Write Away! Issue 15 February 2023 celebrating children’s writing in Primary Languages
W elcome to issue 15 of Write Away! I hope you enjoy looking at and reading all the pieces of work that children all over the country have been doing in their language lessons so far this year. Find out about this issue's guest language, and don't forget to look out for my Editor's Pick. See you for the next issue! Issue 15 February 2023 lightbulblanguages.co.uk/writeaway [email protected] Editor Clare Seccombe Our guest language for this issue is Breton. Breton is a Celtic language which is spoken in Brittany in north-west France. It's closely related to Cornish and less closely to Welsh, and it also has a connection to Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx. The number of Breton speakers has dropped significantly from over a million in the 1950s to only about 200,000 now. The language has been classified as "severely endangered" by UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. In 2022 France entered a song in Breton called "Fulenn" (Spark) for the Eurovision Song Contest in Turin. French page 1 Teachers’ Corner page 9 Puzzle Corner page 12
Ma maison by Dominic Year 6, Ramsbottom pixabay.com au bord de la mer by the sea au Brésil in Brazil aussi also bleu blue car because c'est it is chambre (f.) bedroom cinq 5 dans in en bas downstairs est is et and grand big il y a there is impressionnant impressive j'adore I love j'habite I live ma my (f.) maison de maître (f.) mansion piscine (f.) swimming pool salle à manger (f.) dining room salle de bains (f.) bathroom salle de jeux (f.) games room terrain de foot (m.) football pitch très very unan 1 français Vocabulaire
Ma maison by Elvie Year 5, Whitefield aussi also avec with buanderie (f.) utility room car because c'est it is chambre (f.) bedroom chat (m.) cat chez moi at my house confortable comfortable cuisine (f.) kitchen en bas downstairs en haut upstairs et and grenier (m.) attic il y a there is j'adore I love j'ai I have j'ai … ans I am… years old jardin (m.) garden je m'appelle I am called j'habite I live ma my (f.) neuf 9 salle de bains (f.) bathroom salon (m.) living room trois 3 WC (m.) toilet Vocabulaire français daou 2 Well done Elvie! The accuracy and neatness of your work along with your illustrations have made it an obvious choice for this issue's Editor's Pick.
Ma maison by Ophelia Year 6, Ramsbottom pixabay.com assez quite aussi also avec with buanderie (f.) utility room car because c'est it is chambre (f.) bedroom cuisine (f.) kitchen dans in deux 2 en bas downstairs en haut upstairs entrée (f.) entrance hall en ville in town et and grand big il y a there is j'adore I love j'habite I live ma my (f,) maison de maître (f.) mansion salle à manger (f.) dining room salle de bains (f.) bathroom salle de jeux (f.) games room salon (m.) living room très very trois 3 tri 3 français Vocabulaire
Vocabulaire appareil électrique (m.) electrical device arbre (m.) tree au to the bain (m.) bath baisser to lower chauffage (m.) heating Es-tu écolo à la maison ? by Harrison Year 6, Bury français pevar 4 cuisine (f.) kitchen dans in douche (f.) shower et and éteindre to turn off jardin (m.) garden lumière (f.) light mettre to put on peut one can preferer to prefer pull (m.) jumper salle à manger (f.) dining room salle de bains (f.) bathroom salon (m.) living room
Ma maison by Shyheim Year 5, Newcastle pixabay.com au premier étage on the first floor au rez-de-chaussée on the ground floor bonjour hello cave (f.) cellar chambre (f.) bedroom cuisine (f.) kitchen et and grenier (m.) attic il y a there is il n'y a pas de there is no jardin (m.) garden je m'appelle I am called j'habite I live salle de bains (f.) bathroom salon (m.) living room trois 3 pemp 5 français Vocabulaire
La ligne d'arrivée by Dhruvi Year 6, Harrow à côté de next to assis seated attendant waiting bon good chemin (f.) path commencer to begin enfin at last espoir (m.) hope et and faire to do ligne d'arrivée (f.) finishing line marchant walking moi-même myself nos our (pl.) notre our (sg.) nous we partir to leave rêve (m.) dream rien nothing seul alone sommet (m.) top sur on toi you venir to come Vocabulaire français c'hwec'h 6
Ce que j'ai fait hier by Jacob Year 5, Harrow pixabay.com après after ce que what chez mon ami my friend's house faire du patin à roulettes to go roller skating glace (f.) ice cream heure (f.) hour hier yesterday j'ai fait I did je suis allé I went je suis resté I stayed manger to eat nous sommes allés we went pendant during seizh 7 français Vocabulaire
Ceinture noire by Noarii Year 6, Harrow an (m.) year arts martiaux (m.pl.) martial arts attendre to wait ceinture noire (f.) black belt donc therefore et and étudier to study fier proud il y a ago j'ai commencé I started j'ai décidé I decided j'ai étudié I studied j'aime I like j'ai passé mon examen I took my exam je dois I must je suis I am jusqu'à until maintenant now mois (m.) month passer to take (exam) pendant during pour in order to premier first protéger to protect semaine (f.) week trois 3 Vocabulaire français eizh 8
Teachers’ Corner Find out more information about the writing featured Jane Birtwistle How long have the children been learning French? Since Year 3 How long are their language lessons? 60 minutes a fortnight (2 week timetable) Describe briefly the teaching and learning activities that took place prior to the children writing this piece. Our lessons this half term focused on the vocabulary, grammar and structures below, before concluding the topic with a piece of writing about a real or fictional home: Ma maison: • Types of housing and locations: Pupils enjoyed researching homes including French castles and mountain lodges and discovering French costal, mountain, urban and countryside regions! • Rooms in a house, including il y a, noun gender, plural nouns, adjectives of size (Year 6 only) and intensifiers (Year 6 only) • en / au / aux + country (Year 6) • Expressing opinions What do you particularly like about these pieces of work? I particularly liked how the Year 5 piece of writing demonstrated creativity and independence by including a sentence about her family pet in addition to forming plural nouns correctly! The Year 6 pieces of writing demonstrate great use of intensifiers, and correct position and agreement of adjectives of size! What support did the children have to enable them to complete this piece of writing? Access to class work in pupil folders, teacher-prepared sentence builder. 1-3 4 Jane Birtwistle How long have the children been learning French? Since Year 3 nav 9
How long have the children been learning French? 2 years How long are their language lessons? 45 minutes, once a week Describe briefly the teaching and learning activities that took place prior to the children writing this piece. In the run up to writing this piece, the children took part in a series of lessons, learning vocabulary to describe different rooms, adjectival agreement, verb endings and when to use phrases such as j’habite à and il y a. They took part in speaking, listening and reading activities in the build up to their writing piece, and found out how the insides of French homes might differ from English homes. What do you particularly like about this piece of work? I particularly love how they have not just listed which rooms they do have but which rooms they do not have. What support did the children have to enable them to complete this piece of writing? The children in the class had varying degrees of support with this activity from word mats, to writing frames, to models where words could be swapped in or out. In the case of the children who have submitted work, they had writing frames. How long are their language lessons? 60 minutes a fortnight (2 week timetable) Describe briefly the teaching and learning activities that took place prior to the children writing this piece. This was an enjoyable enrichment lesson! Our last French lesson this half-term took place during a whole-school eco-themed week - “Laudato Si” - where the pupils were exploring Pope Francis’ message to ‘Care for our Common Home’. In French, we took the opportunity to link this to our current topic on home (Ma maison). We recapped vocabulary on rooms in a house and recapped some phrases about protecting the environment, then put them together to create an origami house and a piece of writing: Es-tu écolo à la maison ? (Are you green at home?) What support did the children have to enable them to complete this piece of writing? Access to class work in pupil folders, teacher-prepared sentence builder. What do you particularly like about this piece of work? I particularly like the way he has used the simple sentence builder as a springboard to challenge himself to produce more complex sentences using conjunctions. He took great pride in the work and illustrated it beautifully, and then presented it to the rest of the class. 5 Georgia Villalobos, Caroline Hewson dek 10
How long have the children been learning French? Since Reception How long are their language lessons? 30 minutes a day in Key Stage 1 and 40 minutes a day in Key Stage 2. They do weekly Art and Design and PE in French too. Describe briefly the teaching and learning activities that took place prior to the children writing this piece. After revising conjugation in the present tense, the children have started learning about the passé composé. At the end of these sessions, they were encouraged to write poems completely independently. What do you particularly like about these pieces of work? How different they are and how the children have expressed themselves on various topics, using the structures learnt. Their imagination and creativity has highly impressed and surprised us. What support did the children have to enable them to complete this piece of writing? They had verb tables, glossaries and French/English dictionaries, and all the previous French learning in their books they started with phonics in Year 1 and all written work from Year 3. Nadine Chadier 6-8 unnek 11
Puzzle Corner Which languages are spelled out in Morse Code? daouzek 12 A A B B C C D D E E F F G G H H I I J J K K L L M M N N O O P P Q Q R R S S T T U U V V W W X X Y Y Z Z 1. french 2. japanese japanese 3. portuguese portuguese 4. icelandic 5. ukrainian 6. welsh 7. greek 8. cantonese cantonese 9. tagalog 10. german 11. breton 12. punjabi
Puzzle Corner Solution from issue 14 1. Spanish 2. German 3. Italian 4. English 5. Portuguese 6. Polish 7. Icelandic 8. Gaelic 9. Finnish 10. Norwegian 11. Hungarian 12. Romanian 13. Turkish 14. Croatian 15. Irish 16. Arabic 17. Punjabi 18. Japanese 19. Mandarin 20. Xhosa 21. Burmese 22. Hindi trizek 13
to all the children and teachers who have contributed their work to Write Away!