Topics Of Interest

Here is a sample project that a group of students created about Madagascar in their “Quest for French Culture:”

PowerPoint Sample Project

Attached below is the template that the students used to organize their “French Culture” projects:

French Culture Project

There are also many fun and easy games to play with the students to practice topics of interest. Below are a variety of activities that you can use with your French students as warm-ups or when you have extra time following a lesson:

Telephone- Have your students choose French words or topics that are of interest to them. The students sit in a circle and quietly repeat the word to the person sitting to their left. Once the last student has been been whispered the word, he or she repeats the word to see if the word went all around the circle correctly.

Hangman- Choose a French Word and write the letter spaces on the whiteboard. Have the students guess letters to figure out the word. If a student chooses a letter from the word, add the letter to the correct position of the word. If he or she chooses incorrectly, one body part is hung. To win the game, the students must guess the French word correctly before all body parts have been hung. Another option for this game is to have a student choose the French word.

Around the World- Students stand in a circle. The teacher asks a question about French culture or language to each student rotating left. If the student answers correctly, he or she stays standing. If the student answers incorrectly, he or she sits down. The final person standing wins the game.

Pass the Ballon– Have students stand or sit at their desks. Pass around a beach ball with different French words written on it. Each time a student receives the ball, he or she must say the word out loud that their right thumb is closest to or touching.

Trivia Time- Give the students French trivia questions and have them respond to the trivia questions with an “incentive” for correct answers.

Pictionary- Write some previously learned French vocabulary on small strips of paper and fold them up. Mix the paper in a small container and divide the students into teams. Have the students choose an illustrator from their teams to start. The illustrator draws a paper strip and sketches a picture, while their teammates guess the vocabulary word(s). Each correct answer gives the playing team a point. Switch players and teams following each round. The team with the most points at the end wins the game :)!

French Day! is one of my favorite days of the school year! For the day, I book out the iPads or Macs and have the students use a translator application with playback to help them speak in French for the entire day :). If the students are trying very hard with this activity, I will reward them with a treat or mini classroom party (they love these incentives)!

I downloaded the following plays from “Scruffy Plume” and modified them so that they are at a grade four FSL level. Students practicing for the plays can use the speech feature in “Google Translate “to practice pronunciation of their parts if necessary. These plays were showcased at my school’s French evening in 2013, along with the French songs: O Canada, Frere Jaques and Alouette.

FSL Wizard of Oz Play

FSL Star Wars Play

French Song Lyrics