Year 6 have been creating some wonderful decision trees. We have been practising different question forms in French (1. just add a question mark, 2. use est-ce que, 3. invert subject and verb). Our current theme is Animal Classification, to tie into their science work.
First we learnt the words for mammal, amphibian, etc. The children then used French dictionaries to find an example of each class of animal.
We then learnt the words for hair, scales and feathers and the words for fins, feet and wings. The next step was some speaking practice where I showed the children a close up image and they had to guess if it was scales, feathers or hair and the the same for wings, feet and fins.
After that the class were shown a slide of 9 animals (including all classes) and we practised the names for those animals via Kim's game (Qu'est-ce qui manque?). I then gave the children clues, orally, for them to guess which animal I was thinking of.
The next step was for the children to write their own clues (2 per animal) for a partner to guess. They enjoyed writing the answer in tiny writing upside down at the bottom of the page as you would see in a magazine.
The final step was to learn how to turn these clues (statements) into questions. I showed the class 3 different ways that questions are formed in French and they made grammar notes in their books.
They were now ready to create their decision trees. They chose about 5 animals and created yes/no questions, such as 'does it have scales' to narrow it down to each animal. The final version was drawn out on coloured paper, mounted on animal print paper and decorated with foam animal stickers.
They are going to make a fabulous display!
