As the end of the year approaches, why not plan a themed celebration of languages?
General ideas for a themed day:
- 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
Cross-curricular ideas:
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
Thinking about arranging a languages festival
Ways to sustain the profile of languages
International Mother Language Day
Using ‘The Gruffalo’ to inspire language learning
How to teach languages through art
Superb ways to combine a language with PE