TP-Issue14.5

This lesson is great if you want pupils to burn off some energy because the topic of body parts lends itself well to kinaesthetic learning. If the weather allows, it’s a great activity to do outside or in a larger area such as the hall. Use this plan to introduce or reinforce the concept of gender in nouns, which many English-speaking children find puzzling, as well as highlighting the plural form. The examples below are given in French but the activities can be used with any language. 1 | BODY PARTS Ask pupils to stand up. Introduce the eight body parts in French by pointing to your own body and asking the children to repeat. Start with the easier, singular words – le nez (nose); la bouche (mouth – push your lips forward to emphasise the pronunciation); la tête (head). Then move onto the more difficult ones – les yeux (eyes); les oreilles (ears); les épaules (shoulders); les genoux (knees); les pieds (feet). After you’ve introduced a word, and it’s been repeated with a gesture, go back to the first word and ask children to repeat that, then the second word and so on, before moving onto the next new word so that the children have maximum practice in listening and pronunciation. Say a body part and ask pupils to point to it on themselves. Steadily increase the speed to increase the challenge. Play ‘Shout it out.’ You call out a body part in French and the pupils shout out the English translation, then vice versa. To make it harder, and really keep the children on their toes, alternate randomly between French and English. 2 | SING A SONG Sing ‘Heads, shoulders, knees and toes’ in French: Tête, épaules, genoux et pieds (genoux et pieds), Tête, épaules, genoux et pieds (genoux et pieds), J’ai deux yeux, deux oreilles, 76 | www.teachwire.net START HERE MAIN LESSON WHAT THEY’LL LEARN l Vocabulary for parts of the body l Know that all nouns in French are either masculine or feminine l Recognise the plural form of nouns l Listen carefully and improve their pronunciation through a well-known song MFL KS 2 LES SON PLAN Play a game of ‘Simon says’ in English as the starter. As well as being a good mental and physical warm-up, and being very popular with children, it helps to prevent any misunderstanding of the body parts you’re going to be teaching. Children can think ‘la tête’ means ‘hair’ if you touch your head and ‘les genoux’ means ‘legs’. This is a quick way of avoiding ambiguity without having to translate into English. Make sure that you use only the eight words they’ll need for the song they’ll sing next: head, shoulders, knees, toes, eyes, ears, mouth and nose. @amandabook2 Learn French body parts with a song Get pupils up and active as you introduce the idea of gender in nouns, says Amanda Barton