Languages

Ages 11-14

This is a simple starter or plenary that involves cut-out letters in envelopes. Pupils work in pairs, competing to see who can make a word in the target language the quickest. Use music as a time limit.

To start with, the aim could be to make as many words as possible in the target language by the end of the song. Next time it could be a word starting with a particular letter, or of four or more letters, and so on.

An even simpler way of starting a lesson is to write a letter up on the board or interactive screen and ask pupils to think of as many words as they can starting with that letter within a timescale.

This makes pupils think for themselves and revise words from previous lessons.

Fliss Compton teaches languages at Woodlands School in Basildon, Essex.