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.

Here are fifteen of my favourite old (and new) maxims for French students. Most are inspirational. Some are just for fun. A few are both at once. Once a few of these posters have provoked your students’ interest, ask them to find an inspirational quote of their own to illustrate. Have them include their photo in a corner of the poster. The secondary “source” of the quote tends to generate as much interest as the maxim itself. Note: The last quote has been a personal favourite since I was a student. However, this particular bit of wisdom by Michel de Montaigne is probably not appropriate for your classroom walls. I'm always grateful for (positive!) feedback.

WORDOKU6 (Christmas) is a simplified version of my WORDOKUs (word sudokus). The challenge is to slot the following Christmas words into the grid: 1 poinsettia 2 wreath 3 gingerbread 4 Santa Claus 5 elf 6 reindeer

In this small-group activity, Fate (the dice) will determine which garment your students must describe. Exprime-toi is a relaxed way to reinforce lessons on adjectives and to encourage your students to speak in full sentences. If you’d like to extend the lesson to written work, just assign some dice co-ordinates (ie: •• x •••• or •••• x •)

This simplified word sudoku ( in a 6 x 6 grid) features the following expressions: 1 chocolates 2 Cupid 3 bouquet 4 friendship 5 February 6 sweetheart

This revised Motdoku6 features the following thematic vocabulary. 1 les chocolats 2 Cupidon 3 le bouquet 4 l’amitié 5 février 6 mon petit coeur

La fin de chaque mot dans ce mini-cercle vicieux est aussi le début d'un nouveau mot. Comme dans un mots croisés, les lettres sont toutes représentées en majuscules sans accents. Un mot accentué peut donc croiser un mot qui ne l'est pas. Fais la ronde. Combien de mots qui se chevauchent peux-tu y trouver?

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.

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.

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!

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.)

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.

Annaleise, une adolescente de 14 ans, vient de traverser le lac Ontario à la nage. Not sure how much general interest there would be in a story like this on your side of the pond but it will work for teachers looking for 'girl power' affirmation stories for the French classroom. BTW, Annaleise covered 52 kilometres so this is comparable to a Channel swim. I am curious to know if you and / or your students find this interesting so would appreciate any feedback. Joyeuse rentrée.

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 MFL Resources, I discovered this clip last night. It has been going round in my head ever since so I thought I'd share the insanity. A bit like a pop version of 'Old MacDonald had a farm', it will work with young children and teenagers. (Even K4s or maybe, especially K4s who need a laugh.) Included are preteaching / presinging visuals and links to the karaoke and Gangnam (!) versions as well as to a bare bones parody that might inspire older students to make a clip of their own. Please, if they do, let me know. This is an updated version of the file as two of the original links had become unresponsive.

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.

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.

This variation on the old SNAKES AND LADDERS board game will ease your students (and you!) back into work mode. It requires students to read, listen, and pronounce carefully in French. And to be creative! Voici le bon vieux jeu de société, SERPENTS ET ÉCHELLES, réinventé pour adoucir la rentrée (qui arrive toujours trop vite pour les enfants . . . et les profs). Le jeu demande aux étudiants de lire et écouter attentivement, de bien prononcer les textes et de faire preuve de créativité!

Warning: JOYEUX NOËL includes several juvenile jokes about reindeer poop . . . the chocolate Christmas snack not the actual reindeer droppings. If you are already peeling your students off the ceiling, do not play this game. And definitely don’t make and share any reindeer poop using the super simple, 3-ingredient recipe included. ZIPLINE PHRASES are sentence-building games full of 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! JOYEUX NOËL will encourage your students to think in context and to speak and / or write in full sentences.

In this videoclip, the following Christmas vocabulary is modeled slowly and timed to allow your students to repeat each expression. l’arbre de Noël / le sapin le bas de Noël le bonhomme de neige la boule de Noël / la décoration la bûche de Noël le cadeau / la surprise la canne de Noël le casse-noisette les chandelles (f.) le chant de Noël les choristes (m.) de Noël / les chanteurs (m.) de Noël les cloches (f.) la couronne la crèche la dinde l’église l’étoile (f.) le gâteau aux fruits le gui le houx les jeux (m.) les jouets (m.) le lait de poule les lumières de Noël (f.) le lutin la magie de Noël la neige le pain d’épice la paix le papier d’emballage la papillote de Noël / le pétard de Noël le Père Noël le poinsettia / l’étoile de Noël (f.) le pôle nord le renne les rois (m.) Mages le traîneau la veille de Noël le vitrail You can download it; here’s the YouTube link: https://youtu.be/DkgPfJXTlzA The same vocabulary is the basis for the activity, QU’EST-CE QUI MANQUE ICI (NOËL): https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12942690