Zipline Phrases is a sentence-building game full of sly humour and serious learning. Students work in teams to build sentences by connecting any two dialogue balls directly linked by a straight line. Each ball may only be used once per sentence. All sentences must be (relatively) logical! MDR! The game encourages students to think in context and speak and / or write full sentences. It also offers a built-in homework opportunity. I recommend playing this Zipline Phrases game after you watch the Peppa episode, “À la recherche de Monsieur Dinosaure”.

My sister and her writing partner have given me permission to share their happy new Christmas song with other teachers. So, to spark a seasonal singalong, I’ve made a karaoke version of BABY, BABY, IT FEELS LIKE CHRISTMA for your students. P.S. I’ve also included a triangle puzzle based on the lyrics and, of course, the lyric sheets. (Triangle puzzles make wonderful cooperative activities.) May your well-deserved Christmas holidays be joyful, relaxing, and . . . restorative. Merry Christmas!

10 OURS PARTENT EN PIQUE-NIQUE pour tous ceux, jeunes ou moins jeunes, qui ont déjà chéri un ours en peluche ou un doudou. Voilà une histoire d’amour, de loyauté, de nounours, et de compter jusqu’à dix. Le lien vers l’histoire et le PDF du PUZZLE TARSIA qui l’accompagne sont inclus dans cette ressource. Si vos étudiants aiment 10 OURS PARTENT EN PIQUE-NIQUE, nous apprécierons votre feedback.

10 BEARS (ALMOST) GO ON A PICNIC is a story for anyone, young or old, who has ever cherished a teddy bear or stuffie. It’s about love, loyalty, teddy bears, and counting to ten. The link to the story and the downloadable TRIANGLE PUZZLE that accompanies it are included in this resource. If you and your students like 10 BEARS (ALMOST) GO ON A PICNIC, we would truly appreciate your feedback.

"A triangle puzzle: Le Petit Prince (JUNIOR version)" is a co-operative activity. Students are asked to match the text on the edges of the 11 triangles to answer and complete the following Q & A and quotes from Le Petit Prince. Quelle est la profession du narrateur du Petit Prince? • Il est pilote. Quand on veut faire de l’esprit . . . • il arrive que l’on mente un peu. Selon le renard, pour voir l’essentiel . . . • il faut regarder avec le coeur. J'en ai fait mon ami, et il est maintenant . . . • unique au monde. Mon dessin numéro 1 était comme ça. • (dessin d’un chapeau) On est responsable de . . . • ce qu’on apprivoise. Si tu m’apprivoises . . . • nous aurons besoin l’un de l’autre. Qui aide le Petit Prince à regagner sa planète? • Le serpent. Un astronome turc avait fait une grande démonstration . . . • Mais personne ne l'avait cru à cause de son costume. Dessine-moi . . . • un mouton. Comment le Petit Prince a-t-il quitté sa planète? • Grâce à une migration d'oies sauvages. Try the free future simple triangle puzzle to determine if this kind of activity is right for your students: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/le-futur-simple-a-triangle-puzzle-6450469

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.

Both of the self-correcting games in this file are designed to hone your students’ understanding of les phrases hypothétiques or sentences built around “si” clauses. GET THE PICTURE? After students have shuffled the 44 cards in this deck and spread them, text side up, on a table, they look for pairs of cards that make logical “phrases hypothétiques”. To check their work, they turn over each set of cards. Matching pictures mean they’ve made the right choices. Pictures that don’t match are gentle encouragements to try again. The TRIANGLE PUZZLE asks students to align the text printed on the edges of 16 triangles to reconstitute the original hypothetical sentences. Both of these activities work for independent learning, learning centres and competitive play with a study buddy. Examples are not repeated in the two games. Here are three of the “hypothetical” sentences your students will work with: Quelqu’un qui boit trop d’alcool est alcoolique. Alors si moi, je bois beaucoup de Fanta, JE SERAI FANTASTIQUE, N’EST-CE PAS? Couche-toi de bonne heure SI TU AS UN EXAMEN DEMAIN. À mon avis, si Shakespeare vivait aujourd’hui, IL ÉCRIRAIT DU RAP. You’ll find a simple aide-mémoire at the end of the GET THE PICTURE? file. It reminds students that the tense of the “then” clause depends on the tense of the “if” clause and charts what those tenses are.

This triangle puzzle focusses on the present tense of the irregular verbs, vouloir, pouvoir and devoir. To solve the puzzle co-operatively, students will have to match snippets of text to form sentences like, "Pour jouer à Minecraft, on doit utiliser son imagination" and "Pour voir mes photos, vous pouvez me suivre (folow) sur Instagram". To make sure this activity is right for your students, test drive another triangle puzzle, the free "futur simple" puzzle: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/le-futur-simple-a-triangle-puzzle-6450469

Because it’s not easy finding French stickers with meaningful captions and because my students are always looking for an excuse to use their cell phones, I decided to tell them, “I think QR doing a good job” using QR codes. The 34 comments I’ve encoded are listed below. See the enthusiastic reaction the codes generate for yourself by attaching one of the QR comments in the preview to your students’ next assignment. 1 Un bel effort! C’est génial Très impressionnant! C’est un bonheur de t’enseigner! Excellent comme d’habitude! Chouette! Bien fait! 2 Tu vois? Tu es très capable. Bravo! Tu réussis haut la main! Formidable! Tu connais bien tes verbes irréguliers! Vouloir, c’est pouvoir, n’est-ce pas? Bravo! Tu fais des progrès! 1, 2, 3 . . . je peux toujours compter sur toi! 3 Je suis content que tu sois dans ma classe! Je suis contentE que tu sois dans ma classe! Je suis fier de toi! Je suis fièrE de toi! Tu es un éleve de rêve! Tu es unE éleve de rêve! 4 Je savais que tu y arriverais! Wow! Je n’aurais pas pu mieux faire moi-même! Tu as bien réussi cette tâche! Tu t’exprimes très clairement! Bravo! Encore un peu et tu l’auras! J’ai remarqué que tu as vraiment fait de ton mieux aujourd’hui! Je t’en félicite! 5 Tu as écouté très attentivement aujourd’hui. C’est toute une amélioration! Félicitations! Ton comportement était exemplaire aujourd’hui! Félicitations! Viens me voir pour de l’aide supplémentaire. C’est bien trouvé! Je t’applaudis! En récompense de ce travail si bien fait, ce soir tu n’auras PAS DE DEVOIRS!

Il y a 8 phrases cachées dans chaque marelle. There are eight sentences hidden in each of these two hopscotch games. 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. The beginning of each sentence is marked with a number in a circle. This little number also tells you how many boxes make up the sentence. All the boxes that form a sentence are connected. You may move up, down, left, right and diagonally. Let logic guide you to the end of each sentence. Download the free resource, "Une marelle pour accompagner Le Gruffalo” to see if this game is suitable for your class. https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/une-marelle-pour-accompagner-le-gruffalo-11288270

These printable games are self-correcting activities designed to help beginners master the verb endings for RE and IR verbs in the present tense. To see if these games are right for your students, download the free resource, GET THE PICTURE? (Le présent des verbes ER): https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/get-the-picture-le-pr-sent-des-verbes-er-a-self-correcting-learning-activity-11342123

As you can see from the illustrations for the cards, “prof de français” and “cheveux”, the ostensible goal of this game is to guess the mystery word(s) given the fewest number of clues possible. In point of fact, however, it is to motivate students to talk about their immediate environment in the target language. The focus of the deck is the world of school but there are just enough cards on more general topics to keep things interesting. EXTENDING THE LESSON There are 120 cards in this deck. To extend the lesson and to create a new deck, distribute two or three blank cards to each of your students and challenge them to write in their own “mots devinettes”. NOTES 1 Although I designed these cards on a printable business card template - 10 per sheet - you can also run them on card stock and cut them along the guidelines. 2 Tailor the deck for use by younger or less advanced students by culling the more abstract concepts like “avenir” and “style”. 3 I’ve offered a handful of expressions in both European and Canadian French. The Canadian French vocabulary is marked with a small maple leaf.

Because it's hard to find big, bright, text-rich, French motivational stickers, I have designed about fifty “reward cards” to encourage and congratulate my students. My kids like them and I like being able to update them as needed. Many sincere thanks to my (much) younger colleague, who gently suggested that I move into this millennium and label this file as “brag tags”! HOW I USE THEM 1) AS COLLECTIBLES They work as little giveaway rewards for good effort. (I’m from Canada, hockey trading card country. The best compliment I ever got was when one of my boys announced that he was trying to collect the “whole set”!) 2) AS CURRENCY Students may trade in 10 cards for a package of gum or a dollar store /pound shop gift. 3) As a “bon point” incentive A bon point is redeemable for “1 mark on our next test”. Even high school kids love this little card trick. If you go this route, reserve two or three styles (for example, the “vachement bien” and the “de quoi être fier /fière” cards) as the bon point cards.

Challenge your students to use their words with these Christmas, Hannuka, The New Year and Remembrance Day puzzles. 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 for of each grid and a blank grid for those of you teaching other languages.

Challenge your students to use their words with these Halloween, Diwali, Eid and Kwanzaa puzzles. Because the Hannukah Scribblescrabble has been available as a free resource for years, I've added a Thanksgiving Scribblescrabble for good measure. You'll find it in the second file. 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 for of each grid and a blank grid for those of you teaching other languages.

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. Download this free Scribblescrabble to see if this activity is right for your students: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/a-scribblescrabble-for-hannukah-6301284 This file includes English, French and Spanish versions of each grid as well as a blank grid for those of you teaching other languages.