A network for anyone teaching languages in Primary
Posted by Helen on 30 July 2008 at 7:30am — 2 Comments
Have you written a blog post yet? Would you like to try but have been worried about how? Now is your chance - and I promise you it really is very easy. Moreover you can have a go in complete privacy if you wish - just follow the instructions below.
First - choose your topic. You could writ… Continue
Posted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 26 July 2008 at 11:20am — 3 Comments
Posted by kristie williamson on 19 July 2008 at 6:41am — 1 Comment
Yesterday I was lucky enough to catch up with Tracy Adams, a Devon Primary Languages Consultant who is currently working with Chris Wakely on 'Take Ten En Español'. This handy pocket-sized resource with… Continue
Posted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 18 July 2008 at 11:48pm — 2 Comments
Got an idea for a German project next term? Or maybe you fancy a 'teacher-taster' trip to give you ideas for such a project? Well the Global Gateway team want to help you fund it. They are offering to at least match-fund a project if you… Continue
Posted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 16 July 2008 at 9:00am — No Comments
Posted by Mark Purves on 13 July 2008 at 5:13pm — No Comments
Posted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 12 July 2008 at 4:00pm — 5 Comments
Posted by Mark Purves on 12 July 2008 at 10:00am — No Comments
Here is the powerpoint I have been using at our recent Devon Regional Support Groups, minus a few videos of children from our schools as we have not obtained permission to use those on the Internet. But I have put in the links to YouTube and TeacherTube videos, and of course Mr Gorse's wo… Continue
Posted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 8 July 2008 at 12:00pm — 2 Comments
Posted by Mark Purves on 7 July 2008 at 5:32pm — No Comments
Posted by Mark Purves on 30 June 2008 at 8:41am — 11 Comments
OK, so Power to the People may not quite be where we are at in cpd (Continuing Professional Development) just yet, but I really do believe that in order for teachers at the chalkface to get the 2010 entitlement for 'all KS2 children to be learning a language during lesson time' to wo… Continue
Posted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 28 June 2008 at 10:21pm — 2 Comments
Posted by mmichels on 26 June 2008 at 1:25am — No Comments
Just received this email from Liz Hitchcock, editor of Global Gateway (British Council), with a great opportunity for anyone teaching or planning to teach German in a UK primary school:
"If you or one of your staff teaches primary Germ… Continue
Posted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 25 June 2008 at 9:13pm — 1 Comment
Posted by Mark Purves on 25 June 2008 at 10:00am — 1 Comment
Posted by Mark Purves on 25 June 2008 at 9:29am — No Comments
Posted by Mark Purves on 24 June 2008 at 5:39pm — 6 Comments
Posted by Oscar Stringer on 24 June 2008 at 11:26am — 5 Comments
Posted by Clare Seccombe on 23 June 2008 at 8:06pm — 3 Comments
Another work in progress this, for the remainder of this half term with my whole KS2 class. I've attached my first powerpoint so far, which introduces the Unit - it has lots of soundfiles which are from the built-in PowerPoint mediaclips (so should work on most people's versions of ppt) or from the… Continue
Posted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 20 June 2008 at 3:00pm — 6 Comments
Just a quick post to alert people to a new ‘ning’ group that has been set up by Oscar Stringer. Animation for Education is for those interested in learning how… Continue
Posted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 15 June 2008 at 8:00pm — 2 Comments
Lots happening this weekend: Lisa and I are off to Nottingham for the British Council eTwinning National Conference (will tell you all about it and… Continue
Posted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 13 June 2008 at 12:30am — 4 Comments
Posted by Helen on 12 June 2008 at 6:41am — 2 Comments
The Catherine Cheater schemes are very popular - some LA's have even bought enough for all their schools. In Devon the scheme is even handed out free to schools who attend the Catherine Cheater training for each Year group. By sending in a receipt for th… Continue
Posted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 4 June 2008 at 1:30pm — No Comments
Sparklebox has been very popular among Primary practitioners, particularly those active on the TES forum, for quite some time. Plenty of bright col… Continue
Posted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 2 June 2008 at 7:50pm — 1 Comment
Posted by Clare Seccombe on 30 May 2008 at 8:57am — 3 Comments

Posted by Judy Carruthers on 22 May 2008 at 11:00pm — 6 Comments
Below is a SlideShare of the third powerpoint I've made for QCA Unit 16 - La Plage. The others you can find here and on the… Continue
Posted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 21 May 2008 at 10:00pm — 2 Comments
Just had an email from Chris Wakely and Vera Anderson at Devon letting me know that Take Ten en Espanol will be out in November 2008.Those of you familiar with Take Ten en Francais will know the cd's an… Continue
Posted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 21 May 2008 at 10:30am — 4 Comments
The British Council have just announced an eTwinning UK art competition: enter by 16 June 2008!
To celebrate the ongoing success of… Continue
Posted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 16 May 2008 at 7:11pm — 1 Comment
Posted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 14 May 2008 at 12:30pm — 5 Comments
I'm sure by now many of you have already seen these videos but they are so inspired and fun that I can't resist sharing them once more. I'm not advocating teaching conjugations as such in PLL, but I do think a fun song like this makes the whole thing seem more 'normal' and makes g… Continue
Posted by Lisa Stevens on 4 May 2008 at 12:00pm — 5 Comments

Posted by Jayne Jackson on 1 May 2008 at 10:27pm — 1 Comment
I’ve started to gather resources for this & thought I’d share what I’ve come up with so far. Ideally this unit would be taught to a Yr 5 class in the second half of the spring term, presuming they’d completed units 1-6 in… Continue
Posted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 30 April 2008 at 6:30pm — 10 Comments
Have a go at these quizzes on MFL bloggers - see how many you can identify -
Joe Dale has made this one based on photos - http://joedale.typepad.com/integrating_ict_into_the_/… Continue
Posted by Lisa Stevens on 25 April 2008 at 9:02pm — 4 Comments
To celebrate the upcoming birthday of this site - and the fact that we now have 145 signed-up members and average 300 plus 'lurkers' (users who prefer to remain anonymous) who visit the site each day - there is now a new facility which I hope you will find useful. 'Groups' can be created by… Continue
Posted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 23 April 2008 at 11:53am — 1 Comment
Posted by christian komonen on 21 April 2008 at 7:30am — No Comments
Yes it’s that time of year again – the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 is bigger (and cheesier) than ever, with the final in Belgrade on 24th May. So here are some easy-to-implement ideas to have a little fun with the event in class.
Taking a cross-curricular Geography / Int… Continue
Posted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 19 April 2008 at 11:00am — 5 Comments
Very strange to wake up to snow this morning - not the subject of my blog, but the title just came to me as I looked at my Flickr pics from the last three days as I gazed at my youngest making snow angels! I…
ContinuePosted by Lisa Stevens on 6 April 2008 at 7:30pm — No Comments
Do you have anyone really keen on language-learning in your class? Do they have access to a computer? Are they aged 10 or younger? Want to combine learning fun and support a charity at the same time? Then you might want to take up the Juni… Continue
Posted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 5 April 2008 at 10:08pm — 2 Comments
Now while in Spanish-speaking countries, pranks are practised on December 28, the Day of the Holy Innocents. The French celebrate April Fool’s Day on the 1st just as we do, so why not have a little fishy fun with your class… Continue
Posted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 29 March 2008 at 10:00pm — No Comments
As we're (aspiring) linguists, here's Happy Easter from around the world! (courtesy of Easterbunnys.net)
Catalan:- Felices Pasques
Chinese:- Fu huo jie kuai le
Croatian:- Sretan Uskrs
Danish:- Glædelig Påske
Du… Continue
Posted by Lisa Stevens on 23 March 2008 at 3:00pm — 2 Comments
Posted by Helen on 15 March 2008 at 6:00pm — 8 Comments
Now's the sort of time I tend to hunt around for end-of-term Easter themed activities in a panic - having always left it to the week before. So I'll start with a list of some of my favourite French websites with the usual craft, make'n'do and songs with an Easter theme:… Continue
Posted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 14 March 2008 at 1:00pm — 4 Comments
Posted by Helen on 9 March 2008 at 7:45pm — 4 Comments
Linda Owen, Primary Languages Advisory Teacher & International Education Officer at Gloucestershire LA has generously shared this work from her Ants in Your Pants workshop at the Primary Languages Show.
It is a spiralling scheme of work, where the topic of ‘mini-beast… Continue
Posted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 8 March 2008 at 2:00pm — 3 Comments
It was great to meet up with Lisa and Helen, at the CILT Primary Languages Show in Manchester this year - and a real shame that… Continue
Posted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 5 March 2008 at 9:30pm — 2 Comments
Posted by Jayne Jackson on 28 February 2008 at 9:30pm — 1 Comment
This post began life as a response to a question over on the TES staffroom. How do you introduce colours to Year 1? Here are some of my ideas:
I'd start with a phoneme eg 'eu'. Get the class to repeat the sound an… Continue
Posted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 27 February 2008 at 2:30pm — 2 Comments
Been making some Interactive Whiteboard resources and thought I'd share a few with anybody who may be using the same software. I will eventually transfer most of this to powerpoint too and will add it to the post for those who don't have an IWB / compatible hardware. Thanks to… Continue
Posted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 23 February 2008 at 10:30am — 2 Comments
Posted by Lisa Stevens on 14 February 2008 at 9:30am — 2 Comments
Posted by Jayne Jackson on 12 February 2008 at 6:30pm — 4 Comments
Posted by Lisa Stevens on 5 February 2008 at 9:22pm — 7 Comments
If you're looking for any last minute Mardi Gras related activities, here are a few links I've come across that you may find useful.
Let's start with information about how Pancake Day is celebrated around the wor…
ContinuePosted by Jayne Jackson on 4 February 2008 at 10:00pm — 2 Comments
For those of you who haven't come across Stuart Gorse's gorgeous animations on you tube, here is the latest edition:
I think the girl in the red dress and the flower in her hair is the coolest!
If you can't access YouTube in school you can always copy the url at the top of the page of the vide…
ContinuePosted by Jo Rhys-Jones on 31 January 2008 at 8:39pm — 4 Comments