Posts Tagged ‘French’

Language Learning Made Fun!

May 28th, 2022

It’s Saturday, May 28, 2022, and time for Music at ClickSchooling!

Duolingo

(www.duolingo.com/)

Grades 5-adult, with parental supervision

This free website for language learning uses fun interactive technology to learn and practice a foreign language.

When arriving at the link, select the language you would like to learn. Available languages include:

  • Spanish
  • French
  • German
  • Italian
  • Korean
  • and so many more!

After selecting your language, you are able to choose to begin with “Basics” or take a short placement test if you are already familiar with the language. Interactive lessons include vocabulary, grammar, and more. Be sure to have your sound on. There are hundreds of lessons broken down to focus on specific language skills. You need to complete certain skills to open new skill/lesson levels.

In order for your lessons to be tracked (and to continue very far into the lessons) you will need to create a free profile. Once you have created your profile you can review words learned, practice with flashcards, check your activity on the program, and more. There is a language discussion board available so parents will want to monitor their students if they do not want them to participate in the board. While working through the lessons, students earn lingots, the Duolingo virtual currency. Lingots can be used in the virtual store for things such as a “Heart Refill” which “allows you to regain one heart lost during a lesson”, “Streak Freeze” which allows your activity “streak to remain in place for one full day of inactivity”, and more program-related bonuses.

From the website:

“In a recent independent study, professors from the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of South Carolina found that when using Duolingo for 34 hours, students learn the equivalent of one university semester of language instruction.”

And this program is also available as a free app so you can take learning on the go. Learning a new language can be fun using this website that appeals to different learning methods.

Chow Down on Food History

May 12th, 2022

It’s Thursday, May 12, 2022, and time for Social Sciences at ClickSchooling!

The Kitchen Project – Food History

(kitchenproject.com/history/)

Grades 5-12, with parental supervision

With today’s ad-supported website visitors can uncover the history of some of their favorite foods. Created by Chefs Stephen Block and Stephen Holloway, this website explores the origins of certain foods, how they got their names, and other interesting facts about them.

Some delightful dishes to choose from are:

  • carrot cake
  • hoagie
  • French toast
  • Reuben
  • cake
  • dumplings
  • buffalo wings
  • the hamburger
  • pizza
  • And so much more.

There is even a free food history course (if you sign up using your email address)! This site is easy to navigate, loaded with interesting information, and yummy recipes. The history of food makes an interesting topic to explore and a great addition to a home economics course.

French Fluency & Culture for High School

April 30th, 2022

It’s Saturday, April 30, 2022, and time for Foreign Language at ClickSchooling!

Annenberg Learner: French in Action

(www.learner.org/series/french-in-action/)

Grades 9-Adult, with parental supervision

This portion of the larger Annenberg Learner website provides 52 half-hour video lessons that use the immersion method of teaching to increase French fluency and introduce French culture.

The videos present a humorous continuing story of an American student and a Frenchwoman’s adventures in France. Additional native speakers of all ages and backgrounds not only add to the storyline but enhance the learning process.

Each lesson begins with an episode of the continuing story. The next portion of the lesson clarifies and illustrates the dialog of the story with focus on a specific term. Each lesson also provides opportunities to “participate” in the video by repeating lines. A sampling of lesson topics include:

  • Planning and Anticipating – greetings, health, surprise, decisiveness, subject pronouns, articles
  • Names and Origins – numbers, commands, necessity
  • Physical Characteristics – appearance, sports, questions, describing yourself
  • Kinship – family relationships and more
  • Describing Others – also games, agreement, time, weather
  • Encounters – conversations, seasons, reflexive verbs, adjective
  • Occupations – work, buying and spending, days and months of the year
  • Education – talking about occupations, manners
  • Getting Around – telephone, courtesy
  • Food and Drink – food, drink, ordering from a restaurant
  • Transportation and Travel – modes of transportation, expressing fear, admiration
  • Habitat – asking for directions, talking about homes
  • Entertainment – talking about entertainment, expressing restriction, reservation, doubt, enthusiasm
  • Getting and Spending – money, buying and selling
  • Geography and Tourism – countries and regions, exaggeration, confirmation, insistence
  • Getting Away – destination, levels of speech, negative infinitive, imperatives, pronouns

Add this website to your French foreign language studies to increase your students’ proficiency in the language.

Get Ready To Celebrate Cinco De Mayo!

April 28th, 2022

It’s Thursday, April 28, 2022, and time for Social Sciences at ClickSchooling!

Mexico For Kids: Fun Cinco De Mayo History, Lessons, & Activities!

All grades, with parental supervision

Cinco de Mayo is next week! The fifth of May marks the Mexican army victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla, and represents Mexican independence from foreign intervention.

I thought it would be fun to provide you with a fiesta of websites across the curriculum that celebrate Cinco De Mayo including the history of the festival, arts and crafts, Spanish lessons, math activities, mariachi music, recipes, and more.

Cinco de Mayo: History Channel Video Presentation

The History Channel website offers videos about the Aztecs, Montezuma, Cortez, Mesoamerican pyramids, the Cinco de Mayo festival, and an archive of articles about every aspect of Mexican history and culture.

Cinco de Mayo Paper Dolls & Crafts

Print and create Cinco De Mayo crafts.

Cinco de Mayo Recipes

Learn to make Menudo, sopes, and more!

Cinco de Mayo Piñata

Learn the history of the Piñata get instructions on how to make a piñata.

Free Spanish Lessons

Cinco de Mayo is a great time to start Spanish lessons and at this website you can take free Spanish tutorials!

Celebrate Pi Day!

March 7th, 2022

Exploratorium: Pi Day

(www.exploratorium.edu/pi)

Grades 3-12, with parental supervision

Did you know that next Monday, March 14, is International Pi Day? Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter that is represented as 3.14.

The Exploratorium Museum in San Francisco offers this website with fun activities to learn about Pi. Find out what ancient Babylonians, Archimedes, Zu Chongzhi of China, and French Mathematician Georges Buffon knew about Pi.

When you get to the site, you’ll see a menu at the left to explore:

  • Guide to Celebrating Pi Day
  • A Brief History of Pi
  • A Slice of Pi Day History

The activities include:

  • Cutting Pi
  • Pi Toss
  • Pi Graph

You can also set a reminder for a live Pi Day stream on Monday, March 14, 2022, from 11:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. at this site.

And if you really want to go in-depth, don’t miss The Joy of Pi website for lots more info, resources, lessons, and activities.

Begin Learning a Foreign Language Today!

February 5th, 2022

Polly Lingual

(pollylingu.al/en)

Grades 6-12, with parental supervision

With this commercial website, visitors can use the free lessons to learn basic foreign language skills.

While some of the lessons are for paid members only, indicated by the Polly Lingual icon, there is still a lot of great material available for free on this site, especially in the Beginner sections. Language choices include:

  • French
  • Spanish
  • English
  • Italian
  • German
  • Portuguese
  • Hebrew
  • Arabic
  • Russian
  • Chinese
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Dutch

Lessons can include vocabulary audios, grammar instructions, interactive games such as Memorama, Alphabet Soup (word searches), Whack-a-Word, and Hangman as well as additional downloadable worksheets. There is a Verb Conjugation Trainer tool to brush up on verb conjugations as well as interactive maps showing locations a language is spoken which also provides some additional information about that location.

Even if visitors may need to search for the free material, there are some great teaching opportunities available on this site that might make checking it out worthwhile.

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