Weather - an ongoing/daily MFL teaching activity

[Jo Rhys-Jones]

Quel temps fait-il?

One of the nice things about the weather as a topic is that not only can it be made into a cross-curricular project spread over half a term, but it is also ideally suited for low-key everyday reinforcement in the primary school classroom by the class teacher.

I've attached a template I made for a poster in French that can be pinned on the door/a wall and children can then take it in turns to be responsible for posting little cards for today's day date and month, the weather and a little picture and add the temperature too if they want. I can have a go at producing it in German and Spanish too if anyone would like - or maybe Isabelle or Lisa have already got something similar they wouldn't mind sharing? Download Daily Weather Class Chart.doc

If you have a Year 3 class you'll find teaching the weather in a foreign language compliments the Geography QCA unit 7 'Weather around the World' very nicely indeed. You could even link in with partner schools abroad and/or find a few weather phrases for several different languages.

Introducing the vocabulary for the first time for a class? There are some lovely ideas on the Primary Resources website, including dressing-up games, flashcards, match-up cards, powerpoints and quizzes.

There is an online weather map of France which could be used on an Interactive WhiteBoard to show 'dans le nord il fait...' etcetera, and the legende des pictogrammes at the bottom would be worth explaining to children - could they build on symbol work in Art and RE to invent their own weather signs?

The BBC Schools Primary French Weather has some lovely activities for individual online learning, some of which, such as the weather song, could be used with the whole class if you have a Whiteboard connected t the Internet. In addition you can print out worksheets for use away from the computer and/or as homework.

Online activities for pairs/individuals can be found at the brilliant Atantot site, but you will need to pay a small subscription fee. But for free there are also online sentence / paragraph level activities for Years 5 and 6 to be found at http://www.education.vic.gov.au/languagesonline/french/sect28/index... and at the wonderful scottish site Mimi's House - click on Mimis House and then on the television just inside the front door to get to a reading activity; linking sentences and placing symbols on a map.

For teachers who are confident in French and perhaps have a Year 6 class, there is a wonderful opportunity for linking to Science and Geography work by watching with your class a fantastic little animation about the water cycle as explained by mad scientist Arthur and his scientific duck. (Makes sense when you watch it!) Find it at http://www.meteofrance.com/FR/pedagogie/jeunesse_et_jeux/cycleau.jsp

There are plenty of opportunuities for data-handling practice by dividing your class into groups, making each responsible for a different (French-speaking?) location and asking them to record rainfall/temperature each day. They must find this out for themselves using newspapers/the Internet (try http://www.worldclimate.com/ ) and then create graphs and charts in Numeracy using the same, real, data.

Finally try getting groups of different abilities/language experience to work on different activities simultaneously. Year 3 can design and label weather symbols in French while Year 4 listen to a weather forecast and stick labels on a map, while year 5 improvise a weather forecast in French and Year 6 can script one and then film it to show to the class. Please feel free to add your ideas - it's good to share!!

[Jog On]

This is brilliant...thanks for sharing. I am currently making free MFL resources for Trinity Educational and your article has given me great food for thought :)

[Lisa Stevens]

Hi Jo.
Great ideas! Wish i could find some similar sites in Spanish!

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