I’ve used it as a prompt for other things. So when Vive le vent comes up, we learn the song and sing it (plenty of choice on YouTube).  Children have also learnt the words of Le Père Noël est enrhumé and narrated the animation with the volume off.  I’m sure you’ll find plenty of other things to do with it.

My absolute all time favourite little Christmas clip is this puppy singing Petit Papa Noël.

You can find the lyrics (and dozens of other seasonal ideas) on the ever popular Tête à Modeler. 

Emmanuelle Fournier-Kelly of Maskarade Languages has shared some free resources this year.  I like the biscuit recipe and in the past have had a ‘bake-off’ style competition (it’s called Le Meilleur Pâtissier in France) where children can bake at home, decorate and we invite a special guest (or the head…) to judge.

Finally, I also like to do picture dictations where they have to draw what you say. Obviously this depends on knowing the vocabulary, but is good fun when you compare at the end.  I might include deux petits sapins verts, un grand sapin vert, huit petites boules de neige, un grand bonhomme de neige and so on.  Add in some prepositions if they know them.

Have fun and Joyeux Noël!


Merci Vicky!  
What are your favourite Christmas resources and ideas for Primary Languages?  Please share them in a comment below.

Roscón de Reyes

It's here!  The 2013 Spanish Christmas card.  It represents the Roscón de Reyes, the cake that is traditionally eaten in Spain on 6th January, el Día de Reyes.  The Roscón is made with a rich dough flavoured with orange and lemon, and has brightly-coloured candied fruits on the top.  Inside is hidden a little figure or toy (in 1986 I found a minute china vase in a Roscón!) and also a bean.  Whoever finds the figure is crowned king or queen for the day, and whoever finds the bean has to pay for the Roscón the following year.

Here's how to make the card:

You will need: a piece of A4 card, scraps of red, gold, green and silver shiny paper (Christmas wrapping paper is ideal and much cheaper than packs of foiled card!), scissors, glue, a pen and colours.  Most importantly you'll need a copy of the Roscón on roscón-coloured paper, a copy of the crown on card to use as a template and a copy of the title banner, which will be fine on white paper.  Download the Roscón, crown and banner from here.

1.  Fold the A4 card in half.  Cut out the Roscón and stick it on the middle of the card.  Don't throw away the scraps of Roscón paper - you'll need them later.

2.  Draw round the crown template three times on the reverse of the gold paper, and cut the crowns out. Stick them across the top of your card.  You could decorate the crowns if you want.  I have written on the names of the Reyes Magos: Melchor, Baltasar and Gaspar.

3.  Colour in the lettering on the banner and stick it on the bottom of the card.

4.  Use the scraps of red, gold and green paper to make round shapes and lozenge shapes to represent the candied fruits that are put on top of the Roscón.  Stick them on, leaving one space.

5.  On the reverse of the silver paper, draw the shape of a trinket that will be hidden "in" the Roscón.  I have done a simple round silver coin.  Cut it out and stick it on the space that you left.  Then, using the scraps of roscón-coloured paper from step 1, make a little flap to cover the trinket and stick it on.  You could put another candied fruit on top of the flap.

Before the children make these, we are going to look at the ingredients, probably as a pair exercise with dictionaries or even a Tarsia, and watch this video of a baker making roscones.  There are also lots of photos of Roscón ingredients, like this one.

An idea for Christmas

This is a variation on the theme of concertina books that is just right for Christmas time.  

To make this one I used a sheet of A4 paper cut in half lengthways (to make a strip about 30cm by 10.5cm).  I folded it into a concertina of 8 equal sections.  It's important that your concertina has an even number of sections so that your present will lie flat.

Next I cut a rectangle of red card (other colours are available of course) 13cm by 10.5 cm and decorated it  with Christmassy patterns and a metallic-tape bow.  Then I cut the parcel in half and stuck on half on each end of the concertina.

I haven't put any writing on the concertina yet, but I have some ideas:

• Use dictionaries to find the Spanish words for presents and write these on the concertina.
• As above, plus the children add some adjectives.
• Children write things that they are going to do for their parents as a Christmas present (lots of good ideas here)
• Write a Christmas recipe.
• Write and illustrate Christmas vocabulary.
• Write a Christmas poem.

Many thanks to everyone who has been tweeting me pictures of the mini-books that they have been making at school.  It's lovely to see all the different ways that they can be used.

A card for Christmas

Every Christmas in the primary school where I teach Spanish, I like to make Spanish Christmas cards with the children.  There are a few reasons why we do this.  Firstly, they always ask to do it.  Secondly, it ticks some Intercultural Understanding boxes, and thirdly, it's something from Spanish for them to take home and share with their families.


This is the third year that I have had to think of a design for a card. It wasn't easy!  I decided to base it on this card.  Please feel free to download it and have a go at making it with your students:


Spanish
French
German (thanks to Alex Bellars for supplying the vocabulary!)


Also still available if you fancy something a bit different:
2010 Christmas card (Spanish)
2009 Christmas card (Spanish) - crib scene
2009 Christmas card (French) - crib scene


We are also going to be making stencil calligram cards (as described here) for the children at our partner school in Madrid.


Buon Natale e felice anno nuovo.