Jan Lewandowski

La Poste in France has just issued a pack of 2 ready-stamped postcards which is ideal for primary children to send back to home &/or school in the UK.

It looks really easy to complete in simple language with boxes to tick for the weather and word and symbol stickers to add. Price 4,20 €

I’m off to France soon so will buy a pack and send one to myself; that leaves one spare, anybody want me to send them the other one? I promise to fill it in in very simple French so your class can read it easily. You’ll need to send an address!

Colleagues who are planning school visits to France may be interested to
know about the `Happy Packs’ that are available from the Eurotunnel desk
inside the Eurotunnel terminal. They contain stickers, pencil, coloured
pencils, activity book, pairs game, other games, word search and a postcard.

All of the activities are easy and suitable for KS2 age range.

All instructions are in both French and English and the pack is free of charge.
Contents and activities vary from year to year, so, with luck, the children won’t get the same pack on subsequent visits.

I have been told that it is not possible to order the packs in advance
therefore they have to be collected by children or staff on the day from the
desk. It seems a pity that teachers can’t build these packs into their
planning for the trip; nevertheless they are worth having if you can get
them and should certainly occupy the children for the length of time they
are actually in the Tunnel!

If you’re considering organising a school trip, Rouen is another great place to visit. Packed with interesting historical and artistic associations: Joan of Arc (Jeanne d’Arc) was burned at the stake there and Monet painted the famous cathedral at many different times of day. If you can’t get to Rouen in person, you might like to take a look at this illustrated alphabet which uses a collage technique taken from an XV Century tapestry from the Bibliotheque Municipal in Rouen.

I contacted the designer Virgile Laguin who was very happy to let me use the illustration on this site. I love his original, quirky, innovative work; so many educational websites are just plain ugly! (Sorry personal rant over). I don’t suggest you use the alphabet all in one go in its entirety but for the odd five minute now and again I think it’s a winner! You’ll need to explain some of the words here and there and possibly some of the humour, but this is a ‘sophisticated’ little resource which might appeal to Year 6 or work as a resource for secondary transition and it has plenty of potential to form the basis of some creative arts and/or language work.

Many are the school visits I’ve run to Normandy and a favourite day trip has always been to the Bayeux Tapestry or as the French call it ‘La Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde’. I’m always astounded by the length, skill and detail of the tapestry and how you go round a corner and there’s yet more and more. The children are usually equally interested, especially after they’ve seen the excellent presentation beforehand. One year, a boy in my class wanted a particularly close look at the tapestry as apparently one of his ancestors was in it! He must have had precise instructions from his mum as to where to find the said ancestor but still we managed to miss him (not surprising really as he was one of the many dead and injured scattered around the battlefield.

Anyway, I was allowed to accompany my pupil along the tapestry one more time and this time we found him! It really brought history to life for us and his mum was really pleased that we’d found the ancestor. There’s a fantastic video of the Bayeux Tapestry. It’s in English but would be really good for doing some cross-curricular work. Do take a look!

I came across this little song video today from French theatre company Les2vents

If there is a problem with buffering go straight to YouTube.

This is one resource that does exactly what it says on the box, if not the tin!

Gill Simpson has brought together her experience of primary language teaching and her own teaching materials and has put the results into a box or rather a series of boîtes in French. She has included everything the busy teacher might need to teach a particular topic in French.

Boîte à français covers a range of common topics for teaching primary French and there are more topic boxes to come.

You will find a superb selection of flashcards, ready-made games, lesson plans, CD-ROM, a pupil book and a teacher book to show you exactly how to use them. There are even themed illustrated incentive stickers!  Everything is of the highest quality and designed to last; all visuals and game cards are professionally laminated, all illustrations are in full colour and beautifully designed. It’s even possible to purchase a separate set of die-cut visuals to use for almost instant display.

It seems that Gill has thought of everything; this resource will save hours of preparation but it is neither prescriptive nor too difficult for the non-specialist and will complement any scheme of work.

I ran a whole-school event this month with my colleague Lisa Nickell-Lean at Sutton on the Forest primary school in North Yorkshire for all Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 children.

On the day we had stories, sang songs, ate French food, played games and bought ice creams.

Some children who had never done languages before got a real sense of achievement when they learnt how to buy ice creams, ready for their summer holidays - some of them even paid in Euros for the first time.