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NI HAO - KIA ORANA - BONJOUR - GUTEN TAG - KONNICHI WA - KIA ORA - FAKAALOFA LAHI ATU - TALOFA - BUENOS DIAS - MALO E LELEI

International Languages Week

Sunday 19 to Saturday 25 August 2012

Ideas for School Events

Post new ideas at http://ilw-nzalt.wikispaces.com/

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         How can your school celebrate International Languages Week?

        Send in examples of how you do some of these activities by sending to the Webmaster.

         Celebrate the language skills already in your school community:

• Daily Greetings (see the "Greetings " page)
• Sing NZALT Waiata using the languages of your school. To hear our waiata click here.
• See what other schools have done - The Sasakawa Fellowship Fund for Japanese Language Education offer grants for Japanese teachers to run events during ILW. To view past events schools have run and for more information click here.
• Fly a flag of the day's greeting.
• Involve international students and exchange students in International Languages Week as guest speakers in language classes or at assembly. They could talk about their language learning experiences or schooling in their countrs(ies), or become language tutors for the day.
• Have an international assembly with greetings, prayers, songs, etc in other languages.
• Arrange a Field Trip for ILW and make it count for an interaction portfolio. Click here for more information.
• Make a chart of all the languages spoken in your class / school and display it prominently.
• National costume day - Students wear national costumes for assembly or for the whole day.
• Display flags from countries whose languages are represented at your school - have the students create them on paper.
• Make badges with the message "I speak (language(s))" for staff and students.
• Create a school map of the world, where the students highlight those countries, which either they themselves or their parents come from or have visited. If a country's official language is not English it could be highlighted in another colour.
• Encourage research into the cultures and languages represented in your school - graph the results and display them.  

  Involving Parents & Community:

• School newsletter - focus on language-learning stories from school and local community.
• Send out a Languages Department newsletter.
• Collect information about local language-learning opportunities (school night classes, Polytech, University Continuing Education, Alliance Française etc) and send home in a newsletter
• International cooking classes - one evening for staff and parents (PTA involvement perhaps?)
• Contact local newspapers, libraries, radio stations, local TV stations to ask them to focus on International Languages Week and make sure to let them know what your students will be doing.
• Create a school treasury of languages: draw up a list of all languages spoken at school and in the wider school community, including the languages taught at school, the languages spoken at home (e.g. in bicultural families), the languages known by the parents, the staff, frequent visitors to the school either learnt at school or learnt for another reason
• Create a multilingual welcome poster for the school foyer: get the school community to contribute by writing "Hello" and/or "Welcome" in their language(s). Base your poster on the list above.
• Find out what language skills your school parents have and invite them into the school as guest speakers - to speak to assembly or individual classes, to teach students a song, poem, recipe, etc in another language or from another culture.

         Within school

• Run a Haiku competition Students write a haiku about languages in English or in any international language.
• Create a languages poster Combine art and language(s) to create posters for display in the classroom, library or foyer.
• Make bookmarks to promote International Languages Week and language learning in general.
• Make bumper stickers or labels for car rear windows as above.
• Multilingual teddy bears' picnic Cover the school with posters / notices for this event in every language represented in your school, the ones you teach and any others spoken by staff and students
• Hold a languages concert During a lunch hour or evening
• Multilingual karaoke
• Passport lunchtime activity - One day during the week or all week set up the school hall or language classrooms with language/country stations.

  Students have to use a greeting and do a task at each place to get a stamp in their passport. For example:

  German - song - Mein Hut, der hat drei Ecken

  Japanese - fold an origami crane

  French - pétanque challenge

  Spanish - play castanets

  Pacific Languages - join in a dance

• Daily notices - Focus on greetings or include a quiz question about another language or culture.
• Hold a Languages Assembly where classes: present songs, skits etc. present any language awards and certificates this week
• Have a guest speaker with language experience - past pupil, someone from the community
• Multilingual labels to show off national food of target language culture
• Staff morning tea or lunch featuring international food (PTA involvement perhaps?)
• International Food fund-raisers - make and sell crêpes, sushi, spring rolls, etc
• Eat out - senior classes, staff groups
• Eat in - distribute recipes and have students/staff bring food for a shared international lunch or order in from a local restaurant
• International film festival - Show videos in lunch hour or after school
• Senior students can share their language skills with junior classes by giving short lessons or performances.
• Languages Quiz - for staff or lunchtime activity for students. Include one in the parents' newsletter with a small prize.
• Songs In class or at assembly. (For primary schools there are two songs which feature multilingual greetings, The Wheel and Aotearoa on Mary Chetty's tape "I love my red socks". )
• Story time in the library at lunchtime - Senior students read simple stories in the target language or stories from another culture.
• Art and craft activities from other countries
• Classroom display of the languages around us - Use examples of multilingual food packaging, tourist information, advertising, etc
• Field trip: Visit local food outlets, manufacturer; Scavenger Hunt; Tourism survey; Auckland Zoo (Japanese)