European Day of Languages ideas

[Emma Dawson]

I am starting to think about this years EDL and I am hoping to mark it properly in school this year as this is the first year all of KS2 will be doing language learning as part of the timetable and see it as a bit of a launch. So far I'm thinking possibly of having some sort of Eurovision-type competition where each class learns a song/rhyme and performs in a special assembly and everyone coming in fancy dress eg choose a country and dress up in something typical/stereotypical/football kit etc. I'd also like some competitions for individual pupils to do in the weeks beforehand with prizes to give out on the day but not sure what yet. Would be great to hear everyone elses ideas for the day and whether you have any ideas for what the competitions could be so what are you all doing?

[Lorraine]

Hi Emma,
Nobody seems to be thinking about yet it seems.
I'd got thought about starting from 'Haenschen klein'- a traditional song about a little boy who goes out into the big wide world as my starting point.
The children would then pick a country and research either the flag/ capital city/ famous monuments/ national costume/ famous persons/ typical food/ some basic language.(This gives lots of room for personal choice of subject matter, rather than singing and dressing up which may not appeal so much to the boys?) At the end of the day I thought an assembly to share and present all their findings.
Seems this idea will remain just an idea though, as my school has decided it won't require my services next year and it's back to supply for me. So if it'sany use to you. . .

[Jan Lewandowski]

Hi Emma

Now is definitely the time to be thinking about it! Any resources will be gone by September! CILT have put up a post on their site already.

Jan

[Emma Dawson]

I am not massively impressed with CILT's resources so far this year; I wanted to get a couple of their T-shirts as prizes for competitions but the design is not as inspiring as in previous years. And they're severely lacking in any form of interesting idea, unless I'm not looking in the right place.

[Jan Lewandowski]

BTW

Check out your local LIDL to see if they have any of their Europe/World maps left- they are laminated and big and only £2-95!

Jan

[Emma Dawson]

Thanks, I will pop in and take a look.

[Emma Dawson]

I guess it's because it's the holidays but I'd like to be prepared before I go back to school as this is always something that gets put by the wayside as not being important but new head is letting me launch languages properly this year so I want it to go with a bit of a bang so to speak. I like the idea about starting from a song, I will look it up. And I know what you mean about appeal but I think my issue is more with some members of staff rather than children! But I do like the idea of picking a country and presenting something, not necessarily a song. Am now thinking of a 'Round the world in 80 days' type assembly, perhaps something like 'Round the world in 20 minutes'/'Round the world in 80 languages'. It's such a shame you can't do anything, that's how I've felt in previous years and it's very frustrating!

[Jan Lewandowski]

Hi All

I think many of us have forgotten the resources/ideas for EDL already on this site. Click on the bar at the top of the main page and go to `Days to celebrate'; scroll to September and there you are! Thanks to Jo for this.

Jan

[Barbara]

Hi Emma
One of the schools in which I teach chose the class-chooses-a-country option a couple of years ago and it was a great success. Topics included: geography, arts and crafts, food, quizzes, songs and taster language sessions leading on to numeracy activities. Children came dressed in the colours of the flag of their country and there was an end of day assembly where the children shared some of what they'd learned. The school had (and still does have) some children from Eastern Europe and it was wonderful for them to be able to share and celebrate their culture and traditions. We had visitors from Poland, Latvia and Italy working with the children on the day.

For competitions, you could set the task of finding out how to say hello in specific languages - better to do it this way with you having the right answers at the outset rather than asking them to find as a many ways as they can to say it as you would have to verify their answers later. Or you could provide a list of words and languages for the children to match up. Or how about finding a language for each letter of the alphabet. If you are in a school with a diverse ethnic mix, they could have the task of naming as many of the languages spoken + name of one child/adult who speaks it, or find the person who speaks the most languages. They could also list monuments/artists/famous people/capital cities/foods for given countries.

I too am looking forward to hearing what everyone else will be up to.

[Nicola C]

Hello!
I like the ideas for EDL. This will be the first year that we will be celebrating it in our school so it needs to be good so that it will continue in the future! I thought the idea of using the alphabet to encourage the children to do some research on different languages was good - I am thinking of using it and getting the children to choose a country and find A-Z facts. I thought that EDL activities might be a good starting point for using the World Cup 2010 to develop Intercultural Understanding...

[Jan Lewandowski]

Hi Nicola

I presume you know about the Newbury Park site- masses of languages, information and pages to download- inspirational and very useful indeed for EDL

Bonnes vacances

Jan

[Nicola C]

Hello Jan,
Thanks for your reply. I didn't know about that site but I am going to have a look at it now! It's much easier looking for EDL stuff now than in the first couple of weeks back!
Nicola

[Lorraine]

Another 'free' idea that occurred to me. seeing as how many teachers and pupils may have visited foreign places over the summer, what about asking them to bring in their unused currency/postcard, pictures etc. and using those as a starting point for looking at different countries? This makes it start from pupil's /teacher's viewpoints who could deliver a personal insight into the country as an introduction. May help motivate teachers who otherwise might not be interested in contributing to EDL?
Just a thought!