Just realised that I hadn't blogged the Wallwisher made by Year 5 just before Language World.
It was the first time I'd used this online tool - which allows you to 'stick' Post-it notes on a virtual wall - with this group, and it was done as a sort of 'Mexican wave' type exercise.
Five pupils got out a laptop and I showed them what to do. They posted their notes then passed on their laptop - and expertise - to the next person. By the end of the lesson, everyone had posted their version of the poem extract from La Primavera by Antonio Machado, and also tried and mastered a new tool.
You'll have to move the notes around to read them all; there are so many!
I made friends with Claire on Facebook just before Language World - what a great decision that was! She's as mad and lively as me!
Her session was on Embedding Languages in the Curriculum and gave plenty of ideas for doing just that!
Highlights including dancing to www.genkigerman.com (just tried it out again with Isaac - a big hit!) and learning a song in Italian about food! It went to the tune of La Cucharacha and I think the words were
macaroni, ravioli
pizza pasta e ragu
trapitini e (missed that word)
panna e tiramisu
Then Claire asked me if I'd contribute some French / Spanish which I happily did! I shared www.UptoTen.com and the duck song - Peux-tu marcher comme un canard? and then demonstrated the 'animal symphony' activity I used to link Spanish, music and literacy. Materials and instructions to replicate it can be found here.
I've been looking for resources about healthy lifestyles and food today, and came across this song on my travels around Youtube.
Very catchy and good for practising opinions about food - me gusta(n) / no me gusta(n)
Ojo - it's South American so uses the phrase 'el jugo de naranja' for orange juice instead of the Spanish 'el zumo de naranja'.
Another useful video on the same theme, and with the same 'quirk' is the one below. This time it's a rap that could easily be adapted to include other items of food, or other vocabulary too.
At the ELL Local Support Group (LSG) last week, we were talking about short activities that needed minimal preparation and could be used for the 'little and often' model.
One of the activities discussed was I spy...
In Spanish there is a lovely little rhyme that goes with the game - check out the East Riding site for sound files, instructions and words. A good game for playing with kids who have a wider vocabulary, but also for discrete groups of words eg food, sports, colours. You could change it to 'tengo tengo' (I have..) and play with items in a bag even.
Veo veo I see, I see,
¿Qué ves? What do you see?
Una cosita. A thing
Y ¿qué cosita es? And what thing is it?
Empieza con la ……. It begins with ………
¿Qué será? ¿Qué será? ¿Qué será? What can it be? (x 3)
I also came across this catchy sung version of the rhyme - here I've chosen the kiddies version rather than the tropical island and bikinis! Lyrics below.
Veo veo ¿qué ves? una cosita ¿y qué cosita es?
empieza con la "A", ¿qué será?, ¿qué será?, ¿qué será?, alefante
no no no eso no no no eso no no no es así
con la "A" se escribe amor, con la a se escribe adiós
la alegría del amigo y un montón de cosas más
Veo veo ¿qué ves? una cosita ¿y qué cosita es?
empieza con la "E", ¿qué seré?, ¿qué seré?, ¿qué seré?, eyuntamiento
no no no eso no no no eso no no no es así
con la "E" de la emoción estudiamos la expresíon
y entonando esta canción encontramos la verdad
Veo veo ¿qué ves? una cosita ¿y qué cosita es?
empieza con la "I", ¿qué serí?, ¿qué serí?, ¿qué serí? invidia
no no no eso no no no eso no no no es así
con la "I" nuestra ilusión va intentando imaginar
cuan insolita inquietud una infancia sin maldad
Veo veo ¿qué ves? una cosita ¿y qué cosita es?
empieza con la "O", ¿qué seró?, ¿qué seró?, ¿qué seró? oscuela
no no no eso no no no eso no no no es así
no no no eso no no no eso no no no es la hora del final
Veo veo ¿qué ves? una cosita ¿y qué cosita es?
empieza con la "F", ¿qué seraf?, ¿qué seraf?, ¿qué seraf?, final
And there's a link to the Universidad de Illinois 'Los árboles son fabulosos...aprende más con Pedro' Pedro is an acorn who teaches you all about trees. A great resource for CLIL lessons interesting science and Spanish.
'Las árboles' is a mini-tema on the site which means it has numerous actvities linked to it. However, there is a wealth of other activities on the site including
downloadable sheets for every letter of the alphabet;
animals from various habitats; songs and rhymes;
animated stories;
activities for special days such as San Valentín and also cultural events.
Particularly catching my eye were the resources linked to the Winter Olympics - very topical! There are colouring pictures and posters for all the events at the Juegos Olímpicos - that would've saved me trying to act out luging on a tray!!
A site well worth checking out if you teach Spanish, or even if you want to introduce a little bit into FS/KS1 through colouring activities or stories.
Today is Shrove Tuesday - I'll be making pancakes very soon for my hungry 'bichos'. However, in Spain and other Hispanic countries, they celebrate differently - as we found out at WCPS during our eTwinning project.
This time of year in Spain sees 'carnavales' . Coming from 'carne' = meat and 'valle' = farewell, festivities mark the start of Lent with parades and dressing up. The event was banned under Franco's rule and recovered once democracy was established in 1981.
Check out this guide for more information and to find out about celebrations in different places around Spain.
Received an exciting email from the Consejería de Educación today about courses for teachers of Spanish.
Spanish online courses for teachers
Dates: January / May 2010
Spanish Ab Initio
This course runs for 60 hours over a 20 week period and will give you the skills you need to be able to speak and understand simple Spanish in everyday situations. The course is designed to give maximum flexibility. Teachers will have unlimited 24/7 access to the on-line material for the duration of the course to do their weekly work and to assess their progress by checking the answers and by doing the self-evaluation tests. Aimed at primary school teachers with no knowledge of Spanish that intend to teach Spanish next school year. Places available: 100
Elementary Spanish
This course runs for 60 hours over a 20 week period and will help you improve your command of the Spanish language. Teachers will have unlimited access to the on-line material for the duration of the course to do their weekly work and to assess their progress. It includes 9 online tutorials. Designed for primary and secondary school teachers with little knowledge of Spanish that are already teaching Spanish or intend to do so the next school year. Your level of Spanish will be determined by Instituto Cervantes. Tutors: From Instituto Cervantes in London and Manchester Places available: 120
What's most amazing is the cost - £10 for ab initio ; £20 for elementary!
If you're interested, you can get more details on the website of the Consejería where you can also download a PDF advertisement and application form. Closing date is 11th December - and it's first come, first served so, get your skates on!!
Sessame Street is 40 this year as Google reminded us yesterday when the Wallace and Gromit 20th birthday mast head was replaced with one celebrating Sesame Street. Today it's Oscar the Grouch!
So, in honour of Sesame Street's birthday, here's a very catchy song from Mexico about fruit and healthy eating.
I was somewhat disappointed to discover that the Hampshire Language Conference this year was not being held at Marwell Zoo, and excited to discover that it was to be held at The Ark. So far no animals have appeared and its a lovely day so you might guess that it's not a big boat.
Lid King has just addressed us all and we're listening to our first seminar - I'm in a session led by David Hicks aka Monsieur X, showing us how to encourage pupils to use target language through action, rap, song and movement.
I am delighted to inform you that a unique collection of GrowstoryGrow’s wonderful stories has just been published by Beelingua Products Ltd (makers of Little Tails of the Unexpected).
The stories are all designed to help primary school children effectively learn a foreign language.
Each story has sentence-building tasks, games, fun lesson plans and many other useful resources.
All of these stories are currently available “Free of Charge” for a trial period.
COMING SOON - over 100 extra stories will be available in many languages including German, Italian, Urdu, Russian, Hindi, Portuguese, Arabic and Polish.
Over the course of the next few months we will be regularly publishing these new stories. If you would like us to tell you about these new publications you need to subscribe to our newsletter.
Please forward tell parents, teachers and friends who you think may find GrowStoryGrow stories useful. Why not try out the stories with your children TODAY and please let us have any feedback by sending an email to Valerie Thornber (creator of GSG): val@growstorygrow.com
There you will receive a trial login and be able to try out the product for a while.
I love Les sacs en plastique - very simple but with an important message; and Le monstre de la musique is very amusing too - if only it were in Spanish, I could use it wth Year 5 in their current unit of work!
Can't wait for more languages and more stories to be added.
If yu check out the site in detail, you'll find details of the methodology behind the resource, how the Scheme of work will be comprised and also details of pricing for September.
I spent this afternoon taking part in an eTwinning event at the British Council in Manchester, delivering a case study and explaining a bit about eTwinning.
Below is my presentation (soon to have sound added to it so you can listen and look!):
Educator and consultant, passionate about creative teaching and learning using technology.
Director Lisibo Ltd.
Apple Distinguished Educator and Apple Education Mentor.
eTwinning Ambassador.
