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 warm-up:  TPR, hello/how are you? song, rhyming rules, finger plays

2.  Set up the mini-tree.  Just the right size for these cute little ones!  Even the highest branch was not out of reach.

3.  We reviewed shapes and decided that a star was the best shape for the top of the tree.

4.  I taught the word for Christmas bulb (la boule de Noël) and passed one around.  Then the children received their own paper ornaments of various colors. We identified the colors, played games, and then the children placed them on the tree.

5.  Then came the candy canes.  The children eagerly expressed their preferences. (Oui, j’aime les bonbons!) Then we counted three red and white striped pipe cleaners for each child.  After bending them into candy cane shapes, they went up on the tree.

6.  In France, la crèche is an important part of a family’s Christmas decorations.  We set up the Fisher Price little people manger scene with Joseph, Marie, Bébé Jésus, les trois rois, and lots of animals.

7. Finally , we made our own foam/sticker ornaments by placing body parts onto snowmen and Santa’s.  (Merci Oriental Trading Company.)  Up they went on the tree!

8.  When our holiday decorating was done, we sang French Christmas carols around the tree.  The children took home the ornaments they made, as well as a candy cane.

Not one word of English.  Lots of hands-on activities to keep the kids engaged.  And SO many high-frequency topics:  colors, numbers, shapes, preferences, animals, body parts.

Whether you are teaching a preschool/kindergarten class or using a second language in your home, decorating the tree is a wonderful activity for language development!

Image by clipart.com

• colors
• numbers
• preferences
• comparisons
• animals & objects galore
• how to negotiate a trade

So, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!  Ride the wave of the craze and use the excitement to motivate your kids to talk in French, Spanish, German, Mandarin, and more!

French teachers, CHECK THIS OUT!!  Doodle Bandz Original Ooh La La Paris Swirl Edition Rubber Bandz Band Wristband (24)

My kids are growing some vegetables on the deck this year.  Every single morning the four year-old runs outside to check on his pots.  Luckily, beans grow at a quick pace that is satisfying to a preschooler.  Check out our tomatoes, beans, and peppers:

We started to learn the names of our crops in French, and we’re going to add Spanish and German, too.  Our quickie garden signs are simply Sharpie-labeled plastic spoons.  Popsicle sticks would do the trick, too, but ours are still covered with popsicle!

A Gouin Series is a wonderful gardening activity since it describes a process.  As you plant, teach your child foreign language phrases such as:

I take a pot.

I put soil in the pot.

I dig a hole.

I put the seed in the hole.

I put dirt on the seed.

You might also like this kindergarten level gardening/growing content related lesson.

We’ve only got three different types of veggies growing at the moment, but we hope to expand.  Click here for a free pdf of some vegetables you can label in English, French, Spanish, and German in YOUR garden. Feel free to comment with more ideas and vocabulary.

In what language does your garden grow?

Hippity-hoppity Easter’s on its way!  Make it international by teaching your kids ways to say “bunny” in many languages:

Bunny = English

Lapin = French

Coniglietto = Italian

Conejito = Spanish

Häschen = German

Króliczek = Polish

Coelho = Portuguese

Thanks to my favorite online multilingual dictionary:  wordreference.com This is the only online translator I recommend to my students.

Happy Bunny Day!

Image credit: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1247592

I was just looking through my son’s Highlights magazine (www.Highlights.com) and I came across a fantastic game that can be effectively adapted to help kids practice numbers in Spanish, French, Chinese . . . any foreign language.  In the March 2010 issue there’s an activity on pg. 38 by Jennifer Coleman called “Make 11.”  Two players count to three and extend any number of fingers.  Count the total number of fingers between the two players in the target language.  See how many tries it takes to equal 11.

11 ELEVEN

onze (French)

once (Spanish)

elf (German)

undici (Italian)

ju-ichi (Japanese)

shí y? (Mandarin)

I’m going to play with an entire classroom of children this afternoon, but I’ll make it a wee bit competitive by seeing which set of players can be the first to make eleven.

Have fun playing!  Thank you, Highlights, for another fantastic idea.

Photo Credit: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/935146

I attended a church service this morning in remembrance of 9/11.  In honor of our prayers for peace, I’d like to share a few ways to say peace in foreign languages:

French – la paix

Spanish – la paz

Italian – la pace

German – der Frieden

Hebrew – Shalom

Please leave a comment and continue the languages of peace.

Everyone remembers exactly where they were the moment the towers fell.  I was a 6th grade teacher at the time.  I went home that night and wrote the following poem to share with my students the next day.  I’m not a poet, but I think it spoke to the kids at a time when they needed some optimism.

SINCE YESTERDAY

The world changed

Since yesterday,

I wish that it weren’t true.

Buildings fell,

Good people died, 

But still,

The sky is blue.

Hijacked planes

Blew up our plans

Of futures

Safe and sound.

But still,

The sun shines brightly

Over wreckage on the ground.

Terror

Washed upon our shores

In waves of evil hate.

Yet firemen rescue,

Churches pray,

Police evacuate.

CNN reports the news

That no one wants to face.

But still,

I wonder,

Is my world,

Indeed, a different place?

The world changed

Since yesterday,

Everything’s gone wrong.

But human kindness

Still prevails,

And makes our country strong.

Image Credit:  by voodoo4u2n at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1195513

My preschooler and I made the following video in English just for fun.  The 4 year old chose the characters and dictated the script.  Enjoy!

I’ve recently become a fan of the award-winning Little Pim language learning dvd’s for children.  They are cute, eye-catching, and age-appropriate for the littlest language learners.  The short segments are just right for holding my 4 year old’s attention. He repeated some words in Spanish with no prompting, and then he asked to watch the dvd again. Yay!

The web site contains some free little gems, too: coloring pages, other printables, and my favorite–the Talking Coloring Book.  Check out this video by Little Pim’s creator, Julia Pimsleur Levine:

Little Pim DVD’s are available in these languages:

Spanish

French

Japanese

Mandarin Chinese

Italian

Hebrew

English/ESL

Introduce your baby, toddler, or preschooler to another language with Little Pim!

Today’s post is a completely self-indulgent excuse to show you my other two children–the furry ones.   I used to take pictures of my cats all the time BK (Before Kids,) but the kitties have been photographically neglected for years.  Tonight, I was surprised to discover several cat videos on my Flip camera.  My son’s been busy!  He took this picture of the feline matriarch of the family, Gina.  She’s a spry 17 year-old who loves, loves, loves people.  My Madeline isn’t pictured, but she looks exactly the same.  She’s Gina’s ornery 16 year-old daughter.   Can’t blame old age, she’s always been a grump.  (Love her anyway!)   Madeline is named after my favorite children’s book character . . . the girl who lived in that old house in Paris, covered in vines . . . 

They say a cat has nine lives, so today let’s learn nine ways to say “cat” in foreign languages:

1.  French:  le chat

2.  Spanish:  el gato

3.  German:  die Katze

4.  Portuguese:  o gato

5.  Italian:  il gatto

6.  Norwegian:  katten

7.  Polish:  kot

8.  Dutch:  de kat

9.  Hungarian:  a macska

Want to add on to the cat list?  Feel free to comment with your favorite world language.

Speaking of Siamese cats, I’d like to recommend the children’s book Minou, by Mindy Bingham.  (Minou means Kitty in French.)

I’ve read this book (in English) to my French students for years and years.  It’s an empowering story of a cat’s independence on the streets of Paris.  I use the gorgeous watercolor illustrations by Itoko Maeno as a culture lesson.  It’s great for identifying monuments, and I personally love looking at that gorgeous Minou who looks so much like my babies!

Ta-da!  Presenting . . . our very first Foreign Language House book– Middle School Madness:  Cooking up Foreign Language Games.  It contains over 50 fun and easy to use language learning games that are effective for French, Spanish, German, Chinese, ESL, and more.

My amiga, Catherine, and I have been busy preparing workshops that we’ll be presenting at various foreign language teaching conferences across the country this year.  As we scoured our files and memories, we were inspired to compile all of our best stuff in a publication.  One of our most successful conference presentations was called Middle School Madness.  We found that not many language teachers specifically set out to teach at the middle school level, yet find themselves there with either elementary or secondary training.  In fact, that’s how Catherine and I became friends.  Her Spanish classroom was two doors down from my French room.  Our daily visits usually started with phrases like:  “What do you think about this idea?”  “You’ve gotta try this new game!”  “How on earth should I teach . . . ?”  or “Argh!!  They’re crazy today.  Any ideas?”

Middle school is a unique and wonderful place that I really loved.  The activities in our “recipe” book work well with any active, novice-level learner in grades 5-9.  (I taught a lot of freshmen the past two years, and I can attest that many of these “Middle School Madness” games are a hit for beginning high school learners, too.)

You can purchase Middle School Madness:  Cooking up Foreign Language Games  at Lulu.com as either a paperback book or a digital download, and it’s available internationally.  You’ll find every foreign language activity and game that you need to get your students talking, playing, and writing in the target language. Formatted like a recipe book, the directions, materials, and time durations are crystal clear. The ACTFL five C’s are covered in all sorts of communicative tasks, connections, content, and some cultural activities.

Have fun with your students in the target language.  And remember–there’s always a (teaching) method to the madness!