A selection of free websites and downloadable
materials relating to language and culture in countries around the
world.
Review the sites before using them in your primary classroom and
take care to
supervise children online. For helpful advice,
read
Becta’s
guidelines on e-safety.
View:
Festivals and celebrations
Christmas
Chinese New Year
Easter
Eid
Ramadan
Resources for multiple occasions
-
BBC Northern Ireland KS2 festivals
Download teachers notes and worksheets from the BBC Northern
Ireland series.
- BBC
Schools Spanish festivals
Games and language activities on the topic of festivals
for primary learners of Spanish.
- BBC Schools
religion
Information about Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism,
Sikhism with links to teachers notes for major festivals in their
religious calendars.
- British
Council – my favourite day
Testimonies from children around the world written in English,
talking about their favourites days of the year. Days include
Chinese New Year, Taiwanese Moon Festival, Deepavali and Christmas
in Italy and Poland.
- British Library
– Words alive
Teachers notes based around stories about three relgious
festivals: Diwali, Easter and Purim.
- European Day of
Languages
The European Day of Languages is a Council of Europe initiative
held annually on the 26 September, to celebrate languages and
cultural diversity. The CILT
EDL
pages include
activities, classroom ideas, events and resources to celebrate the
day - visit CILT EDL.
- Global
Gateway calendar across the world
Calendar of key dates including religious festivals, international
and national days.
- United Nations
International year of the potato
2008 was the United Nations International Year of the Potato. This
supporting website is full of cultural information about the role
the potato plays in providing ‘food security and eradicating
poverty’, with links to global facts for children and recipes from
all over the world. The site is also available in Arabic,
Chinese, French, Spanish and Russian.
Global dimension resources in English
- Autobiography
of intercultural encounters
A Council of Europe resource
for young learners to record and reflect on their intercultural
experiences. Includes guidance for teachers to develop young
people's understanding and skills.
-
DCSF top tips to develop the global
dimension
An eight-page booklet from the DCSF,
designed to help teachers enhance the global dimension in
their schools.
- Channel
4 learning – we are from
Interactive website with facts and figures about European
countries, based on a Channel 4 learning series. Includes teachers'
area with downloadable worksheets and teachers notes.
- Global dimension
This website funded by
DFID
features
reviews of resources for the global dimension, many of which are
free to download.
- Global
Gateway curriculum guidance and lesson plans
Global Gateway is a DCSF funded initiative which aims
to enhance the global dimension in schools through supporting
school links and partnerships. Here you can access lesson plans for
4-11 year olds and other useful resources.
- Global
links
Interactive website from Action Aid. Designed for pupils aged 7
years and above, the site focuses on life in Latin
America and Carribean, Africa, Asia and Middle East. As well as
country information, there are insights into children’s lives
and daily routines, ideas for teaching and photo
galleries.
- QCDA World of primary
learning
Online resources for integrating the global dimension across the
primary curriculum. Includes electronic slideshows, showcasing
primary schools across the globe in response to a number of
issues.
- Sopexa
The dedicated marketing and PR organisation for French food and
wine. The Sopexa website includes links to many recipes
and facts about regional French produce.
- Teach global
A free online CPD unit developed by the Open University, BBC
Worldwide and DFID. Includes courses on managing the global
dimension in primary and teaching and learning about the global
dimension in the primary curriculum and primary science.
- British Museum online tours
-
Stories from Bengal
Traditional stories from Bengal, told through photographs of
objects in the museum collection. Includes supporting teachers
notes.
-
Sudan ancient treasures
Information about home life in Sudan with contributions from
children at the Sudanese supplementary school.
-
Toys and games from around the world
Explores the history and origins of popular toys with photos of
British Museum exhibits. Includes activities to print out and
make.
- Oxfam
Global dimension resources with new
language
- CBEEBIES
stories and rhymes
Animated stories in other languages and from other cultures.
Languages include Welsh, Portuguese, Somalian, Bengali, Cantonese,
Urdu, Arabic and Yoruba.
- Europe in the
UK
EC
website for schools with games, facts and
information about Europe. There are fun language activities and
mini-dictionaries for Bulgarian, Dutch, Danish, English, Estonian,
Finnish, French, Gaelic, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian,
Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak,
Slovene, Spanish, Swedish and Welsh.
- Japan
21 Lesson plans
Downloadable lesson plans for classroom use. There are plans for a
variety of KS1 and KS2 cross-curricular lessons, including
traditional Japanese stories in literacy and origami in maths, as
well as a photobank.
- Kids Web Japan
A website for children from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, designed to introduce 10-14 year olds living in other
countries to Japanese language and culture. The websites contains
interactive games about all aspects of Japanese culture, facts and
figures about Japanese life and eight lessons for Japanese language
learning.
- Mathias and
Amadou
An online game from
EC
exploring the themes of development and aid in Africa. Users
can play the game in German, English, Spanish, French and
Dutch.
- QCDA Allons à la
réunion
A unit of work combining geography and a modern foreign language at
Key Stage 2, designed for year 5/6 mixed-age classes. Find out
more at QCDA schemes of work, Réunion.
- QCDA Respect for all Key Stage 2 MFL la
réunion
Unit of work based on the island of La Réunion, designed to address
diversity and global citizenship through primary French. Find
out more at QCDA schemes of work, Réunion.
- Speech bubbles
Television programmes presented by young native speakers
of Bulgarian, Dutch, English, Greek, Italian, Swedish
and Spanish. Developed as part of an
EC
Lingua funded project. A DVD of the
programmes are also available free of charge from the website and
can be viewed in the CILT Library.
Cultural agencies
- Ambafrance culture
and language
The culture and language website for the French Embassy in the UK.
Information about forthcoming French films, arts and cultural
events as well as book reviews.
-
Consejeria de educacion
The Education Department of the Spanish Embassy in the UK. Their
website hosts free downloadable resources including a
Spanish festivals Powerpoint, intended for older learners
but with photographs and background information that
could be adapted for or used to inform primary teaching.
- Embassy
of Japan in the UK Japanese artefacts The Japanese
Information and Cultural Centre have boxes of Japanese
artefacts available to loan to schools.
- European
Commission culture portal
Information about
EC
cultural policy and initiatives and access to
the websites of ministries
of culture in European countries.
- Goethe
Institut
German cultural institute in the UK. The website is full of
information about German arts, society, music,
fashion and popular culture.
- Institut
francais
French cultural institute in the UK, based in London. Includes
information about French films, popular music, arts and education
initiatives. The Institut also have a library and médiathèque in
their London office with a range of French books, comics and
films.
-
Instituto Cervantes
Spanish cultural institute in the UK. Includes a cultural calendar,
links to cultural information including discovering Latin American
and access to Cervantes TV.
- Le Père de Noël
- French language website with pictures to colour in of
Père
Noël, reindeer and
Christmas
toys.
- Polish Embassy in
UK
Includes facts and information about Polish food, weather and
tourist attractions.