Back by popular demand, I just hosting my annual family-friendly French New Year’s party. I started my “Paris Time Zone” party several years ago when my kids were little, my husband was working, and I was determined to celebrate the new year one way or another! You can read more about it here. Fortunately,
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Decorating a mini-Christmas tree is a fun and festive way to practice foreign languages before the holidays. Preschool learners of French, Spanish, German, or other languages will be engaged and immersed as they review a number of high-frequency topics. Here’s what I did with my little French learners the past two lessons: 1. Our usual
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Join Foreign Language House for our first annual Facebook Turkey Trot Down countdown to Thanksgiving Break. Click this link to join our FB community. Beginning Monday, November 8, we’ll be “talkin’ turkey” with our foreign language teacher friends. Each morning around 9:00 a.m. EST, we’ll post a discussion question. When you leave a comment, you’ll
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Earlier this week I posted a very successful preschool French lesson about trains. As promised, I’d like to share the song I created as part of the lesson. It’s to the tune of “The Wheels on the Bus.” The first verse is about the conductor shouting “All aboard!” Hold your hands up to face to
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Free shipping for orders over $60 through December 24 I’m always on the prowl for multilingual and multicultural books and music. I am pleased and excited to tell you about the treasures I’ve discovered at Barefoot Books! In fact, once I began to peruse the catalog I found that I already owned several Barefoot
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I have a 2/3 year old mom-tot group of French learners, mostly boys. Well, if there’s one thing this set is crazy about, it’s TRAINS! Today I’d like to post a few ideas for a train-themed French or Spanish lesson. It incorporates hands-on activities & play, TPR, trains vocabulary & verbs, numbers, colors, and culture.
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Bonjour! I’d like to introduce you to my teaching buddy Guillaume. (He’s the big turtle on the left.) Guillaume’s been working with me for quite awhile now. Our first gig together was back in 1990, after I bought him at a toy store while on vacation in Seattle. I was a brand new teacher and
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Most language teachers would agree that it is important to use the target language in class as much as possible. The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) recommends that at least 90% of classtime be conducted in the language. In the past, I’ve used a sign that says “anglais” on one side
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It’s time to go back to school! Whether I’m teaching first graders or high schoolers, I like to have my students create desktop name tags in the first class session or two. I’m very visual, so I need to see name/face to get all of those new names into the ‘ol memory. And in middle
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Offering a Madeline camp for 5-7 year olds has me more enthused than ever over these classic books by Ludwig Bemelmans. Even my boys are asking to hear tale after tale about the brave little girl from “the old house in Paris that was covered in vines.” Madeline provides a wonderful context and reason for
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