If you are looking for an enjoyable, collaborative, hands-on cultural project,may I recommend Joel Henriques' Paper City Paris?

This activity should take roughly 70 minutes. I'd love to hear if your students enjoy it as much as mine always do.

Les résolutions du Père Noël 2024 is an exemplar of a New Year’s activity. I couldn’t resist making a list of resolutions on behalf of Petit Papa Noël. It will give your students some ideas, a laugh or two (I hope) and an opportunity to try their hand by filling in resolutions 2 and 1. Note: This is not a new resource but an update of the resolutions that I’ve been posting since 2012.

Just for fun, I "apollinairized" one of my favourite passages from "Le Petit Prince". I hope that it will inspire your students to illustrate a favourite quote in the form of a calligram.

Imprimez et découpez ces puzzles pour que les petits puissent les reconstruire. Par l’effet d’osmose, ils apprendront à lire et écrire les mots illustrés tout en jouant. Le premier dossier comprend les puzzles en lettres minuscules; le deuxième comprend les puzzles en lettres majuscules . Engage your pupils with reading (and writing) through play by printing and cutting out these puzzles for them to solve.

I stumbled across this extraordinarily moving and hopeful clip yesterday and feel that it deserves a wider audience. In clear, careful and beautifully articulated French, author Francine Christophe recounts a little miracle that was born of an act of kindness in Bergen-Belsen. I’ve done very little other than to put together a transcript of the story, with a link to a second, related clip and a bibliography of Christophe’s work. I’ve also included a link to a version of the clip with English subtitles for any of your anglophone colleagues who may be looking for something for their history classes or Remembrance Day.

If you’ve been working on Henri Crespi’s "L’Oeuf de Pâques" and you’re looking for a hands-on, collaborative alternative to paper and pen review questions, try this activity. The original text and an audio version of the story are available online here: http://web2.gyldendal.no/contact/flash/chap9/ecoute4.swf BTW, I usually distribute chocolate Easter eggs before we read the story . . .

In this virtual race, players have to reconstitute and recopy words that have been broken down into syllables and scattered over the game grid. Students may play individually or in pairs. The words in this puzzle are: 1 horreur (f.) 2 chaudron (m.) 3 grimoire (m.) 4 squelette (m.) 5 fantôme (m.) 6 hanté 7 sorcier (m.) 8 zombie (m.) 9 citrouille (f.) 10 cercueil (m.) 11 balai (m.) 12 souris (f.) L’intrus: peur

These magic message riddles will serve as instant Christmas cards for your students if you print them on card stock. The riddles resemble QR codes until you raise them to eye level and read the “magical messages” from bottom - indicated by a red number - to top. There are four cards to the page. Decades ago, these things took me forever and a day to draw by hand. But then I could legitimately challenge my students to draw a message of their own. Nowadays, I use the computer so they just take forever. However, I’ve lost the moral authority to launch my drawing challenge. But the “wow” moment when a student actually sees the message still makes it worthwhile.

These message cards look a bit like QR codes until you raise them to eye level and read the “magical messages” from bottom - indicated by a number - to top.  Decades ago, these things took me forever and a day to draw by hand. But then I could legitimately challenge my students to draw a message of their own. Nowadays I use the computer so they just take forever. However, I’ve lost the moral authority to launch the drawing challenge. But the “wow” moment when a student actually sees the message still makes it worthwhile. P.S. Print the messages on card stock if you’d like to use them as little reward records. Once my students accumulate ten stickers or stamps, they redeem the card for a small treat or a bonus point on a future test.

This is the Dutch version of Drôle d'exercice. Again, it is a stand-alone puzzle activity that might be just the ticket for an entertaining end-of-the-year lesson. My students genuinely enjoy this activity and I hope yours will, too. If it prompts you to create one or two of your own, please let me know. This set is intended for more advanced students of Dutch.

If you use Scrabble or Bananagrams in your Language Arts or Modern Languages classroom, these floor tiles for Scrabble (roughly 8" square) will add another perspective to the proceedings. The tile count officially required for Scrabble games in English, French, German, Spanish and Dutch are included. Run the tiles off, laminate them, push the desks to the walls - or, better yet, go outside to the playing field - and enjoy some serious play! (The "W" layout has been redone.)

In spoken English, we now commonly end sentences with prepositions so the taboo of ending a sentence with 'de' tends to mystify some students. Here's a straightforward exercise that centres on identifying the phantom DE and magically transforming it into DONT. This version should be sans typos.

Il y a huit phrases au sujet du court-métrage, Le Gruffalo, cachées dans cette marelle. There are eight sentences and a secret message hidden in this hopscotch game about the animated short, Le Gruffalo. Le début de chaque phrase est signalé par un petit numéro qui indique le nombre de cases dans la phrase. Toutes les cases qui forment une phrase se touchent. C’est la logique qui détermine l’ordre à suivre. A number indicates both the beginning of a sentence and the number of squares that comprise that sentence. All the squares in a sentence must touch each other. Careful reading will allow your students to find their way to the logical conclusion of each sentence. If your school does not yet own a copy of Julia Donaldson’s brilliant book or the animated short film in French, I've attached links to the three clips available online, a copy of my HIgh-Interest-Easy-Vocabulary adaptation of the story in script format and a link to a site that sells the award-winning dvd based on Ms. Donaldson's classic.

This stand-alone puzzle activity might be just the ticket if you are looking for an entertaining lesson for the end of the year. My students genuinely love Drôle d'exercice and I hope yours will, too. If it inspires you to create one or two of your own, please let me know. Although this set is intended for more advanced groups, you can easily cull the simpler cartoons and texts for younger pupils to work (play!) with. NB: This update corrects the "exageres" typo.

In honour of the One Direction mania that is almost at fever pitch in Toronto as the boys prepare to perform their first concert here this weekend, here’s a clip of 'Plus que ça' or 'More than this' with a loose translation of the lyrics in French. It was lovingly uploaded and subtitled in both French and Spanish by an orthographically challenged fan but as I’m technologically challenged myself, I can’t redo the clip with the correct lyrics. But maybe you'll turn this into a 'spot the errors' contest. Or a karaoke singalong ? Let me know what you do with it, please.

This is an M4v update of the popular old file. Use it as a karaoke singalong or as a dictée activity (included). I’d appreciate a quick message if you and / or your students enjoy it.

DIRE OU INTERDIRE? can be played by intermediate and advanced students For advanced, immersion and francophone groups: If your students are confident and articulate in French, have them play DIRE OU INTERDIRE? like traditional Taboo®. Divide the class into two teams. Place the deck facedown on a desk. A player from the first group chooses a card and tells his/her team everything s/he can about the word at the top of the card. The only catch is that s/he may not use any of the words listed under the orange and black lines in the descriptions. If the class cannot guess the word within 60 seconds, the mystery word is announced to the class and a player from the second team tries his or her luck. A point is scored each time the mystery word is correctly guessed. It’s usually a good idea for you as a teacher to announce that you will accept synonyms. For example, in Canada, a student might guess “un party (de Halloween)” rather than “une fête”. For intermediate level learners: If your students are uncomfortable giving clues, turn the rules upside down. Tell them to use the words beneath the black and orange 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 28 Halloween-themed cards, a template for students to make their own DIRE OR INTERDIRE? game and a how-to-play guide.

The objective of “Où sont les trésors cachés? (Les aliments)” is to help students to build sentences and to talk about food using indefinite and partitive adjectives. It uses primarily the present tense. Even reluctant learners will be motivated to listen carefully to speak in French in full sentences. After the oral treasure hunt, you can assign coordinates to create an instant written assignment. To see if “Où sont les trésors cachés? (Les vêtements)” is right for your students, download 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 VOCABULARY FEATURED IN THIS GAME le beignet la boisson le beurre d’arachides le biscuit le café la cerise les chips (f.) le chocolat les choux de Bruxelles (m.) la fraise les frites (f.) le fromage le gâteau la glace le hamburger le légume les oeufs (m.) au plat la pastèque la pizza la pomme le poulet le raisin le sandwich les spaghettis le sushi ALTERNATIVE VOCABULARY FEATURED IN THE QUÉBÉCOIS VERSION la beigne le beurre de pinottes la crème glacée les croustilles le melon d���eau

Play standard bingo - lines, four corners or full house - with these cards. The list of the vocabulary illustrated on the cards is appended below. If you have access to a laminating machine, protect your cards with a coat of plastic and they will last until you retire! (And then you can give them to a younger teacher!) un balai des bonbons une boum la chair de poule un chat noir une chauve-souris une citrouille au claire de la lune un costume / un déguisement un cimetière crier effrayé un épouvantail faire du porte-à-porte un fantôme un hibou jeter un sort jouer un tour une lanterne citrouille un loup une maison hantée le maquillage la nuit les petits monstres une potion magique une poule mouillée un squelette un sorcier une sorcière une toile d’araignée un vampire