Increase their vocabulary and ability to stay in the target language by using cognates. One of my first lessons is a presentation that starts out with the challenge that they will learn 100 words in one day.
A cognate is a word that is practically the same in two languages and has the same meaning. I hand out this piece of paper numbered from 1 to 100 with spaces for them to write cognates in the target language. I then present this slide show in French or Spanish while I call on students randomly with my index cards to translate the sentences into English. After the presentation students go the the class library to look through the books and magazines for more cognates to add to their lists. This allows them to select cognates that they want to learn.
As a follow up activity, students pick one word to write on a card and illustrate the meaning. I cut up old manila folders and have them each make one for homework. We then group the words and come up with category titles like animals, professions, hobbies, food and display them in the hallway for parent night and then later in the room to enhance our vocabulary. Here are a few my French and Spanish students made.
Students can use the lists of words to create original sentences with the cognates. Have students go to sparkadobe.com to create for free.
and a few in French…
Have students post their sentence creations to a Padlet for everyone to enjoy. This also makes a great substitute plan. Post the letters of the alphabet around the room and have students curate cognates under each letter of the alphabet. How do you teach students to look for cognates? Share your ideas here.
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.
I just discovered the spark.adobe.com website for making free graphics and have lost the past two days of my President’s day weekend. I was interested in creating word ladders to help my students with interpersonal communication tasks. These can be made into posters, added to presentations, kept in student notebooks, stored on rings on hooks in the room, turned into literacy mats, or for my current purpose, use at a chat station.
Here are a couple I created for expressing likes and dislikes.
You can télécharger your own pictures, use one of their themes, or just choose from lots of colors.
Here are some ladders for frequency. I decided printing them on a white background takes up less ink, and if you use black or grey you can print them at school without your husband screaming at you again for using all the colored printer ink at home.I
I am also going to use this website for inspirational quotes at school and at home! Better yet, I am going to have students create word ladders on different topics and post them to my padlet page. My students have chromebooks so this is going to be a create station, create a meme, quote, or word ladder and share with class on padlet.com.
One of the first things I teach is colors and shapes so students are able to use them to describe people, places, and things from famous works of art!
Our opening routine includes the song of the week. The song is an introduction and a hook to what we will be learning. Here are a couple of my favorite color songs.
After the song is a quick warm-up or bell ringer. I prefer to use personalized questions and answers. So for this lesson I would ask what is your favorite color? Tu aimes quelle couleur? ¿Qué color te gusta? We do a quick whip around while tallying the results on the board, or sometimes we bar graph the results.
Other personalized questions could include: What color are your eyes? De quelle couleur sont tes yeux? De quelle couleur est ta voiture? Ta maison? Ton chien? There are ready made French surveys for colors and more on teacherspayteachers.com. Students could also walk around and ask each other their favorite color, the color of their house, room, or car and then analyze their data, and present to class.
I like to start my color and shape introduction to art with the children’s book Oso Pardo, Oso Pardo or Ours Brun, dis-moi. I read aloud while they color along using these worksheets.Oso PardoOurs Brun
You can get the book at Amazon.com or you can use videos from Youtube.
Have students make this free book to practice retells or to read to younger siblings.
Check out this resource, it has comprehensible input lessons. This Spanish website with printable animal drawings is cool. Here is an animal wheel for retelling the story Animal-wheel-with-words. This site has templates for making puppets. Here is an Oso Pardo powerpoint Oso pardo, Oso pardo you can use for review. Check out my pinterest board for more resources.
For additional practice try the Color Circle Game. Place chairs in a circle with one less chair than students participating. Pass out pieces of colored construction paper use shapes and colors like a blue star, a green square, a blue triangle etc. Make sure there are at least two students with each color and shape. One student or teacher starts in the middle of the circle. The teacher or student calls out a color or a shape. Students holding that color get up and change seats. The person in the middle tries to get a seat no matter what color or shape they are holding. The rule is you can not go back to the seat you just left on that turn.
I found a video I use with shapes called El Circulo Hambriento on Youtube. There is a student booklet from Teachers Pay Teachers.com to use with the video.
Check out this Shape search from Jenna Harvey at Mount Vernon High School in Washington state. The students search the campus for certain shapes and post on instagram.
I have students create original art work using at least 6 different shapes and 6 different colors. They then write a paragraph about their masterpiece in the target language. We display them around the room and discuss which we like best and why. You could also separate the paragraphs from the artwork and have students try to match the descriptions to the artwork.
Have students identify all the shapes and colors they see in famous art work! Then discuss with a partner to compare results.
Have students write a short description as if they are the one of the people in a famous work of art. Have them include personal details: name, age, nationality, physical traits, colors, shapes, and personality traits.
Have them write about the art to practice describing other people.
Elle s’appelle Mona Lisa. Elle a 32 ans. Elle n’est pas jolie, mais elle n’est pas laide. Elle a les cheveux longs et bruns. Elle n’est pas triste. Elle est contente.
Finally, explore colors as they relate to emotions and phrases in the target language involving colors. After all, as the song by Bacilios says…. the world would be boring and sad without colors!
Leave a comment or share your ideas below. Please help me build readers by liking me on Facebook or following me on Twitter #JohnstonL60.
One of the first things I do when I start a unit, is a search of what is already available on the internet. I especially like to find authentic resources to use as a hook or as part of an Integrated Performance Assessment. One of my favorite finds is a good children’s book. I like Frida by Jonah Winter and illustraded by Ana Juan. Leave a comment at the end of this post to win a Free Frida Book on Friday!
On one of the last pages in the book it explains that Frida painted little magic scenes with a written explanation called Extovas. Have students write extovas in the target language and share.
Check out this awesome talking infographic I found free on Pinterest.
This is in English but could be useful for building background knowledge and it’s free on Youtube. Maybe use with a sub or for a movie talk with the English turned off.
But this one is in Spanish and it’s also free on Youtube along with one on Diego Rivera!
There is a cute little printable book for $2 on Teacherspayteachers.com that could be used for a directed coloring, adding details activity. There is also a free reading with comprehension questions on Teacherspayteachers.com.
Have students study Frida’s self-portraits and create Frida inspired selfies and describe them in the target language.
Here is an activity to talk about Frida’s family. Click on this link for more details. describefridasfamily
Frida novel by Kristi Pacido, view a free preview at https://tprstorytelling.com/products-page/featured-novels/frida-kahlo-novel/Frida novel
and don’t forget Free Frida on Netflix. Netflix offers a free one month trial.
Students make thumb puppets and have conversations between famous people. Check out this website. I have these Frida and Diego Finger puppets. I’m thinking about having them star in a Youtube video.
Check out this free idea on this great blog where children share their opinions on pieces of paper hung under works of art by Frida.
Leave a comment, like my page on facebook, or follow me on twitter @JohnstonL60 to be entered in a drawing for a free Frida book. Winner will be announced on Friday!
Artists have been making selfies for centuries. Students can create Picasso inspired selfies, write descriptive paragraphs, and read about the life of Picasso in the target language.
Picasso paintings in general are good for observing and discussing shapes, colors, body parts…How many noses do you see? How many fingers do you see, count them? How is she feeling? How do you know? What makes you think that?
What shapes do you see? What emotion does the painting suggest? How do you think the artist is feeling? Use this image question response chart to practice an observation protocol.
Here is a story about the life of Picasso-French and Picasso-Spanish. I teach first year so I try to tell the story in present tense as if he is still alive.
The novels revolve around the painting Guernica. Students study the painting and record how many people, animals, body parts, and other things they see in the painting. How many arms, legs, heads do you see? They pair up and discuss their observations with a partner, then share out with class. Students then read the description of the paintings from the novels and compare their results.
Who am I? Have students close their eyes and try to draw the shape of their head on a piece of paper. Using the color of their eyes, they should try to add on eyes without looking at the paper. Repeat the process for adding hair, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, with a directed drawing activity. Students can add symbols to represent themselves, favorite colors, activities, or future careers. You can also use Picassohead.com.
Then students write a paragraph about themselves, without their name in the paragraph and end with who am I? Place the pictures and paragraphs under the document camera and students try to guess who is who. Pictures can also be numbered and posted around the room and students can walk around gallery style matching names to numbered pictures. Here is a template students can use to write the paragraphs. In Spanish it’s called quien-soy and in French it is Qui suis-je? Here are some sample paragraphs in French and Spanish Yo-no-soy-alta. Here is a powerpoint to introduce the assignment. Quién-soy-pp
How else can we use incorporate art in our world language lessons? Share your ideas here please!
