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!
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.
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”.
Here are 12 more rebus puzzles for students who enjoyed the free rebus “A little Christmas Rebus to decipher! (The Little Drummer Boy)”:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/another-little-christmas-rebus-to-decipher-6454697
Thanks to their texting skills, today’s kids “get” the principle behind rebus puzzles intuitively.
The “Twelve Christmas Rebus Puzzles” start with simple thematic phrases like “baking gingerbread cookies” and builds to a 3-page invitation to students to make their own rebus. The invitation is, of course, in rebus format!
An activity tailored for the run-up to the holidays.
This is a co-operative activity designed for readers who have studied The Little Prince in English. Students are asked to match the text on the edges of the 11 triangles to answer and complete the following Q and A and quotes from the text. I have included a second version of the puzzle based on a freer translation of the original work.
What does the narrator of The Little Prince do for a living?
• He’s a pilot.
When one wishes to play the wit,
• he sometimes wanders a little from the truth.
According to the fox, it is only with the heart that one can see rightly;
• what is essential is invisible to the eye.
But I have made him my friend, and now he is…
• unique in all the world.
My Drawing Number One. It looked like this:
• (illustration of a hat)
You become responsible, forever, for
• what you tame
If you tame me, then…
we shall need each other.
Who helps the Little Prince return to his planet?
The snake
A Turkish astronomer had presented his discovery to the International Astronomical Congress. • But he was in Turkish costume so nobody would believe what he said.
Draw me…
• a sheep!
How did the Little Prince leave his planet?
• With the help of a flock of wild birds.
If you are a fan of Taboo®, YOU DON’T SAY! might just be the game for you. It can be played in two very different ways.
If your students are confident and articulate, have them play YOU DON’T SAY! like traditional Taboo®. If, however, you have students who are uncomfortable speaking in public, turn the rules upside down. Tell them to use some or all of the words beneath the orange and black banner in their descriptions! This topsy-turvy approach encourages and empowers everyone to participate. You won’t believe what a positive game-changer it is.
This file includes 32 Hallowe’en-themed cards and a template for students to make their own YOU DON’T SAY! deck.
Are you a fan of Taboo®? Then YOU DON’T SAY! is the game for you. And it can be played in two different ways.
If your students are confident and articulate, have them play YOU DON’T SAY! like traditional Taboo®. If, however, you have students who are uncomfortable speaking in public, turn the rules upside down. Tell them to use some or all of the words beneath the green and red banner in their descriptions! This topsy-turvy approach encourages and empowers everyone to participate. You won’t believe what a positive game-changer it is.
This package includes 36 Christmas-themed cards and a template for students to make their own YOU DON’T SAY! deck.
Merry Christmas!
Designed to help beginners master their ”clothes” vocabulary, this game is for independent work and study buddy activity. Once players have finished matching each vocabulary card with its corresponding picture card, they flip over all the pairs to check their own work. Matching icons on the back of flipped pairs confirm that the task has been well done. Icons that don’t match tell players that it’s time to try again.
This file includes two 28-card decks.
To get an idea of "GET THE PICTURE?” cards work, download the free resource, “GET THE PICTURE? (multiplication game)” at:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/taming-the-6-times-tables-without-tears-get-the-picture-multiplication-game-11309613
FOUND IT! is a game inspired by Spot it™ or Dobble™. There is always one matching expression on any two cards. FOUND IT! encourages students to concentrate, to read attentively and to pronounce the thematic vocabulary carefully.
This deck comprises 31 cards with 6 expressions or pictures per card.
Here is the vocabulary featured in FOUND IT! (The Hallowe’en deck):
autumn leaves
bat
black cat
broom
cauldron
cemetery
coffin
danger
devil
disguise
frightened
ghost
goosebumps
hat
haunted house
horror film
jack o’lantern
makeup
mask
owl
party
scar
scarecrow
scream
shiver
spider
sweets
toilet paper
trick or treat
vampire
witch
Engage your pupils in reading (and writing) through play by
printing and cutting out these puzzles for them to solve.
There are separate files for puzzles in upper and lower case letters.
I'm working on puzzle sets on other themes and would appreciate your feedback.
A Passover 'How Touching' or Boggle puzzle + solutions
This is a five-minute filler for English teachers.
The colours have flattened in the transfer from Pages to PDF. Does anyone know how to get around this, please?
Warning: This simplified word sudoku is for those who find the usual Valentine’s fare far too saccharine. It features 6 decidedly unsentimental Shakespearean insults:
1 Thou dost infect mine eyes! RICHARD III, ACT I, SCENE II
2 Light of brain! OTHELLO, ACT IV, SCENE I
3 Thou art a … plague sore! KING LEAR, ACT II, SCENE II
4 Foul fiend Flibbertigibbet KING LEAR, ACT III, SCENE IV
5 You bull’s pizzle. HENRY IV, Part I, ACT II, SCENE IV
6 Would thou wouldst burst! TIMON OF ATHENS, ACT IV, SCENE III
If your students like this kind of activity, please let me know and I will make more like it.
In this small-group activity, Fate (the dice) will determine which garment your students must describe. Express yourself! is a relaxed way to reinforce lessons on adjectives and to encourage your students to participate in class. If you'd like to extend the lesson to written work, just assign some dice co-ordinates
(ie: •• x •••• or •••• x •)
This small-group activity, originally designed for MFL students, encourages children to develop their descriptive skills. The dice will determine whom or what your students will describe. It's a relaxed way to reinforce lessons on adjectives and to promote speaking in full sentences. If you&'d like to extend the lesson to written descriptions, just assign some dice co-ordinates (eg: •• x •••• or ••• x •• ). But remind the class that the first co-ordinate is for the dice in the vertical column and the second is for the dice in the horizontal column.
I would appreciate your feedback.
WORDOKU6 is a simplified version of my 9 x 9 word sudokus.
The challenge is to slot the following expressions into the 6 x 6 grid.
1 pumpkin pie
2 share
3 turkey
4 family
5 cornucopia
6 autumn
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
A tiny Christmas cracker of an activity for the weeks before the holidays. Challenge your students to decipher the lyric, “I played my drum for Him, parumpapapum”!
Merry Christmas, everyone!
If you’d like some more Christmas rebus puzzles, have a look at:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/twelve-christmas-rebus-puzzles-11176843
Santa’s Resolutions for 2020 is an exemplar of a New Year’s activity.
I couldn’t resist making a list of resolutions on Santa’s behalf. It will give your students some ideas, a laugh and an opportunity to try their hand by filling in resolutions 9, 10, 11 and 12.
Note: This is not a new resource but an update of the resolutions
that I’ve been posting since 2012.
This set of twelve illustrated bingo cards - I know, I know, I should have made thirteen - is designed for language arts and ESL students. One of the two tiny bonuses is a DIY bingo card that disguises writing and spelling practice as a game.
Here is the vocabulary featured on these cards:
afraid
bat
black cat
broom
candles
cauldron
cemetery
costume
creepy
excitement
goosebumps
haunted house
incantation
jack o’lantern
little monsters
magic potion
makeup
mask
moonlight
night
owl
party
phantom
prank
pumpkin
scarecrow
scream
skeleton
spiderweb
to cast a spell
trick or treat
vampire
witch
wizard