I’m Rachel and I've been teaching for 18 years! I first taught English (TEFL) in Japan and Madrid and then taught French and Spanish in Surrey. I subsequently worked in a UK curriculum school in sunny Dubai. I have now relocated to the UK and have a gorgeous baby daughter!
I have a learning-centred approach and encourage my students to be active and reflective learners. I really enjoy the creative process of making PowerPoints and worksheets and hope you enjoy using them!
I’m Rachel and I've been teaching for 18 years! I first taught English (TEFL) in Japan and Madrid and then taught French and Spanish in Surrey. I subsequently worked in a UK curriculum school in sunny Dubai. I have now relocated to the UK and have a gorgeous baby daughter!
I have a learning-centred approach and encourage my students to be active and reflective learners. I really enjoy the creative process of making PowerPoints and worksheets and hope you enjoy using them!
Battleships Game/ Lotto Grid: Revision of a range of tenses:.Present, Perfect, Imperfect, Future, Near Future, Conditional, Subjunctive. It could be used as a revision activity at the beginning of of throughout the school year.
Expressions included:
Je suis sorti(e) et
Nous nous sommes amusés et
J’irai au syndicat d’initiative et
Nous irions à la patinoire et
Ils étaient très contents et
il a fait de la voile.
nous avons loué des vélos.
je vais chercher quelques dépliants.
il faisait très chaud.
je travaillerai comme chirurgien.
il faut que je fasse mes devoirs.
Battleships Game
Instructions
I use this battleships game (which can also be used as a lotto grid) to help students to practise their pronunciation and to reinforce new vocabulary and grammatical structures.
Firstly I ask the students to work independently in pairs to translate the expressions and discuss pronunciation.
I then check the translations and drill pronunciation with the whole class before they play the game. The students secretly choose 5 squares on the top grid and then try to guess which 5 squares their partner has chosen, filling in the bottom grid with “hit” and “miss.” To choose a square say a phrase from the horizontal line and complete the sentence with a phrase from the vertical line. Where the 2 phrases meet up is the square you have chosen.
I use the English language sheet to further challenge the students: they should place this on top of the French version and then try to play the game saying the French phrases as far as possible from memory. I allow the really weak students to have the French version next to the English version so they have lots of support, stronger students are allowed a few “sneaky peaks” at the French version and the really strong students aim to refer back to the French version as little as possible. This really helps the students to memorise the vocabulary/structures!
During the game I circulate the classroom checking pronunciation. This is followed by whole class drilling of pronunciation mistakes.
Enjoy!
This warmer activity can be used to revise the Present, Perfect, Imperfect, Future and Conditional Tenses at the beginning of term or throughout the school year.
Each student has a mini-whiteboard to write their answer on; give them 20 seconds.
All: Find the odd-one-out.
Most: Identify the tenses.
Some: Change the odd-one-out to the same tense as the other two.
Example Expressions:
je joue au tennis B. je fais de la voile C. je jouerai de la guitare.
A. je bois un jus de pommes B. je mangerai C. j’irai au syndicat d’inititative
A. j’ai joué au foot B. je lis C. j’ai fait de la natation
I use these cards to elicit and revise the word order of object pronouns with verbs. I differentiate as follows:
All: Working in pairs match, then elicit where pronouns go in relation to the verbs.
Most : As above and order the pronouns into 5 columns,
Some: As above and question each other English to French and French to English.
Expressions:
Le secrétaire les leur a envoyés
Ils m’y ont vu.
Je vous en enverrai
La librairie va me l’envoyer demain
Est-ce que je pourrais t’y accompager?
J’espère les y retrouver.
Je le lui ai dit!
Il m'en a parlé plusieurs fois.
Me, te, se, nous, vous, se
Le, la, les
Lui, leur
y
en
Following checking there are 2 fun games to play, either pelmenism or a game I learnt in Japan called Karuta. In Karuta the students put the English language cards to one side and spread out the French cards in front of them. I then say the English and the students compete to touch the correct French card first. Whoever touches it first wins the card. The student with the most cards at the end of the game wins. The students love this game!
This fun warmer which can be used at the beginning of the school year and throughout the school year practices the following idiomatic expressions:
Set 1:
Être bourré comme un cochon
Faire d'une pierre deux coups
Faire la navette
Faire le poireau
Faire le pont
À l'heure du laitier
Occupe-toi de tes oignons
Passer un coup de fil
Passer une nuit blanche
Set 2:
L’argent ne se trouve pas sous le pas d’un cheval
Avoir du blé/de la maille/ de l'oseille/ de la thune
Avoir la chair de poule
Avoir la gueule de bois
Avoir la dent/ les crocs/ la dalle
Avoir un chat dans la gorge
Boire un coup
C’est du gâteau
Chacun son truc
Un coup de foudre
Proverbs:
All that glitters is not gold.
Tout ce qui brille n'est pas or.
Come what may.
Advienne que pourra.
Like father like son.
Tel père tel fils.
Never look a gift horse in the mouth.
A cheval donné, on ne regarde pas la bouche.
The end justifies the means.
La fin justifie les moyens.
There are plenty more fish in the sea.
Un de perdu, dix de retrouvé.
To err is human.
L'erreur est humain
When the cat's away the mice will play.
Quand le chat n'est pas là, les souris dansent.
You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs.
On ne fait pas d'omelette sans casser les œufs.
A rolling stone gathers no moss.
Pierre qui roule n'amasse pas mousse.
An eye for an eye (and a tooth for a tooth).
Oeil pour œil (dent pour dent).
Every penny counts.
Un sou est un sou.
Never put off to tomorrow what can be done today.
Il ne faut pas remettre au lendemain ce qu'on peut faire le jour même.
No news is go
You may choose to have different levels of challenge. For example,
Level 1 = match the cards and discuss the pronunciation.
Level 2 = match the cards , discuss the pronunciation and then have quick fire questions from French to English, whereby 1 student closes their eyes and their partner reads out the French cards which the student must translate into English from memory.
Level 3 = As Level 2 but the quick fire questions are from English to French.
Following checking there are 2 fun games to play, either pelmenism or slap the card.
Euro 2016 Resources Product Description.
I have planned this lesson not only to teach vocabulary and facts about football, France and Euro 2016, but also to help the students to respond creatively to their learning and hopefully share their passion for football! The PowerPoint uses matching cards, colourful pictures and animations and YouTube extracts set to music to inspire the students. It is planned to use with students from Years 6-9 (the final task is very open-ended).
Slide 2 shows a celebratory image of the 2012 winners – Spain!
Slide 3 states the objective:
Objectivo: To learn about el fútbol & Euro 2016 and to respond creatively to your learning.
Slide 4 has a YouTube link to follow to use with the attached worksheet. This uses the official UEFA promotional video (3 mins 57 secs) and the worksheet builds vocabulary, cultural and factual knowledge such as the locations of the stadiums, their capacities, cultural images and numbers of matches, volunteers, teams etc. The worksheet is differentiated with an Extra! challenge section. The answers are on the first page of the worksheet.
Slide 6 introduces key vocabulary and can be used with the matching cards. The students should work in pairs/ groups to match the vocabulary and the picture using their previous knowledge, cognates and a process of elimination.
Vocabulary:
Un futbolista
El guardameta
El réferi
El estadio
La pelota
La copa
Una bandera
Un equipo
Una tarjeta amarilla
La cancha
Una camiseta
Unos botines
The activity is differentiated as follows:
All: Match Up!
Most: Perfect Pronunciation Challenge!
Some: Quick Fire Questions! (Here the students quiz each other: French to English, English to French, spellings, accents…..).
Slides 7 to 18 show each word and the matching picture and colourful animations.
Slide 19 has all the pictures for a quick recap.
Then there is graded questioning:
Slides 20 to 31 have A, B, C multiple choice questions.
Slides 32 to 45 are “What’s missing?” slides.
Then slide 46 has a YouTube link to the official song and video (3 mins 49 secs) and students should note down new nouns and adjectives expressing the emotions they see and feel (if they don’t know the Spanish they can grab a dictionary later!)
The creative challenges are presented on slides 46 and 47, this is to either create an acrostic, a calligramme or a poem (there is a poem template provided). This information is also on the accompanying worksheets.
Slide 48 provides the opportunity for reflection.
I really hope you and your students enjoy these resources!
I use this resource with similar ability teams of students to build sentences and increase the level of sophistication of written work. It could be used as a revision task and the beginning of term and throughout the school year. I use it with Years 8 and 9.
I print out the first sheet and the second template sheet and have the sheets colour photocopied and enlarged onto A3 size paper.
The teams start with the middle sentence and work their way through the different stages to develop the sentence and increase the level of sophistication. The starter sentence here is:
Starter sentence:
Le week-end je porte mon jean, mon tee-shirt, mes chaussettes et mes baskets.
Je joue au foot.
Je mange un sandwich.
Then the first development box invites them to:
1.Add opinions e.g. j’adore, j’aime, je n’aime pas, je déteste, je préfère.
2. Add adjectives e.g. colours, génial, intéressant, fatigant, amusant. * Check masc/fem/plural endings. Check word order. C’est = it is, ce n’est pas = it isn’t.
* You can also add a range of connectives e.g. et = and, mais = but, avec= with, donc = therefore, où = where, qui = who, parce que/car = because, tandis que = whereas, while, puis = then, ensuite = then, après = after, de plus = furthermore, par contre = on the other hand, en revanche = on the other hand.
Add in a range of adverbs: très = very, assez = quite, un peu = a little, plutôt = rather, extrêmement = extremely, incroyablement = unbelievably, souvent = often, rarement = rarely.
The following boxes add in the Perfect and near Future tenses plus a range of sophisticated structures for your higher ability students.
I would not expect all groups to work through all of the stages, perhaps the weakest group would aim to incorporate only the first suggestions and so on.
I have been really impressed by the work produced using this support. It can also be used by students individually.
These cards can be used as a warmer / starter activity to revise a range of vocabulary and tenses.
Expressions:
Bonjour. Comment tu t’appelles?
Je m’appelle Amélie.
Où habites-tu?
J’habite à Camberley, près du centre-ville.
Décris-moi ta famille.
J’ai une femme qui s’appelle Isabelle et deux fils qui s’appellent George et Thomas.
Qu’est-ce que tu aimes faire pendant tes temps libres ?
J’adore faire du jardinage et je lis dans le jardin quand le temps est ensoleillé.
Qu’est-ce que tu as fait le week-end dernier ?
Je suis allée en ville où j’ai acheté beaucoup de vêtements.
Qu’est-ce que tu vas faire demain soir ?
Je vais sortir avec mes amis. Nous allons probablement voir un film.
Qu’est-ce que tu ferais si tu gagnais à la loterie ?
J’achèterais une grande maison à la campagne et une voiture très chère.
Qu’est-ce que tu feras pour tes vacances ?
J’irai en Espagne avec ma famille.
Qu’est-ce que tu fais comme métier ?
Je travaille comme secrétaire à temps partiel. Je l’adore !
You may choose to have different levels of challenge. For example,
Level 1 = match the cards and discuss the pronunciation.
Level 2 = match the cards , discuss the pronunciation and then have quick fire questions from French to English, whereby 1 student closes their eyes and their partner reads out the French cards which the student must translate into English from memory.
Level 3 = As Level 2 but the quick fire questions are from English to French.
Following checking there are 2 fun games to play, either pelmenism or a game I learnt in Japan called Karuta. In Karuta the students spread out the cards in front of them. I then say the English and the students compete to touch the correct French card first. Whoever touches it first wins the card. The student with the most cards at the end of the game wins. The students love this game!
The first slide has all the phrases to be taught on it:
1. Salut.
2. Bonjour.
4. Bonsoir.
5. Ça va?
6. Ça va très bien merci!
7. Ça va bien merci.
8. Ça va.
9. Comme ci comme ça/ Bof.
10. Ça ne va pas/ Ça va mal.
It encourages the students to actively engage with the new vocabulary: working in teams, using their prior knowledge, knowledge of other languages and using a process of elimination to figure out the meanings. They then discuss the pronunciation and question each other before the teacher checks with the whole class.
The next slides have the phrase and a picture. Use this to elicit the pronunciation, the English and to drill. I always elicit a gesture to represent each greeting which can then be used for a fun game of Simon Says!
The next section of slides have multiple choice questions. Then there are "what's missing?" slides. The final slide has pictures of all the new vocabulary. This can be used for a Beat the Teacher game, which the students love!
The teacher points to a picture and says a word. If it is the correct word the students all repeat it. If it’s the wrong word the students must stay absolutely silent. If they do, they win 1 point. If not, the teacher gets 1 point. Most points wins!
I have made this series of resources to help the students to understand the excitement, challenges, history and prestige of this incredible event and to teach them facts and vocabulary associated with Le Tour De France. It features YouTube videos, colourful slides, dominoes and a plenary board game.
The second slide states:
Objectif: To to learn facts and vocabulary related to the Le Tour de France. it is divided into All, Most and Some.
Slide 3 acts as both the lesson hook and the warmer task: the students watch the fantastic DailyMotion (French version of YouTube) video (6 mins) showing highlights of the 2015 Tour and note down any facts and French vocabulary they already know.
Slide 4 gives instructions on how to use the dominoes whereby the students match the 2 halves of sentences about Le Tour. There are also dominoes in English to support younger/weaker students:
All : Put the English and French dominoes into the correct order.
Most : AND Perfect Pronunciation Challenge!
Some : AND Quick Fire Questions! * Here the students quiz each other about the phrases: French to English, English to French, spellings….
Extra Challenge: Don’t use the English dominoes and translate the French!
Examples of dominoes phrases:
Il y a 21 étapes réparties sur une période de 23 jours.
La course couvre près de 3 500 kilomètres.
Le coureur avec le meilleur temps total est le leader de la course et porte le maillot jaune.
Slides 5 to 16 reveal the answers.
The students will now watch an excellent 10 minute YouTube video explaining the Tour de France. This has brilliant graphics, but the narration is in English so I have written a worksheet with 17 multiple choice questions in French. Examples:
1. 3500 kilomètres est approximativement la distance entre New York et…
A. Chicago.
B. Las Vegas.
C. Los Angeles.
6. Les courses de nuit ont été abandonnées à cause…
A. du danger.
B. de la tricherie.
C. du froid.
To prepare thoroughly I first instruct the students to work in teams to translate the questions.
The answers are on the first two pages of the worksheet.
Slide 18 has the board game which you should print off. Also in the resources are templates for dice and a cyclist template which the students can colour in and use as their counter. There are a series of multiple choice question cards to print off which cover all the information taught in the lesson.
The students should answer the question correctly before being allowed to shake the die. Weaker students could be shown the questions (covering the answer below) and you may allow them to translate the question and possible answers into English together too.
Slide 19 allows time for reflection.
I use this dominoes activity at the start of the year and throughout the year to revise a range of tenses.
Expressions and tenses:
Lorsque la guerre a commencé elle a travaillé dans les champs.
Le passé composé.
Je lus mon livre chez moi.
Passé simple.
Nous nous sommes amusés.
Un verbe pronominal au passé composé.
Quand nous sommes arrivés ils avaient déjà terminé.
Le plus-que-parfait.
Demain, à cette heure, mes parents auront atterri en Australie.
Le futur antérieur.
Les camions traversaient quand une mine a explosé.
L’imparfait.
Pourriez-vous me dire pourquoi vous faites ça ?
Le conditionnel.
Quand vous arriverez au bout de la rue, vous verrez le château.
Le futur.
M. et Mme Lechat sont en train de faire leurs courses.
Le présent.
Si j’avais su que vous veniez j’aurais fait un gâteau.
Le conditionnel passé.
On pourrait envoyer un e-mail au lieu d’y aller en personne.
L’infinitif.
I differentiate as follows:
All: Line up the dominoes and discuss the pronunciation.
Most: As above and discuss the translation.
Some: As above and question each other English to French and French to English.
Following checking there is a fun game to play, this is a game I learnt in Japan called Karuta. In Karuta the students spread out the dominoes in front of them. I then say the English and the students compete to touch the correct French card first. Whoever touches it first wins the card. The student with the most cards at the end of the game wins. The students love this game!
For this 15 minute warmer/ starter activity I give the students a mini-whiteboard and give them 15-20 seconds to identify the odd-one out. I use this at the beginning of the school year and throughout the year for revision. It is possible that the students can come up with other possible answers and I enjoy challenging them to think outside the box! I just use the second slide, but you could use the first slide and ask the students to figure out the odd-one-out for all the phrases in teams.
Adjectives, the odd-one-out and rules covered:
beau mauvais gentil intéressant
intéressant follows the noun !
jeune allemand vieux nouveau
allemand follows the noun !
grande petite rouge importante
rouge, because the others are made feminine by adding an “e”, rouge already has one!
marron bleu olive bleu-clair
bleu because the other adjectives are invariable as they are both nouns and adjectives or are hyphenated.
fraîche verte fausse blanche
verte is not an irregular feminine form i.e. it follows a pattern the others don’t : frais – fraîche, faux – fausse, blanc –blanche
meilleur ancien cher propre
meilleur because the others have one meaning if they are placed before the noun and another if they are after it. Ancien = former/ old, cher = dear (beloved)/ expensive, propre = own/ clean
I use this French Christmas Mystery with my Year 10 and 11 students who have studied the perfect tense and perfect infinitive. It could also be used with younger Gifted and Talented students.
I show them the PowerPoint first, eliciting the information in English and then give them out a set of cards. There are a variety of clues, including some red herrings, so the students really have to use their thinking skills and teamwork. I allow them to use dictionaries.
* The ANSWERS to the mystery are at the top of the cards sheet. Be careful not to give this information out!! All students are aiming to figure out who. Most to find out what gift and some why.
The suspects are the Santa’s reindeer including; Tornade (Dasher), Danseur (Dancer) , Furie (Prancer), Fringant (Vixen) and Comète (Comet)!
Examples of clues:
Hier soir Tournade a porté des gants jaunes.
Danseur est allé à la discothèque à 18h00. Il est rentré à 22h00.
Danseur ne s’entend pas avec Tonerre.
Furie a perdu son portable.
Enjoy!
Use the PowerPoint in conjunction with the Matching Cards to elicit the rules for forming plurals in French.
Expressions on cards:
Une main
Deux mains
Un nez
Deux nez
Un cheveu
Des cheveux
Un animal
Six animaux
Un gâteau
Des gâteaux
Un genou
Trois genoux
Un œil
Les yeux
I use the first slide to elicit some imaginative plural translations, but you may wish to skip this.
Slide 2 asks:
Match the singular and plural cards.
ALL: How do you make most nouns plural?
MOST: How do you make nouns that end in the following letters plural?
-z
-eu
-al
-eau
-ou
SOME: Which noun is completely irregular and doesn’t follow ANY rules?
Extension: Make up a song/ poem/performance to help people remember these rules.
Slides 3 and 4 check the answers and slide 5 summarises the rules (this can be printed out and stuck into books).
I use these English - French matching cards to build vocabulary for essay-writing: both literary terms and some expressions linked to the plot of Cyrano De Bergerac.
Examples of expressions:
La scène.
Le thème sous-jacent.
Le cadre.
La peinture des personnages.
L’action centrale.
Dépeindre.
Accroître la tension.
Soutenir l’intérêt.
Le contraste.
Etablir une comparaison entre.
Une tranche de vie.
S’inspirer de la réalité.
Forcé.
Tramer une intrigue.
Faire allusion à.
Incapable de s’exprimer.
Donner/lâcher son paquet à quelqu’un.
Débiter.
You may choose to have different levels of challenge. For example,
Level 1 = match the cards and discuss the pronunciation.
Level 2 = match the cards , discuss the pronunciation and then have quick fire questions from French to English, whereby 1 student closes their eyes and their partner reads out the French cards which the student must translate into English from memory.
Level 3 = As Level 2 but the quick fire questions are from English to French.
Following checking there are 2 fun games to play, either pelmenism or a game I learnt in Japan called Karuta. In Karuta the students put the English language cards to one side and spread out the French cards in front of them. I then say the English and the students compete to touch the correct French card first. Whoever touches it first wins the card. The student with the most cards at the end of the game wins. The students love this game!
These cards can be used to revise/ elicit different jobs/ professions. I have included a range of tenses to challenge stronger students.
Expressions:
Je veux devenir acteur/actrice
Je voudrais être avocat/avocate.
Je vais devenir chanteur/chanteuse.
Je voulais être coiffeur/coiffeuse.
Je suis commercial/commerciale.
J’ai l’intention de devenir éducateur/ éducatrice.
Je rêve d’être footballeur.
J’aimerais bien devenir informaticien/informaticienne.
Mon frère deviendra mécanicien.
Mon grand-père était pilote d’avion.
You may choose to have different levels of challenge. For example,
Level 1 = match the cards and discuss the pronunciation.
Level 2 = match the cards , discuss the pronunciation and then have quick fire questions from French to English, whereby 1 student closes their eyes and their partner reads out the French cards which the student must translate into English from memory.
Level 3 = As Level 2 but the quick fire questions are from English to French.
Following checking there are 2 fun games to play, either pelmenism or a game I learnt in Japan called Karuta. In Karuta the students put the English language cards to one side and spread out the French cards in front of them. I then say the English and the students compete to touch the correct French card first. Whoever touches it first wins the card. The student with the most cards at the end of the game wins. The students love this game!
Group Talk foster the spontaneous use of the target Language in the classroom. This sheet can be used in conjunction with my Group Talk Discussion Mat.
There are 4 questions on the sheet:
1. Manges-tu sain?
2. Qu’est-ce que tu as mange et bu hier soir?
3. Quelle est ta faiblesse?
4. Qu’est-ce que tu as fait comme exercice la semaine dernière?
The students pair up and one student asks a question. There are then 3 levels of challenge:
1. The student can answer using the expressions in the box (which you have translated and elicited the pronunciation of beforehand).
2. In addition the students use some of the words listed below the box to extend their answers.
3. In addition the students should try to come up with other spontaneous phrases.
Using the discussion mat with this allows them to build in additional responses e.g.
Attend! = Wait!
C’est ridicule! = That’s ridiculous!
Tu es fou/folle?! = Are you crazy?!
Ce n’est pas juste = It’s not fair!
Tu plaisantes? = You must be joking/ are you joking?
As family vocabulary is pretty straight-forward I decided to create a "mystery" activity and gave the students clues. In teams they then had to draw out the family tree based on the information.As an extension I asked to create their own family trees and clues. Alternatively you could send quick-finishers to support teams that have not yet finished.
The first sldie of the PowerPoint show some examples of family tress in case students are unsure. The second slide has the solution.
Examples of clues:
Kristell et Hervé ont divorcé.
Lou est la demi-sœur de Yann.
Yann est le demi-frère de Lise.
Yvon est le mari de Kristell.
Lise est la sœur d’Éric.
Il y a six enfants.
Anya est la fille de Kristell et Hervé.
Hervé s’est remarié avec Marie.
Yann a deux sœurs et deux demi-sœurs.
Watch out for red herrings!
This two slide PowerPoint can be used to practise the following vocabulary which has caught out some of my GCSE students in their Listening and Reading papers:
Ne...pas
Ne...rien
Ne...jamais
Ne...que
Maintenant
De nos jours
D’habitude
De temps en temps
Tous les jours
Avant
L’année dernière
Dans l’avenir
L’année prochaine
Trop
Un peu
Seulement
Souvent
Toujours
Quelquefois
Surtout
La plupart
Certain
Tellement
Rarement
Assez
Beaucoup
Par contre
Même si
Si
Sans
Le matin
Le soir
Parfois
It can be used at the beginning of term and throughout the school year.
I give the students time in team to translate the expressions and to discuss the pronunciation. I then use the vocabulary either for a game of lotto/ bingo or for a game of "slap the board" whereby I divide the students into 2 teams and line them up in front of the interactive whiteboard. One student from each team steps up and I say the English expression. The students race to slap the correct phrase to win a point for their team.
The second slide has a link to the fabulous free classroomtool.net website where I have added the vocabulary to a fruit machine. The students compete against each other in pairs to shout out the correct translation. Fun and loud!
Enjoy!
This PowerPoint presentation explains the use of Spanish Reflexives and reflexive pronouns. I use this having already taught the following daily routine phrases:
Me despierto
Me levanto
Me ducho
Me visto
Me peino
Me lavo los dientes
Me acuesto
Use the first slide to elicit the English and pronunciation of the phrases above.
The next slide helps the student to spot that conjugated reflexive verbs have an extra word (the reflexive pronoun).
The next slide shows how you can spot a reflexive verb in the dictionary by it's infinitive ending.
The final slide introduce the first 3 reflexive pronouns using the following expressions:
Me despierto
Te despiertas
Se despierta
Me levanto
Te levantas
Se levanta
Me visto
Te vistes
Se viste
This slide can also be used for a couple of fun games to reinforce the vocabulary:
If you have a stamper facility on your interactive whiteboard, a fun game is to ask the students to recite the Spanish phrases over and over whilst you gradually cover the words in stampers e.g. smileys or apples making it more and more difficult – simple but fun!
Another easy game is to send one student out of the room. The remaining class chooses a student to give a top secret signal – this could be a sound e.g. a deliberate sneeze or cough, or something visual e.g. an obvious stretch, zipping/unzipping their pencil case etc. The students then repeat the first phrase again and again until they see or hear the signal. The students then repeat the second phrase again and again until they see or hear the signal and so on. The student who has been sent out must then try to figure out who the secret signal giver is!
As family members are pretty straight-forward I have added in a range of other structures to these matching cards in order to expose the students to some other new vocabulary.
Expressions:
Mon père s’appelle Guillaume.
Ma mère est allée en ville.
Ma sœur adore faire du cheval.
Je vais jouer au foot avec mon frère.
L’anniversaire de ma tante est le quinze janvier.
Mon oncle déteste le cyclisme.
Nous allons rendre visite à ma grand-mère.
Mon grand-père a visité la Tour Eiffel !
Mon cousin adore Paris !
Son fils s’appelle Florien et sa fille s’appelle Lucie.
These matching cards can be used either to elicit the family members or to revise previous learning.
You may choose to have different levels of challenge. For example,
Level 1 = match the cards and discuss the pronunciation.
Level 2 = match the cards , discuss the pronunciation and then have quick fire questions from French to English, whereby 1 student closes their eyes and their partner reads out the French cards which the student must translate into English from memory.
Level 3 = As Level 2 but the quick fire questions are from English to French.
Following checking there are 2 fun games to play, either pelmenism or a game I learnt in Japan called Karuta. In Karuta the students put the English language cards to one side and spread out the French cards in front of them. I then say the English and the students compete to touch the correct French card first. Whoever touches it first wins the card. The student with the most cards at the end of the game wins. The students love this game!