School is starting next week, so the other day I started planning the whole year ahead on a big paper table cover - I didn't want to miss any detail!
On the very same morning, a parcel arrived from Amazon and this book was inside. Great timing, I thought, there are no coincidences so I interrupted my work and started to read it.
It is making me think a lot about the way I plan, I am going to finish reading it today and then return to do my planning a bit differently.....without worrying too much about the details and focusing on the important learning milestones.
Thanks for writing this very useful book, Peps Mccrea.
Here I am sharing the videos I use in my lessons, they are always on my pen drive and we can watch them several times during the year. Choosing a song/video/game is a treat for a birthday pupil or a reward in my lessons. Take a look at my YouTube songs post from last week in case you have missed it.
How to make the perfect paella
Record breaking paella
La Tomatina
La piñata - they all know it, but they don't realise that it has the letter "ñ" in.
Rompe la piñata
Mexico- fun facts and series
Sports
Barcelona anthem - the favourite team of many boys I teach, the anthem is in Catalan, it is a good chance to mention the linguistic diversity in Spain
Colacao advert with Rafa Nadal - the advert contains many words we already know and the pupils have to listen out for these. We even drink Colacao sometimes in small glasses:-)
Wavin' flag with David Bisbal- I am sure you all know it, but have you heard the Spanish version? David Bisbal was one of the Operación Triunfo singers in Spain (like X-factor) and he is a very popular singer now.
Nuestra fuerza eres tú - Real Madrid players speaking in Spanish.... what else do you need to motivate those Year 6 boys???
¡A por ellos! - a very catchy tune to cheer the Spanish football team. They badly need it after the last World Cup, so be loud! We managed to sing it together with our Spanish penpals via Skype.
Torres Nike ad- it is quite old and I don't show it now, but it is a special one because Torres joined Liverpool the year I started teaching in the UK (near Liverpool) and the kids demanded it all the time
Day of the Dead
Las calaveras - if you only have a minute to show some images
Languages
Learn a language - funny video, a good one to celebrate languages
The History of the Spanish language
Yo soy Pat - in Year 3 we learn to say where we live and I have a Postman Pat soft to show "Vivo en Inglaterra" or "Vivo en Greendale." This video is a treat for the end of the lesson.
Sant Jordi Day -it is a bit like Valentine's Day but in Barcelona. I lived there and experienced the atmosphere, if you have a little time in April, watch this video together with your pupils!
Cabalgata de los Reyes Magos - because Spanish children get their gifts in January!
"Happy New Year" video in 32 languages - I always start the new year with this video, we have to listen out for the Spanish sentence. Watch out for hands up when they say the Portuguese one..it is very similar to the Spanish "Happy New Year"- a good opportunity to talk about language families and Latin.
Ballet Andino - Trajes típicos de Ecuador- for the clothes topic
Sanfermines- many pupils know Sanfermines from the television, it is a good opportunity to discuss bull fights.
Colours of Peru - Peruvian images - a nice video when we do the travel topic or when we celebrate Hispanic Day.
Music of the Andes - same as above
I would be happy to hear what YouTube videos you are using!
Christmas has come early for me this year.....today I have treated myself with a ticket for researchED2015!
I cannot tell you how excited I am!
But you might ask "What is a visiting primary languages teacher doing at this event???"
I got in touch with research about 2 years ago, when I read Tom Bennett's "Teacher Proof". It was a cathartic experience for me, I learnt a lot from it - I really wish I had read it at the start of my teaching career, it would have saved me quite a few headaches over planning the visual/auditory/kinesthetic components of my 3 part lessons:-).
Another favourite book of mine is "Why don't students like school?" by Daniel T. Willingham. It was a game changer in my teaching- I speak differently to my pupils because of what that book taught me.
So here I come researchED2015, I will teach more than 700 pupils in 6 schools from September, I really want to make the right impact and need to work out what works!
Teachers on Twitter and Facebook often wonder which YouTube songs can be used in primary language lessons...here I am sharing what I have got on my pen drive! YouTube is blocked in most of my schools so I downloaded the videos with Freemake video converter. I have listed the songs by topics.
Animals 3 pececitos
En la granja de mi tío
A mi mono le gusta la lechuga
El baile de los pajaritos
La Vaca Lola
Soy una serpiente
Un pulpito
Food Chocolate
Soy una taza
Las verduras
A tomar la leche
Body Chuchua
Con mi dedito
Family La familia
Telling the time Un, dos, tres...
Vuela la luna
Songs to celebrate languages Let it go - multilanguage version
Pocahontas - Colours of the wind: multilanguage version
The Lego Movie- Everything is awesome: multilanguage version
Hello readers:-), I haven't blogged for a while..... full time teaching is very demanding and I am struggling with time management. My posts have always been long and detailed but due to my working hours (24/7 more or less:-) I will change the way I blog- by keeping my posts short and sweet!
Here is the first attempt.....
I speak 3 languages on a daily basis (Hungarian, English &Spanish) and I no longer feel that any of those are "foreign" or that they are special for some reason.
But when I go camping in the summer (tent, camper van, caravan- done it all:-) I always meet people from other countries on the campsites and if I can, I greet them in their own language...... it feels so good! When we camped in France a few years ago, me and my 4-year-old son said Bonjour to everybody who passed by our camper van in the morning and it felt great! Similarly, during our holiday we used Merci beaucoup, Danke schön, Guten Abend, etc.
I said this to my pupils before the summer holidays: "If you go to Spain, speak Spanish, it will feel so good!" I am looking forward to hearing their Spanish speaking stories when we are back in school in 2 weeks and I will let you know about them:-)
