Impactful and memorable first explorations of nouns in a foreign language
How can we devise impactful and memorable learning opportunities when we are focusing upon nouns and the role of a noun in a simple present tense statement with early primary foreign language learners?
In this blog I intend to share with you some tried and tested ways to generate activities where your young learners “get both physical and creative” with nouns in a target language.
First a bit of context
It’s at this time of year that Primary Languages Network member schools are working closely with the concept of “nouns”. As beginner primary junior language learners, the children are on an exploration of the concept of nouns in a target foreign language. It has always been my intention that we should encourage the young learners with inquisitive minds to be language explorers and language detectives. The sequence of activities I will share below , allow the children to play with their imaginations and creativity whilst developing essential language learning skills.
In Year 3 (Stage 1 of language learning), the children have just explored familiar animal singular nouns, and how they belong to one or two families of nouns in French or Spanish. We practise the nouns with indefinite articles (for example in French “un” or “une”) because in my opinion a young child’s natural tendency is to want to say “it is a cat” or “I have a dog” and not “it’s the dog” or “I have the dog”.
Activities for you to try in the classroom, based on introducing and practising nouns in the early stages of being language explorers.
And now the fun begins. Remember the examples I share, are already linked to the schemes of work with Primary Languages Network. However, the good news is that you can apply the activities to other contexts too.
Animal Mimes and Totem Poles
What?
Animal nouns with their indefinite article (e.g. in French – un chat)
Sounds and mimes
Children are observing and learning the nouns and sounds of familiar animals. They rehearse and practise the sounds in character, and then respond and read aloud the nouns in the style of the animals.
Sounds, mimes, and totem poles
Children mime the animals for a partner, and the partner responds with the correct spoken nouns. Swap roles.
And now…. the totem poles
Two sets of partners work together, and you set the challenge to build a totem pole of animal mimes and spoken nouns in the style of the animal. The challenge is devise a way of physically depicting these from the smallest animal to the largest animal, and then to perform for the class and a show and share. Children may want to crouch down and grow upwards, animal by animal as the 4 children perform their totem pole, or maybe they will want to crouch in a line one behind the other and raise themselves up slightly above the last child as they perform their animals. As we know children will devise their own ways of showing and sharing smallest to largest animals.
Why?
Why do this? Well, we practise the sounds and pronunciation of the animals. We provide them with actions as a physical memory hooks. We allow them to play with the sound of the animals and therefore over practise the spoken nouns. We have introduced the indefinite articles purely as a spoken word so they already are using the correct article with the individual animals, without overemphasising the grammar here.
Animal Magic
Now the magic begins. We are going to practise the question in the foreign language for “What is it?” and the response “It is ….” with the noun and the indefinite article. This is an observe, try, do activity. Firstly demonstrated by the teacher, and if there’s a TA or other adult in the classroom , all the better, because the teacher can ask the question and the TA or other adult can provide the response. It will till be effective if teacher plays the role of questioner and responder.
Think magic trick!
First observe the magic show. Children, watch, observe and listen to the question and the responses as the pictures of the animals are pulled from the hat. Children practise asking the question with their magic imaginary wands, and the by now surely famous Primary Languages Network question finger ( a flick at the end of the question to remind us to add intonation and that our voices will go up at the end of the question). Teacher responds with the animal sentence (“It is a cat” for example).
Now try the magic. Working with a partner and small cards the children perform their own magic question and answer tricks. It’s not about getting it correct all the time but having the confidence to move from word to question and answer.
Next make the magic show
Time to work with a partner to create a magic show to show and share to another pair. Now we and the children to model accurate spoken questions and accurate spoken answers, but there is obvious room for differentiation here where an adult can work with a pair, or the expectation is to get the question correct and just respond with a noun, or to wave the wand and just expect the noun as aresponse.
Finally, consolidate with a magic wand display
Why?
Why do this? Well, we listen to, and also practise the sounds and pronunciation of the animals again. We provide them with examples of full spoken simple sentences, following the same pattern, using “It is…” and replacing the noun each time. We provide spoken examples of the question: ”What is it? “, and we practise accurate intonation when asking a question, plus we provide a physical memory hook, the magic wand. Children are practising the valuable question “What is it?”, and how to build a full sentence response.