Y6 French Forest school

Y5 have been learning how to describe their town, creating their own local maps and labelling them with the French names. We then moved on to learn directions so that we can make sure we can find our way in French speaking countries! To put our new language to the test, we did a French treasure hunt where we all had to read the French directions to find the next clue until we managed to locate the hidden treasure... Super work!

Y6 Spanish Tapas forest school

La comida- Tapas forest school 21.11.17

Y6 went into the forest this morning to taste Spanish Tapas as part of our 'La Comida' topic.

We tasted Manchego cheese, chorizo, paella, Olives, tortillas, salsa and aioli. 

There was lots of Spanish language used for the food items and many a 'Me Gusta’ heard as we tasted all the delicious food cooking around the fire.

las fiestas!

Year 5 have had an exciting time learning about Spanish fiestas! After researching four key Spanish festivals, we had a forest school session to cook our very own 'Frijoles refritos' refried bean burgers! We cut the ingredients- learning the Spanish names, cooked them on the fire and then eat them giving our opinions! Muy bien et me gusta mucho! 

Les super six have also been very busy with their first official planning meeting. They have decided to create a French and Spanish recipe book full of their favourite recipes in the different languages. They hope to make these themselves ready to sell at a small price so that the money raised can go to a charity of their choice- buen trabajo!

Happy Half Term!

What a fantastic start to our new year. A wonderful term full of exciting languages learning.
Y5 have been preparing for their Spanish Fiestas (get ready for our forest school cooking of our party food in the first week back). Year 6 have been learning to describe their daily routines in Spanish and themselves in French. Y4 have learnt so many new words in their first Spanish sessions and continue to wow me with their French knowledge.I look forward to starting Spanish with 4U next term!
The open morning was huge fun! 12 Y5/6 pupils including les super six decoded the story of le bonhomme de pain d'epice! After understanding the story in French, we followed a French recipe to bake our own gingerbread men before playing the French board game- Cours cours!!
A huge 'Muy Bien' to our language stars in the last few weeks:
William Fraser and Sammy Chesworth!

Languages star of the week

Another fantastic week with all of upper school learning different Spanish numbers and playing a variety of counting games where you had to try NOT to say a certain number (tricky!). Y6 also learnt how to say the time in preparation for their 'My day' topic. In French, Y6 have been working really hard with our adjective agreements for masculine, feminine and plurals revising the colours and in Y5 we have been listening to different genres of music to express opinions. Tu-aimes la musique pop our classique? Raj was the first winner of the languages star of the week for his fantastic Spanish time work- well done. I wonder who it will be next week. I have also been busy with Mrs Plant planning in some outdoor language experiences in our forest school! Exciting times ahead...

Bonjour! I am so pleased to have joined Copthill this September and look forward to updating our exciting language experiences on this blog for you to share in! Y4 have already had their first Spanish session where we learnt to greet each other and find out more about Spain- muy bien! Years 5 and 6 have applied their French questioning skills to play 'lotto humain' and discover more about their friends' interests and summer holidays. We look forward to next week. À bientôt!

Classics Morning

On Tuesday June 20^th the Year 5 Latinists spent an exciting morning at SGHS learning all about Latin and Greek myths.  The morning started in Mrs. Wilson’s Latin Room where we were asked to look closely at all the displays:  we especially liked the tree of Latin words with leaves which carried all the words that we use in English that have come down to us from Latin.

Mrs.Wilson told us the thrilling story of how the Trojan Prince Paris had to judge between three Olympian goddesses – which one should win the golden apple inscribed with the words, “For the fairest”?  On a worksheet Copthill pupils then named characters from the story and gave them appropriate speech bubbles.

After squash and biscuits we adjourned to the Ancaster Studio and got into groups with our Year 9 hosts.  The aim was to create a vivid re-telling of the story, featuring all the characters, using props and music.  How inventive the mini-plays were and some of them very funny too!  We all enjoyed Emily’s high-voiced Hermes!

After a whistle-stop tour of the school we then returned to the Ancaster and got into smaller groups.  This time we had to come up with an acrostic poem, based on the names of the main characters – what a challenge “Menelaus” turned out to be!

Copthill pupils then enjoyed a delicious lunch, then it was back to school for the afternoon.  I would like to thank Mrs.Wilson and the Year 9 girls for their warm welcome and the range of fun activities which they had organised for us.

I would also like to say well done to our Copthill Latinists – your manners were impeccable and you were a credit to our school.

Mrs.Wroblewska      June 22^nd 2017

MARDI, 21 MARS

In the Colours Assembly today the following children received their French medals:

Year 4 - Eshan Shah
Year 5 - Evie Holder
Year 6 - Kaiya Shah

All three pupils have shown a keen interest in the subject and have produced beautiful written work in accurate French, In oral work all three have demonstrated a great flair for pronunciation and recall of the target material.  Well done indeed to our three medal-winning linguists!
Mrs.Wroblewska

Bonjour a tous!  Things are busy as usual in the Languages Department:  first, very warm congratulations to Eshan, Austin and Emily in Year 4 for completing the first part of the Vocabexpress programme.  Large bars of chocolate are winging their way toward you!
Year 6 continue to prepare for the exciting French Trip by practising useful vocabulary and scenarios and by filling in their Carnet Jaune which they can use during their stay.Watch this space to see further developments!
Year 5 have completed their French music posters and can be very proud of the beautiful results as you can see in the photographs attached.
A la prochaine!
Mrs.Wroblewska

more pix

open morning

Salut! Greetings from the Language Department. Here is today's news about our exciting Open morning activities:

Open Morning:  The Language Department

On Thursday Feb.9^th 2017 the Language Department played host to twelve Year 5 pupils who spent a busy and enjoyable two hours working through a variety of French activities.

We sat in a circle and practised many of our basic skills e.g. asking Comment t’appelles-tu and answering Je m’appelle ... Pupils then worked with a partner to take turns asking each other a long list of basic questions.  As an extension activity, they came up with good ideas for additional questions.

Then we looked at the fascinating collection of French books which Rohan had kindly brought in.  These included a delightful penguin-shaped book about the penguin who could not dance – we followed the instructions and tried the dance ourselves!  Levez-vous! Tapez le pied! Sautez en l’air!

Then we spent some time revising and practising our French sounds, rounding off this activity with a terrible tongue-twister:  Combien de sous sont ces saucissons-ci?  Ces saucissons-ci sont six sous.  Have a go!!

We then turned our attention to a cafe sketch in which pupils, working with a partner, had to fit six speeches into the correct speech bubble.  We then acted out the resultant scenario.

Time then for a song:  “Le Vieux Macdonald”, an old favourite.  We then investigated a range of animal sounds in French and produced a set of sounds and pictures for display.

How quickly the time went! We only had time to watch our favourite “super dog” video and play some interactive games based on the animal topic.  Well done to Year 5 French students for working with such enthusiasm!  Bravo Evie Holder, Amelia Arthurton, Rohan Appadu, Raj Sisodia, Emily Anderson, Eliana Russo, Felicity Branton, Ruben Baker, Lawrence Yates, Jessica Dean, Edmund Kavati and Felix Bowling!

Mrs.Wroblewska

09/02/17

Spring Term news so far ....

Salut!  Bonjour!  Hola, buenos dias! salvete!

An excellent start to the term thanks to Jemima (6T) and Georgie Sakkalli (6D) who have completed the Vocabexpress programme, including the new French to French section.  Their grand totasl now stands at 9,900 marks each.  Phew, what a score!  Well done, Jemima and Georgie!

Year 5 Latinists have made an excellent start on the Roman coins topic.  They have studied some of the coins which were found on Copthill land and are beginning to understand the iconography and text of these coins.  They have come up with some fascinating lines of research.  If you would like to find out more about this and other finds in the area here is an excellent website for the county archaeologists:
mb127@cam.ac.uk

4L are now starting their second component of Spanish.  They have found out all about Los Tres Reyes - the three kings who bring Christmas presents to Spanish children.  Next they will be learning all about celebrating birthdays in Spain - Feliz cumpleanos!

Mrs.Wroblewska