This is a really challenging warmer activity to test the student's knowledge of key quotations. I give them mini-whiteboards on which to record their answers. The task is differentiated into: Tout le monde: complétera les citations. La majorité: identifiera le personnage Quelques personnes: identifieront l’Acte Examples of quotations to complete: Cent hommes! Quel courage! Je suis un peu couvert d’éther. J’ai voyagé. Mais...que je n’entends pas pour la première fois ! (...) Le langage aujourd’hui qu’on parle et qu’on écrit, Ciel! Mes livres vénérés! Les vers de mes amis! Déchirés! Démembrés!

Feeling tired at the end of term?! Let the students get on with this French Chrstmas webquest on the fabulous vivenoel website! They will learn some new vocabulary and can play lots of games. Stronger students may like to look in more depth at the Christmas tales and recipes, perhaps even make them! To use this resource you need the DVD of Wallace and Gromit's Cracking Contraptions. I found this in the extras DVD attached to my copy of The Curse of the Were Rabbit. It is in English, but still a fun, quirky way to build some vocabulary. In total the activity lasts approximately 20 minutes. Firstly I give out the question sheet and the students work in pairs/ small groups to translate the French Christmas vocabulary in the box. The extension activity is to translate the multiple choice questions and answers below. I then show the (1 minute 36 second) extract a couple of times and check the answers. The vocabulary box can also be used for a quick game of lotto.

I love this activity! It can be used as a quick warmer when you have taught colours or a quick warmer at any time to put a smile on the students’ faces and really get their brains going! I give the student 2 minutes to “read” the first slide in Spanish or alternatively I ask them to time themselves reading the colours in Spanish as quickly as possible. I then show them the second slide, where they have to say the colour each word is written in in Spanish and challenge them to complete this in 2 minutes of beat their first time – they never do! Then I ask for volunteers to show off how fabulous they are or I pounce on an unsuspecting “volunteer”! Enjoy! Stroop test definition: In psychology, the Stroop effect is a demonstration of interference in the reaction time of a task. When the name of a color (e.g., "blue", "green", or "red") is printed in a color not denoted by the name (e.g., the word "red" printed in blue ink instead of red ink), naming the color of the word takes longer and is more prone to errors than when the color of the ink matches the name of the color. The effect is named after John Ridley Stroop, who first published the effect in English in 1935.

This presentation presents expressions using the preterite of -ar verbs to describe holidays and then elicits the fomration of the first and third person singular and the first person plural. Expressions: Me alojé en un hotel. Visité un castillo. Compré unas gafas de sol. Nadé en el mar. Lo pasé fenomenal. The first slides have the phrase and a picture. Use this to elicit the pronunciation, the English and to drill. Slide 7 elicits: Look at the infinitive and the preterite. What do we remove from and add to the infinitive to form the preterite? Comprar - compré Remove the ar and add é. Slide 8 elicits: Now look at the following forms of the preterite. What do we remove from and add to the infinitive to form the preterite? Visitar - visitamos = we visited Visitar - visitaste = you (singular informal) visited. Remove the ar and add amos/aste. The next section of slides have verdad o mentira questions. Then there is a "¿Qué es?" slides. This can also be used for a Beat the Teacher game, which the students love! The teacher points to a picture and says a word. If it is the correct word the students all repeat it. If it’s the wrong word the students must stay absolutely silent. If they do, they win 1 point. If not, the teacher gets 1 point. Most points wins!

This colourful and fun PowerPoint presentation presents various meals. First introducing the noun, then the infinitive, finally a sentence using the verb. Vocabulary: ¡Las comidas! El desayuno. Desayunar. Desayuno a las seis y media. La comida. Comer. Como a las dos. La merienda. Merendar. Meriendo a las seis. La cena. Cenar. Ceno a las nueve. Use the first slides to elicit the English, the pronunciation and if you wish the rule to make the present tense form and drill. The final slide has all the new phrases. This could be used for one of the following fun games: If you have a stamper facility on your interactive whiteboard, a fun game is to ask the students to recite the Spanish phrases over and over whilst you gradually cover the words in stampers e.g. smileys or apples making it more and more difficult – simple but fun! Another easy game is to send one student out of the room. The remaining class chooses a student to give a top secret signal – this could be a sound e.g. a deliberate sneeze or cough, or something visual e.g. an obvious stretch, zipping/unzipping their pencil case etc. The students then repeat the first phrase again and again until they see or hear the signal. The students then repeat the second phrase again and again until they see or hear the signal and so on. The student who has been sent out must then try to figure out who the secret signal giver is!

Expressions: Tu veux... télépnoner chez toi? manger quelque chose? boire quelque chose? prendre une douche? défaire tes bagages? te reposer? Oui, je veux bien, merci. Oui, s’il vous plaît. Non, merci, ça va. The first slide encourages the students to actively engage with the new vocabulary: working in teams, using their prior knowledge, knowledge of other languages and using a process of elimination to figure out the meanings. It is differentiated as follows: All: Translate the expressions below. Most: Perfect Pronunciation Challenge! Some: Change each infinitive into the present, near future and perfect (past) tenses e.g. téléphoner: Je téléphone, je vais téléphoner, j’ai téléphoné. The next slides have the phrase and a picture. Use this to elicit the pronunciation, the English and to drill. The next section of slides have multiple choice questions. Then there are "what's missing?" slides. The final slide has pictures of all the phrases. This can be used for a Beat the Teacher game, which the students love! The teacher points to a picture and says a word. If it is the correct word the students all repeat it. If its the wrong word the students must stay absolutely silent. If they do, they win 1 point. If not, the teacher gets 1 point. Most points wins!

Metacognition/ Learning To Learn PowerPoint Description I led a School Improvement Group looking at Metacognition, or put more simply Learning To learn. I was concerned that my language classes were not developing efficient and effective ways to memorise new vocabulary and grammatical structures. As a consequence I created this PowerPoint presentation, which I have used with all my classes from years 7- 13 (UK)/ grades 6 to 12. I find it particularly powerful to show before assessments and show it regularly throughout the academic year! It starts with the powerful statement: Intelligence is not fixed or unchanging. We can build intelligence. I then ask the students to discuss how they learn vocabulary and grammatical structures. Then there are some examples of mnemonics in Lingala, Chinese and French, followed by a French grammar analogy. Finally there are 2 slides of ideas for the students to try (which you may wish to print out) such as: Practice testing * You MUST DO THIS! Test and be tested by a friend/family member/ yourself. Write a challenging quiz e.g Millionaire, zondle, Kahoot, Tiny Taps… Teach someone or something (teddy bear will do!). We remember 90% of what we teach others. You may wish to print out some slides for display or perhaps share ideas with parents. Enjoy!

Expressions: Je m’entends bien avec ma mère car elle est gentille. Je suis toujours ouvert(e). Je ne suis pas toujours très drôle. Mon beau-père est un peu têtu. Ma mère s’est remariée et son mari est carrément cool. Le fils de ma belle-mère est plutôt pénible. Je voudrais être moins égoïste. Je vais être très sympa et généreuse. You may choose to have different levels of challenge. For example, Level 1 = match the cards and discuss the pronunciation. Level 2 = match the cards , discuss the pronunciation and then have quick fire questions from French to English, whereby 1 student closes their eyes and their partner reads out the French cards which the student must translate into English from memory. Level 3 = As Level 2 but the quick fire questions are from English to French. Following checking there are 2 fun games to play, either pelmenism or a game I learnt in Japan called Karuta. In Karuta the students put the English language cards to one side and spread out the French cards in front of them. I then say the English and the students compete to touch the correct French card first. Whoever touches it first wins the card. The student with the most cards at the end of the game wins. The students love this game!

Expressions: J’habite avec ma mère. On a un pavillon de banlieue. Nous avons un mas à la campagne. Nous habitons ici depuis cinq ans. Il y a une cuisine. Au rez-de-chaussée il y a la salle de séjour. Hier j’ai fait mes devoirs dans le bureau. Il y a une salle à manger à côté du salon. Au premier étage il y a trois chambres. La salle de bains est en face de la chambre de mes parents. Ma chambre est à gauche de l’escalier. Le soir j’ai joué au ping-pong dans la salle de jeux. Dans l’avenir je voudrais habiter un appartement à Paris. Chez nous il y avait une piscine. Nous allons acheter une maison moderne. You may choose to have different levels of challenge. For example, Level 1 = Line up the dominoes and discuss the pronunciation. Level 2 = As Level 1 and then have quick fire questions from French to English, whereby 1 student closes their eyes and their partner reads out the French cards which the student must translate into English from memory. Level 3 = As Level 2 but the quick fire questions are from English to French. Following checking there is a game I learnt in Japan called Karuta. In Karuta the students spread out the dominoes in front of them. I then say the English and the students compete to touch the correct French card first. Whoever touches it first wins the card. The student with the most cards at the end of the game wins. The students love this game!

Expressions: J’ai chaud, j’ai froid, j’ai faim, j’ai soif, j’ai envie de vomir, j’ai envie de dormir, j’ai de la fièvre, j’ai un rhume, j’ai la grippe, j’ai le rhume des foins. The first slide encourages the students to actively engage with the new vocabulary: working in teams, using their prior knowledge, knowledge of other languages and using a process of elimination to figure out the meanings. They then discuss the pronunciation and question each other before the teacher checks with the whole class. The next slides have the phrase and a picture for the first 6 expressions. Use this to elicit the pronunciation, the English and to drill. The next section of slides have multiple choice questions. Then there are "what's missing?" slides. Then the process is repeated for the remaining expressions. The final slide has pictures of all the phrases. This can be used for a Beat the Teacher game, which the students love! The teacher points to a picture and says a word. If it is the correct word the students all repeat it. If its the wrong word the students must stay absolutely silent. If they do, they win 1 point. If not, the teacher gets 1 point. Most points wins!

I use these matching cards to build general vocabulary on the topic of education with my Year 12 students. Expressions: Le programme est très chargé. La permanence. Le baccalauréat/ le bac Un brevet. La seconde, la première, la terminale. Les grandes écoles. Une épreuve. S’inscrire à l’université. Le taux de réussite. Passer un examen. Réussir un examen. LV You may choose to have different levels of challenge. For example, Level 1 = match the cards and discuss the pronunciation. Level 2 = match the cards , discuss the pronunciation and then have quick fire questions from French to English, whereby 1 student closes their eyes and their partner reads out the French cards which the student must translate into English from memory. Level 3 = As Level 2 but the quick fire questions are from English to French. Following checking there are 2 fun games to play, either pelmenism or a game I learnt in Japan called Karuta. In Karuta the students put the English language cards to one side and spread out the French cards in front of them. I then say the English and the students compete to touch the correct French card first. Whoever touches it first wins the card. The student with the most cards at the end of the game wins. The students love this game!

I use this dominoes activity at the beginning of the school year and throughout the year to revise a range of tenses: Present, Perfect, Negatives, Future, Near Future & Conditional. The expressions are in French and English. Expressions: J’habite ici depuis toujours Je suis allé(e) aux Etats-Unis. Je suis resté(e) aux Emirats Arabes Unis. J’ai lu un roman. Je n’ai pas fait de natation. Je mange du pain et de la confiture. J’ai travaillé à l’hôtel de ville. Je lisais des BD. Je voudrais voyager autour du monde. Je ne suis jamais allé(e) en Grèce. Je ne vais plus faire de yoga. Les gens étaient sympa. J’irai à Londres cet été. Je ne bois que l’eau. C’était génial ! Ce n’est pas marrant. All: Student line up the dominoes and discuss the pronunciation. Most: See above and identify the tenses. Some: See above and quiz each other: French to English and English to French. Following checking you could play a game I learnt in Japan called Karuta. In Karuta the students spread out the cards in front of them. I then say the English and the students compete to touch the correct French card first. Whoever touches it first wins the card. The student with the most cards at the end of the game wins. The students love this game!

The first slide encourages the students to actively engage with the new vocabulary: working in teams, using their prior knowledge, knowledge of other languages and using a process of elimination to figure out the meanings. They then discuss the pronunciation and question each other before the teacher checks with the whole class. All: Translate the films below. Most: Identify the tenses. Some: Perfect Pronunciation Challenge & QFQs! Je regarde un film d’aventure. Je vais regarder un dessin animé. J’ai regardé un film policier. J’adore regarder les films de science-fiction. Je n’aime pas les films d’horreur. Je regarde un western. Je vais regarder une comédie. Nous avons regardé un film romantique. The next slides have the phrase and a picture. Use this to elicit the pronunciation, the English and to drill. The next section of slides have multiple choice questions. Then there are "what's missing?" slides. The final slide has pictures of all the phrases. This can be used for a Beat the Teacher game, which the students love! The teacher points to a picture and says a word. If it is the correct word the students all repeat it. If its the wrong word the students must stay absolutely silent. If they do, they win 1 point. If not, the teacher gets 1 point. Most points wins!

The students must match the masculine card (with English translation in brackets) with the feminine card. This is pretty straight-forward so give plenty of time for peer questioning (see Levels 2 and 3 below). I also give the students a copy of the sheet so they can use the cards for self-testing and revision. Masculine adjectives: Bas (low) Blanc (white) Bon (good) Bref (brief/ short) Complet (complete) Doux (soft) Faux (false) Favori (favourite) Frais (fresh) Gentil (kind) Long Public (public) Sec (dry) You may choose to have different levels of challenge. For example, Level 1 = match the cards and discuss the pronunciation. Level 2 = match the cards , discuss the pronunciation and then have peer questioning from masculine to feminine and vice versa. Level 3 = As Level 2 and challenge each other to remember as many as possible. Following checking there are 2 fun games to play, either pelmenism or a game I learnt in Japan called Karuta. In Karuta the students put the masculine cards to one side and spread out the feminine cards in front of them. I then say the masculine and the students compete to touch the correct feminine card first. Whoever touches it first wins the card. The student with the most cards at the end of the game wins. The students love this game!

I designed these activities to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. These resources could also be used each year to commemorate the Armistice. I really wanted the students to experience and express an emotional connection with the topic and can honestly say that they produced some extremely moving written work in response to the material. They were also studying themed lessons in History, English and Drama lessons on the topic of World War 1. I spent 2 lessons on these activities and used them with my Year 9 students (aged 13-14). I feel it would also work well with Year 10 students (aged 14-15) and younger Gifted students. The PowerPoint guides you through the material. It starts with a YouTube link to play as the students enter the classroom. This shows footage of trench warfare and I felt this powerfully set the scene for the lesson to come. Slide 3 presents the objective: To learn about La Première Guerre Mondale and to respond creatively to your learning. This is then differentiated into All, Most and Some. I then give out the cards to unjumble the following text: Les 3 et 4 août 1914, l’Allemagne, la France et l’Angleterre se déclaraient la guerre. C’était le début de la première guerre mondiale. Elle allait durer quatre ans. Pendant la guerre, environ 19 millions de personnes sont mortes (9,7 millions de militaires). En 1918 on comptait 1 325 000 soldats français morts. Beaucoup étaient très jeunes. Les conditions de vie dans les tranchées étaient très difficiles. Il faisait froid. Il y avait de la boue et les soldats étaient souvent sales. Il n’y avait pas d’électricité et pas de chauffage. Les hommes dormaient dehors. They found the text unjumbling activity pretty challenging so I circulated and game plenty of support. It is definitely worthwhile printing out slide 4 which gives useful vocabulary translations to support the students. The students then watch a 4 minute extract from the film Joyeux Noel (make sure you have the English subtitles) and complete the worksheet. If you do not have the DVD you may be able to find the correct extract on YouTube. The students then have time to produce their creative response. Weaker student can produce and acrostic or a calligramme using their support sheet. Stronger students may adapt the Nelson Mandela Poem to write about La Guerre. More gifted students can read through the letter from the frontline in the book Lulu Et La Grande Guerre (scan attached) and write their own letter. I asked the students to read out/ present their work to the class and we created a stunning display of the student’s work. Finally there is a slide to reflect on What Went Well (WWW) and Even Better If (EBI).

The first slide encourages the students to actively engage with the new vocabulary: working in teams, using their prior knowledge, knowledge of other languages and using a process of elimination to figure out the meanings. They then discuss the pronunciation and question each other before the teacher checks with the whole class. All: Translate 7/8 colours & PPC! Most: Translate 8/8 colours & PPC! Some: What other colours can you remember? How would you say blue trousers, a white shirt & some black shoes? Jaune Bleu/ bleue Blanc/ blanche Gris/ grise Marron/ brun/ brune Noir/ noire Rouge Vert/ verte The next slides have the phrase and a picture. Use this to elicit the pronunciation, the English, the masculine/feminine rules and to drill. The next section of slides have multiple choice questions. Then there is a "Qu’est-ce que c’est?" slide. The final slide has pictures of all the phrases. This can be used for a Beat the Teacher game, which the students love! The teacher points to a picture and says a word. If it is the correct word the students all repeat it. If its the wrong word the students must stay absolutely silent. If they do, they win 1 point. If not, the teacher gets 1 point. Most points wins!

Expressions presented: Je voudrais: du poulet. du fromage. du beurre. de l’eau minérale. Je bois du lait. Je mange des carottes. J’aime manger des yaourts. J’ai mangé des œufs. Nous mangeons de la confiture. Je ne mange pas de jambon. Je n’ai pas de concombre. The first slide encourages the students to actively engage with the new vocabulary: working in teams, using their prior knowledge, knowledge of other languages and using a process of elimination to figure out the meanings. They then discuss the pronunciation and question each other before the teacher checks with the whole class. The first slides have the phrase and a picture. Use this to elicit the pronunciation, the English and to drill. The next section of slides have mutiple choice questions. Then there are "what's missing?" slides. The final slide has pictures of all the phrases. This can be used for a Beat the Teacher game, which the students love! The teacher points to a picture and says a word. If it is the correct word the students all repeat it. If its the wrong word the students must stay absolutely silent. If they do, they win 1 point. If not, the teacher gets 1 point. Most points wins!

This PowerPoint presentation gives examples of direct object pronouns using items of clothing. The first slide encourages the students to actively engage with the new vocabulary: working in teams, using their prior knowledge, knowledge of other languages and using a process of elimination to figure out the meanings. They then discuss the pronunciation and question each other before the teacher checks with the whole class using the individual slides followed by drilling. If you have a stamper facility on your interactive whiteboard, a fun game is to ask the students to recite the Spanish phrases over and over whilst you gradually cover the words in stampers e.g. smileys or apples making it more and more difficult – simple but fun! Another easy game is to send one student out of the room. The remaining class chooses a student to give a top secret signal – this could be a sound e.g. a deliberate sneeze or cough, or something visual e.g. an obvious stretch, zipping/unzipping their pencil case etc. The students then repeat the first phrase again and again until they see or hear the signal. The students then repeat the second phrase again and again until they see or hear the signal and so on. The student who has been sent out must then try to figure out who the secret signal giver is!

Expressions: Tu veux venir chez moi? Tu veux aller au cinéma? Je ne peux pas. Je dois faire mes devoirs. Je dois aller voir ma grand-mère. Je dois garder ma sœur. Je dois promener le chien. Je dois ranger ma chambre. The first slide encourages the students to actively engage with the new vocabulary: working in teams, using their prior knowledge, knowledge of other languages and using a process of elimination to figure out the meanings. They then discuss the pronunciation (PPC = Prefect Pronunciation Challenge!) and question each other (QFQ = Quick Fire Questions) before the teacher checks with the whole class. The next slides have the phrase and a picture. Use this to elicit the pronunciation, the English and to drill. The next section of slides have multiple choice questions. Then there are "what's missing?" slides. The final slide has pictures of all the phrases. This can be used for a Beat the Teacher game, which the students love! The teacher points to a picture and says a word. If it is the correct word the students all repeat it. If its the wrong word the students must stay absolutely silent. If they do, they win 1 point. If not, the teacher gets 1 point. Most points wins!

Noughts and crosses/ tic-tac-toe. I use this game to revise a range of tenses both at the beginning of the school year and throughout the year. I put the students into 2 teams. One will be noughts the other crosses. They then discuss the translation, tense and pronunciation of the following expressions: Je fais de la planche à voile depuis l’âge de quinze ans. Je me suis couchée de bonne heure. Nous avions un professeur très stricte. Je suis surpris qu'elle ne t'ait rien dit. Si mon lycée était fermé aujourd'hui je ferais la grasse matinée jusqu'à neuf heures et demie. Tu pourras venir samedi après-midi, si tu veux.    Ils s’étaient habillés rapidement Je ne suis pas arrivé à l’heure hier. Je le lui ai donné Then I draw a noughts and crosses/ tic-tac-toe grid on the board, giving each square a number. The teams choose a number and I choose a phrase that they must translate, be able to pronounce and be able to identify the tense in order to win the square. If they make a mistake the other team can steal the square by answering correctly! If that team makes a mistake the original team can have another go and so on. The aim is to get 3 in a row. This is a challenging game!