Thankyou to all the #MFLTwitterati who suggested famous historical female Spaniards on Sunday evening.  Here's the resulting speaking activity that I have made, to practise numbers with thousands, hundreds, tens and units and get some Intercultural Understanding in there too.

cuando-nacieron.pdf Download this file

And the accompanying PowerPoint:

big_numbers.ppt Download this file

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You often find the best things while you're looking for something else, and this morning I found this Money Count Generator.  You decide how many questions you want to have, and how many of each note and coin you'd like it to use, then click "PDF" at the bottom and it generates you a worksheet.  Here's one I've just made, to show you what you get:

counting-euros.pdf Download this file

Something else that I found was a giant online calculator suitable for the IWB.  You can view it in two different sizes and can also be downloaded and saved so that you can use it offline as well.

Some activities, like "Follow-me" can be spiced up by timing them or trying to beat the clock.  Why not use this online stopwatch and countdown timer?

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Looking for a resource to help your class to practise numbers to 9999?  Then have a go at this Follow-me activity.  Each student has a card.  The top, purple, number is their incoming number that they have to listen out for.  When they hear it, they have to give the bottom, blue, number, which is their outgoing number, for the next student to listen for.

To vary the activity:

• try doing the activity against the clock (great online stopwatch here) 
• use it as single numbers rather than thousands for beginner learners
• use it for a whole-class listening activity where one person (teacher or one of the students) calls one number.  The person with that number has to answer saying "¿Diga?"

phone-number-followme.pdf Download this file

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Sunday 3rd June in France will be la Fête des Mères - Mother's Day.  I am thinking that a good activity for the last week before half term will be to make cards for the children to take home.

Here are some links with information about la Fête des Mères:

This mini-dossier from the ever-reliable Momes.net has information about the origin of la Fête des Mères, plus ideas for crafts, gifts, recipes and games.

There are plenty of craft ideas and colouring pages from Petites Têtes.

Tête à Modeler also has a dossier about the history of la Fête des Mères.  It also has a list of how to say "Happy Mother's Day" in lots of languages and a selection of "certificates for the best mum" as well.

I've designed a card which the children will do in conjunction with my "French handwriting" sheet.  They can have a go at copying this comptine in "French writing" onto the lined section of the card, and then can decorate and colour the rest.

fete-meres-card.pdf Download this file

UPDATE:  Here's the PowerPoint that I've made for the lesson.  It shows a completed version of the card.

fete-des-meres.ppt Download this file

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I have received an email about these Comenius courses which are run by Le français en Ecosse.

"Successful applicants receive a grant from the British Council which covers all expenses, including course tuition fee, travel to France/Spain, accommodation and subsistence. Places are allocated on a first come first served basis so interested participants must contact us in the first instance to check availability/reserve a place. The deadline date to apply for a grant is Monday 17 September 2012."

If you would like a copy of the information, drop me an email to mflsunderland@gmail.com and I'll forward it to you.

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The following is the beginning of an page added to the DfE website on 26th April:

"There is no statutory requirement to teach a modern foreign language at Key Stages 1 and 2. The following guidelines are non-statutory and aimed at those primary schools that are teaching or planning to teach a modern foreign language.

The guidelines are designed for use with pupils in Years 5 and 6. They may be adapted for use with other year groups in primary schools.

While much of the programme of study for modern foreign languages at Key Stages 3 and 4 can be applied in primary schools, the following aspects are particularly relevant and have been suitably adapted."

While the Expert Panel for the Curriculum Review recommended that MFL should be statutory in Y5 and Y6, and placed a question mark on Y3 and Y4, nothing is definite yet.  Or is it?  Why does this page specify that "The guidelines are designed for use with pupils in Years 5 and 6"?  You decide.

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I've just uploaded 55 new resources to the website.  Many thanks to new contributors Marie O'Sullivan and Terri Dunne, as well as regular contributor Marie Connolly.

There are new resources for Primary Spanish, Primary French, Spanish Starters and Plenaries, KS3 Spanish, KS3 French, KS3 German, KS4 Spanish, Numeracy and the Olympics.

Apologies for this latest update taking so long - I've just purchased the latest version of the software that I use, and it's different enough to make the update a bit more tricky than usual.

Do you have any resources that you would like to share via MFL Sunderland?  I can't pay you or enter you in a prize draw, but I can put you on the Thanks page and you will make the working life of many MFL teachers much easier.  All you have to do is email them to mflsunderland@gmail.com.  Thanks!

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A message from Jo Peach of NALA:

"Nala (the National association of Language Advisers) is currently supporting the Speak to the Future campaign and several of our members are on the working parties. The primary group has produced a document all about primary languages with some Frequently Asked Questions, links to research and the case for offering languages to pupils in the whole of Key Stage 2. You can read the document on the open part of our website at www.nala.org.uk."

Follow the link and scroll down to the bottom of the page to access the document.  It's a good read.

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Over the Easter holidays there was a lot of interesting talk on Twitter and on the fora about speaking and the use of the target language.  I also watched a video of Greg Horton's Group Talk.  I have gathered together a language mat's worth of Spanish phrases which I hope will facilitate speaking in class and give students a bit of extra confidence.

speaking-sp.pdf Download this file

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There is now a dedicated page for Olympics resources on MFL Sunderland.

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The latest installment of Numeracy resources - some number chains which practis e addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  The target-language numbers used are 1-30, although the calculations deal with numbers to 100. 

number-puzzles-sp.pdf Download this file

number-puzzles-fr.pdf Download this file

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Here are lists in French and Spanish of the 26* sports that will be contested in London this summer.  I've included the genders to facilitate and practise putting the correct definite articles and writing sentences correctly using je joue/je fais and juego/practico.  

*Sorry - first upload had 28 sports!  List now correct.

Les_28_sports_olympiques.pdf Download this file

Los_28_deportes_olimpicos.pdf Download this file

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I've just finished a long-overdue update of International Education Sunderland, which now includes an Olympics Fact-a-Day page.  All you need to do is hover your mouse over the date and the day's fact will appear.  (It works in Internet Explorer but not in Chrome, strangely - advice welcome!)  Something maybe to share with your class each morning.

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A table of information for you.  Practise reading information from a table, make a pie chart to show how often different continents have hosted the Games, work out average numbers of medals.....  There are all sorts of numeracy possibilities as well as lots of intercultural and global ones.

Olympics-table-en.doc Download this file

Olympics-table-fr.doc Download this file

Olympics-table-sp.doc Download this file

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I have spent this afternoon doing some long-overdue housekeeping on the website.  I have split the KS4 Spanish resources up into Grammar, Texts, PowerPoints and Worksheets, and divided the resources up into topics to make it easier for you to find what you are looking for.

I have also divided up into topics the Spanish Starters and Plenaries.

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I have added more numeracy resources for Number Sequencing and Addition and Subtraction.  I hope you find them useful.

You will see that all the numeracy resources are for French and Spanish.  I don't know any German and would not trust my Italian.  If you have any numeracy resources for other languages that you would like to share, please email them to mflsunderland@gmail.com.  I'm afraid I can't offer you any cash rewards or swanky prizes, but I and the MFL community will be very grateful.

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I thought I would share the links to Olympics ideas, information and resources that I have so far.

FRENCH:

French resources from PetitesTetes, especially suitable for KS1

French Olympic Rings song

Information in French about the Olympics of the last 20 years

Information in French about the 35 Olympic sports

Interactive French map of the 204 competing nations

Colouring and craft from Tête à Modeler - especially suitable for Primary

Short texts in French about the history of the Olympics

Dossier sur les Jeux Olympiques

SPANISH:

List of the Olympic sports in Spanish

Sport pictures for colouring and flashcards from PrimeraEscuela

GENERAL:

London 2012 Facts and Figures

Global resources with an Olympic theme - cross-curricular ideas for all key stages

Olympic medals timeline - BBC news article

The Global Children's Challenge

Cross-curricular Primary ideas which can be adapted for MFL

Resources from Get Set London 2012

Do you have any Olympic links that you would like to share?  Put them in a comment!

UPDATE 21.4.12:  I've added more links in the comments below, so please read those too.

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Easter in Spain is a very different affair to Easter in the UK, so this time of year is an ideal opportunity to bring an intercultural element to Spanish lessons.

Last Easter I showed my Year 2 children a video of a procession of Nazarenos, and then we made our own procession, with lots of different cofradías.  I'm going to be doing the same with my current Year 2s tomorrow.

Here are some other useful links and ideas for Spanish Easter lessons:

Spanish Bible stories for children, including the First Easter

YouTube video of Semana Santa in Spain

Spanish Easter colouring, including Nazarenos and other aspects of processions

Making Nazarenos (it's in Catalan but you can see what to do)

Information about Easter in Spain, plus colouring and crafts

Easter crafts

Origins of the Semana Santa processions

Easter wordsearches in Spanish

Euroclub Schools page about Semana Santa

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It's finally the last week of term (for most of us!) and people are looking for activities with an Easter theme.

My Year 2 French classes today made Cloches Volantes  We talked about the chocolate shapes that we have at Easter (eggs, rabbits and chicks) and then I showed them some of the chocolate shapes that can be bought in France - fish and bells. I gave them the basic bell and they coloured it in and some drew wings on them.  You can download the bells and the PowerPoint below.

Here are some other useful links:

French Easter colouring

Easter crafts

Some more Easter crafts

French Bible stories for children, including the First Easter

Fantastic French Easter chocolate

Easter wordsearches in French

cloches_volantes.ppt Download this file

cloches-volantes.pdf Download this file

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I have just uploaded some more shape puzzles, cheat games and snap games to the Spanish Starters and Plenaries page - thanks Marie!

In addition I have added my next batch of KS2 Spanish resources, finishing the sports topic and starting the weather.  Plenty of Olympics and Intercultural Understanding potential in both!  I've also added some more colours resources which I have made for the afterschool Spanish club that I have been doing at my daughters' school.  Thanks very much to Amanda Salt for the ¿Qué apuestas? idea - it went down a storm!

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