October 2003Issue Fifteen

LANG EdizioniPBM Editori Spacorso Trapani, 16 - 10139 TorinoFax 011 75021510per informazioni: uffici di Milano, Tel 02 74823207E-mail: primary@langedizioni.comhttp://www.langedizioni.com

The new school year has justbegun, revision is underway forclasses returning and children inthe first year of Primary schoolare being introduced to theEnglish language for the first time.Teachers in first year classesshould pay special attention tonot only teaching the Englishlanguage but also to teaching thechildren what behaviour isacceptable when doing the verydifferent exercises they are givenin the classroom. The waychildren are taught to behavewhen they encounter pair work,group work, manipulative andmovement exercises for the firsttime will stay with them for manyyears in the future. New classes and new faces for the teacher mean newchallenges. LANG Edizioniis by the teacher’s side offeringnot only innovative teachingmaterials but also help andsupport through our seminarprogramme and internet services.This issue of LANG Primary

includes many interestingarticles as well as materialswhich can be photocopied

and used in the classroom.We have also included a newschool year calendar to brightenyour classroom walls.

IndexTime Capsule Project – part 2 p 2Arts and crafts in the classroom p 6Conventions p 7Worksheet – Halloween p 8Kids’ Corner p 9Interactive CD ROMs p 13Worksheet – Halloween p 14Worksheet – Halloween p 15AMREF – The stolen school project p 16Sounds like fun p 18Class Project p 19

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INSIDE!INSIDE!BEAUTIFUL NEW SCHOOL YEAR

CALENDAR

BEAUTIFUL NEW SCHOOL YEAR

CALENDAR

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School project

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In the first part of this article (LANG Primary 14, May 2003) I described making a summer holiday timecapsule and in this second part I am going to illustrate ways of planning a school time capsule project tocarry out through the school year.

The making of a school time capsule The making of a school time capsule can be tackledin a variety of ways. It can be an ambitious cross-curricular project that involves a number of classeswhere serious effort and planning is put in tomaking something that will endure a long time– and make sense to future generations – or it maysimply be something that will help your pupils usetheir English and mother-tongue for focussing ontheir family, friends and environment, withoutworrying too much about how long the materialswill last or who will find them.

Whatever your objectives are, making a timecapsule is an excellent opportunity for children towork together creatively on a variety of themes ona long-term ongoing project that will keep theirmotivation and interest high.

During this project the pupils will spend time:

a. learning what a time capsule is, andreflecting on how important historicalartefacts can help understand the past

b. carrying out a survey to help decide whatkind of container to use, what to put in thecapsule, where to bury it and when to open it

c. planning and organising a sealing andburying ceremony

d. using the internet, possibly with theirteachers, to carry out research for this projectfor ideas and to see other schools’ timecapsules which have been buried and/oropened over the years.

What is a time capsule? The time capsule project should be carefullypresented to the pupils and awareness can becreated of how important artefacts are for historianslooking back into the past. Pupils can beencouraged to look back through their historybooks for photos of artefacts.There are many time capsules that have helpedhistorians discover whole cultures and people, forexample, Pompei and the pyramids in Egypt. Pupils can also exchange experiences aboutmuseums they have visited and even objects theyhave at home that belonged to their great-grandparents and that aren’t used nowadays. Theannual school trip could include a visit to a localmuseum with artefacts from their ancestors’ past.

With the teacher, pupils should prepare aquestionnaire to be used to interview people aboutwhat to put inside the capsule. It is not an easychoice. For example: What kind of things do wewant people to remember us, and our school, by?

Factors to consider include:• significance – what will it mean to the peopledigging it up?• interest – will they find it of interest?• durability of the materials – will the documentsand materials survive the test of time?• quantity and size of the objects – will they fit inour capsule?• compatibility of materials – will some of thematerials become damaged over time? – i.e.newspapers can deteriorate within a few months.• the likely future availability of technology toreplace objects such as audiotapes (for this kind ofmaterial a maximum twenty-year burial would bebetter)

School projectMaking a Time Capsule • part 2

Sarah M. Howell

There are two kinds of things you can put in: itemsthat show our world as it is now, and those that arepersonal to individuals and their families.

Compile the results of your survey. Decide whatmost of the students think should be included inthe capsule.

Size of itemsYou must decide how big the capsule will be.Deduct the amount of space needed by the teacherfor project work and then decide the size of thepersonal item that each student may contribute.Give the pupils some examples of what might goin, and tell them what cannot go in, and why.

Possible items to be placed in the capsule:• Videos of TV shows. Videos and cassette tapemay not last more than a few decades. (If you areserious about making something that will last ageneration or two - formats for anything high tech,change so rapidly that videos, computer disks, CDROMs and so on may be useless in a few years.) • Photographs (colour photos are not very durableand should not be wrapped in paper. Just seal themin an airtight plastic bag and lay them flat). • Coins • Pictures and information about animals thatmay soon be extinct • A copy of a TV and entertainment guide• Labels from tins and packets of food • The local and national paper of your choice(NB. Newspapers are very poor in quality andshould be double packed so they don’tcontaminate other materials. It is probably better tophotocopy an article from the newspaper).

Other more personal items could include:

• Last year’s diary – especially if it is more of ajournal

• Locks of hair

• Favourite recipes

• ‘A Day in the Life’ – where students and othermembers of their families, describe a typical day

• A favourite book, or some book reviews

• Something about pets – a dog’s lead, forinstance, or a cat’s favourite squeaky toy

• A toy

• School timetables and reports

• Photos of students and their families, with awritten description of each member by eachstudent

• A map of the area

• Copies of birth and marriage certificates, and otherdocumentary evidence of important stages of life.

Choosing the capsuleIf you want your capsule to last, you need to makeit air and watertight. An airtight seal is important ifmoisture, dirt and insects are to be excluded fromthe capsule. For extra durability, the followingmaterials can be used:Above ground – plastic-coated or enamelled metalwhich are very long lasting durable materials.Below ground – Good quality stainless steel orcopper containers. On the other hand, if durability is less of a concern,just about any box will do, although it must besealed to prevent little hands sneaking back in.

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Planning the curriculum with the time capsule

The preparation and collection of materials can bebased on two-monthly themes that involve differentschool subjects. Here is an example:

OCTOBEROur community (English, Italian, History, Science)What is a time capsule? What would you place ina time capsule? Why? Make a questionnaire and interview classmates,parents, relations and members of the community(teachers, doctors, shopkeepers, and the mayor).Interviews can be recorded onto audio/video tapein English and Italian or written out by the pupils.

DECEMBEROur lives (English, Italian, Art, PE)Documentation of pupils’ lives now. What theylook like; the clothes they wear; their dailyroutine, hobbies and interests, etc. Written,pictorial, audio and video material can besupplied to support this.

FEBRUARYOur future (English, Italian, Art, Science)What pupils will be doing20 years in the future? E.g.What they will look like,what their schools will belike, what new inventionswill make their lives different?Pictorial and writtendocumentation, video of project work,experiments, etc.

APRILOur school today (All subjects involved) Photos and video of the school grounds,classrooms and lessons. Maps, models andpictures of the school. Guided tour of the school.Interview with the Principal.

MAYCountdown event (All subjects involved)Display of materials, pupils’ presentation of work,teachers’ presentation of projects.Open evening for parents and members of thecommunity to join in.Whole school photo, signatures of all the students

and staff, selection of items to go in the capsuleand a chance for the community to see workat a public display.

MAY/JUNETime Capsule ceremony(All subjects involved)Sealing and burying the capsule.Photographic and video

documentation should be made and given tothe principal of the school as well as themayor for the Town Council records office.

Placing the items in your capsule. Make sure they are all marked appropriately.Remember to include the personal details of eachperson working on the project and a referencenumber – then tag each artefact with the referencenumber. Each artefact should have a writtendescription about it.

Opening dateDetermine the date for the capsule to be opened.Get the pupils to think very hard about this. If it isopened too soon, it may have little “historical”value but the pupils will get to see it. If the timecapsule is prepared at the beginning of the Primaryschool it could be opened, for example, at the endof Secondary education.If you set a long term date it will be an artefact foryour ancestors and of historical interest. This dateneeds to be written down and given to the principalfor safekeeping, and must be passed to all futureprincipals.

Time capsule theme calendar

Informing people about the project and the opening date

Compose a letter to the parents and local counciltelling them about the project: all the details aboutwhat it is, what they need to contribute, thedeadlines, examples of items, and when thecapsule will be opened.

Make them all feel a special part of this project.Hold an open evening – countdown where peoplecan view the materials on display and teachers-pupils can present their work

Whilst working on the project, allpupils should have theopportunity to create or collectan object that they feel reflectsthis moment in time. They couldbe given a written assignment(L1) asking them to talk about thereasons for their choice. Theyshould also be asked to reflect onthe project and say what theythought about working on theproject, what they havecontributed and what theythought about the final project.

You can view examples of work and gain furtherinformation from the followinglinks:

http://www.ustimecapsule.com Sample questionnaires for use in making time capsules.

http://www.oglethorpe.edu/itcsThe site of the International Time Capsule Society. It has a lotof information on time capsules, with links to articles andother informative sites.

http://www.si.edu/scrme/educationoutreach/tcregister.htmlThe Smithsonian Institution’s site about time capsules.

Time capsule ceremony

Hold a special sealing andburying ceremony day witheverybody present. Encourage allthe students and teachers to takephotographs. Give a speech. As part of thespeech you might wish todescribe some of the itemsstudents have put in.

EIGHT TIPS ON HOW TO ORGANIZE A TIME CAPSULE

1 Select a retrieval date. A 50-year or less time capsule may bewitnessed by your own generation. The longer the duration, the

more difficult the task. Centennial (100-year) time capsules are popular.

2 Choose a “Time capsule manager”. A project team is a good idea,but a single person needs to be in charge of the project.

3 Choose the container carefully. A safe is a good choice. As long asthe interior is cool, dry and dark, artefacts can be preserved.

4 Find a secure location. If you are going to bury it in the school’sgrounds, make sure the location is marked with a plaque describing

the “mission” of the time capsule and the date it should be retrieved.

5 Make sure the items are safe for time storage. Try to have a selectionof items from the sublime to the trivial. The “Project manager”

should make an inventory of all the items sealed in the time capsule.

6 Have a proper “sealing and burial ceremony” where you formallygive the time capsule a name. Invite the local newspapers and TV

and a photographer to the event. Make it a real school event.

7 Make good photographic documentation of all the various phases ofthe project, including the items inside the capsule itself.

8 Many time capsules get buried and forgotten about forever! Makesure people do not forget about the capsule. Send an invitation letter

informing the local council, the authorities, the local media, libraries andall the parents of the opening date. Have special “countdown” boardmade and hung up in the entrance of the school with how may monthsor years to go to the opening. Hold anniversary events and reunions withthe teachers and students who worked on the project every five-ten years.

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LANG Primary always includes ideas for childrento use their creative and manipulative skills in the classroom. In this article Joanna examinesthe background and methodological implicationsof asking children to create teaching/learningmaterials.

Using arts and crafts in the language classroomEnglish teachers today are in the lucky position thatwhen they open a course book, a resource book forteachers or even this magazine, they can find anextensive array of activities involving arts and craftsand making things. They range from designing masks, puppets andmobiles to making booklets, bookmarks or greetingcards for every occasion.Apart from the obvious and enormous fun derivedfrom being creative, we should also consider themany other benefits and advantages that art and craftlessons can bring to children learning English.

Non linguistic benefitsMany of these benefits are not directly linguistic butare all the same invaluable. With very young learnersart and craft activities can help develop co-ordination and manipulative skills. This type oflesson encourages co-operation and children learnto share and explore together. They have anopportunity to express themselves as individuals andhave something to aspire to. Making something,even something very simple, can foster pride inachievement, especially as the final product can bedisplayed in the classroom or taken home to parents.These important factors help make a positive andenjoyable learning environment that can lead tosuccessful acquisition of English.Art and craft activities and lessons can also providea focus on cultural awareness especially if they arelinked to festivities and special occasions. Making acard for Mother’s Day, a pumpkin mask or mobilebat for Halloween or even a cardboard teapotbecause the English like tea (see Sunshine 2) arevisual and concrete examples to back up andillustrate cultural learning.

Linguistic benefitsAlthough we can think of making things as primarilyinvolving the development of motor skills, theseactivities are also an excellent vehicle for directlydeveloping linguistic skills. Art and craft activitiescan create opportunities for real and meaningfullanguage practice, they provide an environmentwhere not the end product itself but rather theprocess involved to obtain it is not the mostimportant thing. A craft lesson is an ideal way forchildren to assimilate language, for examplelistening to instructions given by the teacher. It canalso help interaction in English between the studentsand the teacher or the students with other students.For example they can request things such as glue,scissors, paper, etc. or ask for help.

When doing arts and crafts and making things in thelesson, the phrases, words and language the teacheruses in English can be the real reason for the lesson.Remember children first learn by listening andabsorbing. The following are steps to follow to help the teachermaximise the use of English during a craft lesson andso maximise the students’ exposure to it:

• Show the children what they are going to makeand talk about it in general first. Elicit vocabulary todescribe the object. For example, if it is a face mask,talk about the eyes, nose, mouth, etc. Are they big orsmall? What colour are they? If making somethingconnected with a festival such as the bat on page 14for Halloween, elicit other vocabulary about thefestival such as witches, pumpkins, cats, etc.

• Think about and prepare the language touse in instructions such as Draw aroundlike this, Cut it out like this, Stick thishere.

• Think about the kind ofthings the children might sayto you in Italian and plan howto rephrase their comments andquestions in English.

Joanna CarterBe craftycrafty and crcreativeeativewith ENGLISH!

• Demonstrate how to make the object to the classfirst, using the prepared instructions and very simpleclear gestures.

• Divide the class into small groups and when theybegin making the object themselves, go roundrepeating the instructions to each group.

• Display what the children have made and givelots of praise in English.

Art and craft lessons also provide the opportunity forthe students to interact. They can ask the teacher for the different materialsthey need at various stages of the lesson. The teachercan also encourage the children to say where thematerials are in the classroom. For example, Whatdo you need? The glue. Where is it? It’s on the shelf.The children can also describe what they have madein terms of shape, colour and size.

Craft work as a language resourceLanguage practice need not stop with the craftlesson itself. The finished product can be used as aresource for further linguistic development. Forexample, children can make puppets of thecharacters in a story and then use the puppets toretell the story. The teacher can do a colourdictation to make flashcards and then these can beused to revise vocabulary at a later date. Childrencan make illustrated books and folders wherelexical sets of vocabulary, adjective words, or evensongs and poems can be recorded.

Arts and crafts are fun and rewarding andcreate a welcome break in the normalroutine of lessons. However they also provideone of the few environments in which studentscan listen to and produce languagenaturally. The end product is a source ofgreat satisfaction but the language itgenerates in the process ofits making can beeven moresatisfying.

Here are the details of some of the Conventionsplanned for the coming scholastic year which

will be of special interest to teachers in the scuolaPrimaria. We have included the email contacts,should teachers want further details (please mentionthat you read LANG Primary).

British Council – NaplesConference for teachers of EnglishHotel Terminus NaplesOctober 23-24Tel 081 578 8247Email: annamaria.vorraro@britishcouncil.it

British Council – MilanEnglish Language Teaching ConferenceNovember 14-15, 2003via Manzoni 38 – Milanlucia.legnazzi@britishcouncil.it

XXVIII TESOL – Italy National ConventionLanguage and identityNovember 21-22, 2003Grand Hotel Parco dei Principivia G. Frescobaldi 5 – RomeEmail: tesol@usis.it

Venice – 2004 - The British Council AnnualConvention for TeachersVenice - March 18-20, 2004 Email: anna.manzi@britishcouncil.it

LANGPrimaryLANGPrimarykeeping the teacher informed

CONVENTIONSCONVENTIONS

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This game can be played by dividing the class into two teams or into pairs.

Pairs: Give a copy of the grid to each student. Tell them to draw in thesquares of their choice (without showing their partner):

Find the CreepyHHaalllloowweeeenn Creatures

They then take it in turns to discover where their partner has‘hidden’ these halloween creatures and score points. Give a timelimit. At the end the student with the most points wins.

LLAANNGGUUAAGGEE TTOO UUSSEE

BATIs there a GHOST in B2, E1 etc.?

PUMPKIN

Yes. There is. No. There isn’t.

55 bats 33 ghosts and 11 pumpkin.

bats = 2 pointsghosts = 5 points

pumpkin = 10 points

1 2 3 4 5 6

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W O R K S H E E T

go to page 14

Back to schoolBack to school

W elcome back to school! Asthe reader will notice thereis a change in the format of

the Kids’Corner in this issue of LANGPrimary. The activities we include are

usually dedicated to the various festivities andholidays that occur near the season of the issue.However, as we have already published numerousactivities linked to Halloween in previous issuesand they are all downloadable from the LANG website at www.langedizioni.com, the Kids’Corner inthis issue is dedicated to teaching on the theme ofClassroom language.

The majority of children relate learning a foreignlanguage to learning to speak it, and becauselearning their own language was relatively easy theyexpect learning a foreign language to be the same.They want immediate results, which are needed iftheir motivation is to be maintained. They need asmany opportunities as possible to use the languageso that they feel that they are making progress andfulfilling their expectations, which makes itimportant that the children leave the lesson withEnglish, English that they can use, in their “pockets”.

At the very beginning of language learning, notmuch spontaneous speech can be expected, sochildren should learn to produce what is called“formulaic” language, in other words, patterns androutines such as:

•simple greetings: Hello! How are you?

•social English: See you next Tuesday!

•routines: What’s the date today?

•classroom language: Listen. Repeat. Be quiet!

•asking permission: Can I go to the toilet, please?

•communication strategies: I don’t understand.Can I have a…, please? Can I go to the toilet,please?

Children will memorise these patterns making iteasier for them to take part in and maintaincommunication in English without having a greatdeal of linguistic competence. By using this type oflanguage regularly the children are able to learn itquickly, giving them the impression that they canspeak a lot, thus building their confidence andstimulating their motivation.The teacher, of course, will have to decide howmuch of the general classroom language is to be inthe student’s mother tongue and how much inEnglish and how gradually this type of language isto be introduced. Therefore, we can say it is useful to begin theschool year by teaching the children not onlyvocabulary for basic concepts such as numbers,colours, etc., which provide an important basis forfuture learning, but also by including the teachingof seemingly difficult formulaic language too.

Kids’CornerJohn Batty

Kids’Corneris a special section

dedicated to very young learners.

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Activity 1: Name Cards

What you do:• Photocopy on to white card - one name

tag for each student.• Students then cut them out, colour them and write their names in

large capital letters. You might want to colour code them for teamwork by photocopying directly on to colour card.

• Tape the safety pin to the back of the name tag. With smallerchildren paper clips are safer.

Comments:The name tags are good for getting to know each other. Givingtheir English equivalent i.e. John-Giovanni is very motivating

and also good for pronunciation and sound recognition.

What you need:White cardSafety pin/paper clipAdhesive tape

Activity 2: Body Outline

What you do:• Put the students into pairs.• Tell them they are going to draw

around one another (remember to givethem a demonstration first).

• One student lies on the paper and theother draws round him/her in pencil, so as not dirty their clothes.The students then go over the outline in black marker.

• The children paint “themselves”. Here you can tell them to paintthe legs blue and the hands green, for example, or paint someblue trousers and a red T-shirt, etc.

• When they have finished and the paint is dry, they can put theirname tags on it or paint their names in big capital letters on theposter. Then they can hang them up around the class or along thecorridors of the school.

Comments:The posters are ideal to use with speech bubbles.

Activity 3: Speech Bubbles

What you do: • Use the flashcards to teach/elicit/revise

classroom vocabulary. Then mime withthe flashcards to elicit: Can I go to thetoilet? - Have you got a pen? - I don’tunderstand, etc.

• Put the children into groups.• Before class prepare strips of card with the elicited questions in

English and in Italian (colour code them to match the students’name tags). One set per group/team.

What you need: 1 oversize piece of whitepaper for each student(big enough for a childto lie on)

Marker pens and pencilsPaint and brushes

What you need: A4 paper PhotocopierColour pensFlashcards of classroomvocabulary (pen, paper,pencil, glass of water,toilet, etc.)

• Pin the flashcards around the class.• Tell the students that they are going to have a race

and that the first team to stick all the correctEnglish questions with Italian translations underthe correct flashcards wins.

• Enlarge and photocopy the practised questions inthe speech bubbles for the students to colour inand pin on their body outline posters.

Comments: Leave the Italian translations near the speechbubbles and gradually take them down asthey get to know them. If a student asks youa question in L1 tell him/her you do notunderstand and ask him/her to repeatand, if necessary, take him/her to thecorrect bubble and repeat with him/her.

What you do:Make flashcards from the domino game:• Enlarge the dominoes and photocopy them onto

card (pictures only).• Teach/elicit the vocabulary and drill

pronunciation.• Give each student a piece of paper and tell them to

draw (a large drawing) one of the objects or verbsand on the back of the paper write a tick or a cross.It might be better if teacher tells the students whatto draw and whether to put a tick or a cross.

• Do a “mill drill”. The students hold up their card

with the picture facingoutwards and the tickor cross facing inwards.

• The students walkaround the class (as if they were at a party)looking at the cards of the other students askingHave you got a pen?, Can I go to the toilet? etc.The student who is being asked looks at the backof his/her card, answering yes or no dependingon whether there is a tick or a cross.

• The first person to get six positive answers sitsdown or wins.

Activity 4: Simon Says Snakes and Ladders

What you do:• Enlarge and photocopy the snakes and ladders

game board onto card or paper.• Give each group of three-four students a game

board, a coin and three-four counters.• Tell them they must all start from the beginning

using the counters to indicate where they are.• To start the first student flips the coin: heads is

one space forward and tails is two.• If the student lands on an instruction the rest of the

group shout the instruction. If they shout Simonsays stand up, the student has to stand up but ifthey don’t say Simon says… the student mustn’tstand up or he/she will have to go back a space.

• If the student lands on the bottom of a ladderhe/she goes to the top of the ladder and continuesfrom there on the next turn but if he/she lands ona snake’s head the student slides down to the endof the snake.

• The first one to finish wins.

Comments:If the students are non-

readers you cansubstitute the words

with pictures

Activity 5: Flashcard Game

What you need:A4 pieces of paperPhotocopier1 coin per groupCounters

What you need:Sheets of cardPhotocopierCopies of dominoes(Activity 6)

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Activity 6: Classroom Dominoes

What you do:• Put students into groups of 3-4 and give

them one set of cards.• Each student is given/dealt four cards

and the rest are left in a pile in themiddle of the table.

• The first student puts any card down onthe table.

• The next student puts down a card thatcorresponds with the card already onthe table (picture + word/phrase or viceversa). If the student hasn’t got a cardthat corresponds, then he/she has topick up a card from the pile and missesa turn.

• The game continues until all the cardsfrom the pile have been used and/or thefirst student has used all his/her cards.The first to do so, wins.

Comment: As the gameprogresses the cardsshould form a snaketype shape. The cardsare only to be addedat the extremities andnot in the middle ofthe snake.

Activity 7: I spy with my little eye

What you do: Choose one of the students to be the “spy”. The“spy” then looks around the classroom andchooses an object without saying anything to theother students (he/she could whisper it to theteacher just to check that he/she is right). The“spy” then says to the class I spy with my little eye

something + an adjective. The other studentsguess by saying Is it a …? With older students the“spy” could say I spy with my little eye somethingbeginning with + a letter (checking with theteacher first). The students then ask questions likeIs it big?, Is it blue?. The first one to guess correctlytakes the role of the “spy”.

What you need:One set of cards per group of 3-4 students(enlarged,photocopied andcut up)

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ENGLISH WITH WILLY WIZ is a new CD ROMwhich can be used with children from the Primaryschool in the interactive laboratories.

The CD ROMs include many different types ofexercises and language games. Children can beasked to do the same exercise at the same time orwork on different exercises based on their strengthsand weaknesses and levels. This feature is veryimportant when the children are of mixed abilities. In November a free DEMO of the CD ROM will beavailable from local LANG agents so that teacherscan experiment with the materials in laboratoriesbefore asking their schools to buy complete sets. The materials are free-standing and not linked to aparticular language course so nomatter which course thechildren are using theywill find the materialsstimulating andexciting.

The CD ROMs divide exercises for the third, fourthand fifth years of the Primary school and include:

• opportunities for the children to record their ownvoices and compare their pronunciation afterchoosing which character in a dialogue they wishto take;

• listening and writingexercises includingtick/choose/colour/drag;

• voice recordingcomparing with avisualised intonationpattern;

• songs for the childrento listen to and sing inkaraoke style;

• language games consolidating the learning ofboth grammar and vocabulary.

ENGLISH WITH WILLY WIZ will give schoolsthe opportunity to use the interactive laboratoriesfor English language consolidation tasks usinginnovative technical features with children in thePrimary school.

EWIL

LY WIZENGLISH

with

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Make this W O R K S H E E T

HHAALLLLOOWWEEEENN Bat

1 Copy the fourparts A, B, C, D ontoblack card and cutout.

2 Put a piece ofthread through thelower holes on thewings and tie it,leaving a long piecehanging down

3 Attach the wingsloosely to the bodywith paper fastners.Put the lever throughthe slit front to back

4 Attach the threadson the wings to thelever with tape. Whenthe lever is pulled thewings flap.

make holes

make holes

AB(lever)

C

D

make aslit

W O R K S H E E T Make this special

HHAALLLLOOWWEEEENN Card1111 Take a piece of blueA4 card. Fold in eachside by about 6 cm so the card stands up.

2222Draw round the templates of the witch and rooftops onto black card and the moon onto yellow card. Cut out the shapes.

3333Stick the rooftopsilhouette and themoon onto the backof the blue card andadd little stars with white paper orwhite correction fluid.

4444 Glue the witchonto a long cocktailstick. Make two holesin the sides of theblue card, high on the right and low on the left. Put the stick throughthe holes.

LLLLearn and write this rhyme on the back of the card.

It’s a cold and starry Halloween night,The yellow moon is big and bright,Above the rooftops in the sky,See the witch go flying by.

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In this issue of LANG Primary we are pleased to announce a new project which will link Italian Primaryschools with schools in Kenya. In 2002, a record number of 235 schools were involved in the LANGPrimary TALKING WATER PROJECT and we hope that even more schools will participate this year.

THE STOLEN SCHOOL PROJECT gives childrenextra motivation to produce materials as theyknow that what they produce will be sent toPrimary schools in Kenya and exchanged withsimilar class-work produced by Kenyan children. Classes can look forward to receiving a parcelfrom… Africa! The school plays a vital role in the lives of youngchildren, giving them the information and skillsthey will need when they become independent andhave to go out and face the world on their own.THE STOLEN SCHOOL PROJECT begins with astory for children published both in Italian andEnglish. Teachers can read and discuss the story inclasses across the school curricula such as English,Italian, geography, maths and science, etc.

In the story the children will meet The Lord ofSilence who is a very bad man because he likesonly silence and kidnaps all the teachers. Withoutteachers there can be no schools for pupils toattend. The children create the Friends of the Wordand have to find and defeat The Lord of Silence sothat they can rescue the teachers. Once theteachers have been rescued, the schools can be re-opened and the children’s world can return tonormal.The story has been especially written for THESTOLEN SCHOOL PROJECT and is full ofadventure and excitement. The characters areintroduced and the story developed helpingchildren appreciate the importance of school intheir lives.

THE STOLEN SCHOOL PROJECT is the completion of this story by groups of children in Italy and Kenya using the English language as the medium of communication.

The children can use their imaginations not only in inventing the finalpart of the story but also in choosing the way in which they presentthe completion of the story that they create to LANG Primary.

For example, the children can:

• write the end of the story in English

• draw and colour a series of pictures with commentsin English which recount the final part of the story

• take photographs and put them in a sequence so thatthey describe the end of the story adding commentsin English

• record on an audio cassette the end of the story

• create and act out the end of the story, filmingthemselves with a video camera *

or a mixture of the points above!

The story is absorbing but… incomplete

* video cassettessubmitted will not be sent to Kenya as videoequipment is not available in schools

The STOLEN SCHOOL PROJECT

A cultural exchange project to and from Africa

Teachers who did not participate in the TALKING WATER PROJECT in2002 or teachers who wish to repeat the project with a different class in2003 are welcome to do so. Full details of the project and the applicationform can be downloaded from our web site www.langedizioni.com - clickon LANG Primary and then on the cover of the October 2002 – Issue 11.

THE STOLEN SCHOOL PROJECT – Registration FormComplete and return by post or fax to:

PBM spa, Corso Trapani 16, 10139 Torino – to arrive by 30.11.2003

Name of school ______________________________________________________________________________

School Code _________________________________________________________________________________

Address _____________________________________________________________________________________

City _________________________________________ CAP ________________________________________

Name of teacher _____________________________________________________________________________

Contact details: Tel. __________________________ Fax _________________________________________

Email _______________________________________________________________________

I will be organising the STOLEN SCHOOL PROJECT in my school. Please send me the starter pack.

Signed _______________________________________ Date _______________________________________

The Stolen School Project materialswill be sent to Primary schools inKenya and all the Italian schoolsthat participate will receivematerials produced by the Kenyanschools.

The first step is to register forparticipation by the end ofNovember when we will distributestarter packs which will include:

• instructions for working on theStolen School Project

• the story in Italian and Englishwhich the children have tocomplete

• a guide to developing projectwork with children

The complete project must arrivein our offices by 30th March 2004.When the project is complete,please sign it as work produced byyour class (include the number ofchildren) and send to:

LANG Primary STOLEN SCHOOLPROJECT, PBM spa, Corso Trapani16, 10139 Torino

SCHOOLS RE-OPEN – EXCHANGE PROJECTS BETWEEN ITALY AND AFRICA RE-START

AMREF NEWSAMREF – Fondazione Africana per la Medicina e la Ricerca – is the largesthumanitarian health organisation which has its Headquarters in Africa. AMREFItalia works together with the Nairobi head office assisting in both the initialplanning and operational strategies ensuring the necessary economic support forthe successful completion of the projects.

The collaboration between LANG Primaryand AMREF continues to expand. Thenumbers of schools involved in the projectshas increased from 10 schools in the first yearto 235 schools last year, with 525 classesinvolved in creating materials for The TalkingWater Project.All the schools that participated in thisproject have now received materialsdeveloped by schools in Kenya.

This school year LANG Primary / AMREF areoffering two projects to schools. The TalkingWater Project for those teachers who either didnot participate last year or who wish to repeatthe same project with a different class and anexciting new project The Stolen School Projectdesigned to encourage children to appreciatethe importance of schools and education forboth their own development as individualsand for their future lives.

Giobbe Covatta, Fabio Fazio, SvevaSagramola, Luca Zingaretti and theauthor Kuki Gallmann have all offeredtheir personal contributions to assistthe growth of AMREF.

For further information contact: AMREF Italia

Via Sito della Guastalla, 3 - 20122 Milanotel./fax. +39 02.54107566

e-mail: scuole@amref.itwww.amref.it

LANGPrimaryLANGPrimary

Sounds Fun

A fun way to start the new school year is to playwith sounds and focus on pronunciation

activities. The word is our most effective communicationsymbol, it is a combination of sounds made by ourspeech organs and it becomes a written symbolwhen letters are used to represent the sounds. Thus a word may be either an oral or a visualsymbol. In other words, we can speak it, write it orrepeat it as, for example, in the pronunciationactivity above.If young learners are exposed to the language oftheir experience (the language of everyday life) thelearning process becomes meaningful and theteacher can easily include sound-letter relationships in everyday,functional literacy activities. Furthermore, pronunciation activitiesin LANG course books are an integralpart of the teaching/learningexperience and are an essentialaspect of lesson planning andlanguage presentation and practicewithin the lesson.When using activities such as thetongue twister at the beginning of thisarticle learners are encouraged tofocus on particular pronunciationfeatures within the text.

Cecilia Perillo

ll ii kk ee

Chucky likes Chicken, Cheese, Cherries and Chocolate.

After having introduced the tongue twister, theteacher can ask questions which help learnersbecome aware of letters, words and sounds andhow these are all interwoven into the meaningsand functions of written language.

• Ask questions, create interactionTeacher: What does Chucky like?Child: Chicken, cheese, cherries

and chocolate.Teacher: What’s your favourite food?

The children are then encouraged to ask each otherquestions, and therefore use problem-solvingstrategies, they develop memory skills and focus onpronunciation practice. Furthermore, learners areanswering and classifying according to likes anddislikes and developing other subjects such asciviltà - food in Great Britain.

• Follow up activity: further analysis of sounds andletters can take place as children make a list ofCH words.

In traditional stories such as The Three Little Pigs,the phonological aspects of the languageincluding intonation, stress and timing createenjoyment when the children are asked to learnand repeat.

The wolf huffed,And he puffed,And he blew

The house down.

Teachers can help childrenunderstand that the words huffed andpuffed sound the same except for thephonemes /h/ and /p/. In this case therefrain works because the emphasisplaced on the words and the timing isvery important.Creating phonological awarenessthrough fun activities can be a verystimulating and a useful way ofhelping learners improvepronunciation.

All projects should be received by 31.12.2003We may publish extracts from some of theprojects in future issues of LANG PrimarLANG Primaryy.

TEACHER PROJECT - October 2003 - issue 15

All the materials submitted become the property of Paravia BrunoMondadori Editori and reproduction rights are reserved.

The response to the LANG PrimaryClass Project in March 2003 was amazing. Arecord number of schools participated and wereceived very beautiful materials on the topic of

My town, its history and future.

The classes that took part in the project will havereceived a letter asking for permission to exchangetheir materials with another class. In this way thechildren will be able to read information aboutanother town.

For all future projects teachers are asked tocomplete the form below and send it to LANGtogether with the materials. This will make it easierfor us to distribute the books quickly to thechildren who are involved in the projects.

Name of school _______________________________________________________________________________

Address ______________________________________ City __________________ CAP ________________

Name of teacher_____________________________ Code of class _________

Number of children involved in the project _____

I give permission for LANG Edizioni to send this class project to another school in exchange for their project. Write Yes or No. ____

Signed by the teacher____________________________________________________ Date _______________

The theme for your children to organise as aclass or in smaller groups is:

Our favourite river

The class or groups should prepare materialsdescribing their favourite river. The childrenshould illustrate with drawings and/orphotographs of the route of the river from whereit begins to where it ends and should alsoinclude notes on the various villages, towns andcities the river passes near or through.The materials can be in poster form or on sheetsof paper and can include drawings,photographs and descriptions in English. Thecross curricular nature of this project can alsoinvolve work during lessons other than English.

LANG Edizioni will send a class set of PrimeReaders to the classes that present this project.

When the project is complete, please sign it aswork produced by your class and send thematerials together with the form below to:

LANG Primary, Class Project – Issue 15,PBM spa., Corso Trapani 16, 10139 Torino

LANG PRIMARY

THIS FORM MUST ACCOMPANY ALL PROJECTS

PROJECTS

Contributors to this issue:John BattyJoanna CarterSarah M. HowellCecilia PerilloTim Priesack

EditorTim Priesack

Assistant editorsBarbara BacchelliImmacolata Marsaglia

Photo editorClaudia Mongardi

Layout and GraphicsStudio Aqaba

Quality controllerLuca Federico

IllustrationsSilvia Provantini

Photographic sources for calendarArchivio Paravia Bruno Mondadori EditoriMichael Busselle/Corbis/ContrastoPhilip Gould/Corbis/ContrastoAriel Skelley/Corbis/ContrastoHomer Sykes/Network PhotographersDavid Young-Wolff/Laura Ronchi/Tony Stone

Printed Grafiche Mek, Milano

MorenewsfromLANG!

School name and address

City CAP

Course book usedThis is the first issue of LANG Primary I have read Yes ❏ No ❏I would like a LANG agent to visit me at school Yes ❏ No ❏

Name

New subscription ❏ Change of address ❏

Home address

City CAP

E-MAIL

08702J-00

Ai sensi della Legge 675/96, con la presente vi autorizzo esplicitamente al trattamento dei miei datipersonali unicamente ai fini amministrativi per l’invio di materiali di Lang Edizioni al mio indirizzo.

Post or fax to: PBM Editori spa - LANG Primary – Corso Trapani 16 – 10139 Torino – Fax 011 75021 510

15

A series of interactive CD ROMs – ENGLISH WITHWILLY WIZ – is being launched in November.

If you are looking for stimulating materials for your children, ask your LANG agent for a DEMO CD so that you can experience a unit in the interactive laboratory before askingyour school director to buy a set for the school.

Remember that the Primary Notice Board athttp://langprimary.omnilog.info can be visited at any time to leave messages for other teachers or to communicate with the editors at LANG.

The next issue of LANG Primary, the Christmasissue, will be posted at the beginning of Novemberand will include, by popular request, a furthersheet of Reward Stickers to give to the children.

Teachers wishing to start Christmas activities earlier can download the issues from the past three years from www.langedizioni.comand photocopy the many worksheets and articlesthat have already been published.

LANG Primary is published four times a year, in March, May, October and December.

Teachers can register subscriptions either on-line at www.langedizioni.com or by using the couponbelow.

Future issues of LANG Primary are posted to home addresses.

If you wish to comment on the articles in LANGPrimary, please do not hesitate to write to us.

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