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!
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.
À l'aide de quelques petits indices, vos étudiants sauteront d’une case à l’autre pour découvrir les sept phrases cachées dans la marelle.
Using a few small clues, your students will discover the seven sentences hidden in this paper hopscotch.
• Le trèfle est l’emblème national de l’Irlande.
• Fait surprenant: la première parade de la Saint-Patrick s'est déroulée à Boston aux États-Unis.
• J’ai apporté mon trèfle à quatre feuilles à l’examen de maths alors je suis certain que j’aurai une bonne note!
• Le 17 mars, ma couleur préférée est le vert, bien sûr!
• Selon le folklore, embrasser la pierre Blarney vous donnera le pouvoir de parler avec éloquence.
• Au-dessus de l’arc-en-ciel, tu vas trouver un énorme pot d’or caché par un petit leprechaun.
• Saint Patrick, le patron des Irlandais, a chassé tous les serpents de l’Île d’Émeraude.
Je vous joins une version qui utilise le mot “leprechaun” et une version qui met en vedette le mot “farfadet".
Il y a un troisième fichier pour ceux et celles qui cherchent une marelle pour les apprentis lecteurs.
Any and all nauseatingly fawning feedback gleefully accepted!
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 embedded in the grid are:
1 spider
2 cauldron
3 costume
4 pumpkin
5 phantom
6 haunted
7 wizard
8 zombie
9 disguise
10 casket
11 cobweb
12 demon
13. howl
Happy Hallowe'en!
MOTDOKU6 (Noël) is a simplified MOTDOKU (word sudoku).
The challenge is to slot the following words into the grid:
1 le lait de poule
2 la couronne
3 le réveillon
4 le Père Noël
5 le lutin
6 le renne
MOTDOKU6 ((Noël) est un MOTDOKU simplifié qui met en valeur le vocabulaire ci-dessus. Joyeux Noël!
WOORDOKU6 (Kerstmis) is a simplified version of my WORDOKUs (word sudokus).
The challenge is to slot the following Dutch words about Christmas into the grid:
1 de kerstster
2 de kerstkrans
3 de speculaaspop
4 de Kerstman
5 het elfje
6 het speelgoed
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 •)
The objective of Language Lego™ is to accumulate as many points as possible building the longest sentences possible with “interlocking” phrases. This game helps students get over their fear of speaking French by guiding them each step of the way with a few giggles thrown in for good measure.
Cards may be printed in colour or B&W on business card sheets or card stock. A handful of blank cards is included to allow you to personalise the deck.
Headset icons help players with the pronunciation of “difficult” words. The nose icons indicate syllables that are to be nasalised.
If you like this resource, please let me know and I will make more like it.
Embedded in the puzzle grid are 13 French words on the Saint-Valentin theme and more than 70 general vocabulary words.
The file includes a thematic vocabulary, an answer key and a “how to play” guide.
(I posted the English version of this Valentine's game five years ago and am truly tickled to see that it has been downloaded 3355 times! If your students enjoy the activity, please let me know and I will create more like it.)
Ah, les chants de Noël! En ce moment, on les entend partout - à la radio,
au centre commercial, à la télé - et tout le temps! Et voici, pour vos étudiants,
un petit casse-tête basé sur le chant de Noël populaire, Petit Papa Noël.
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.
With these 3 posters in the 'Keep Calm' style:
1 Reste calme et sers-toi du site
BonPatron
2 Reste calme et sers-toi du site
Wordreference
3 Reste calme et mange du chocolat
The end of every word in this circular puzzle is also the beginning of the next word.
This puzzle comprises the following words:
1 thanks
2 stuffing
3 gobble
4 blessing
5 gratitude
6 devout
7 turkey
8 yam
9 amen
10 enterntain
11 nap
12 apple
13 leaves
14 squash
15 share
16 reap
17 pies
18 serve
19 vegetable
20 leap
21 potluck
22 kitchen
23 nut
Once your students have found all the overlapping words, assign a theme and invite them to work with a partner to build their own variation on the game.
Happy holidays!
Unlike Scrabble players, Scribblescrabblers can choose which letters to use for each of their turns. As in Scrabble, however, they will score the most points with the strategic placement of those letters.
You may ask your students to incorporate a thematic vocabulary list or to play using general vocabulary only. Either way, they will be engaged! In fact, very competitive students tend to want to play every possible open square.
This file includes English, French and Spanish versions of each grid and a blank grid for those of you teaching other languages.
If you’d like to view other Scribblescrabbles just enter “Scribblescrabble” in my shop’s search bar: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/Carlav
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.
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
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.
If you’d like more resources on this theme, just type “Christmas” into the search window of my shop: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/Carlav
