Up to Ten site

I have just found uptoten.com which has a French interface too. Songs and games you can play in English and in French. Brilliant!

Salut Serge pack

Quelle horreur! You can get French is fun from Amazon at half price! £12.49 I paid full price!

In the pack you get DVD of 15 minute programmes. Each has a dialgue with Pascale and Serge. Pascale speaks French and English, Serge the monkey only French. There is a cartoon about a jungle animal football team . It is entirely in French but easy to follow. And there is video footage of kids in France with them speaking some key phrases. On the DVD there is also the osngs some have a karaoke version. You also get a CD of the songs, thte texts of the songs and some colourful mini flashcards and a workbook. I thought it was a bargain even at full price!

chants de Noël

Vive le vent (jingle bells) words:
Vive le vent, vive le vent,
Vive le vent d'hiver,
Qui s'en va sifflant, soufflant
Dans les grands sapins verts, oh !

Vive le temps, vive le temps,
Vive le temps d'hiver,
Boule de neige et jour de l'an
Et bonne année grand-mère.

Mon beau sapin (Christmas tree):

mon beau sapin, roi des forêts
que j’aime ta verdure
quand par l’hiver, bois et guérets
sont dépouillés de leurs attraits
mon beau sapin, roi des forêts
tu gardes ta parure

more words to carols = chants de Noël here

Henri Dès is the singer of la belle histoire which can be downloaded from itunes store, He also sings petit Papa Noël.

Early Learning Centre CD

The song Comptons jusqu'à dix along with Frère Jacques and other songs sung both in English and in French is on a CD called Fun with French £5, buy online or in store.

The Salut Serge pack is confusingly called French is Fun. Pack has arrived now. I will bring it along today.

Commands to more than one child

levez-vous stand up
asseyez-vous sit down
circulez move about
stop!
trouvez un partenaire find a partner
trouvez une place find a seat/place
changez de partenaire change partners
changez de place change places/seats
venez ici come here
montrez-moi show me

28 November

..............................................
More fun with puppets, numbers, greetings. Played with fortune cookie. I will upload the appleworks file for this to "My teaching files" on the panel on the right. You will need a password for this which I told you on day 1. Email me if you have forgotten.
We learnt to say the alphabet.
We acted out some commands.
We played how many teeth has the wolf got! (You could change the animal to le chien if wolf is too scary!)
Ran tan, ran , tan plan,
Combien le loup a-t-il de dents?
We went to the computer suite to listen to Christmas carols online. It's a fabulous French Canadian site. Petit Papa Noel n0 12 is lovely.
For white board use decorate a tree - choice of 4
It seems to be working ok although couldn't get in when we tried.

Salut Serge

I have ordered the pack. Click here. I hope it arrives in time for tomorrow!
Here is the theme song>
Salut Serge! Salut Serge!

Dans la jungle
Moi, j’ai vu
Un petit singe
Que vois-tu?

Salut Serge! Salut Serge!

Dans la jungle
Que vois-tu?
Reste un peu
Dis

Salut Serge! Salut Serge!

Dans la jungle
Serge s’en va
A bientôt
Au revoir

Salut Serge! Salut Serge!
Salut!

WORDS
salut hallo, bye
dans la jungle in the jungle
un petit singe a little monkey
que vois-tu? what do you see
reste un peu stay a while
Serge s’en va Serge goes away
à bientôt see you soon

21 November

We practised what we learnt before with a few additional phrases.

Et toi? what about you?
Moi, … I for emphasis eg
Moi, je m'appelle Kay, et toi?

We practised colours and numbers and sang Chantez les couleurs- Sing the colours from Salut Serge.
Quelle est ta couleur préférée? What's your favourite colour?
C'est le rouge.

We finished off with a look at video footage of Flowerbank Nursery showing off their knowledge of Gaelic, Spanish and French.

Next week we'll start looking at Christmas!

outcomes

These are from the draft outcomes for Modern Languages

Overarching experiences for learning new languages

Learning a new language encourages children and young people to broaden their horizons as they explore the language and its associated culture.

Through my learning of a new language:

I gain a deeper understanding of my first language and appreciate the richness and interconnected nature of languages

I enhance my understanding and enjoyment of other cultures and of my own and gain insights into other ways of thinking and other views of the world

I develop skills that I can use and enjoy in work and leisure throughout my life.



Overarching experiences for all language learning

The study of new languages plays an important role in all language learning and the development of literacy skills.

In all my language learning:

I communicate, collaborate and build relationships

I learn to reflect on and explain my thinking

I develop my understanding of how language works and what is special, vibrant and valuable about other languages and cultures and my own

I engage with a rich range of texts in different media

I explore the richness and diversity of language, how it can affect me and the wide range of ways in which I and others can be creative

I appreciate the power of language to influence and bring about change

I develop an understanding of relationships, motivations, ideas and actions

I take advantage of the opportunities offered by information and communication technology.

Early and first level

At early and at first levels, children will be developing generic skills in their first language. These include taking part in conversation, developing listening, reading and writing skills and knowledge about language. All of these are relevant to learning other languages.

An early start to language learning should be a positive, stimulating experience that motivates pupils through exciting contexts and meaningful, accessible content. Activities will include playing games, singing songs, carrying out simple instructions, and playing with simple poetry and rhyme – harnessing the natural curiosity of young children for sounds and words and their strong desire to communicate. In this way they can begin to be enthusiastic, confident language learners from the outset.

Whenever they start their learning of another language, children need to experience success by taking part in practical activities that they can enjoy. Language learning is greatly enhanced where it is linked to or embedded in the wider curriculum so that children and young people can enjoy exploring and using language in meaningful contexts. Very importantly, teachers can make great use of opportunities to link language learning with progress in English and with other languages used by people in the school community, enabling children to explore and experiment with sound patterns and make links and comparisons between languages.

Wednesday 14 November

We talked about communicating the idea of another country to very young children.
Maps or a globe would help. We talked about the distance between France and Scotland and ways of getting there.

We worked on colours using bricks - say and show "rouge" pass the parcel with the bricks, fruit salad game. We tried the number rhymes on p22. These are in English. The idea is to associate a visual image including a colour with a rhyme. This is excellent training for remembering things generally.

We continued numbers up to 10. Songs from p19 and track 7

We did days of the week using Sparkle box flashcards.

Helen said she couldn't download the audio. I managed ok. On a mac hold down ctrl and "download link target" Sorry I don't do PC!

We also spent some time talking about the international dimension. You can apply for an East Ayrshire excellence award for international education. Flowerbank will receive theirs soon!

Dates

Here are the dates. Note no class 7 November. Let me know if there is likely to be any other conflicts eg another course a lot of you have to attend. Timing arrive as soon as you can ideally to start for 3.45 finish 5.15. Coffee available on arrival.

31 October 2007
14, 21, 28 November 2007
5 December 2007
9, 16, 23, 30, January 2008
6 February 2008

Today's class

Bonsoir! I enjoyed meeting you and hearing your ideas.

We talked about ways of engaging very young children.

• Have some French music playing eg accordion music.
• Tell the children to "Put in your French voice!"
• Wear a beret! or give some other signal to indicate that you are doing French.
• Puppets are a good idea. A French child puppet who sits in the class when you are doing French and goes home with children for weekends and holidays or a glove puppet who speaks French to them.
• Displays of French words and culture.

I gave out course material - 1 per school. All East Ayrshire material for Early Stages (French, Spanish, Gaelic) is available to download from LTScotland
including the audio files. Particularly if you are not confident in French, you should download these and listen.

We did numbers 1 - 6, hello and goodbye and what are you ? I'm called …
We sang
un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq (3x)
ça y est!

Cultural differences - la bise the French cheek kissing that friends and family do on meeting. We used the glove puppet to demonstrate. Handshaking too is a bit different - just one rather limp shake!

We talked a lot about pronunciation. The position of your lips - the French pout, nasals, stress, silent letters.

We talked about resources and making use of what you have eg coloured bricks. I showed some display material downloaded from the web. I have put the links in the sidebar.

Actually we did quite a lot in a short time!

BTW the patient has survived.

Remember no class next Wednesday the 7th November as I am at a course in Stirling.

For next time:-
practise what we did today, listen to the audio, bring any resources you may have already to show and tell. Bring some props to teach the numbers eg lego or whatever is to hand.

You can comment or ask a question by clicking on comments!

BIENVENUE!

Bienvenue à la classe de français!