Ideas to incorporate "The Gruffalo" into language lessons
- Read through the book - even just a few pages at a time. First in English, then in French or alternatively French then English. This decision would be left to whoever is taking the class and whatever they feel most comfortable with.
- Both have their advantages, reading in English first will mean that they understand the content of the novel before hearing it in another language. However, children may lose interest this way as they will hear the English and then not pay attention to the read through in French (as they already know what has happened).
- Alternatively, a read through of a few pages in French (so as not to overwhelm or bore young minds) may be more beneficial as their reward for attentiveness would be a read through of the book in English. Doing it this way means that you will have their attention for the pages that are in French.
- Another method may be to go through page by page, English-French or French-English. Although perhaps not the most practical lesson to carry out for a teacher, this would maintain connection between the two languages, ensure that children remained engaged in the story and also simplify the distinction between the two languages, as children would hear a bit of one then a bit of the other, rather than long chunks of each, as by this point they may not identify it as being linked to the English (or French) they have just heard.
- Create worksheets made for different 'categories' of French words. Children would be asked for both the English words and their French equivalents. Examples of categories:
- Animals
- Colours
- Outdoors (woods, trees, grass)
- Example of worksheet:
ENGLISH: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
FRENCH: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
ENGLISH: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
FRENCH: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
ENGLISH: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
FRENCH: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
- Touch and Feel Gruffalo – use to teach body parts (eyes, ears, mouth, nose, arms, legs, stomach).
- Could also be used to teach textures (soft, fluffy, smooth, hard).
- Gruffalo masks – Children will be asked to label parts of the face (continuation from lesson with Touch and Feel Gruffalo). Once they are finished, they can colour them in, cut them out and wear them.
(available from http://www.gruffalo.com/join-in/join-in/)
Game plans:
- Language games
The idea of the game is a match up with flash cards that can be stuck to a whiteboard in a classroom. The cards can contain the animals and other simple words from The Gruffalo book with pictures in order to aid the children in recognising the words.
EXAMPLE:
LE GRUFFALO
THE GRUFFALO
This exercise can be done whilst reading the book as well to further aid the children’s understanding. This idea can also be used for colours, animals, numbers and other simple words in order to engage children in learning French.
Use everyday objects (ie soft toys, coloured cups, lunchboxes, anything that is in the classroom) and give an object to each child – write on the board in the classroom the name of each object and it’s colour in English with the French alongside it.
Teach the children to say I have (J’ai) and then the name and colour of their object e.g. J’ai un livre bleu – I have a blue book.
The children could then switch objects and use the “Can I have…?” phrase “Puis-je avoir le livre bleu?” and swap items so they can also use phrases such as “S’il vous plait”, “Merci” and “De rien”. This would give children practice in utilisation of the language by means of actual interaction and conversation.
The existing game revolves around an “I am X, who has Y?” format but will be adapted into French to appear as the following:
Child 1 – « J’ai quatre, qui a quatre moins trois? »
Child 2 – « J’ai un, qui a un plus quatre ? »
Child 3 – « J’ai cinq, qui a sept moins trois ? »
This was a game which we remember using in primary school in English. It’s very useful in a classroom to increase synchronicity of students as well as demanding shared attention of the class to make sure that the game can continue smoothly. It will improve their number skills as well as their comprehension of French numbers, and maths in French in a more general sense.
The principles of this game are easily transferred further up the school, with more complex mathematical equations, possibly even coming to incorporate algebraic work later on, which would also allow for a degree of alphabetical work as well as number work.
2. The second game is essentially Bingo in French. One child (or a pair) is selected to be the number pickers and draw the numbers, calling them out. This would be more beneficial with an older class to allow for bigger numbers to be used – but equally it can be adapted to only go up to 25 very easily.
The children then have to listen to the numbers and make the connection to their board in front of them, enhancing both reasoning and French comprehension.
The children reading out the numbers also have to be able formulate the number from the ones they draw – maybe even adding in a few phrases likes “La chiffre prochaine est….” to really give them some theatricality to enjoy their time with the language. When a child wins they shout out “Lotto!” instead of “Bingo!”
If there are prizes, this is also another great opportunity to enhance vocabulary, stipulating that a child has to specify whether “J’aimerais la gomme s’il vous plait” or “J’aimerais le crayon”.
So this is what we have created in light of the information we have gathered over the last few weeks. Although we are not teachers, the above is just a suggestion of the kind of material we think would be good to use whilst teaching foreign languages to younger children as it is fun, engaging and interactive as well as being relevant, structured and instructive.
In an ideal world, we would have liked to have extended this even further, and perhaps we will! However, with the time restriction we face in this project, we were unable to include everything we would have liked to, but hopefully this will give you a clear enough example of the things we had in mind. We have sent this to Maureen McKenna in order to get some feedback on our work. Hopefully the results are good!
Check out my next post to have a look and see what work we have been doing for our poster so far!
EXAMPLE:
LE GRUFFALO
THE GRUFFALO
This exercise can be done whilst reading the book as well to further aid the children’s understanding. This idea can also be used for colours, animals, numbers and other simple words in order to engage children in learning French.
Use everyday objects (ie soft toys, coloured cups, lunchboxes, anything that is in the classroom) and give an object to each child – write on the board in the classroom the name of each object and it’s colour in English with the French alongside it.
Teach the children to say I have (J’ai) and then the name and colour of their object e.g. J’ai un livre bleu – I have a blue book.
The children could then switch objects and use the “Can I have…?” phrase “Puis-je avoir le livre bleu?” and swap items so they can also use phrases such as “S’il vous plait”, “Merci” and “De rien”. This would give children practice in utilisation of the language by means of actual interaction and conversation.
- Number Games
The existing game revolves around an “I am X, who has Y?” format but will be adapted into French to appear as the following:
Child 1 – « J’ai quatre, qui a quatre moins trois? »
Child 2 – « J’ai un, qui a un plus quatre ? »
Child 3 – « J’ai cinq, qui a sept moins trois ? »
This was a game which we remember using in primary school in English. It’s very useful in a classroom to increase synchronicity of students as well as demanding shared attention of the class to make sure that the game can continue smoothly. It will improve their number skills as well as their comprehension of French numbers, and maths in French in a more general sense.
The principles of this game are easily transferred further up the school, with more complex mathematical equations, possibly even coming to incorporate algebraic work later on, which would also allow for a degree of alphabetical work as well as number work.
2. The second game is essentially Bingo in French. One child (or a pair) is selected to be the number pickers and draw the numbers, calling them out. This would be more beneficial with an older class to allow for bigger numbers to be used – but equally it can be adapted to only go up to 25 very easily.
The children then have to listen to the numbers and make the connection to their board in front of them, enhancing both reasoning and French comprehension.
The children reading out the numbers also have to be able formulate the number from the ones they draw – maybe even adding in a few phrases likes “La chiffre prochaine est….” to really give them some theatricality to enjoy their time with the language. When a child wins they shout out “Lotto!” instead of “Bingo!”
If there are prizes, this is also another great opportunity to enhance vocabulary, stipulating that a child has to specify whether “J’aimerais la gomme s’il vous plait” or “J’aimerais le crayon”.
So this is what we have created in light of the information we have gathered over the last few weeks. Although we are not teachers, the above is just a suggestion of the kind of material we think would be good to use whilst teaching foreign languages to younger children as it is fun, engaging and interactive as well as being relevant, structured and instructive.
In an ideal world, we would have liked to have extended this even further, and perhaps we will! However, with the time restriction we face in this project, we were unable to include everything we would have liked to, but hopefully this will give you a clear enough example of the things we had in mind. We have sent this to Maureen McKenna in order to get some feedback on our work. Hopefully the results are good!
Check out my next post to have a look and see what work we have been doing for our poster so far!
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