Why not end this year with a themed day?

As the end of the year approaches, why not plan a themed celebration of languages?

Invite children to come to school dressed in the colours of the flag of the language they are learning or as a famous person from that country
Decorate the hall/school reception with flags and poster from different countries
Hold a language breakfast e.g. croissants, pain au chocolat
Why not take the register in a different language? Find greetings in different languages here. See how many you can learn.
Hold a multilingual assembly
Invite parents who are EAL speakers to give language tasters in their mother tongue
Invite governors, families, the mayor, local MP to visit and observe activities. Perhaps there are local foreign firms who would like to get involved too?
Read ‘Thinking about arranging a languages festival?’ blog post for language festival ideas shared by Hilary Scholes, department leader for MFL in Luton
Take a look at ALL’s Pinterest boards of extensive language learning collections

Art/DT

Choose an artist and create artwork in the style of…
Make a fridge magnet with a greeting/phrase in a target language. Small adhesive magnets can be bought here.
Design a key ring for a European country
Find a host of ideas here

Classroom Games

Pin the beret on the..? Find a famous French celebrity on which to pin the beret!
Play a circle game but using vocabulary from a different country, e.g. fruit salad, fizz buss, duck duck goose.

Food Technology

Organise a food tasting of foods from other countries. Set up a stall/fête at lunchtime
Do some cooking with ingredients from other countries (try Cooking with Languages recipes and activities)
Ask the school kitchen to provide a continental or themed lunch

Geography / Maths

Create a travel brochure – collect from travel agents and make a collage including greetings and other useful phrases
Make fact files on countries (how to say greetings, their capital city, population etc.)
Make a passport from a different country
Where would you like to go? Plan a trip around Europe
Currency and maths – what money will need if you go there? Try some maths warm ups using that currency
Have an Eiffel Tower competition – who can create an Eiffel Tower using spaghetti (or straws) with marshmallows and jelly tots

Literacy

Read a story from another country. Have a look on ALL’s literature wiki for inspiration or try a book from onethirdstories
Look for “loan” words from different countries around the world and create a poster. Make it into a homework competition. How many borrowed words can students find?
Research a famous celebrity from a European country and write their biography

Music

Learn a song or traditional dance from another culture. A good selection of traditional French dances can be found here.
Hold a Eurovision Song Contest / X Factor in which groups of children represent different countries and sing a song
Compile a song book with songs from around the world. Mama Lisa’s World have a good selection as do Take 10
Try singing ‘Let it go’ from Frozen in 25 languages

Sport

Hold a football tournament (or other sport) with teams representing different countries. Find out about Handball auf Deutsch here.
Investigate games from another country and learn to play one
Find ways to combine a language with PE here

If you have an idea that you would like to share, please contact [email protected]

Further reading

How to put on a performance based languages event