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• Which words or phrases in the target language do you already recognise? • Can you spot any cognates? • What does the word ____ mean in this context? • Which words might you need to add emphasis to when reciting? probably be familiar with films such as Wallace and Gromit or Chicken Run , but it may be helpful to show them a short example of a stop-motion animation, such as Under the Winter Sun , freely available on YouTube ( tinyurl.com/tp-WinterSun ) . Give pupils an opportunity to discuss how they would like to animate the poem, song or rhyme they have been learning. Are they going to create their own characters or use puppets or stuffed animals? What will the background look like? Do they need any props? Creating a simple storyboard for the animation helps to scaffold the thinking process. Depending on the amount of time you have, pupils can on prior learning. After this, children should have the gist of the text and be able to explain it in English. Now, it’s time to memorise the text through choral repetition and paired practice. 2 | BRINGING WORDS TO LIFE Once your pupils are confident in the meaning of the text, and have committed it to memory, it’s time to get creative. Explain that stop-motion animation is a filming method by which objects or models are moved in very small increments, with each movement captured as a photograph. These photographs are then pasted together to give the impression of continuous movement. Children will • Give more confident pupils the chance to choose their own song or rhyme on which to base a stop-motion animation. • Encourage pupils to create a stop-motion animation using a song in their home or community language to share with their class or the rest of the school. This would work really nicely as part of whole-school Languages Day. You could even invite families in for a viewing, or play the films in assembly for the rest of the school to see. • Model how pupils can add their video to a class Padlet ( padlet.com ) and create a virtual gallery showcasing their creativity. Share the link with parents and carers, or display it on your school website. If an in- person premiere isn’t practical for your class, this could serve well as a digital version, instead. EXTENDING THE LESSON spend some time designing and making the set for their animation; a fantastic way to promote cross-curricular learning with subjects such as design technology. Once the children are ready, they can begin taking the photos which will eventually form their animation. Remind them of the importance of keeping the camera in the same position, only moving each character slightly each time. A tripod to hold the device steady can be helpful, but pieces of modelling clay on either corner is a good low-cost alternative. 3 | EDITING AND NARRATING When the children have taken all their photos, it’s time to paste them together. You can do this using iMovie on iPads, or with the Stop Motion Studio app, which is free and available on Android and Apple. Once pupils are happy with the animation they have created, the next step is to add the narration. Children will need to watch the final animation through multiple times to practise timing their recitation of the poem, song or rhyme, and make sure it matches with what is going on in the animation. Once they are ready, pupils can add the narration to the animation and share the results with the rest of the class for evaluation. Et voila! Your very own movies. You could even hold a premiere for families or other classes. Ellie is a French teacher and languages and international lead at a Leicester primary. Her passion is creating a buzz around language- learning through creative lessons, international partnerships, trips and clubs. “Rhythmand rhyme really seem tomake learning stick” USEFUL QUESTIONS www.teachwire.net | 93