Let's travel to a French-speaking city! ~ Paper bag suitcase craftivity

Today we are making a suitcase craftivity and planning a trip to a French-speaking city! We are sneaking some writing practice and cultural information into this fun craft.

First, take a paper bag and fold it into thirds. Now tape or glue an index card into each section of the folded bag. You can have the index cards pre-printed with the start of each sentence (like mine below), or you can have the students copy the text onto the cards themselves. Next, have the students complete the sentences.

Now it is time to decorate!
I used a paper fastener to close my example suitcase. You can also use velcro circles. Students can create a handle to the suitcase by trimming the edge of the paper bag or using construction paper. Finally, they will decorate the suitcase using markers and stickers.

Enjoy!

I was inspired by Inner Child Fun's blog post.

French Class Back to School Freebie Treasures

The new school year is just around the corner and I'm starting to think about lesson planning. I've spent some time treasure hunting for the start of the school year freebie resources and I want to share the treasures I've found!

Today I will be sharing the goodies I've found for my French classes. Stay tuned for some Spanish class treasures! Coming soon!!

Let's start with one of my freebies. It is an All About Me Build-A-Book! Novice learners can cut and paste. Students ready to write on their own can just write on the pages of the book. The students will end up with a story book all about them that they can present to the class or read with a partner/in small groups. Find it here.

I love playing Find Someone Who at the start of a school year. It is another great way to learn about our classmates. I like this freebie from Dans la classe de Mme Sandra.
Mme Sandra also has another Find Someone Who for older learners & I spied an "I have/who has" game with a back to school theme too. Check out her store!

I just adore these get-to-know-you dice by for French Immersion. The students write questions on the dice and then they work in pairs, rolling the dice and answering questions. For novice learners, the teacher can write the questions and just have the students roll & ask/answer questions.

Students love to share what they did over the summer. And it is yet another way to get to know one another a little better. Check out this back to school writing activity from Mme McIntosh. I know my students will love sharing about their summer adventures!

Moving away from learning about each other and on to working with the French language and school related vocabulary, this Back to School Puzzle by Les petits singes de Mlle W looks like so much fun! Grab it here.

And I have one more of my freebies to share. My days of the week reader will get your students reading and talking all about what they do each day of the week. Find it here!

I hope these treasure help you get off to a great new school year!

Fighting the Second Language Summer Slide

Summer is almost here and our students will be stepping out of the language learning classrooms ... will they spend two months forgetting about their second language? Let's fight the second language Summer Slide!

We can give our students and their families suggested tasks to complete during the summer months.

1. Give a BINGO summer homework sheet like this and when they bring it back the first day of school give them a prize! List things the children have learned to do during the year like name 3 colors or name 3 school objects, etc on the BINGO sheet.

2. Give the families a few apps you recommend the students use. I usually suggest Duolingo or Rosetta Stone. What are your favorites?

3. Suggest to the families that they use italki.com to find a language partner or a low cost native speaker teacher/tutor. On this site you can find someone wanting to learn English and set up a time to talk on Skype (or using another way to connect if you prefer). Then speak one language for half of your exchange, and the target language for the other half. You can also find many low cost teachers or tutors to speak with or give you a lesson.

4. Suggest that the family uses lingoo.com and organize a language exchange! My family has used the site and we've welcomed a German girl to our home (she came twice!) and two French girls. We did a paid stay a couple of times and then an exchange. My daughter spent three weeks last summer speaking French at her language partner's home!

5. Encourage the families of your students to travel! And better yet, take language classes when they travel! My whole family has gone twice to Coeur de France in Sancerre, France, and we love it there! A friend of mine works at Prestige Idiomas in Rosas, Gerona, Spain, and it would be a great destination for Spanish learners!

6. Send home readers your students can read and re-read during the summer. Use audiopal.com or vocaroo.com to record yourself reading the stories and then send home links to the recordings along with the readers. Or post the links to your audio recordings on your class/school website.

What do you ask your students to do during the summer to not forget all they've learned? Comment below with your suggestions!

Quick and Easy Make Your Own Chocolate Poisson d'avril

Today we are making easy chocolate fish to celebrate le poisson d'avril!

If you do a google search for moldable chocolate or modeling chocolate, you'll find many recipes. The first one I tried was a messy disaster. 10 seconds into trying to form a fish, my hands were covered in chocolate and I just wanted the goop out of my hands. Next I tried a recipe from allrecipes.com called Plastic Chocolate. I figured if it had the name plastic in it, that would mean I'd have a more sturdy dough, and I was right! I had trace amounts of chocolate on my hands after making a fish with this dough.

#ICan'tHandleChocolateEverywhere

The dough is made up of two ingredients; corn syrup and chocolate.

You melt the chocolate and then mix in the corn syrup. You'll end up with a thick lump of chocolate deliciousness.

#Yum

Then you'll put the candy on plastic wrap to cool. The recipe tells you to wait 5 hours for it to cool and suggests that overnight is best. I waited 1 and a half hours and found mine sturdy enough to begin making my fish.

Give each student a piece of dough. I wanted mine to be large enough for the students to decorate, so I made a generous sized ball - maybe slightly smaller than a golf ball. If you make them this size, the recipe will be enough to make 12 fish.

Demonstrate with your own fish before having the students start.

First roll the candy in between your hands to form a ball.

Now start forming your fish by pinching to form a tail.

Keep pinching and molding the candy until you have a fish shape.

You can hand out toothpicks and let the students make scales and a mouth if they'd like.

You can also give them sprinkles or other small candies to decorate their fish.

And now comes the best part. Time to eat! I read that this recipe gives you a tootsie roll-like candy. I'm not a huge fan of tootsie rolls, but yuuuuuuum! These fish are so good!
#I'tsNotReallyLikeATootsieRoll

I'd love to see photos of your students' best creations. Please share!

Spring Activities for Spanish & French Classes

With spring coming up just around the corner, I've compiled some fun spring related activities for French and Spanish class!

1. Take a nature walk! Have your students collect objects in nature ~ things like blades of grass, wildflowers, pieces of bark...

After the walk, return to class with the collected objects. Give each student a photocopy page with the numbers 1-5 on it (you can make the activity harder by using the number words spelled out without the numerals). Students will place the correct number of objects into each numbered area of the page. Have them glue the objects to their pages.

If you are not able to take the class outside for a nature walk, have available objects typical of spring for students to sort and count. They can use seeds, photographs of birds, paper or silk flowers ...

2. For Spanish class, learn a spring poem. For French class, make a Mardi Gras mask.

3. Spring is the perfect time to talk about gardens, plants, vegetables ...  As a part of a garden/vegetable unit, I love to do the celery science experiment. But this Walking Water experiment looks super cool too! It would be a great way to review colors.

4. Eat the parts of a plant! It would be quick and easy to create your own version of this activity in Spanish or French.

5. Play a game outside! In Spanish class you can play Rayuela and in French class, play la Pétanaque.

What are your favorite Spring lesson plan activities? Comment below!

World Language Class Valentine's Day Craftivity

I'm using Shrinky dinks again! I loved them when I was a child and I still do!! This time we are using Shrinky dinks for a Valentine's day craftivity.

This is what we are going to do ...

1. We are going to use a freebie from Teaching 4 Real. To use the same image and size as me, use my printable found here. If you use my printable, the finished product will measure about 2 inches by 2 inches.

2. You'll need Shrinky dink film. I used the clear kind found here. With the clear film you will need to use permanent markers. If you buy the frosted kind with the rough side, you can use colored pencils. Find the frosted kind here. 
Or use this super inexpensive method using recycled materials in place of buying the film {I've never tried this but it looks cool!}

3. Give each student a printed heart and a piece of Shrinky dink film. The students will trace and color their hearts. You can give them options for what to write in the rectangle in the target language, or give them all just one sentence to write such as "Je t'aime." or "Te quiero."

4. If you want to make the craft into a necklace or key chain, hole punch the hearts after coloring. Now you are set to bake the names using the shrinky dink directions {or the BabyFirst directions if you are using the super inexpensive method}.

5. After baking you are set to make them into necklaces or key chains, or use them to create Valentine's day cards.

Ready to continue the party? Select the image below for February readers and other items!

Strategies for Reading to Language Learners

We've talked about why we should read to second language learners. But what are some good strategies for reading? What can we do to allow early language learners to participate in the read aloud?

1. Choose simple and basic stories. Complicated texts or stories with too much unfamiliar vocabulary will just discourage students.

2. Read stories the children are already familiar with. Since they'll already have the gist of what happens in the story, they won't get lost. They'll be more easily able to pick up new vocabulary and sentence structure.

3. Read the story multiple times during a week. Students need exposure over and over to new vocabulary. As you read a 3rd, 4th, ... time, pause now and then and allow the students to complete the sentence.

4. Use a variety of methods to help students understand the vocabulary in the story. Use gestures, your facial expressions, point to illustrations, provide extra illustrations and/or manipulatives when you can. During your 3rd, 4th, ... time reading the story, let the students be the ones to participate in the reading through use of gestures, facial expressions, or use of the extra illustrations and/or manipulatives.

5. Ask questions as you read. "Where is _____?" "Is she happy?" "Does she want to ____?" Give your students the opportunity to use new and previously learned vocabulary.

6. Once you've read the story several times, let your students act it out. They love this! Encourage them to retell the story.

7. Provide them with their own readers to read on their own. Or use audio books along with student readers so they can read along with the audio.

Why Read in the Early Language Learner Classroom

Why Read in the Early Language Learner Classroom

I've always loved to read to my language students as a part of almost every lesson ~ just like I always read to my daughters when they were little. I love it and so do my students ... but I did some thinking and reading about why reading to second language learners is important. Here are 5 reasons to read to your second language students:

1. Reading helps our students learn new vocabulary. Often stories repeat words and patterns and this is especially helpful to our students. Images in the stories also visually reinforce vocabulary.

2. Listening to someone read helps our students learn correct pronunciation.

3. Listening also helps students to pick up the rhythm of the language.

4. Reading to our students leads to conversation ... we can relate the stories to our own lives, describe illustrations, ask questions about what happens in the stories and make predictions.

5. Reading reinforces spelling ~ find simple stories your students can read on their own.

Why do you feel reading to second language learners is important? Comment below!

FREEBIE included! ~ Teaching Grammar in Context to Language Learners

Teaching Grammar in Context to Language Learners

Teaching students grammar rules isn't the only way to increase proficiency in the target language. The students can't just learn ABOUT the language. They also need to develop skills with USING the language. We need to make good decisions when choosing materials and classroom activities ... to first bombard our students with comprehensible input using a particular grammar focus, and then pushing our students to use the language.

1. Choose appropriate comprehensible materials for students to read, listen & watch the language being used in context. 

2. Play games using the new grammar structures. Here are some game ideas and I like these a lot too.

3. Provide students the opportunity to write in a controlled manner. I like using build-a-books ... and I want to share a build-a-book freebie with you! {including directions for how to use them}. Find the Spanish build-a-book freebie here, and the French build-a-book freebie here.

If you like the build-a-book concept and would like more, find all of my French build-a-books here and my Spanish build-a-books here.

Is there a build-a-book you need and don't see available? Comment below and I'll add it to my to do list!

How to Make Input Comprehensible for Early Language Learners

How to make Input Comprehensible for Early Language Learners

We know we need to teach in the target language and use comprehensible input --- language at the level of our students so they understand most of what we say ... just enough so they can understand the message, but adding new words and structures to push them to expand their knowledge.

So how do we do that with our early language learners?

1. Use songs. Songs can be repeated daily and reinforce vocabulary and sentence structure. Write your own, or purchase from others. 

2. Play vocabulary learning games. Let the students have a silent period where they are just listening to the new language being repeated over and over, and then move on to games where the kids need to speak. Find some game ideas here.

3. Use visuals - photos, images, videos, puppets, the actual item you are talking about. Are your students learning the vocabulary for school objects? Use a real book, pen, pencil, notebook ... Hold up your visuals while you are speaking to help students understand.

4. Read or tell stories ... But they need to be linguistically appropriate. Remember that your students should understand what is going on. Make up silly stories - I like to use a puppet and be silly. Maybe the puppet has packed his backpack for the first day of school and the students and I tell the puppet what he will need. But of course when we open up the backpack it is filled with unnecessary things like a camera, a chocolate bar ... Empty out that backpack and have the students help you refill it with what the puppet needs for school.
Is writing linguistically appropriate stories not your forte? I can help!

Whatever we choose to use as the content of our lesson, we should:

• Paraphrase - remember to make sure the message is understood. Use familiar structures and build on them.
• Slow down our speech
• Use our tone of voice to aid in getting the message across - in my silly puppet lesson I will use a tone of voice that says "Are you crazy?" when I pull the absurd things out of the backpack.
• Use gestures
• Use yes/no questioning to check for comprehension - I will ask in the target language "Is there a pencil in the backpack?"
• Repeat, repeat, REPEAT!!! Re-read, re-watch, re-listen, re-tell over and over and over and over again. With each repeat, try pausing and allowing the students to finish your sentences or do the retelling of the story. As we add an item to the backpack, one at a time, I will say in the target language, "Now Mr. Puppet has a pencil in his backpack." "Now Mr. Puppet has a pencil and a book in his backpack." "Now Mr. Puppet has a ______ (pause and allow the class to say it) and a _____, and a _____ in his backpack."

What strategies do you use to help your students understand the language you use in the classroom? Comment below!

How to write your own songs for language learners

I remember back when I was getting my masters in FL education. One of my first assignments in my elementary methods course was to write a song. Sitting in the classroom I remember thinking ... "You want me to do WHAT???" I mean, song writing is for professionals whose forte is music. I don't have a musical bone in my body. I did the assignment. As far as I recall I didn't get a bad grade. But it sure wasn't the best song I've ever written.

Now I LOVE writing songs for use in the classroom. A song is an awesome cue for what is to come next in your lesson. I like to start the class with a hello song, and then, as I change focus in my lesson, I use a new song. Kids pick up on new vocabulary or review previously learned vocabulary through the songs. They are very age appropriate at the elementary level, and if you choose the right tune (lean away from babyish tunes), they can also work great with upper levels.

These are my steps for song writing for the language learning classroom.

1. I start by brainstorming what type of vocabulary I want to include in my song. For example, if I wanted to write a Halloween song, my list might look like this: 
Spanish version: brujas, fantasmas, murciélagos, gatos negros, calabazas...
French version: des sorcières, un chat noir, des araignées, une chauve-souris, des fantômes.

2. Next I choose a tune. This step was super easy for me when my kids were toddlers. I got lots of song tune ideas from listening to Barney episodes or any of the children's CDs we had. I remember one CD with a Broadway focus especially gave me a lot of ideas. I love to use traditional tunes from the culture of the language I'm teaching. I also often go to Google and YouTube for tune ideas. Here is one site I like.
Today I googled Halloween songs and I've chosen the theme to the movie Ghostbusters.

3. Now comes the part where you need to put steps 1 and 2 together. Sometimes it helps to start with the chorus and get that part down. You don't have to use the entire song - if it works better with your lyrics to just repeat the chorus 2-3 times, then go with that. 
I've decided to use the beginning part of the Ghostbusters theme ... the part that goes "If there's something strange, in your neighborhood. Who are 'ya gonna call? Ghostbusters!
For my chorus I'm using:
Spanish version                                 French version
Es Halloween.                                   C'est Halloween (C'est l'Halloween ~ Canada)
Es Halloween.                                   C'est Halloween (C'est l'Halloween ~ Canada)
¿Qué vamos a ver?                            Qu'est qu'il y a ?

Now I'll use vocabulary from my list I brainstormed in part 1. I'll need to choose words with the correct number of syllables to match the syllables in the word "Ghostbusters" from the song - and I may need to add a definite or indefinite article or some other word to increase the number of syllables.
"Fantasmas" and "une chauve-souris" both work perfectly, but I might say "una bruja" or "muchas brujas" to increase the number of syllables.

I keep my songs short and sweet. I'll stop here and just repeat the chorus, adding more vocabulary words & letting the students shout out the vocabulary words like they shout out "Ghostbusters" in the original song. 

You can also find many songs available for sale. Here are some of my (and my students') favorites:

• Speak Up Language Learners songs
• John De Mado
• étienne & DJ Delf
• Vibrante Press
• Sing, dance, laugh & eat Quiche/Tacos

Have you written a song your students love? Do you prefer to buy music for language learning? Share your favorite songs (either written by you or purchased) in the comments below!

Freebie!! ~ Hispanic Heritage or Famous French Speaker ~ Who Am I? Game

I had so much fun with this! I'm sharing a freebie (find the freebie towards the bottom of this post) and an activity for your French and Spanish classes. This activity is perfect for Hispanic Heritage month, or for anytime you are working on learning about well-known French or Spanish-speakers.

Play Who am I?

You can play this game in a paired activity in sets of 2, or as a class. Or, start out playing as a class and as the kids get comfortable with playing/asking questions, switch to playing in pairs. I'm going to give directions for playing as a class.

1. Choose a student to be "it." Have the student draw a famous name badge out of a basket. (Use my printable found here).

2. Show the class the famous person badge without letting "it" see. Hang the famous person badge around "it's" neck on their back, so "it" can't see the badge.

3. Now "it" will ask yes/no questions in the target language to try and discover who is the famous person.

Question rules:

• "It" must ask at least 3 questions before guessing the name of the famous person.
• Question 1 must ask about where the person is from. "Am I from ___?"
• Question 2 must ask about a physical description - "Am I a woman? Am I blonde?..."
• Question 3 must ask about the profession. "Am I a designer?"

Once the 3 questions have been asked, "it" can choose to either keep asking questions - with no rules - he/she can ask whatever he/she wants in the target language.

Or "it" can try to guess who the famous person is. If "it" is correct, "it" gets to choose who will be the next student to be "it."

To give "it" a bit of visual help, I like to hang up mini posters. I'm giving you my posters! Click on the images for the freebies!

Depending on the language ability of your students, you may also need to provide some visual help for asking the questions. I like to brainstorm a variety of questions to ask and post them so "it" can glance at them when needed.

Looking for readers on various famous French/Spanish speakers? I can help with that!
Click on the images below to view the readers.

Are you looking for a reader on a famous French/Spanish speaker that I don't have available? Let me know in the comments below and I'll add it to my to do list!

Why I Love Teaching Early Language Learners

Do you have a favorite grade to teach? I'm sure you do. It is natural to have a preference for a certain age or grade. Most of my colleagues have preferred the more advanced language learners ~ lucky for me because that means I don't have any competition for my favorite ~ the early language learners! Whether they are in Kindergarten or 12th grade, I just love the beginners. Here is why:

Making lessons comprehensible
1. I teach entirely in the target language and I love the challenge to make my lessons comprehensible. Choosing the words they'll be more likely to understand, using photos, images, and props, creating simplified stories, building on previously learned vocabulary and grammar ... I get such a feeling of success when they get it!
#TodoEnEspañolOuFrançais

Risk Taking
2. Often, at the beginning of the school year, the students seem uncomfortable. Kind of like I feel when I visit another country for the first time. A bit unsure of how everything works, what I should do, what I should say. Just totally out of my comfort zone. I love to watch that wall come down as the students get more comfortable and I love to see my students start to take risks.
#YouCanDoIt

A Peek Outside of your Country
3. I once had a college professor tell a story about how she had a student ask "Why do I need to learn another language if I'm never going to leave Ohio?" She responded "That's exactly why!" In class I "take" my students to other countries through stories, photos, cooking projects, virtual field trips ... These lessons may be the only chance they'll ever have to "visit" somewhere other than their own country.
#ButHopefullyNot

Going from 0 to Speaking
4. And then there is that moment when your students connect A and B and they put together words to form a sentence on their own ~ maybe the sentence isn't complete, or maybe there is a mistake, but WOW!! ... They did it! They've gone from 0 to speaking the language!
#ProudTeacherMoment

What is your favorite level or grade to teach? Leave a comment below :)