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Starting Year 5 with language detectives
This French video introduces teachers to the first unit of Year 5, focusing on developing pupils’ detective skills for tackling unknown vocabulary. Rather than translating word for word, children explore a non-fiction text, identifying features such as cognates, visual clues, and text type to help them infer meaning. The class works collaboratively to generate suggested subheadings, select key words for a shared word bank, and highlight interesting facts to share with peers.
This video is part of Kapow Primary’s French scheme – Vocabulary. It shows how to promote independent language strategies while making strong links with literacy and science. The activities encourage pupils to highlight, annotate, and take notes, while avoiding over-reliance on translation. By the end of the session, pupils will have built confidence in extracting meaning from text, contributed to a shared bank of useful vocabulary, and prepared for future creative tasks such as fact files and fantastic beast writing.
French, Upper key stage 2, Year 5, Unit 1: French monster pets, Lesson 1: Beware the dragon!