Table top activities

Activities to do in groups

mini word and picture cards - lots of variations
Trouvez des paires! Trouvez une paire! Tu as combien de paires?
1 Matching cards face up, in turn, match the cards saying the French
2 Pelmanism face down, turn 2 over, keep if a match replace if not and try to remember where
3 All the words face up and try to find the pictures and vice versa
4 Kim's game With all the pictures only, remove one and the others have to say which one. Qu'est-ce q'il manque? Kim's game. Have the words spread out nearby for reference.

Dominoes
made on toolsforeducators.com

You could even do words only. Here it's French to French but it could be French - English especially good for words for which you can't get pictures easily like adjectives.
Split words
This works very well with animal words of more than one syllable. This is made up in Word using 2 columns, left right aligned and right left aligned. When cutting them up, you could do an irregular jagged line so that only the right one fits, but then you couldn't make up imaginary animals eg serodile! These are colour coded for gender, but might be easier if the first half of word was a different colour from the second half.
Half sentences
This was initially to practise the construction j'aime les …s. 10 starters and finishers.
I had the sentence beginning on a different colour card. Start with cards face down. In turn pick up 2 cards. Read them out. You should get some funny combinations. Note down the best ones to read to class later.
Then with cards face up, choose a good sentence, maybe one that is true for you and note it down.
Sorting
with a large number of cards eg animal words, ask pupils to sort them as they see fit. Could be all birds, all farm animals. Or it could be words with the same French sound in them!

The files we used are in ANIMALS folder in our GLOW group.

Wed 19 January - updated

Starter by Maureen - Merci à toi Maureen
H/w family
FORMS!
More for starting lesson
entrez! come/go in
Rangez-vous à la porte line up at the door
les uns derrière les autres one behind the other
deux par deux in twos
mettez-vous ici stand here


more on Family
more on nouns gender, articles, possession ( all you need to know about)

sentence building - active learning
Go over the words used first
Give each table a set of (colour coded) words on cards
Start by asking the pupils to sort the words into groups to make it easier to pick them out. Allow them to discuss how to do this.
Let them build short sentences or phrases themselves. Ask them to read them aloud.
Give them a sentence in English. They discuss & make it on the table.
Ask a table to read out the answer or they could hold it up. Other tables check. Discuss any mistakes.
Ask them to make up 3 good sentences of their choice and set them out. Then copy them into their jotters.
Challenge them to make a really long sentence. 1 points per word, minus points for any mistakes.


Pronunciation - nasal vowels [õ] on - see blogpost
Practise with minicards (click here to download) and make a collection eg on a list, a poster or Wallwisher
Worksheet from La petite souris (LPS) a site for French teachers teaching French to their pupils.

Homework
1 Add some -0n nasal words to Wallwisher
2 Invent a silly sentence or a rhyme or a rap or a song using -0n nasal words

Meanwhile here is a nice wee song from La Maternelle de Moustache to inspire you
J'ai un nom, un prénom I've a name, a first name
deux yeux 2 eyes
un nez a nose
un menton a chin
Dis-moi vite ton prénom tell me quickly your first name
Pour continuer la chanson. to keep the song going
Tu t'appelles ............................ (child says his name)
Bonjour ....................... (class sings his name)
Back to the start

J'ai un nom
Click letter J then on "air de comptine" and then "CHANT" to hear the song sung (OR JUST CLICK HERE) We would need to slow it down - it is meant for French children.

and another lovely song popped into my head after not hearing it for about 40 years Flocon papillon about snow
and it's nice and slow!
I've posted it here