Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année!

Here is the clip of the Pigloo Noël song some of you have seen in class.
It's the one with lots of penguins, singing bits of French Christmas songs.
I have added it here so you can enjoy it again!
How many tunes do you recognise?


Pigloo Noël Collection
Uploaded by M6clips. - See the latest featured music videos.


Here are a few links to websites with games, information and activities. I would love to hear from you if you find anything which you really enjoy!

http://www.vivenoel.com/atelier/intro.htm
http://noel.momes.net/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/christmas/
http://www.royaumeduperenoel.com/
http://www.fete-enfants.com/noel-enfants/noel-enfants-puzzle/noel-puzzle-pingouin.htm

Hoping you all have a lovely Christmas
Bonne fête et joyeux Noël - Madame Smith

il neige!

Il fait froid et il neige. Mon chien s'appelle Molly. Elle adore la neige. Moi, je n'aime pas la neige. Bon Point for the first person who can post a sticky on the wallwisher, saying what this means in English!

Spanish is our Language of the Month

..... so let's hear lots of you saying Hola, Gracias, and Adiós in school!

International School Award

We are really proud to have achieved the International School Award. I hope you saw the article and photo in the local paper last week! We have been enjoying lots of interesting activities which contributed to this award, like French Day, World Cup event, European Day of Languages, Black History Month, linking with schools in France and Uganda, and now we are linked with a school in Salamanca, Spain. We will soon be preparing our Christmas cards and film clips about school to send to some of them. Let's keep up all this good work!

Puppet conversations!

Here is a clip of a puppet conversation which Year 5 and 6 pupils were doing recently. What do you think of their dialogue? I was really pleased! Lovely French speaking skills - magnifique!!!

French Christmas songs

Here's a website with lots of Christmas songs, being sung in French by children. They live in Canada, in an area where French is spoken by many people as their main language. I love Petit Papa Noël, which is number 12 on the calendar ('le calendrier').
http://www.csdraveurs.qc.ca/musique/noel/

Bravo! Un prix pour les footballeurs!

What great news this week, when we found out that our girls' football team were nominated, and WON, the prize for the best Primary School team in Mole Valley. Well done girls, we're really proud of you. Bravo! Les champions de foot! Allez les rouges!!! (Bon Point for anyone who can tell me what this bit means!)

Wallwisher for Year 5 and 6 messages!

Language of the Month

Well, we had Portuguese as our first Language of the Month, but it's time to change. So what better than SPANISH, as I've just got back from a really interesting two week trip there as part of my Primary Teachers Project. Some of you know about Pedro, who came on the trip with me, and who loved the delicious 'palmeras' we had for breakfast. I hope to hear lots of you saying Hola, Gracias, Hasta Luego, and Adiós very soon. I'll make sure I have some stickers for people who can use new words and tell me what they mean. Look out for a nice display showing some Spanish things too...

Hello, European Day of Languages !

We are celebrating the European Day of Languages this week, and have a challenge... The aim is to list as many ways of saying HELLO as possible in different languages. Answers written on a page and given to me (or Class Teachers) by Monday 4th October. There will be prizes for the people with the most answers. Good luck everyone!

1GOAL petition - 14,981,231 signatures so far!

Here is a photo of your signatures. When I can work out how to turn it round I will!
We had over 200 signatures and they have been added to the total. Have a look on the send my friend to school website. Almost 15 million people have signed! How many more are needed until we get 15 million...? Find out the up to date tally by looking at http://www.join1goal.org/ and if you missed signing in school you can do it here.

1GOAL

Thanks to (nearly) all the classes at school who signed up to the 1GOAL petition, to show their support for 1GOAL:Education for All. Even better, some people had a look on the 1GOAL website and signed up there. Over 14 million names have been included, which easily beats the 10 million goal over the World Cup, fantastic! Let's now hope we see an improvement in numbers of children who are able, finally, to go to school.

Post a sticky about Waka Waka! What do you think of the song? And dance?

World Cup song: Shakira's Waka Waka!

1GOAL has set a challenge! Can we learn this dance to Shakira's World Cup song, Waka Waka? Let's have a go! Click below to see how to do it.

Play the dustbin game!

It's all about sorting animals, colours, sports and family members into the right bin. Click Start, then click Proceed. Have a go!

Click here for full screen version

1GOAL - Campaign to send every child to school

The 1GOAL campaign is working around the 2010 FIFA World Cup this summer, because 75 million children still do not have an education. The Global Campaign for Education supports every child around the world to have the chance to go to school and learn. We will be looking in school at how to send messages on this issue as part of a worldwide effort.

Happy Easter - Joyeuses Pâques!

There is some interesting information about Easter in France on the Euroclubschools website. Find out what you can, and have a go at the quiz and challenges!

Quel est ton animal préféré? Ton sport? Ta couleur?

Languages Online has an activity which might help you to listen to a French person asking and answering questions about your favourite animal/sport/colours. Great practice for our recording session next lesson! You need to read the Help tab, press Start, and notice the spellings really well as you'll progress to typing in some words. Notice that if it's a masculine thing (mon animal, mon sport) favourite or preferred is spelt préféré. But if it's feminine (ma couleur) there is an extra 'e' on the end: préférée. There is an Accents tab at the top so you can fill in the é from there. There is also a Hint tab to give you clues. Finally Check, to see if you got it right. Have a go, especially by clicking on the speech bubbles, so you can listen and LEARN!!!

Y6 have a special treat...

I am really excited - one of our Year 6 partner schools in France has put a fantastic online book on their website for us to read. See where their local hotel is marked on this map (in blue) to get an idea where they are. Here it is. Look for the message to the 'correspondants anglais' (English penpals) Click on the blue book, and to turn the pages click on the bottom corner. Look at their lovely artwork and listen to their voices in the book. Now we have to think how we can send something back which they can enjoy...

World Book Day - en français et anglais!

This is a lovely little online book called Le Petit Lit (The Little Bed). You can choose to read it in both French and English, and click on the green button to hear the French story. When the sound finishes, click on the bottom corner of the page for the next page. Can you hear or read any French words?

Please post a sticky here ...

Olympic Games Challenge

Here's a challenge! To celebrate the Winter Olympics, go to this website and find out the names for the sports in French. You can switch between the 'English' and 'français' tabs, and you will find out some of the answers. Find the English words for: le patinage, le ski alpin, le ski de fond, le surf des neiges, le hockey sur glace. Attention!! Both pages are in alphabetical order, which means it may be a different order in English to French. Extra challenge! Can you find out the names for the 3 Olympic mascots (les trois mascottes) on this site? Prizes at school...

Les Jeux Olympiques 2010, Vancouver

Did you know that the official languages for the Olympic Games are English and French? That's why you always hear both languages at the medal ceremonies. So we'll be hearing lots of French in London 2012. Canada also has both English and French as official languages, and in Québec (a large area of Canada) the main language is French and English is their second language.

Ca va? Comment ça va?

This is one of the BBC's many clips which show how real French people greet each other. Look at 'la bise' - the cheek-kissing they all do when they say hello! Find out when you would say 'Bonjour' and when you would say 'Bonsoir'. Extra: How many other greetings do you know?

I've just made a voki!

Listen to my voki, do you understand? Click the forward arrow to hear.

Wallwisher - Ma famille

Quiz using map of France!

Have a go at this quiz about French towns. It's fun, you just have to try to place them on the map. My best score is 50,407 and I was very pleased with myself!

Les jours de la semaine

Year 3 are learning the days of the week, and everyone else might like to practise!

Comments

If you tried to comment on a post, and couldn't, well please try again because I think you should be able to now. Have a go, telling me if it works. Merci! And if you have contributed to my blog, either in class or online, read the comments at the bottom of the posts, as you may be mentioned in them!!!

Madame Smith at the Cannes film festival!

Have a look at the clip. Don't worry about understanding all the French - the presenter is just telling us how they are waiting for the most important VIP at the Cannes Film Festival. Have a look for clues about who this might be....

As-tu un animal?

Here is my Wallwisher. Just click on 'Post a Sticky', and write a note about your pet. I will 'approve' your post when I log on, so look out for the message quite soon!

Language challenge!

Look at the post about my pets, called
As-tu un animal? It's at
the bottom of this page.
Can you find the words for HE and SHE in French?
Which one is which? How do you know?
Prize for the first person to tell me at school!

Des lettres et des cartes!

Here are just a few of our letters and New Year cards we received from our 3 French partner schools this month. Merci, et bonne année!

etwinning and epals

Year 5 have been awarded an etwinning label for our Teddy Bear project, and Year 6 classes are both part of the epals network. Both of these websites are part of the Global Gateway, whose aim is to bring an international dimension to education. We are proud of our efforts to bring internationalism into the curriculum and enjoy finding out about our friends in other countries.

6H's partner school in Béthune, north France

6H's partner class is a Year 7 class at a 'collège' which is a secondary school, just south of Calais so quite near to us in England! Here is a photo of the 'Grand Place' which means big square, in the centre of the town. Doesn't it look beautiful! To see some more photos and some information about the town click here.

Year 5's partner school in Burgundy

Year 5 have sent and received letters to their penpals in France. If you would like to have a look at their school and village, click here.

You can try using 'Google translate' to have a look at the text in English if it helps. This is a view of the River Saône and this is the town hall or Mairie.

Regardez!! 6S's French partner school's blog

The teacher of 6S's penpal class at a school in Normandy has kindly sent us the link to her school's blog. There is a focus on the environment, and I really liked the short cartoon films which we can view. Have a look! Click here for the blog, then look for the little cartoon image and click where it says 'ici'. (This means 'here'). The cartoons are called Vinz et Lou - click here to go straight to the website.

Word mosaic

Click here to access a great website where you can make your own words inside shapes like mine here and at the top of the page! Can you tell what words I have written inside my heart? And inside my star?

Teddy and the corresponding project!

Years 5 and 6 have just started projects linking with different schools in France. Year 5 are doing a project with a Teddy, through the etwinning website. He is photographed doing his activities with the pupils. This week he watched them all open lovely letters and New Year's "cartes de voeux" which we were very pleased with. We will soon be sending our French penpals interesting information, pictures, menus and film clips about food we typically eat in our country, and hope we hear about their food soon! Year 6 have received letters too, and are planning their replies. We have two schools which we have linked up with through the epals website.

BBC link

There are lots of fun things you can do at home to help you with your language learning. Click here to the BBC Primary French website, with some interesting activities to help you with your French. If you go to the home page there are lots of ideas like 'phrase of the day', and maybe things the parents might like to do too!

As-tu un animal?

As-tu un animal? J'adore les animaux. J'ai un chat et deux chiens. Mon chat s'appelle Inky et mes chiens s'appellent Molly et Johnny.
Inky a 16 ans, elle est noire et blanche.
Molly a 3 ans, elle est marron et noire.
Johnny a 3 ans, il est blanc.

My display board is in 'languages today'!

Well I have to start somewhere, so here's a picture of the display in school we did for European Day of Languages, 26 September. Two members of staff won prizes for speaking 4 languages on the day, and pupils made 130 minibooks. 'Languages Today' magazine asked if they could print a piece about our activities in their publication, so we're quite proud of ourselves. Well done all!