A few years ago, I retired from my position as head of Modern Languages, a bit fearful of the "R" word. But to date, it has been nothing but fun! Canadian law requires school-aged actors to study with a qualified teacher when they’re off-camera. Many of our young actors are in immersion French so I've found a happy little niche, teaching a few days a week as an on-set tutor and moving in inspiring and creative circles! Furthermore, I get to share resources here! Vive la retraite!
A few years ago, I retired from my position as head of Modern Languages, a bit fearful of the "R" word. But to date, it has been nothing but fun! Canadian law requires school-aged actors to study with a qualified teacher when they’re off-camera. Many of our young actors are in immersion French so I've found a happy little niche, teaching a few days a week as an on-set tutor and moving in inspiring and creative circles! Furthermore, I get to share resources here! Vive la retraite!
Thanks to MFL Resources, I discovered this clip last night. It has been going round in my head ever since so I thought I'd share the insanity. A bit like a pop version of 'Old MacDonald had a farm', it will work with young children and teenagers. (Even K4s or maybe, especially K4s who need a laugh.) Included are preteaching / presinging visuals and links to the karaoke and Gangnam (!) versions as well as to a bare bones parody that might inspire older students to make a clip of their own. Please, if they do, let me know.
This is an updated version of the file as two of the original links had become unresponsive.
FLIPPING GRAMMAR flash cards
Online flash cards are a great tool but my students prefer the social interaction of playing / learning with actual cards!
This file includes a set of mini-cards to help students master regular verbs and irregular verbs in the future simple, a second set in business card format, a “how to play” guide and a little bonus.
Individuals can work through these Flipping Grammar cards in class at their own pace as remedial or enrichment work. Or they can take home a deck until they’ve mastered the futur simple tense.
However, Flipping Grammar sparks a lot of joy as a game for two.
And you can extend the lesson by using the answers as mini-dictées.
Just print, cut and go.
QUESTIONS TYPES
Tu _______ la pizza dans le four pour 30 minutes. mettre
Ton robot _____ uniquement à ta voix. obéir
Youpi! Nous ______ enfin à Disneyland! aller
Selon Amazon vous _______ votre commande demain. recevoir
Le jeu de cartes éclair FLIPPING GRAMMAR
Sur un côté de chaque carte, on trouve la question [imprimée en noir] et l’infinitif à conjuguer au futur simple. La réponse [imprimée en rouge] se trouve de l’autre côté de la carte.
Bien sûr que les cartes éclair virtuelles aident à mémoriser le vocabulaire et les conjugaisons difficiles. Mais mes étudiants préfèrent de loin de jouer avec de vraies cartes et de vrais camarades de classe!
Avec les cartes éclair FLIPPING GRAMMAR, ils peuvent toujours réviser individuellement dans la salle de classe ou chez eux mais ils peuvent aussi
jouer avec un partenaire et apprendre sous forme de jeu.
Vous trouverez ici des cartes pour travailler le futur simple des verbes irréguliers,
des cartes pour travailler le futur simple des verbes irréguliers et un petit guide de jeu.
This resource is for teachers of English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin, or any modern language, who desperately need a meaningful, instant lesson. Assign it as quiet seat work to the whole class or to individuals. Or, if you’d like a bit of fun and noise, turn it into group work with each team racing to complete the most accurate answer sheet!
There are answer keys provided for English, French, and Dutch.
The theme of this INSTANT LANGUAGE LESSON is “Summer Holidays”. If you would like me to make an INSTANT LANGUAGE LESSON on an other theme, please let me know.
Warning: JOYEUX NOËL includes several juvenile jokes about reindeer poop . . . the chocolate Christmas snack not the actual reindeer droppings. If you are already peeling your students off the ceiling, do not play this game. And definitely don’t make and share any reindeer poop using the super simple, 3-ingredient recipe included.
ZIPLINE PHRASES are sentence-building games full of humour and serious learning. Students work in teams to build sentences by connecting any two dialogue balls directly linked by a straight line. Each ball may only be used once per sentence. All sentences must be (relatively) logical!
JOYEUX NOËL will encourage your students to think in context and to speak and / or write in full sentences.
In this videoclip, the following Christmas vocabulary is modeled slowly and timed to allow your students to repeat each expression.
l’arbre de Noël / le sapin
le bas de Noël
le bonhomme de neige
la boule de Noël / la décoration
la bûche de Noël
le cadeau / la surprise
la canne de Noël
le casse-noisette
les chandelles (f.)
le chant de Noël
les choristes (m.) de Noël / les chanteurs (m.) de Noël
les cloches (f.)
la couronne
la crèche
la dinde
l’église
l’étoile (f.)
le gâteau aux fruits
le gui
le houx
les jeux (m.)
les jouets (m.)
le lait de poule
les lumières de Noël (f.)
le lutin
la magie de Noël
la neige
le pain d’épice
la paix
le papier d’emballage
la papillote de Noël / le pétard de Noël
le Père Noël
le poinsettia / l’étoile de Noël (f.)
le pôle nord
le renne
les rois (m.) Mages
le traîneau
la veille de Noël
le vitrail
You can download it; here’s the YouTube link:
https://youtu.be/DkgPfJXTlzA
The same vocabulary is the basis for the activity, QU’EST-CE QUI MANQUE ICI (NOËL): https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12942690
Zipline Phrases is a sentence-building game full of sly humour and serious learning. Students work in teams to build sentences by connecting any two dialogue balls directly linked by a straight line. Each ball may only be used once per sentence. All sentences must be (relatively) logical! MDR!
The game encourages students to think in context and speak and / or write full sentences.
It also offers a built-in homework opportunity.
I recommend playing this Zipline Phrases game after you watch the Peppa episode, “À la recherche de Monsieur Dinosaure”.
Featured in “Où sont les trésors cachés? (Les verbes PRONOMINAUX)” are SE LAVER, SE LEVER, S’HABILLER, SE PARLER and S’ACHETER. The activity works well as a full-class, teacher-directed game or as a small group activity. After the fun of the oral treasure hunt, you can also assign co-ordinates to create an instant written assignment to reinforce the correct spelling of the verb endings. You’ll find that even reluctant learners will be motivated to listen carefully and the promise of “treasure” tends to generate enthusiastic oral participation as well. My answer key is for le présent et le passé composé but the game works for virtually every verb tense.
Try the free, “Où sont les trésors cachés (les verbes ER) to see if ”Où sont les trésors cachés? (Les verbes DEVOIR, VOULOIR et POUVOIR)” is right for your students:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/o-sont-les-tr-sors-c
In “Où sont les trésors cachés? (Les verbes conjugués avec ÊTRE)", the focus is on the Dr. and Mrs. VAN DER TRAMP verbs, ALLER, VENIR, DEVENIR and RENTRER. This activity works well as a full-class, teacher-directed game or as a small group activity.
After the fun of the oral treasure hunt, you can also assign co-ordinates to create an instant written assignment to reinforce the correct spelling of the verb endings. You’ll find that even reluctant learners will be motivated to listen carefully and the promise of “treasure” tends to generate enthusiastic oral participation as well. My answer key is for le présent tense and the passé composé but the game works for virtually every verb tense.
To see if this Dr. & Mrs. VAN DER TRAMP lesson is right for your students, try the free, “Où sont les trésors cachés (les verbes ER):
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/o-sont-les-tr-sors-cach-s--les-verbes-er-6438862
Thanks to Diana Martínez, a brilliant young colleague from Mexico, here is a ¡Busquemos el tesoro escondido! game that concentrates on the VERBOS REGULARES, AR, ER e IR. This resource works both as a teacher-directed activity and as a small group game. Even reluctant learners will be motivated to listen carefully and the promise of “treasure” generates enthusiastic oral participation as well. After the oral treasure hunt, assign a handful of co-ordinates for instant written conjugation practice. The answer keys are in the present and past tenses but the game can be played in virtually every verb tense.
Please note that we have opted to use Mexican Spanish wherever possible.
To see if this activity is right for your students,
download the free resource, ¡Busquemos el tesoro escondido! (AR-ending verbs)
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/-busquemos-el-tesoro-escondido-ar-ending-verbs-2-0-11522811
When students match the sentence fragments printed on the edges of the triangles, they will reconstitute the 25 Easter facts and “sculpt” the Easter Bunny’s head.
Although designed as a co-operative activity, the EASTER TRIANGLE puzzle also works well as an enrichment task for individual students.
Here are 7 of the 25 Easter facts embedded in this puzzle:
• Monks made the first pretzels for Lent. They shaped them like arms crossed in prayer!
• A baby rabbit is a “kitten” or a “kit”.
• This is a moai: (image) a giant Easter Island sculpture.
• The Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny are imaginary characters.
• In the movie, HOP, the Easter Bunny’s son wants to leave the family business to drum in a rock band.
• North Americans eat 90 million chocolate bunnies every year!
• A Ukrainian Easter egg decorated with intricate traditional folk designs is called a “pysanka”.
In this co-operative review activity, students who have studied A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM match the texts on the edges of sixteen triangles to reconstitute the following quotes:
Sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow’s eye, seal me awhile from mine own company.
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
If we shadows have offended, think but this, and all is mended, that you have but slumbered here while these visions did appear.
The course of true love never did run smooth.
Things base and vile, holding no quantity, Love can transpose to form and dignity.
Never harm, nor spell nor charm, come our lovely lady nigh.
The best in this kind are but shadows, and the worst are no worse, if imagination amend them.
Thus have I, Wall, my part dischargèd so. And, being done, thus Wall away doth go.
Come, blade, my breast imbrue. And, farewell, friends. Thus Thisbe ends. Adieu.
Hang off, thou cat, thou burr! Vile thing, let loose.
In the temple, by and by, with us, these couples shall eternally be knit.
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet are of imagination all compact.
Never anything can be amiss when simpleness and duty tender it.
We cannot fight for love, as men may do;
we should be wooed and were not made to woo.
When in that moment, so it came to pass, Titania waked and straightway loved an ass.
Sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow’s eye, seal me awhile from mine own company.
Am not I Hermia? Are not you Lysander? I am as fair now as I was erewhile.
The difference between homophones and homographs is (literally) illustrated in this homonym lesson camouflaged as a game. Students are asked to identify and write out the eighteen pairs of homonyms pictured in the puzzle:
ad add
ball bawl
bare bear
bat bat
bowl bowl
cents scents
dough doe
eight ate
eye I
flour flower
knight night
lynx links
moose mousse
pair pear
piece peace
pitcher pitcher
sow sew
waste waist
Black and white and half-sized versions of the game board are included.
To generate “rien que du blabla” in the target language, try using chatterboxes. These two cocottes en papier offer your students relaxed starting points for discussing their “tâches ménagères”.
The “all text” cocotte gives students the security of choosing from a number of pre-fabricated answers. The less prescriptive, illustrated cocotte uses visual prompts to guide their answers.
An “ALL TEXT” cocotte sample:
Question: Quelle tâche ménagère dois-tu faire tous les jours?
Choix de réponses
• Je dois faire mon lit.
• Je dois nourrir le chien et le chat.
• Je dois vider le lave-vaisselle.
An ILLUSTRATED cocotte sample:
Question: “Quelle tâche ménagère fais-tu chaque matin?”
The picture of a bed will prompt answers like, “Je fais mon lit chaque matin.”
A short “tâches ménagères” exercise is also included.
TROUVÉ est un jeu inspiré par Spot it™ ou Dobble™. Il y a toujours une expression identique entre deux cartes. TROUVÉ encouragera vos étudiants à se concentrer, à lire attentivement et à bien prononcer le vocabulaire thématique.
TROUVÉ is a game inspired by Spot it™ or Dobble™. There is always one matching expression on any two cards. TROUVÉ encourages students to concentrate, to read attentively and to pronounce the thematic vocabulary carefully.
Included are a “how to play” guide and a deck of 31 cards to be printed on card stock,
The grade levels will vary depending on whether your programme is in core, extended, immersion or first-language French.
TROUVÉ ( un jeu comme “Spot it” pour Halloween ) met l’accent sur ces expressions:
une araignée
un balai
des bonbons
un cercueil
la chair de poule
un chapeau
un chat noir
le chaudron
une chauve-souris
une cicatrice
un cimetière
crier
faire du porte-à-porte
les feuilles mortes
un film d’horreur
le danger
un déguisement
un diable
effrayé
un épouvantail
un fantôme
une fête
le frisson
un hibou
une lanterne citrouille
une maison hantée
le maquillage
le masque
le papier hygiénique
la sorcière
le vampire
To see if these three games are right for your students, first try the free resource, “Où sont les trésors cachés? (les verbes ER):
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/o-sont-les-tr-sors-cach-s--les-verbes-er-6438862
Even my most reluctant learners listen carefully and participate enthusiastically when we play OÙ SONT LES TRÉSORS CACHÉS?, an oral “treasure” hunt. It works well as a full class, teacher directed game and as a small group activity.
My answer keys are in le présent, le passé composé & le futur simple but the games can be played in virtually every tense.
After the fun of the oral treasure hunt, simply assign a handful of coordinates for an instant written assignment that will reinforce your lesson.
Les expressions avoir ciblées dans OSLTC? sont
avoir soif
avoir faim
avoir froid
avoir chaud
avoir __ ans
avoir raison
avoir tort
avoir hâte
avoir le trac
avoir de la chance
avoir mal
avoir besoin de
avoir envie de
avoir peur de
avoir l’air
Let’s get to the bottom (or top) of LES EXPRESSIONS FAIRE is a competitive, repetitive game that will help your students to listen “actively” and to familiarise themselves with “les expressions faire” through the process of osmosis.
There are three games in this file.
To be sure that this activity is right for your class, try the free resource, Let’s get to the bottom (or top) of LES EXPRESSIONS AVOIR: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/let-s-get-to-the-bottom-of-les-expressions-avoir-6451763
Here are three sample sentences from Let’s get to the bottom (or top) of LES EXPRESSIONS FAIRE:
• “Chez moi, c’est le bonhomme Pillsbury qui fait les biscuits!” avoue
Mary Berry.
• Elle est rentrée après son couvre-feu et ses parents en ont fait tout un
drame.
• Hamilton est une pièce musicale qui fait un tabac en ce moment!
After you’ve introduced LE SUBJONCTIF, here’s an active listening game that will have all your students participating enthusiastically. “LET’S GET TO THE BOTTOM (OR TOP) OF LE SUBJONCTIF” works bilingually and in the target language only. And, thanks to its competitive and repetitive elements, your students will pick up many of the key expressions through the process of osmosis.
To be sure that “LET’S GET TO THE BOTTOM (OR TOP) OF LE SUBJONCTIF” is the right kind of activity for your students, try the free sister resource,“LET’S GET TO THE BOTTOM (OR TOP) OF LES EXPRESSIONS AVOIR”: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/dashboard/resource-management/uploads
In this co-operative review activity, students who have studied THE TEMPEST match the texts on the edges of sixteen triangles to reconstitute the following quotes:
Good wombs have borne bad sons.
(Act 1, Scene 2)
Hell is empty and all the devils are here.
(Act 1, Scene 2)
You taught me language, and my profit on't is, I know how to curse.
(Act 1, Scene 2)
But this swift business I must uneasy make, lest too light winning make the prize light. (Act 1, Scene 2)
The wills above be done but I would fain die a dry death.
(Act 1, Scene 1)
I’ll rack thee with old cramps, fill all thy bones with aches.
(Act 1, Scene 2)
My library was dukedom large enough.
(Act 1, Scene 2)
There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple.
(Act 1, Scene 2)
Misery acquaints a man with strange bed-fellows.
(Act 2, Scene 2)
It was mine art, when I arrived and heard thee, that made gape the pine and let thee out.
(Act 1, Scene 2)
We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.
(Act 4, Scene 1)
How beauteous mankind is!
O brave new world, that has such people in’t!
(Act 5, Scene 1)
The strongest oaths are straw to the fire i' the blood.
(Act 4, Scene 1)
He that dies pays all debts.
( Act 3, Scene 2)
Now I will believe that there are unicorns.
( Act 3, Scene 3)
What have we here? A man or a fish?
(Act 2, Scene 2)
Embedded in this ‘Boggle’ grid are the holiday theme words, ‘an, carte, chant, fête, gui, houx, jouet, noix & toit’ plus 60 general vocabulary words.