Tech Thursday: Birds Dessinés

I am linking again with the Teaching Trio for their weekly Technology Thursday linky.

Today, I am sharing a FREE website called Birds Dessinés where you can create bird comic strips like this one:

Ericiel Dubois

It is incredibly easy to use: simply drag the bird(s) you want to use, add speech bubbles and enter your text! Once you're done, you can download your comic as a picture.

Although it is a French website, you can create your bird comic strip in any language :)

Click on the image below to start creating your first bird comic strip:

 Thanks for reading and don't forget to check out other bloggers' tech tips by clicking on the button below:

Paris ZiZag

I love everything about Paris: the big boulevards, the beautiful buildings, the chic boutiques, the boat rides on the river Seine, the best croissants EVER... Needless to say that every time I see something interesting about Paris, I have to share it with my pupils!

 

ZigZag is a great website about bars, restaurants, hotels, culture and secret parts of Paris to discover. This latter section is really captivating and can be used in a multitude of ways. The posts are usually quite short, perfect for comprehension work. There is also a smaller English section, which is great for less advanced learners. Children will discover hidden, 'insolite' parts of Paris they (and even you) have never heard of!

 

Click on the picture to access the site

 

MYLO: A New Way to Learn Languages?

I am linking with the Teaching Trio for their Technology Thursday linky to share a FREE website to learn French, Spanish, German or Chinese.

 

 

This site is called MYLO and, although it is based on the British curriculum (the site was developed for UK's Department of Education), it is suitable for any young language learner. Tasks & activities are levelled from 1 being the easiest to 8 being the most challenging. The characters are cute geometric shapes:

 

The site has 2 main sections: I need the basics, which introduces vocabulary and provides plenty of practice, and I'd like a challenge, which gives children a fun project to work through such as designing a Football Kit or putting together a look for Paris Fashion Week :)

 

How it can be improved: I think it is a shame that the site does not provide any authentic materials apart from the audios. Although the graphics are cute, the characters could have been placed into more authentic looking settings... This said, I really like the I'd like a challenge section, which puts the language children have learnt into context.

Remember to check out other bloggers' posts by clicking on the button below:

 

Currently November

November... Really??!

I am linking for the first time with Farley's Currently linky!

Listening:

Since my older daughter got a keyboard for her birthday, she doesn't spend a day without practising! Not that I'm complaining of course!

Loving:

I'm loving my classroom so much that I'm spending way too much time in there! I have decided to write a separate blog post about it as I was going on for way too long!!!

Thinking:

Am I the only one who gets seriously depressed in November?!! I don't really like rain, mud, wind, cold, red noses or root vegetables!!! And as much as I love the autumnal colours (on photos), I don't enjoy this type of weather at all. Sorry to all the fall lovers! For me, there is only one thing to look forward to: my birthday!!!

My favourite season has to be late spring, I love blossoming cherry trees, birds singing, flowers and sunny days without it being too hot :)

Wanting:

I love creating products for my TpT store, but it takes me SO long to get something done and ready to sell. I have SO many clip arts waiting for resources to be created...

Needing:

I really need to spend less time marking and I've been looking for marking stickers. I have found these really cute, time-saving and FREE stickers on Twinkl and I'm so excited about using them!

Click on the image to go straight to the download page :)

 

All I need now is to buy the blank Avery speech bubble sticker sheets which they sell on their site. Twinkl currently only ships to the UK but I've got a colleague who's going there at Christmas and she's offered to bring the stickers back to Kenya for me!

 

Twinkl is such a cute website which has tons of resources, a lot of which are FREE. They also have a small French section :) Although they are UK based, they also have a smaller selection of products which they sell on their TpT store.

Reading:

I am supposed to be reading Le Cas Eduard Einstein by Laurent Seksik at the moment, but I've been reading blogs far too much lately. It's so much fun!

Thanks for reading and don't forget to check out other bloggers' currently posts! Click on the image below to join the linky!

iFakeText

iFakeText is a great website which enables you & your pupils to create fake iPhone text conversations such as this one:

You can use this site to create a dialogue to introduce a certain topic, or get the pupils to create their own fake text messages. They can screenshot their text conversations and upload them onto Padlet or a similar platform for you to assess their work.

What could be improved: the accents will not show up properly when using the download option, so pupils will need to screenshot their conversations instead :(



*FREE* FILM RESOURCES!

Les Films du Préau is a great website with TONS of FREE film resources including posters, trailers, clips, reading materials, accompanying worksheets and more!!!  If you are looking for resources to go with a film you already have, or if you want to show short extracts for language practice, this site is the one for you! There are so many films to choose from!

Click on the image below to access the site :)

Film titles and Wikipedia

Hello everyone!

J'aime 'Amis' (I love 'Friends'), J'adore 'Congelé' (I love 'Frozen')...

Translating titles is quite a challenging task for pupils, particularly when some titles are translated, some aren't, and some are completely changed to suit the language!!!

But I have the solution! Wikipedia for once can be a reliable source and gives the correct film titles in France (or anywhere!).

Pupils simply go on Wikipedia, enter the name of the film in English (for example: Frozen), then 'français' from the left sidebar and TA DA!

Have fun searching for different film titles with your pupils! You can also give them a list of French film titles and ask them to guess which films they are!

Ma France - French Video Course for Post Beginners

Hello everyone,

First of all:

Happy New Year!

I've just come across an online 24-unit video course designed by the BBC and called Ma France. Each unit includes 3 videos on a chosen topic such as directions, hotel requests, eating out, football, etc. In each unit, the first video (A) concentrates on introducing topic-related vocabulary and grammar, the second video (B) focuses on a cultural aspect and in the third video (C), the interviewees are given a challenge! All videos are shot in France, with native speakers.

Pupils can watch the videos with or without subtitles and subtitles are available in French and/or in English. If you have a fast connection, I recommend that you choose the interactive flash version.

Now this is what it looks like:

              

For each unit, teachers can also download suggested activities which give additional guidance on how best to use the videos in the classroom.

Hope you find this resource useful!

Audio Lingua

Hi everyone!

I've just bumped into a website and am really excited to share it with you! It is called Audio Lingua and it has over 3000 short mp3 files in 10 different languages, of which 455 are in French!

The files are on a variety of topics (recipes, hobbies, opinion on books, films or TV, etc.). They are authentic materials recorded by native speakers only. These files can be listened to online or they can be downloaded. You can also contribute and upload your own recordings on the website. All you then need to do is create your own teaching materials to go alongside these audio recordings.
 

Have a great weekend!

A Website Full of Free Language Resources!!!

Hi all,

Are you looking for some free resources for your French lessons? Keep reading!

Find tons of worksheets and other materials on iSLCOLLECTIVE French! The beauty of this site is that all the materials are completely FREE! So have fun browsing through ;D

For lovely, colourful materials, check these two contributors: Bea1901 and Nattik. Simply click on the pictures below to view their contributions:

Bea1901

 

Nattik

Have a lovely weekend!

Passeport pour la Francophonie

Hello!

I've just found this very exciting interactive website called Passeport pour la Francophonie which you can use at the start of the year, on the international day of 'Francophonie' or at any other time of the year!

Once you've clicked on a country (France, Egypt, Gabon, Madagascar or Polynesia), you are taken to a series of activities related to the country chosen, from vocabulary lists (with sound to practise pronunciation) to stories, videos and challenges, with supporting materials and guidance on how to use them. A great way of raising cultural awareness wilst having fun!



Hope you and your pupils enjoy this!

Welcome to my Blog!

Hello everyone and welcome to my new blog!

Today I want to talk to you about my little addiction to My Little Paris. Apart from the fact that the illustrations are simply beautiful, the site has some very good 'insolite' stories and articles which I regularly pin and share with my pupils. I also LOVE My Little Radio, which is a list of playlists (English and French tracks) for every situation... To listen to with or without pupils around! You'll need to sign up to DEEZER to listen to the tracks.

Have a nice day!