As they enter the room, give pupils a random mood card. Whenever they speak in the target language, they must do so in the mood on the card. Other pupils then have to guess that mood. Just a different way to get them speaking in the target language!

I use this sheet either at the end of each half-term (after assessments) or at the start of the following half-term. Pupils fill in their self-assessment of their own progress over the half-term, including what they found most challenging and their personal targets for the following half-term.

Give each student one set of these cards to use throughout lessons. As they go through the lesson, they display one of them on their desks for you to see as you walk around. This way, you can see who needs help, etc. Print the ‘I don’t get it at all’ on red. Print the ‘I think I get it’ on yellow. Print the ‘I get it’ on green.

At the end of a lesson, or series of lessons, pupils stick this bright triangle in their books. They fill in the relevant section, stating what they know, don’t understand, etc.

I use this when marking a set of books or assessment. It’s useful for noting down any common issues, WWW or EBI ideas, extension ideas, positive praise to give, late work to chase up, etc.

I sometimes use letter shapes as a starter activity. Use the shapes on the sheet instead of the letters themselves. You could leave accents above letters as they are, or use the shapes for those as well.

Literally that! Tables of ‘aller’ and ‘faire’ in the present tense for students to stick in their books.

An idea from Rachel Hawkes – thank you, as always! Give the pupils phrases in TL or in English. They mill around the room, testing random pupils in the class. If the pupils they ask get the answer right, they write their name in one of the boxes underneath the phrase.

Very simply, a triangle divided into three parts. Students write in whichever section they wish, according to what they have learned in the lesson.

Ideal as a lesson starter or as an introduction to the German months. Pupils must simply put the months in the correct order. Months are then put in order one by one on the second slide.

Pupils have a set of these cards in pairs and pick up a TV show card (image), an opinion card (emoji) and (for example) ‘je les trouve’ card, followed by ‘Par contre’ to make sentences. J’adore les dessins animés. Je les trouve très amusants. Par contre, je n’aime pas les documentaires. Je les trouve ennuyeux.

Pupils must read the descriptions of the four books, taken from Amazon.fr and then answer questions about them.

There are images of various clothes and pupils must raise the correct hand when you, as the teacher, says one of the articles of clothing in French. Instructions are in the notes section of the PPT.

Use this PPT to introduce the sounds that common animals make. Essentially, it’s a way of using and practising the sound-spelling patterns in French.

Introduce pupils to some common food sold at the ‘Imbissbude’ in Germany.

Instead of saying “2 plus 3”, the teacher says “la grenouille plus le poisson”. Pupils reply with “le chien”. Make the sums as easy or as difficult as you like. If you use longer sums, remember to write it down as you go along and tell the pupils to do the same.

Pupils use this sheet to write very simple sentences about what they eat as snacks and give their opinions.

Pupils put the German numbers 13 to 31 (written in German) into the correct order.

Use this whole lesson to teach pupils how to give their opinion about different works of art. The PPT slides slowly guide pupils through giving their opinion and finally, pupils write a short paragraph, giving their opinion about the different works studied.

This is a list of quotes from famous and successful people in history who failed their way to the top. I have this on display in my classroom and regularly refer to it when encouraging learning from mistakes.