Bringing French to Life: Creative activities for 5-11 (Bringing Languages to Life)

Bringing French to Life provides an innovative and refreshing cross-curricular approach to teaching languages in primary schools, combining art, design and foreign languages with various aspects of the National Primary Curriculum such as Literacy, Numeracy and PE.

This unique practical resource comprises an engaging storyline about a day in the life of two French children and gives an opportunity for learners to re-enact their day, using finger puppets, handmade crafts and exciting games to practise new language. Each of the 14 sections begins with a short accessible dialogue in French and is followed by suggestions for using the new vocabulary in pairs, small groups or as a whole class.

The main story is accompanied by fun craft activities linked to the story (one for each section, ie 14 in total) for children to create in class using the templates and instructions provided. A wide range of further activities follows, consisting of lively games, songs and opportunities to communicate simple ideas. Language extensions are suggested, focussing on imaginative writing and reading ideas linked to the theme of each section.

Written to support the new foreign languages programme of study the book also includes:

* Cross-curricular links to numerous subjects including Literacy, Numeracy, PE and ICT

* Classroom games and activities

* Photocopiable resources and templates for fun classroom activities and projects

* Language extension activities.

Bringing French to Life can be read on three levels to suit a variety of classroom situations. First, the story can be told ‘straight’ with the whole class participating in the dialogues. Second, the story can be combined with the craft activities after each main section. 14 doing and making activities match the storyline and provide a colourful, eye catching display and learning focus in the classroom or for Open Days or Assemblies. Teachers can use as many or as few as they wish. The resultant crafts can be used for very effective classroom displays/open days/assemblies etc. Finally, the language extension activities can be used alongside the art/craft/design activities as desired. The aim of these activities is to extend the target language in a relevant context through a variety of methods such as songs, playlets, simple communicative exchanges, games with numbers etc.

Catherine Watts is Principal Lecturer in the School of Humanities at the University of Brighton where she teaches German, English and Education. She co-authored with Hilary Phillips two Living Languages books published by Routledge in 2013 and two Jumpstart! foreign language books in 2014.

Hilary Phillips has been a class teacher in primary schools for over twenty years and was a Lead Teacher for Primary Languages in Brighton and Hove. She co-authored the Living Languages books, which describe innovative language learning projects in primary and secondary schools, and two Jumpstart! books containing over 400 engaging and exciting activities to teach languages in primary schools: Jumpstart! French and German and Jumpstart! Spanish and Italian.