Resources galore

Primary Spanish provider Speekee has shared 61 items on TES Resources that incorporate clear planning and progression, imaginative use of authentic language in engaging video clips and creative activity ideas to develop language use, writes Rachel Hawkes.

“Hello and thank you” is a video clip that shows a school bus driver handing a lunchbox to each child who climbs aboard. It offers an authentic scenario for repetition of very simple dialogue and a full explanation for teachers about how to build up learners’ use of language so that it becomes automatic.

The “Happy, Sad” video has Antonio and Lucia hiding behind fans, then revealing their faces to show how they are feeling - happy (contento) or sad (triste). It comes with a fan-making template.

The “Road safety” video contains a song with safety verbs, nouns and colours, for pupils to sing along.

Each video has worksheets and a pronunciation guide. www.speekee.co.uk

What else?

BBC Class Clips’ animated tales of love, conflict and revenge will have primary and beginner language learners gripped.

The short clips retell classic stories in French, Spanish or German, and give pupils an authentic, entertaining listening experience. Stories include The Tortoise and the Hare, The Butterfly Lovers and Anansi and Turtle. Many can also be streamed in English to help pupils with translations. After you have taught key vocabulary, treat pupils to an end-of-lesson animation, seeing what words they can pick out. Who can summarise the story? Who can translate the most key words? On second viewing, work through a couple of scenes in detail, focusing on grammar points. Finish by encouraging pupils to create their own stories for homework.