This time of year, instead of dealing specifically with Halloween, I like to ask the question…What are you afraid of?
I start with this video. There is a worksheet to go with this video on the Real Language Right Away website. Here is the presentation I use for more input.
I have a list of common fears written on the white board in Spanish with a picture or a prop for each item. We then whip around the room quickly asking…¿De qué tienes miedo? We tally each person’s answer to find the most common fears for the class. I have students post their fears to a padlet with an image. I am always surprised that their biggest fear is usually spiders.
You can also have the students rank order their fears with a partner.
I like to give students this slide with links to songs, books, and videos related to things we fear. Basically it is a google slide with a background, layered with images, and links to book sites and Youtube videos. Click here to get a copy with the links.
I found some inexpensive books at Walmart and the dollar store in English. No problema, I made them bilingual by writing the Spanish word with a Sharpie.
A picture book can generate a thousand words. The book Good Night Gorila contains less then a dozen unique words but with it, I can generate a week’s work of lessons and discussions.
It’s not about how many words are in the book, it is about how many high frequency words I can use to describe it. I can add as much detail or as little detail as my students can handle.
Before the story I can build background knowledge about zoos and animals. Have you been to a zoo? Where? Which is your favorite zoo? Have you ever seen a gorila? Do you have a favorite animal? I can take a survey or launch a poll. I have them post their favorite animal on a padlet.
Here’s an example of the story being told in the simplest form.
And an example of the story being beefed up for upper levels.
I basically tell this story. There is a gorila. There is a mouse. Do you see the mouse? The mouse has a banana. There is a guard. The guard is tired. He is going home. He says goodbye to the little gorilla. The gorilla sees the keys of the guard. The little gorilla has a secret plan. What do you think he is going to do? The gorilla steals the keys. The little gorilla opens the door of the cage. He escapes. He does not close the door. The mouse escapes also with his banana. The gorilla and the mouse follow the guard. The guard does not see them. The guard says good night to the elephant and so on with the other animals. I can repeat key phrases like opens the door, closes the door, escapes, does not see, walks behind, says good night, sleeps, is afraid of, is not afraid of. I can describe the animals in more detail with colors and size. I can see if anyone is afraid of elephants, mice, lions or other animals. Here is an example of me telling the story in French and in Spanish.
I can make the setting cultural. I can make it the Parc Zoologique de Paris or Loro Parque in Madrid. We can investigate… do they have zoos in France and Spain, in all countries? We could then take a virtual field trip. We can make cultural comparisons. We can research and debate, are zoos good or bad for animals?
Reading skills like inferencing, sequencing, summarizing, and predicting can be incorporated throught questioning. Where do you think the animals are going? Are they going to run away? Is the wife angry? Is she afraid of the animals? How do you know? We can change the story or change the ending and have all the animals spend the night, or go on an adventure.
Open up a Jamboard, pair up students and play flyswatters or tic tac toe virtually. Afterwards, have students drag pictures in story order and practice retelling the story.
There are several ready made activities to practice the vocabulary in French with this quizlet. Here are a few in Spanish. Here is a couple of Kahoots for Spanish. Here is a Gimkit in Spanish. Here are some more follow up activities in Spanish.
The objective is for students to retell a simple story. Here are some Popscicle stick puppets to make retelling the story a little more fun.
For assessment here are some comprehension questions in French and Spanish and some drawing activities in French and Spanish.
For another option, plan a trip to the zoo. Your family is going to visit Paris, France over Spring break. Your family loves animals and wants to go to their zoo to see what similar and different animals they have. Pick the time when you can go (day and time), find out how much it will cost (in dollars and in the Euros). Find the map of the zoo so you have it handy. Also, identify 6 animals you want to see.
And still we could study animal habitats, talk about animals we are afraid of, discuss animals we eat, which animals make the best pets, which animals in danger of extintion, and there are so many fairy tales bassed on animals. The possibilities from one little 12 word book are endless.
While in the Montréal airport on the way home from Martinique, I found this awesome little children’s book titled Pourquoi J’aime le Québec. This gave me the idea of making my own book called Pourquoi J’aime la Martinique. Then I started thinking… why not have the kids make books about Pourquoi J’aime Seattle or Pourquoi J’aime Alderwood Middle School or basically pourquoi j’aime anything. If you can come up with a list of about 10 reasons why you like something, you can turn it into a book.
I recorded myself reading the book and uploaded it to Youtube.com as an example.
So I made a slide show to tell my students about my summer trip to Martinique. I’m going to turn it into a book and add it to my class library.
Every year I attend conferences where I need a good sub plan. One I use at the beginning of the year when I attend the WAFLT conference is alphabet books. I start by showing the students some authentic alphabet books that I pick up as I travel and how much I pay for each one. I added this one from an “aire” off an autoroute of France in April last year for 3€50.
The students are always amazed that people will actually pay for books, and I tell them that we can make our own and sell them or give them away. I start out by teaching alphabet songs with these videos on Youtube. The videos give them ideas for words they can use in their books.
Students watch this video and write the English for the words that are not cognates. Video Notes-El alfabeto
Students watch this video and write the English for the words that are not cognates. Video Notes-l’alphabet
It helps to post an alphabet in the room with examples of words that begin with each letter. Here is a free pre-made alphabet in French. Here is a free cool one in Spanish. Or you can make your own or have the students make them. You could break it up and give each one a different letter.
Here are some of my student’s books. Some students chose to make books from paper and draw or cut and glue objects. This was one of my favorites it was almost 3-D, you wanted to touch and feel it.
Since all students have chromebooks in my school, many chose to do it on their computers. It helps to make things look more professional. However, copyright can be a problem and then there is the temptation to use google translate for that pesky sentence that is required.
I am going to publish a few of the books on one of the book making sites and add them to my class library or give them as gifts to kids who would give them a good home.
To start my school unit, I begin with the story of the new girl. Get it here free at Teacherspayteachers.com. La Nouvelle Fille in French and La Chica Nueva in Spanish. This is the first story I teach each year as I train students to react to my statements with the appropriate Ohhhhh when a new fact is introduced, and Oh-no, oh-no, oh-me, oh-my, when a problem occurs. It is good way to introduce subjects in school and high frequency verbs.
Comparing class schedules, lunches, subjects, calendars, uniforms, attitudes is more fun with hula hoops as venn diagrams! Create sentences in the target language for students to sort into similarities and differences. Examples are: We wear uniforms. Schools are free. School starts at 8:am. We go to school on Saturdays. We have school all year long. We have a summer vacation. We have our own computers. We are allowed to have phones. We eat lunch at school. We get out at 3:00. We get out at 5:00. We have sports teams at school. We study English. We study French. Create your own sentences or use the ones I created at Teachers Pay Teachers.com in French and Spanish.
For another comparative activity, have students create a table in a Google document and type up their own schedule. Practice interpersonal speaking skills by having students ask each other which is your favorite class, which is your least favorite class, who is your favorite teacher, who is your least favorite teacher, which class is the most difficult, which class is the easiest for you? Search the internet for some authentic schedules from schools in the target culture and have students compare and contrast.
Mi Horario
Hora
Clase
Profe
Opinión de clase
Opinión de Profe
1 8:00-9:00
Los Estudios Sociales
Señor Choe
Dificil
Simpático
2 9:05-10:00
Ciencia
Señorita Dombroski
No Me Gusta
Simpática
3 10:05-11:00
Educación Física
Señor Turcott
Fácil
Gracioso
4 11:00-12:30
El Inglés
Señorita Gronvold
Aburrida
Estricta
5 12:35-1:30
El Español
Señora Johnston
Comica
Divertida
6 1:35-2:30
Las Matemáticas
Señora Ericksen
Me Gusta
Inteligente
Recently, story listening has been a hot topic on many blogs. Telling stories to children is a lot like reading to children! I like to use David Va al Colegio and David Va à l’Ecole to introduce commands. I read the story to the students like I would to my own kids at night, stopping to point out details in pictues and asking questions. As a follow up, have kids write commands for what David should be doing, or make their own versions of things they should not be doing in school, like no texting in class, and no speaking in English.
I recorded a French and Spanish version.
Another one of my favorite activities for teaching commands is Sentence Strip Simon Says. Combine class objects, body parts, and commands and write them on sentence strips. Create some novel commands for fun. Be sure to include: Put your pencil in your ear. Put a book on top of your head and walk. Open the door and say “Bonjour Mes Amis.” Make your own sentences or check out my sentences in French and Spanish at TPT. Place the sentences face down on the floor and have students draw one, read it to the class, and act it out.
I created my first thinglink on endangered animals in French. This is a great website in French. Have students search for websites in the target language on endangered animals and post them to a thinglink or padlet wall. Students now have reasons to discuss why we need to conserve water, energy, and trees!
Reduce food waste, recycle clothes and toys, reuse school supplies, and repurpose items into art. Organize a toy, clothing, or book swap in the target language.
Students in my classes look forward to The Market or El Mercado each year. Students bring in items to sell, set up a business, and we buy and sell things in the target language with fake Euros. This year for a twist, every thing in the market must be made from recycled items!
I use these two books and lots of infographs to start this discussion. There are also a ton of authentic resources on this topic. Google in your language the term for “saving energy in the home” and voilà. This topic works really well with vocabulary for rooms in the house, household objects, and many verbs for saving, economizing, and turning off!
Here are some websites and infographs to start students looking for things they can do in the house to conserve energy. I like this one in French and this one in Spanish.
Which appliances use the most energy?
How can you make your house, school, community more energy efficient?
Have students list at least 5 ways they can save energy in the target language.
I like to start with these books. There are an abundance of authentic resources on the internet on this topic. Start with google images and follow the links to the original websites. Or, go to my pinterest page.
This could include a study of the water cycle. Where does water come from?
What do you think uses the most water? How do we use water?
How do we save water? Here are a couple of websites in Spanish with ideas for saving water.
Here are some infographs I give to the students. I have the students read them and list 10 things in the target language they can do to save water, in the order they would do them. Number 1 being the first thing they are willing to do. These are the two infographs I like best, but there are several others. Here are some water infographs in French Les infographies d’eau, and Spanish Unas infografías de agua. These are the worksheets I give the students in French, Je-préserve-l’eau and in Spanish, Ahorremos-Agua.
For discussion: How does water influence our lives? What can you do to save water?
In honor of Earth Day, read The Giving Tree aloud to your students. If you can’t find the book in your language use the English version and cover up the words with post-it notes and write the language yourself. Or, use the English version of the video, mute the sound, and tell the story in your target language.
Here’s the story in Spanish, TheGivingTree. Here it is in French, and English TheGivingTreePoem. Here is an activity to practice question answer relationships (QAR) in French and Spanish around The Giving Tree and to start students thinking about the environment. L’Arbre Généreux and El Árbol Generoso.
My students will be making Public Service Announcements in French and Spanish. These will play in the cafeteria during lunches for all students to see. I am thinking about using Google slides, sharing the document with the class, and having each student make one slide with a tip to save the environment. Stay tuned as I start a series of post in April on saving water, saving energy, and saving the planet!
