What's connected?

The other day, while looking for something else, I reminded myself of the sadly-no-more interactive activity maker Sugarcane.

My favourite of their activities was What's Connected.  Here's an example:

Once you had entered your data set, it would choose 12 random words from it and then ask you to find links amongst them with the word at the top.  There were usually 3 different links to be found.  For example, the links here with ventana are una, la and window.  The more columns you had in your data set, the more links were possible.

I've been pondering making some versions of this activity to use as starters, as it makes students think about the detail of the words and phrases that they have been learning and the relationships between them.  The first unit of work that I thought of to use was my Year 4 unit involving opinions of food and drink in Spanish.  

First of all I created my data set in the form of a table in MS Word:

Then I needed to make a random selection.  I started off my putting the data set into a Flippity Randomiser but found that the selection it generated wasn't really random enough!  So instead I pasted the data in a list into an online random picker, which worked better.  I also used this to select the "lead word".

I created a template in PowerPoint and entered the information.

I'm thinking of asking the children to write on their mini whiteboards any links they can find, before showing them the answers.  All the children should be able to find at least one link.

This format would also suit adjectival agreement as well as verb paradigms and tenses.  Can you think of an area of language that you would like an activity like this for?  Let me know in the comments.

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!

 

Starters!

I have recently completed my second set of 60 Spanish starter activities.  The starters are available on PowerPoint slides, and are designed for teachers to display on the whiteboard for students to get on with as soon as they enter the room.  They can also be printed out so that students can complete a copy on paper if desired.  On my Sellfy page - https://sellfy.com/ideaseducationltd - you'll find both parts 1 and 2, as well as a set of 10 Christmas starters and a free set of number starters.

Part 1 of the French equivalent - On commence! - is also available and part 2 will be coming soon.

This resource and Ma petite grammaire / Mi gramática were both written following requests from teachers.  Please let me know if you have any particular requests!