Bilingual Language Activity - My Family

When learning a foreign language, one of the first things you will want to learn is vocabulary to talk about yourself and your family. You will often need this vocabulary to use in conversations with new people you meet. It allows you to tell people about yourself and it also allows you to get to know others and form relationships with them. 

There are many ways to learn new vocabulary, but when teaching young children, it is best to use practical and/or visual techniques. These techniques will keep them interested in the task, provide them with appropriate context and aid memorisation. As my children love crafting, I often use craft activities for our language learning. 

I set up the work space with plenty of craft supplies and gave the children a sheet of A3 white paper. I asked them to make a picture of our family.

The children thought this was a wonderful task and got stuck in using the various craft supplies to create their pictures.

R enjoyed using sweet wrappers and doilies to make clothing. He also enjoyed using the googly eyes!

Here is D's picture. She used doilies, sweet wrappers and tissue paper for the clothing. Then she drew in the features and hair with felt tips and decorated the background with sequins and little paper shapes.

R had a good go at writing everyone's names though he did make a spelling mistake, spelling Baba (father) as Bubu. He has only just turned 5 years old.

After the pictures were finished, we wrote some Turkish phrases at the bottom which we can use to talk about our family.

This was a really fun activity which the children enjoyed a lot. They kept coming back to the picture throughout the day to add things (so the pictures became quite busy) or look and talk about the phrases. These posters will make a great resource for a presentation.

Turkish phrases to talk about your family

Benim ailem                                                                 My family
Benim adım...                                                               My name is ...
... kardeşim var.                                                            I have ... siblings.
Benim kardeşimin adı ...                                              My siblings are called .....
Ben ... yaşındayım                                                       I am ... years old.
Benim kardeşim (or use name of sibling) ... yaşında.  My sibling is ... years old.
Ben Ingiltereden.                                                          I am from England.
Benim Babam Türkiye'den.                                          My dad is from Turkey.
Benim Annem Ingiltere'den.                                         My mum is from England.
Ben Ingiltere'de yaşiyorum.                                          I live in England.
Biz Ingiltere'de yaşiyoruz.                                            We live in England.

More bilingual language activities

Pom pom sight words

Bilingual snowballs

Coloured shapes gross motor activity

Apple tasting

Finger painting wildlife

Language learning: Colour wheel