A teacher's blog about primary French language learning ! This blog aims to be an enjoyable way for pupils to share and consolidate what they are learning at school with their family at home.
In
KS2, all year groups have been busy working on a wide range of Olympic themed activities
which promote speaking, listening, reading and writing, including reading
passages about sports, the Olympics and Brazil, surveys and much more!
We introduced
this topic by watching this engaging videoclip which highlights some key facts
about the Olympics.
We
discussed the significance of the Olympic rings, the Olympic torch and the
Olympic mascots. The children also learnt
some background information on France at the Olympics.
We
followed on by introducing the 28 Rio 2016 Olympic sports in French! All children focused on being able to
understand the Olympic sports in French and being able to pronounce them
correctly.
Y3 followed
on by completing word searches, crossword puzzles and other word games and
activities linked to these sports.
Y4 revised
how to express simple opinions in French and then wrote some simple sentences
about whether or not they liked various Olympic sports.
Y5
& Y6 revised how to express opinions and use adjectives in French! They then wrote a paragraph in French about
whether or not they liked various Olympic sports and stated why!
As host country France competes against Portugal in the UEFA
Euro 2016 final at Stade de France in Saint-Denis this evening of 10th July 2016, I thought I would share what
we have been learning in primary French lessons during this summer half-term in
our “L’Euro 2016” topic.
The unit “L'Euro 2016” links French to football.It has been inspired by the Euro 2016 to
enhance language skills since sport can offer a really motivating focus for
language work in addition to uniting countries and breaking down barriers!
In our introductory lesson to this unit, the children learnt
a few key facts about the Euro 2016.We discussed
the official
slogan of Euro 2016: Le Rendez-Vous.The
children thought that this slogan was pretty catchy as it refers to the fact
that France was hosting the tournament for a third time and that the best
football teams would meet once again.
We looked at the logo which shows the trophy which is
awarded to the champions of the tournament.
The pupils were quick to point out that trophy contains the blue, white
and red colours of the French flag.
Next, we talked about the Official Euro 2016 Mascot, Super Victor!
The children enjoyed discovering this mascot who
is half child and half superhero. Again,
they were quick to note that he wears the French kit with a red cape,
completing the national colours of France.
The children enjoyed watching this clip which tells the story of Super
Victor, and how he found a cape, boots, gloves and ball in a treasure chest which
gave him superpowers and enabled him to fly.
Some children then created their own mascots, supporting
France and described them in French to the rest of the class!
We looked at a map of France and discovered which French cities were hosting games in their stadiums:
Saint-Denis –
Stade de France
Marseille – Stade Vélodrome
Lyon – Stade des Lumières
Lille – Stade Pierre-Mauroy
Paris – Parc des Princes
Bordeaux – Stade Bordeaux-Atlantique
Saint-Étienne – Stade Geoffroy-Guichard
Nice – Allianz Riviera
Lens – Stade Félix-Bollaert
Toulouse – Stadium Municipal
The pupils then focused on correctly pronouncing the names
of these cities before locating and labelling the 10 stadiums on a map of
France.
The pupils learnt a
few facts about the stadiums from this video clip which is a compilation of all
the stadiums featured in UEFA Euro 2016:
We revised numbers whilst discussing ticket prices. The pupils were interested to learn that the cheapest
price for a Euro 2016 ticket was €25 and was available for 43 of the 51
matches whilst the most expensive ticket for the Final cost €895.
Many pupils were excited to tell me that they watched French
DJ David Guetta perform the official Euro 2016 song live at the opening ceremony
at the Stade de France on 10th of
June 2016. David Guetta produced and
wrote the song which came out on the 13th of May.
After
having learnt a few facts about the Euro 2016, we learnt some basic football
terminology in French:
We
then learnt how to name the 24 competing countries in French and discussed which
ones are Francophone countries. Pupils enjoyed completing a crossword and a spiral activity from the Lightbulb Languages website.
Some pupils followed on by learning nationalities and then
stated the nationality of players from the 24 teams.
All pupils revisited basic numbers and then named player
squad numbers in French.
Pupils also revised colours and use them to describe the
home football kits from the 24 competing teams.
Pupils
then built on this by using colours and shapes to describe flags from the 24
competing countries. Upper KS2 pupils
had great fun playing a version of the game “Hedbanz” where a pupil wearing an unknown flag image had to guess the
correct country by the description of the flag given other pupils in French! Younger
pupils enjoyed playing a similar guessing game “C’est
quel drapeau?” where they had to quickly identify the correct flag displayed on the board after listening to a description in French and then they coloured in some flags following the colour code
given in French.
The
children were excited to conclude this enjoyable topic by using their knowledge
of colours, shapes, numbers and forming plural nouns by designing and
describing their own football shirts before presenting it to the rest of the
class. Many Y5 & Y6 pupils produced
a very impressive piece of written work by including adjectival agreements and
adding opinions!
