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UPDATE 2021: click here for this year’s competition, but see the article below for idea on how to get started with it!

UPDATE ON 24/06/2020: the winners were announced yesterday, and a school I supported with a workshop, Grangetown Primary in Sunderland, won in the 7-11 category! Whoo hoo! Congratulations to their teacher Clair Blackett, the pupils and all the staff involved!
The workshop could only happen thanks to the generosity of the French Education Office UK who trusted me and sponsored me to deliver it. We are very grateful, and hope that it can all happen again next year!
Click here to watch the 2020 regional and national winner.
I hope this will inspire you to take part next year!
Click here for more details about the 2020 competition! There were some great prizes to be won, like an ipad etc!
Click here for the French pop video presentation that I prepared to help with entries.
Documents: I-DevinezLaRime  J-StructureDeLaChanson K-MaChanson
In a workshop I led (at Grangetown!), here are the steps we took:

  • we listened to the tune that the music teacher had created for the class. (tip if you do not have your own tune: rapping is probably the most accessible style of music)
  • we had a vote to decide the parts which the whole class was going to sing and the parts that were open to solos; you may want to consider doing a round too, in groups
  • some topics were suggested and the class voted for the one they wanted their song to be about
  • we looked at rimes – then decided we were not going to have any (again, they voted, giving them ownershp of the song all along)
  • we split the class into small groups/tables and each group wrote, in English, some words/phrases that they wanted in the song
  • we shared our ideas and selected the most popular ones (vote/show of hands again)
  • the children were introduced to WordReference.com , each table was allocated some items of vocabulary to look up and they found them using tablets
  • we gathered all our ideas, in French
  • we started ordering them and putting them to our tune

All this was done in an hour. It was amazing!
If you have any questions, please do ask in the comments below so everyone can see them and read them too!
N.B. Would you like to read about books, ideas, resources and opportunities for the primary languages classroom? Then click here to receive a monthly round up of my blog (and more!) straight in your mail box!