This academic year, we have changed the structure to our World Languages program in Primary and students are now learning Modern Foreign Languages. Years 1 to 3 will be learning French all year to ensure they have a firm basis on which to build and acquire their language skills. In terms 1 and 2, Years 4 and 6 were learning Mandarin and they will now learn French for Terms 3 and 4. Conversely, Year 5 were learning French in Terms 1 and 2 and are now learning Mandarin for the rest of the academic year.
Year 5 have started Term 3 with a new language, Mandarin and are now learning with our Mandarin specialist, Ms Wong. In their first lesson, they shared what they already knew about Chinese language and culture in a “sharing dragon”. Then, they learnt the Pinyin song, which they are going to sing and learn to help them to remember the pinyin of Mandarin over the next couple of weeks.
This half term, Year 1 are really consolidating their basic French vocabulary and have demonstrated that they are able to make basic introductions and replies. They are very confident with their colours and different weathers in French now, especially when using simple support. They can all count up to 10 so we are now working on numbers up to 20 and days of the week. We have also started to learn fruits in French and will proceed to use simple opinions about these in the coming weeks. The Year 1s are always very engaged in their French lessons and have made excellent progress- bravo Year 1!
Year 2 are continuing to build on their basic French vocabulary. They are confident with colours, numbers up to 10, saying what animals they have, as well as being able to make simple sentences in French using opinions about different breakfast foods and drinks. We have now started to learn body parts and will work towards doing simple role plays where the children will be able to say what is hurting them and give simple recommendations to help. The Year 2s are a delight to teach and are so good at remembering new French vocabulary- très bien Year 2!
Year 3 started off by working on simple dialogues to express how they are that day and justifying why. They are also really great at numbers and colours and simple descriptions of key French cartoon characters. They enjoyed learning a little bit about the very famous Asterix and Obelix comics and a lot of the students proudly borrowed a copy or two from the library after this. We then focused on ‘Tintin au Tibet’ where the students learnt some simple vocabulary to help them understand the context of the story, and enjoyed hearing words in the French cartoon that they recognised like ‘Katmandou’ and ‘le yeti’! In pairs they then completed some simple comprehension questions and were all very pleased with how much they understood even though it was all in French. Moving forward, we are going to look at saying what pets they have and will move on to zoo animals too and using adjectives to describe animals. The Y3s are enthusiastic and participate so well in French- continuez Year 3, c’est super!
It is really exciting to be able to start French with Year 4 this term. So far we have brainstormed all the French words we know already and we have learnt some useful key classroom phrases. We will continue to build on this and combine the students’ IPC topic of ‘Explorers’ by learning about a French explorer ‘Jacques Cousteau’, sea creatures and how to give simple advice to protect our planet and oceans in French. Allez Year 4!
Year 6 have started French with a great attitude too! Alongside key French vocabulary that will be built into every lesson each week, the students will focus on French speaking countries around the world and the differences and similarities between children growing up there. They will learn to do some simple research and find key information in French such as capital cities, flag colours and what the other official languages are, as well as learn how to describe their daily routine in French. C’est parti Year 6!
In Nepali, students were learning about the Nepali winter festival Maghe Sankranti माघे संक्रान्ती, the special food we eat during the festival like tilko laddu, tarul/yam, chaku/ molasses and activities that are performed by different cultural groups during the celebration.
