Light Bulb Languages resources moving forward

Over the last couple of weeks I have had a couple of surveys open to find out what kind of resources language teachers would like to see on Light Bulb Languages.  I had one survey for primary and another for secondary.  Today I have been collating the results so that I can see what I need to focus on from now on.  I'm sharing the findings here and signposting some resources that are already on the website.

Primary teachers would like:

• resources linked to traditional songs
• resources for daily routine
• resources about school
• resources for telling the time:  There are French time resources here and Spanish here.
• dictionary lessons
• listening resources:  Have a look at the LiPS Listening Project
• short stories with activities
• reading comprehensions, fiction and non-fiction
• retrieval resources
• sentence builders:  The majority of the units in the French scheme of work and all the unit in the Spanish schemes of work have sentence builders to accompany them.
• cover lessons that fit in with the commonly taught topics
• resources for younger learners in nursery and reception

I also asked if there were any special days or festivals that they would like resources for:

• European Day of Languages: I have recently published a pack of 40 activities for European Day of Languages.
• Christmas:  There are Christmas activities for French, Spanish and German already on the website.
• Journée internationale de la Francophonie
• Easter: There are already some French Easter resources here and Spanish here.
• Mother's Day
• 14 juillet (Bastille Day): I have blogged about this but as yet have not created any resources
• Sporting events throughout the year
• Chandeleur
• Fête des Rois
• Día de los Muertos: There are some resources here already, but not many.  I didn't teach it as both my schools were Church of England.
• International Mother Tongue Day
• Cultural events in Germany, Austria and Switzerland
• resources for Karneval
• resources for fiestas in Spanish America

In the "anything else" section, one teacher asked if I could arrange the resources in each unit in the French scheme of work in the same way as in the Spanish.  Of course I will do that.  By the way, all the scheme of work documents for the French scheme are now complete.

Now moving on to secondary.

As far as text books are concerned, there was a wide range of books being used, with some schools not using a text book:

• AQA GCSE
• Zoom
• Allez
• Studio  
• Viva 
• Mira
• Edexcel GCSE
• Stimmt
• Echt
• Kerboodle
• Dynamo
• Sentence Builders Trilogy
• Amici

Secondary teachers would like:

• Games
• Sentence builders: For Studio 1 there are resources here and sentence builders here. 
  There are also Studio 2 Rouge resources here, Studio 2 Rouge sentence builders here, Studio 3 Rouge sentence builders here and some Studio 3 Vert sentence builders here. 
  There are Viva 1 sentence builders here and resources for Mira 1 here.
• GCSE exam support
• Listening resources
• Catchy but not childish songs: There are a number of songs in French and Spanish on the Light Bulb Languages YouTube channel.
• KS3/KS4 cover lessons with marking key
• News stories about the UK as reported in other countries where the languages are spoken
• speaking games
• cultural grammar activities
• GCSE German writing practice
• Phonics and phonics games
• puzzles suitable for KS3
• authentic resources for higher students to push them to grades 7/8/9
• reading comprehension activities

They would also like resources for these special days and festivals:

• non-European festivals such as Eid in Morocco
• St Martin's Day
• Poisson d'avril
• Tour de France: I have blogged about the Tour but haven't created any resources yet.
• European Day of Languages: I have recently published a pack of 40 activities for European Day of Languages.
• Christmas: There are Christmas activities for French, Spanish and German already on the website.
• Fête des Rois
• Día de los Muertos: There are some resources here already, but not many.  I didn't teach it as both my schools were Church of England.
• Cinco de Mayo
• La Tomatina
• Feria de abril
• Journée internationale de la Francophonie
• sporting events
• Reyes: There are a number of Reyes resources in the Spanish Christmas resources.
• El Colacho
• fiestas from Spanish-speaking America

In the "anything else" section, one teachers asked for a list of different activities to use in the classroom.  Have a look at Adaptable Activities for your Language Lessons.

Thank you very much to everyone who took the time to respond to the survey.  Your responses have given me plenty to go on.  There are some things that I already have on my list but some which I hadn't thought of.  

Something else that I have planned is a major redesign of the website, which will take some time.  A dilemma that I have currently is whether or not to keep the website free.  I've now retired from the classroom, so my main source of income is no more.  The website makes very little money, as all its income is from Google Ads.  I'm also aware that some of the resources on the site are not mine.  Any constructive comments about this or about resources are welcome.

Here's wishing you all the best of luck for the forthcoming academic year.  I will try to support you as best I can.

28 new resources today

 I've just finished uploading the first 28 new resources of 2025, all for primary Spanish, many for my new mixed-age primary Spanish scheme, which I am teaching in both my schools.  

There are also some new Spanish Christmas resources, which I made for Key Stage 1 last term.  (Thank you to Jane Birtwistle for the inspiration!)

Don't forget that the deadline for the next issues of Write Away! magazine is 27th March for both Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3.  Secondary teachers - don't miss out!

If you like Light Bulb Languages, please consider buying me a coffee.  All donations are welcome, to keep the website free.  

Write Away! news

 

Issue 22 of Write Away! magazine is now available to read: https://www.lightbulblanguages.co.uk/writeaway.htm

Take a look at the writing that primary children have been doing in their language lessons.

The deadline for the Easter term issue is Thursday 27th March 2025.  All info is on the webpage.

EXCITING NEWS!

Next term we will also be bringing you a Key Stage 3 Special Edition.  If you would like to submit some of your students' work from KS3, please go to the webpage to see what you need to do.

It will be great for the primary children to see the sorts of things they might be able to create in KS3!

97 new resources today

 I've just finished uploading 97 new resources to the website.

They are mostly for the new KS2 Spanish mixed age scheme: the scheme of work documents and the knowledge organisers are now complete, and there are the first resources for the new units (A1 and B2).

There are also some for: 

• Primary French
• KS3 French Grammar
• KS3 French worksheets
• KS4 French worksheets
• KS3 Spanish grammar

And a few others dotted around.  As always, if you want to find the new ones, do CTRL+F on your keyboard and type in today's date - 08.08.24 - to find them.  Alternatively on your handheld device do "Find in page" and enter the date.

If you like Light Bulb Languages, please consider buying me a coffee.  All donations are welcome, to keep the website free.  

75 new resources today!

 I have just finished uploading 75 new resources to the website:

• Some resources for the 2023 Rugby World Cup (English, French, Spanish, German, Italian)
  
  
• A number of primary French resources, including some, for opinions of fruits and weather, which are the first for which I have used ChatGPT to try to speed up the process.  Read more about my experiments with ChatGPT here.
  
  
• Some more primary Spanish resources, including the first for my forthcoming 2-year rolling scheme for Key Stage 1.  I am going to be starting with Pirates to teach greetings, numbers and colours.  These resources are also available in French.
  
  
• Some KS4 Spanish high-frequency verb revision resources

You'll know which are the new resources as they will have today's date - 19.08.23.

You may remember from the last blogpost that the site had 7929 resources, meaning I needed another 71 to get to 8000.  Well these 75 mean that I can legitimately say that the site now has over 8000 resources - 8004 to be precise!

If you like these resources, please consider buying me a coffee.  In addition, my web-hosting fees, which I have just paid, have shot up this year.  All donations are welcome, to keep the website free.  

30 new resources today

 I've just uploaded 30 new resources to the site.  

• A few World Cup 2022 resources for English, French, Spanish, German and Italian
• Some KS4 French grammar revision resources
• Some more primary Spanish resources, for example some Listen, Read, Write resources like this one
• Some more primary French resources

All the new resources will have "added 27.11.22" underneath them.  If you're on your computer you can use CTRL+F and type in that date to find the new resources.  You can also "Find in page" on your Android device. (Sorry I am not fruit-based - there may be a similar facility there.)

If you like these resources, please consider buying me a coffee. 

Why not have a look at my Etsy store, which has plenty of French, Spanish, German and multilingual goodies?  There is 20% off everything until 1st December.

53 new resources today

 You may have seen on the Light Bulb Languages Twitter and Facebook pages that over the summer holidays I set myself the challenge of making 47 resources for my 47 days of holiday.  Well yesterday I made the 48th, and that's not including the new scheme of work for primary French, which I published a couple of weeks ago.

You'll find new resources for:

• Primary French, especially units 2 and 7
• Primary Spanish
• The LiPS Listening project, French and Spanish
• Studio 3 Rouge - more sentence builders

All the new resources will have "added 01.09.22" underneath them.  If you're on your computer you can use CTRL+F and type in that date to find the new resources.  You can also "Find in page" on your Android device. (Sorry I am not fruit-based - there may be a similar facility there.)

If you like these resources, please consider buying me a coffee. 
I won't be using the KS3 ones myself - they are just for you.

Why not have a look at my Etsy store, which has plenty of French, Spanish, German and multilingual goodies? 

47 new resources today

I have just uploaded 47 new resources to the website.

There are also a number of new resources for Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 Spanish. To find out which ones they are, search for today's date "01.02.22".  (My favourite way to do this on a computer is CTRL+F and typing in today's date in the above format.)

I have also added 9 Flippity randomisers for primary French and Spanish topics, which could also be used for lower Key Stage 3.

The Studio 2 Rouge sentence builders are now complete.  

If you like these resources, consider buying me a coffee.  

31 new resources today

 I've just uploaded the first 31 new resources of this academic year.  I hope it's been a good one for you so far.

• The Viva 1 sentence builders are finished.
• There are some new bits and pieces for primary French, including some more knowledge organisers
• Some more resources for primary Spanish, including for greetings and the animal park

If you like these resources, consider buying me a coffee.  

70 new resources today!

 At the beginning of the holidays I set myself the target of making 52 new resources, one for each day of my holiday.  Well I've surpassed that, and here are 70 new resources!  You'll see all the ones we've featured on social media recently and more.

• 46 resources for KS2 French:
  - Animals and pets
  - Colours
  - Family
  - Food
  - Gender
  - In town
  - Miscellaneous
  - Months, days and dates
  - Numbers
  - Personal description
  - Planets
  - Sports and pastimes
  - Verbs
  - Weather
  
  
• 11 resources for KS2 Spanish:
  - Pets
  - Animal Park
  - Food and opinions
  - Weather
  - In town
  - Roadmap of the scheme of work
  
  
• 7 resources for KS3 Spanish:
  - Grammar
  - School subjects
  - Free time
  - Pets
  - Viva 1 sentence builders
  
  
• and 6 resources for KS3 French:
  - Grammar
  - Free time and sports
  - Family and pets
  - Holidays

As always, if there is anything in particular that you would like, you only have to ask.

If you like these resources, consider buying me a coffee.  

Another 30 new resources today

 I've just uploaded another 30 new resources, mostly for the LiPS Listening Project.  There are now 24 activities for French and 38 for Spanish.  You can see the themes here:

I'm hoping there will also be some German ones in time.

The most recent resources don't yet have audio, but I have uploaded the resources which contain the transcript, so that you can use them by reading the text yourself.

If you are a member of the Languages in Primary Schools Facebook Group and would like to help out with writing scripts and/or recording audio, please do a search within the group and you'll find the link to the Google Form where you can express your interest.

The summer holidays are finally in sight, and we have 7 weeks to enjoy not 6 this year!  I've calculated that I am going to have 52 days of holiday altogether, so I shall set myself my usual challenge of making one new resource for each day of holiday.  I'm intending to do more Studio and Viva resources to add to what is already on the site, but please drop me a line if there's anything specific you'd like, especially for secondary (which I don't teach) or French (which I don't teach!)

Have a great summer, everyone.  You've done an amazing job in very difficult circumstances this year, and you deserve it.

If you like these resources, consider buying me a coffee.  

29 new resources today

 Even though  it's a Sunday (and my daughter's birthday - she's just told me off) I have just uploaded 29 new resources ready for the return to school tomorrow:

• German Covid-19 posters (many thanks to the members of the #mfltwitterati who helped out with the language for these)
• English Covid-19 posters
• 13 more Viva 1 sentence builders (you may have seen the video of me making one of these on Twitter or Facebook - it takes about 45 minutes)
• French high-frequency verbs in 5 tenses

If you want the French Covid posters they are here, and the Spanish are here.

If you like these resources, consider buying me a coffee.  I'm not going to use any of these resources - they're all for you.

22 new resources today

 Today I've uploaded 22 new resources and also the most recent of the verb posters for French and Spanish.

• Sentence builders (tabular and flowchart) for the first unit of Viva 1
• Some more Key Stage 2 Spanish resources for Unit 7, Unit 11 and Unit 16
• The poster below in .png and .pdf formats
• PowerPoint slides to support choral speaking in the "new normal" classroom - available in French, Spanish, German and Italian  (more information here)

18 more sentence builders for Studio 1

 I've just uploaded the last 18 sentence builders for Studio 1 (KS3 French).  That's a complete set now for Studio 1.  Studio 2 next?

28 new resources for KS3 French

I've just uploaded the first 28 new sentence builders for KS3 French, to accompany Studio 1.  This is in addition to the resources already on the site for Studio 1 - 2 for each double page spread.

All of these resources are available to you absolutely free of charge.  I have not been and will not be paid for making them, and I don't teach KS3 so I won't be using them.  Please consider making a donation to the future of the website. 

52 new resources today

I've just uploaded 52 new resources:

• Women's World Cup resources
• A number of resources for primary Spanish (search for today's date 03.06.19)
• A few others, including KS3 Spanish (thanks Marie!) and primary French

All of these resources are available to you absolutely free of charge.  I have not been and will not be paid for making them.  Please consider making a donation to the future of the website.

25 new resources today

I've just uploaded 25 new resources, most of them to support Mira 1 for Spanish.  There are now two resources for each double-page spread.

25 new resources today

I've just uploaded 25 new resources:

• Some Primary Spanish sport and sport kit resources and some other bits and pieces for numbers, gender and plurals
• Some Primary French things for plurals and adjectival agreement
• Some random PowerPoint selectors for French, Spanish and German, and a random opinion selector which can be used for any language - you can also add your own images to make sentences

Don't forget our photo Advent calendar.  Days 1-10 can already be viewed on this blog, and the rest will be appearing a day at a time until 24th December.  Like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter to find out about everything that's new! 

51 new resources for the new school year

I've just uploaded 51 new resources that I have been making over this summer holiday:

• For German, a PowerPoint with some pictures of signs and things that I took in Bavaria a couple of weeks ago.
  
• For French, the first Studio 2 Rouge resources.  I've just done the first unit so far.  (in our Twitter and Facebook polls, Rouge easily beat Vert, and I don't have time to do both!)
  
• For Spanish, 24 more resources for Mira 1.
  
• You may have seen the Playmobil pictures on our Twitter feed and Facebook page.  These are now available to download:
  - Spanish opinions
  - Spanish sports, and a matching activity
  - Saying what you have and don't have (Spanish)
  - Ser and Tener sentences
  - Spanish prepositions and a matching activity
  - French sports and a matching activity
  - French saying what you have and don't have
  - French opinions
  - French être sentences, avoir sentences, prepositions sentences and a prepositions matching activity

All of these resources are available to you absolutely free of charge.  I have not been and will not be paid for making them.  Please consider making a donation to the future of the website.

47 new resources today

I set myself the challenge of making 2 new resources for each day of the Easter holiday, which here started on Good Friday.  Not including today, then, that makes 14 days and 28 resources.  47 is well over target!  Here's what's new:

• Following a request, GCSE Revision starters for Spanish.  These are translated from the French ones that I made way back in 2006, so please alert me to any translation bloopers.  Also, I haven't been able to find the originals of numbers 16, 17, 19, 23, 24 and 25, so at some point I'll have to make those from scratch.
  
• Lots of stuff on French articles.  More flowcharts, practice sheets and the articles maze that has been widely shared on Twitter!
  
• An articles maze and articles practice sheets for Spanish.
  
• The remainder of the Studio 1 worksheets.  There are now at least 2 worksheets for each double-page spread of Studio 1.  Studio 2 next - Rouge or Vert?  Have your say on our Facebook page or via our Twitter poll.
  
• More worksheets for Mira 1.
  
• Word class colouring for KS2 French and parts of a plant for KS1 French
  
• Word class colouring for KS2 Spanish

Like what you see?  Consider making a donation to enable us to make more resources for you.

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