14. As-tu des frères et des soeurs?
7. what’s the weather like? 7. What’s the weather like? Какая погода? Activities
WARM UP ❑ Before watching film 7 A1, talk about what children think the weather might be like in Russia compared with where you live. You could use the internet to look up the weather in some key Russian cities such as Moscow and Saint-Petersburg. (the BBC Weather page is easy to use). ❑ Watch film 7 A1: “Weather”. What’s the weather like? The opening sequence shows a variety of different kinds of weather in response to the question “What’s the weather like?” A cartoon depicting sunshine turning to a storm illustrates the phrases “It’s nice weather” and “It’s nasty weather”. We then see a combination of cartoon and real children saying what the weather is like: “It’s raining”; “It’s cold”; “It’s hot”; “It’s windy”; it’s snowing;
Film 7 A1: “It’s snowing!” - “идет снег!”
Extreme weather The children now tell us that the weather is: “very cold” and “very hot”. Is it nice or nasty weather? The next sequence asks the question, “Is it nice or nasty weather?” We see examples of “nice” and “nasty weather” Reinforcement The final sequence repeats the weather phrases as we see more examples of different kinds of weather. The film finishes as one of the children asks the viewer “What’s the weather like?” GET USED TO THE SOUNDS - online flashcards with sound and optional text
SHOW 07 FLASHCARDS: What’s the weather like? ❑ Echoing: Select ‘What’s the weather like?’ on the online flashcards.
As you show each picture, by default, it asks the question “Какая погода?”- ask pupils to echo this’. Click on ‘?’ for the reply. Pupils echo the words, e.g. “хорошая погода” (it’s nice weather). Finally, look out of the window and say what the weather is actually like today, e.g. “дует ветер” (It’s windy). Pupils echo the phrase. RESPOND WITH UNDERSTANDING ❑
Play “true or false?” 1
Show the online flashcards. In response to the question “Какая погода?” you say, e.g. “идет снег!” (It’s snowing). Children respond, “да” (yes) if the picture shows snowy weather. If it doesn’t, they say “нет” (no).
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EARLY START RUSSIAN 1
HOW RUSSIAN WORKS 1: Weather phrases
online Teacher Preparation
Russian speakers keep their weather phrases short! There is no verb “to be” and no article: they literally ask, “What weather?” and reply with, “nice weather”, “nasty weather”, or simply, “hot”, “cold”.
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NEW WORDS AND PHRASES
Какая погода?
What’s the weather like?
When talking about snow and rain, they use the phrase “идет (снег)” Literally: “is going (snow)”.
(literally, “What weather?”)
❑ Print multiple copies of the weather pictures on the activity sheets and give ONE picture to each pupil. When you call out, e.g. “жарко”, the pupils with the “it’s hot” card hold up it for everyone to see. Some extra visual clues may help pupils at this early stage, e.g. fan yourself as you say “жарко” and shiver as you say “холодно”. n To make this into a game, divide the class into two teams. Each team has an identical set of weather pictures (one for each child). When you call out the weather, e.g. “идет дождь”, the pupils holding the rain picture try to be first to jump up and echo “идет дождь”.
хорошая погода
it’s nice
(literally, “nice weather”)
плохая погода
it’s nasty
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(literally, “poor weather”)
холодно
it’s cold
(literally, “cold”)
жарко
it’s hot
(literally, “hot”)
дует ветер
it’s windy
(literally, “blowing winds”)
идет дождь
it’s raining
For the next activities, collect a large box of dressing-up “props” linked with weather, e.g. sunglasses, beach hat, fan, woolly hat, gloves, scarf, umbrella, rain hat, wellington boots, kite ...
(literally, “is going rain”)
идет снег
it’s snowing
(literally, “is going snow”)
Это хороший или плохой погоды? Is it nice or nasty weather? REVISION
■ You say what the weather is, e.g. “холодно” (it’s cold). Pupils take it in turns to go to the box and choose any items that represent “it’s cold”. When a child has put on, for example, the woolly hat and gloves, s/he shivers and says: “холодно”.
это (хорошая погода) it’s (nice weather)
■ You ask what the weather is like, “Какая погода?” Pupils take turns to go to the box and select one or more items. The rest of the class then has to guess what weather they are trying to show. ■ Prepare two boxes, each containing the same set of props to do with weather: e.g. an umbrella, sunglasses, gloves....
очень (жарко / холодно) very (hot / cold)
Click the online Teacher Preparation section which presents the pronunciation of all the new words and phrases - together with simple language awareness points.
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14. As-tu des frères et des soeurs?
7. what’s the weather like? Next to each box, place sets of weather pictures face up on table (use the paper flashcards, or print-outs from the internet). Divide the class into two teams. When you call out, for example, “жарко” (it’s hot), a pupil from each team runs to the box. S/he selects an appropriate item, e.g. a fan, picks up the picture representing “it’s hot” from the table and brings it to you. By using pictures as well as “props”, you can tell whether pupils understand the phrases. Some items in the dressing up box may be appropriate for more than one kind of weather. ❑
Pupils can use multiple copies of the pictures on the activity sheet to play “snap”.
❑
Pupils can use their puppets to have conversations about the weather.
❑ When the children are confident with the basic weather phrases, encourage them to use “очень” to describe the weather as being “very cold” etc. You could include “очень” when playing “true or false” and the “props” game.
Singing Russian
❑ Watch film 7 A2: Song: “Какая погода?” You will need to explain that there is one unfamilar word in the song, “тепло”, which means “warm”. Ask the children to listen out for this and see if they can spot it. Play the song again and ask children to join in, singing and doing the actions alongside the Russian children. Какая погода?
Какая погода?
Какая погода?
Какая погода?
What’s the weather like? What’s the weather like?
Жарко! Тепло! Hot! Warm!
Хорошая погода, The weather’s good!
Хорошая погода! The weather’s good!
Жарко!Тепло! Hot! Warm!
What’s the weather like? What’s the weather like?
Идёт снег, идёт дождь! It’s snowing! It’s raining!
Плохая погода, The weather’s bad!
Плохая погода. The weather’s bad!
Холодно! Холодно!
Film 7 A2: “It’s hot!” - “Жарко!”
Cold! Cold!
CROSS CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES ❑ Daily routine: “What’s the weather today?”
Ask pupils “Какая погода?” each morning as part of your routine of greetings and taking the register in Russian. ❑ Daily routine/ICT/Geography: “What’s the weather like in Russia? Pupils can use the internet to research what the weather is like in Russia. The next section, CH. 8 “Where do you live?”, will introduce some important Russian cities. The children will be able to find out about the climate in different parts of Russia. 31
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EARLY START RUSSIAN ❑ Geography/Technology - a weather dial Pupils can design and make a weather dial for the class weather board (and a game). They cut a large circle from card, and divide it into segments like slices of a cake - illustrating each segment with different weather symbols. Fix a “pointer” in the centre to turn like a clock hand, and set it to indicate today’s weather. The dial can also be used for a game, played in pairs. One pupil spins the pointer and asks the other, “Какая погода?” ❑ Drama: Play “the miming game” Pupils work in pairs. Give each pair a picture showing a kind of weather. They have 5 minutes to prepare a mime to represent this weather. They can use speech only if it is in Russian (e.g. greetings, asking someone how they are, etc.) but NOT to say what the weather is! Each pair performs their mime to the rest of the class, who guess what the weather is.
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