Calendar and Weather
Here is a PowerPoint for “les septs jours de la semaine” (the seven days of the week):
This is a cute video clip about the seven days of the week. You can get your students to sing along with the video for extended practice:
An activity with a focus on “les jours de la semaine” is to make a flipbook. To make the flipbook, students “Hotdog Fold” a piece of of paper. On one side of the fold, students measure out seven equal boxes for each day of the week. The next step is to cut lines between the boxes to separate each box. The following step is to write one day of the week in French on the outside of each box. On the inside of each box, students write the corresponding English day of the week. Students can also draw a picture on the inside of the boxes to illustrate activities that they do during the week. My exemplar is shown below:
Note: You can make this activity more challenging by scrambling the days of the week in French and having students guess the days in English. Or, you can have students write the English word for each day of the week on the outside of the flipbook and have them guess the French name (they can use the flipbooks to check their answers).
As an additional or alternate activity, students can complete the “jours de la semaine” word jumble that is attached below:
Posted below is a PowerPoint for “les mois de l’année” (the months of the year). Make sure to talk about cognates (words that are similar between two languages), because many months in French are spelled very similar to their English counterparts:
Below is a video by (you guessed it!) alain de lait about “les mois.” I absolutely love all of Alain’s videos!:
Les mois de l’année- Months of the Year is another fantastic song by Sara Jordan that I enjoy listening to and singing with my students. All of Sara’s songs are great for the musical learners in your class :).
To integrate French and Math (yes, I keep finding ways to integrate the two), I created a printable calendar for students to practice the days in each month, along with the French written form for each “jour” and “mois.” The calendar printout and exemplars are attached below. Note: students can create a digital version of the calendar by editing the template in Word:
Calendar Exemplar:
Digital Calendar Exemplar:
Attached below is a word search for “les mois:”
Gotta love the weather in Alberta! One minute it is snowing, the next minute the sun is shining. With the PowerPoint attached below, you and your students can practice how to use common weather expressions such as: il neige (it is snowing). We seem to see A LOT of snow in Alberta, so I would really try to reinforce this expression :P:
Illustrated below is a script for an iMovie project, a sample weather gauge for “les expressions météorologiques.” Students will most likely have to practice the script for several classes to perfect their pronunciation. I hope that your students enjoy completing this project :):
It is always a great idea to follow-up with students and regularly ask them throughout the day “quel temps fait-il dehors?” By consistently practicing concepts, students better retain what they have learned in French.
Attached below is a PowerPoint that I designed which provides vocabulary for the “quatre saisons” (four seasons). I love the graphics illustrated in this PowerPoint with the bright colours (especially the summer season, lol):
Many students enjoy reading and creating comics. For an activity about “les saisons” I had my students create comics about “les quatre saisons” using Make Beliefs Comix!. Make Beliefs Comix! is a fabulous online learning tool. It is very easy to use and requires no login. The link to Make Beliefs Comix! and a student exemplar is shown below:
