ITALIAN

Why learn Italian?

 

Italian pizzas and pasta dishes are delicious made in any country, but in Italy they are often even more delicious!  Italian ice cream is also very popular with the tourists who visit Italy.   So if you learn a little Italian before you go, you could order some fabulous food in Italian.  It's so much fun speaking a language, and Italian is a lovely sounding language.

Italy has some amazing places to visit.    Rome is the capital of Italy, and here you will see many famous landmarks such as the Colloseum and the Spanish steps.   Florence is another well known city to visit, and is famous for it's unusual cathedral.

Plaza Espana, Rome
Florence cathedral
Colosseum, Rome

What's the best way to learn Italian?

 

To learn a foreign lanuage it's useful to learn lots of nouns.  Nouns are the words for people, animals, places and things.   Examples of nouns include a cat,  a banana and a coat.   There are lots of ways to learn new words, and we learn best when we are interested and having fun.  So why not try a variety of the suggestions below?

 

 

 

Choose a topic, for example colours or pet animals

 

Learn a few words each time you study Italian. How many words you choose to learn is up to you!  Everyone is different.  I would recommend trying to learn anything from 3 - 10  words each time you study, depending on how much time you have or how easily you can remember the words. The thing that’s great about learning languages is that there is no right or wrong amount of words you should learn each time you study.  It’s whatever you are happy with and can remember.  And even a few minutes a day can make a big difference.

 

I always find it’s easier to learn words in a foreign language if you learn the words as a topic as you can then go on to build sentences with these words and your word lists are easier and more logical to refer back to.  It’s important to keep looking back at the words you have learnt so that you don’t forget them.  To revist a topic you can either just look at the words, play a game using the words from a particular topic, ask someone to test you on the words or you can design your own quizzes. Praise yourself for the words you can remember, and don't worry if you forget some words as it's just part of the learning process, and you just need a little more time to learn the words you forget.   

Book cover of Young Cool Kids Learn Italian has a winking face and the background is green, white and red like the Italian fl

Young Cool Kids Learn Italian


With eight interesting topics per book, the fun activities include colouring, circling the correct word, matching foreign words to pictures, word searches and writing just a few words per page.


Topics include:

  • Numbers
  • The  toy shop
  • Greetings
  • A trip to the beach
  • Zoo animals
  • The countryside
  •  Colours
  •  The birthday party

Cool Kids Speak Italian has 6 topics in each book, and each topic starts with a picture page showing all the words for that topic. These words are then practiced, and sentences are built using these words.   Finally there is a fun word search in an eye catching shape.  There are three books in the series.  Ideal for 7-11 year olds.

Book cover of Cool Kids Speak Italian Book 1 with a big smiley face. Background is green, white and red like the Italian flag

  Topics in book 1:

 

  • Greetings
  • Numbers 1 - 10
  • Colours
  • Animals
  • Drinks
  • Pizzas
The cover of Cool Kids Speak Italian Book 2 has a big smiley face with the background in the colours of the Italian flag

Topics in book 2 :

 

  •  Numbers 11 - 20
  •  Sport
  •  Fruit
  •  Clothes
  •  Transport
  •   Ice creams
The cover of the third book in the series Cool Kids Speak Italian has a big smiley face on a green, white and red background

 Topics in book 3 :

 

  •  Birthdays
  •  Descriptions
  •  Numbers 21 - 40
  •  Pencil case
  •  School subjects
  •  The house

There's lots of fun things you can do to  help you remember and practice the words you are learning. Here are some examples:

Create your own poster with some new Italian words written on it and proudly display it on the fridge or in your room.  You could draw your own pictures to accompany the Italian words, or you could look for clipart images of these words on the internet.

Play Guess the word Game by looking choosing a word from one particular topic, and someone else has to guess what the word is. If you are using Cool Kids Speak Italian, you could look at the first page for each topic for inspiration about what word to choose and so that the person guessing knows which words to choose from.

 

 

Choose some pretty coloured pencils or pens and practice writing the new words several times in your best hand writing.

Make Italian-English  word cards by cutting up a piece of card into approximately 5 cm x 3 cm rectangles. Ask an adult to be around while using scissors. On one side write the Italian word, on the other side write the English word. Test yourself on the words by looking at one side of the card, and saying what the word is in the Foreign language.

Games

 

Games are a great way of practicing either new words or sentence structures. You can design your own board game with pictures in the spaces for the Italian you are learning. To play, you will need a dice and one counter or player. The counters could be anything from cubes to small toys to rubbers - they just have to fit in the spaces in the game!

Book cover of Photocopiable Games For Teaching Italian with images for some of the Italian words that appear in the games

Photocopiable Games For Teaching Italian

This fabulous book is packed full of games like snakes and ladders, board games, four in a row as well as photocopiable mini cards with which you can play numerous games.


The games may be photocopied for class or home use. 

 

Suggested age range: 7 - 14 

Making your own sentences

 

Once you have learnt some nouns (words for things, people, animals and places) you can then learn how to build simple sentences.

 

Learning a language is fun, a bit like putting together the pieces in an amazing jigsaw puzzle and before you know it, you are making something really impressive.

 

Once you can put together you own sentences you can speak Italian, and that is a good skill to have.

 

There are lots of ways of learning how to make your own sentences.  The books in the range Cool Kids Speak Italian introduce the new words in each topic, then practice how to make simple sentence structures.  By developing sentences using the new words, you can learn how to make your own sentences.   You can also practice making your own sentences by taking part in role roles.

Role play situations

 

Another great way to learn Italian is to pretend you are in Italy, and role play situations like ordering something to eat or drink.  It can be so much fun to pretend to be there and to have to speak in Italian for a real purpose!   

On Holiday In Italy Cool Kids Speak Italian has been written so children can learn some Italian in the first part of the book before they go away, and then complete challenges from the second part of the book whilst they are away.   By completing the challenges the children can practice the Italian they have learnt. The second part of the book could also be used for role play at home or school.

 

Topics include:  Greetings, Essential words, Numbers,  Drinks, Typical Italian food, Ice creams,  Hotels, Campsites & Around town.


Suggested age range: 7 - 11

A pizza and a selection of ice creams are shown on the cover of On Holiday In Italy Cool Kids Speak Italian

Stories are also great way of learning a language, after all we all like stories! The stories can be read and read again, embedding the language structures that appear in the sentences. The following books have been written in Italian for children aged 7 - 11 who are learning Italian, and the storylines are built around particular topics.  At the back of each book is a useful Italian - English translation of the story.  

Book cover of this lovely story in Italian for children has images for some of the Italian vocabulary that is in the story

      Un Alieno Sulla Terra

 

An alien visiting Earth is curious

why there are many things they

do not have on his planet.

 

Topics: general conversation,

clothes, weather and activities.

Book cover of Hai Un Animale Domesitco has cute illustrations for the 6 animals that appear in this story by Joanne Leyland

     Hai Un Animale Domestico?

 

Marco doesn’t have a pet but all his friends do. Will his wish for a pet come true?

 

Topics: Types of pets, colours, sizes, names of pets and opinions.

Book cover of La Scimmia Che Cambia Colore by Joanne Leyland shows illustrations of the different things the monkey eats

   La Scimmia Che Cambia Colore

 

A monkey changes colour when he eats something of a different colour.   Will he ever return to his usual colour?

 

Topics: General conversation, days, colours, food and opinions.

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