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!
Pour déchiffrer les mots cachés dans ce mots croisés visuel, écris la première lettre de la première image dans sa case dans la petite grille. (Attention! Dans un mots croisés les accents sont ignorés.) Continue de cette façon pour toutes les images et tu découvriras un nouveau mot.
In this virtual race, players have to reconstitute words that have been broken into pieces and scattered over the game grid in order to find “l’intrus”.
Si vous voulez prolonger la leçon, demandez à vos élèves d’écrire un paragraphe au sujet du Jour du Souvenir qui comprend tous les mots coupés et l’intrus.
Les mots coupés sont:
1 honneur (m.)
2 clairon (m.)
3 soldat (m.)
4 fusil (m.)
5 silence (m.)
6 combat (m.)
7 devoir (m.)
8 prière (f.)
9 héros (m.)
10 tranchée (f.)
11 obus (m.)
12 courage (m.)
L’intrus: PAIX (f.)
Imagic
After your students have solved the Imagic (visual crossword) puzzle, challeng them to make a little Imagic of their own.
Broken Words
In this virtual race, players have to reconstitute and recopy words that have been broken into pieces and scattered over the game grid. Students may play individually or in pairs.
The words in this puzzle are:
1 hero
2 honour
3 prayer
4 silence
5 bugle
6 poppies
7 service
8 weapon
9 courage
10 parade
11 battle
12 defend
I’ve included a suggestion for extending the lesson for this activity.
Many students are reluctant to speak in the target language. Using the transcripts of popular commercials and children’s television shows, this activity builds their confidence and enthusiasm for speaking in French.
• First, have the class view the whole video.
• Then, assign short segments of the (tran)script to small groups of students.
• Each group will listen and rehearse their lines carefully because on the second
screening of the full video, the sound will be muted and they will be providing the
soundtrack. (I usually schedule the second viewing a week after the first screening.)
• Especially creative and motivated classes should be encouraged to include sound
effects and/or background music.
This file includes transcripts for videos about Halloween, l’Action de Grâce, Noël and le patin à glace.
I’ve included suggestions for extending the lesson for both Immersion and Core French programmes.te
Thanks to their texting skills, today’s students intuit the principle behind rebus puzzles but I’ve included a “how to” guide nonetheless.
To extend the lesson, ask your students to create a rebus of their own.
If you’d like me to make a rebus on a specific theme, please let me know.
A five-minute filler.
Thanks to their texting skills, today’s students intuit the principle behind rebus puzzles but I’ve included a “comment déchiffrer un rébus” guide nonetheless.
This rebus is intended for native speakers, Immersion, Extended & advanced Core French classes.
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.
Scribblescrabbles are a portable hybrid of Scrabble and crossword puzzles. I’ve made this one for teachers of English, French and Spanish who are desperate for meaningful but fun work at the end of the school year. You’ll discover that it is flexible enough to work well for all levels of ability.
Happy holidays to all!
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.
C’est touchant ressemble un peu à Boggle™.)
This C’est Touchant! puzzle for Easter is a Boggle™ with a twist.
Embedded in the game grid are 8 French words on the Pâques theme
and 70 more general vocabulary words.
The file includes
• a “how to play” guide
• a full colour puzzle
• 4 small B&W copies of the grid for teachers who are trying to cut back on photocopying costs
• a thematic vocabulary
• the answer key
Because the English version of the game, Hippity, Hoppity, Easter’s on its Way, has been warmly received, this French version has been on my “to do” list forever. Thank you for your patience.
La fiche, Comment jouer, explique les règles du jeu en français.
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.
As you count down to the holidays, you might like these four little Christmas-themed rebus puzzles as icebreakers or fillers.
Thanks to their mad texting skills, today’s kids get the principle behind rebus puzzles intuitively but I’ve included a “how-to” page nonetheless.
Heads up! Biblical though one of the terms in puzzle # 4 may be, I would reserve it for older students. The solution is, “Let us go for a sleigh ride” and, as you can see in the preview, the picture clues include a (jack)ass.
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.
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!
Ce MOTDOKU simplifié met en valeur le vocabulaire ci-dessous.
This MOTDOKU6 is a simplified version of my 9 x9 word sudokus.
Students are challenged to slot the expressions below into the grid.
1 la tarte à la citrouille
2 partager
3 la dinde
4 la famille
5 la corne d’abondance
6 l’automne
Joyeuse Action de grâce à tout le monde!
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
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
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
Magic message puzzles resemble QR codes until you raise them to eye level and read the “magical message” 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. Fortunately, that means that they now just take an hour to make. Unfortunately, my use of technology means that I have lost all moral authority to issue my drawing challenge. But the “wow” moment when a student actually sees the message still makes creating these things very worthwhile!
I am a Canadian teacher and not sure if I have chosen the proper categories for this resource. Please let me know if I should revisit my choice.
Nous, les Canadiens, nous célébrons L’Action de grâce le deuxième lundi d’octobre. Aux États-unis on célèbre “Thanksgiving” le quatrième jeudi de novembre.