Snow days - ideas for KS2 languages

[Jo Rhys-Jones]

We are having a snow day today - so for teachers and children who may find themselves in similar situations  perhaps you might want to consider some of the following?

There is an abundance of online sites that any child with Internet access can use from home,  so here are some of my favourites - please do add your recommendations in a comment for us all to share as well:

Poisson Rouge - For KS1 & Younger KS2 - French (click the first letter a which turns into a tree), Spanish (click the letter a which turns into a rainbow) , Italian (a car), Greek (an egg) & English/American-English - No instructions needed just play.

Digital Dialects - KS2 & KS3 - lots of practice games arranged by topic.

Languages Online - For KS2 in French German Italian Chinese Indonesian (& English) - a mix of resources some for teachers but just as many for children - choose your topic and put up the link on your school website.

Tomlitoo - for older KS2 children - a site entirely in French with colouring pages, make'n'do activities and all sorts.

Of course if you have a vle or easy to edit website you can not only upload links to these websites you can also set tasks - for example we have a Year 6 google app website which children can access without a password, and have uploaded a page with a photo of a snowman asking for children to describe him in French and then build their own, take a photo and upload it themselves - labelling the parts of the body.
 
 But if you are stuck off school for longer than a day then you might want to consider actually teaching a live online lesson yourself? Simple conferencing sites such as Flashmeeting allow you and your class/colleagues to take it in turns to talk  at the click of a button (wish classrooms were this easy) unlike skype and video conferencing when you can sometimes talk over each other. You can also share websites and documents, including powerpoints and talk through them together. You can even record your whole lesson for later playback so children can access whenever they want if they missed the live version - but do check with Headteachers first that they are happy with the terms and conditions of the website.

Alternatively voicethread remains one of my favourites as you can leave the work there and go back to it at a time to suit you. Here is an example my whole KS2 class made a while back with their French partner school. Follow the instructions on site and browse through the examples - it is very easy and my Year 3 loved it - as did their parents!

So what are your top tips for extending language learning beyond the classroom on days like this?

[Jan Lewandowski]

Great stuff Jo.

Here's a super snow song that I recommend:

http://petite-section-ac-09.over-blog.com/article-la-neige-tombe-su...

French Canadian so excellent for Intercultural Understanding too!

Jan

[Lisa Stevens]

And my Spanish ideas are here!

Spanish snow day ideas

Lisa xx