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

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.)

A simple, visual introduction to these demonstrative pronouns wrapped in gentle humour. The lesson ends with a challenge to students to create similar visual comparisons for ‘ceux-ci ou ceux-là’ and ‘celles-ci ou celles-là’. I’d enjoy hearing about what your students produce.

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

I’m reposting this old file because it’s Roald Dahl’s centenary and because “The Landlady” is an exceptionally well written, suspenseful and eerie short story that cries out to be explored at Hallowe’en by both middle and high school students. (It is not to be missed if “foreshadowing” and “appearance versus reality” figure in your curriculum.) I’ve summarized The Landlady and stirred the pieces in my cauldron. After your class has read the story, your students should be able to reconstitute the summary as a small group, co-operative activity.

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.)

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!

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

This Easter “How Touching” puzzle is a bit like Boggle. This is a five-minute filler for English teachers. I’ve included mini B & W puzzle grids for teachers who are trying to cut back on photocopy costs.

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!

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!

Audio-lingua’s short recording of seven-year-old Ethan joyfully listing his cadeaux de Noël inspired these 2 disparate games. In ZIPLINE PHRASES, students work in teams to build sentences by connecting any two dialogue balls directly linked by a straight line. Each ball may be used only once per sentence. All sentences must be (relatively) logical! MDR! The game encourages students to think in context and speak and write complete sentences. It also offers a built-in homework opportunity BLOCS DE CONSTRUCTION is another sentence-building game. The “blocs” can be cut out and used as manipulatives or your students can work directly from the printable. An annotated transcript of the clip is included in both files. https://audio-lingua.ac-versailles.fr/spip.php?article8484 Joyeuses fêtes, tout le monde!

This is a guided writing activity in which students assume the identity of Lady Gaga or a member of BTS and describe her/his day. The focus is the use of pronominal verbs. There are separate handouts for le présent and le passé composé for both the Lady and BTS. Of course, the same sheets will work for Drake, Adele, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Calvin, Hobbes, the principal of your school, and so forth. (It was high time to update this file. Lady Gaga has stood the test of time. One Direction, not so much!)

This little crossword puzzle complements my “Trouvé (Les vêtements)” card game. The puzzle uses the same symbols found in the "Trouvé" game, which focusses on oral practice, to provide a simple, written element to further the lesson. It also works as a quick, stand-alone activity for anyone presenting a unit on “les vêtements". The vocabulary includes des baskets (f.) des bottes (f.) un chandail de hockey un chandail un chapeau des chaussettes (f.) des chaussures (f.) une chemise une cravate des gants (m.) un imperméable un jean une jupe des mitaines (f.) un pantalon une robe un sac à dos des sous-vêtements (m.) un survêtement un sweat à capuche un tee-shirt Trouvé (Les vêtements), a game like Spot It™, is available here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/trouv-les-v-tements-11232726

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 (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

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

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.

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.

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.