Need ideas for your French classroom? See my posters, decor, and setup for maximum French in the classroom and cool Francophone culture...

Salut! Hi everyone! If you teach French, you know how tough it can be to find resources for your classroom. Of course, I'm talking about QUALITY resources. That's why a group of great teacher-authors has decided to put together a FREE French eBook of tips and links to freebies for the back-to-school season or should I say "pour la rentrée"? Laudalina from Profs et Soeurs is the mastermind of this amazing initiative and Ms. Joanne has been so generous to host the eBook. What about me? I was honored to organize it! READ: Check out my new For French Immersion Blog and subscribe to the For French Immersion Newsletter. But before we get to the eBook, I would also like to share 5 FREE websites you can use for extra activities when teaching French. They are presented in no specific order and I'm not affiliated with any of them. I just really think they're very useful. Graphics by Stacey Lloyd Here we go: 1. IL ÉTAIT UNE HISTOIRE... This site has a LOT of stories for kids. It's well-organized into categories, e.g. "Contes et Légendes", "Fables et poésies", etc, and the best part is that they present the text and give you the option of listening to a narrator reading it. Oh, and the "Comptines et Chansons", of course, are sung! The site can be used in so many ways in the classroom. You can: - have students listen to the narrator while reading the text during computer time - play the audio to use it in listening comprehension activities - just use the text for reading comprehension activities - have students sing along the "comptines" Lundi Matin (source: Il était une histoire…) Click on the image above to check out one of the "Comptines et Chansons". This one is great to practice "les jours de la semaine". 2. FRANCE TV ÉDUCATION This is a section of the site that is dedicated to education. It's got videos, texts, games about many subjects, such as "Histoire" and "Sciences". They've also got quizzes to test the level of proficiency in French. Click on the image below to check out one of the quizzes. French quiz (source: France TV Éducation) 3. BONJOUR DE FRANCE They have several free online exercises you can have your students doing. They are identified with one of the six levels of the CEFR. Check out this simple quiz about "les animaux" (click on the image below). Les animaux en français (source: Bonjour de France) 4. BrainPOP Next is BrainPOP. It's an amazing site with videos, quizzes and much more. It covers many subjects and it's fully animated. Click on the image below to check it out. 5. TV5 MONDE Last but not least is the section of the TV5 website dedicated to "la langue française". There are a lot of resources from which to choose. They've also got sections for those who teach French and those who learn French. My favorite section is "Les Fables de La Fontaine" with 8 fables with text and audio. Click on the image below to check them out. Les Fables de La Fontaine (source: TV5Monde) And now, for our FREE French Back-to-School eBook! It is packed with tips and links to freebies by 15 teacher-authors. There are FSL and FI resources for k-12. I'm sure you'll find something you can use in your classroom! It's available on Teachers Pay Teachers. If you've never heard of Teachers Pay Teachers, or TpT as I prefer to call it, you have no idea what you're missing out. Click on the image for a FREE copy of the eBook. Click on the image for your FREE copy Enter my giveaway for a chance to win $25 worth of French teaching resources! Giveaway is over! Sorry! I've started a new blog. The name says it all: For French Immersion Blog. Come check it out and subscribe to the For French Immersion Newsletter. Merci! Thank you so much for stopping by! READ at For French Immersion: 7 Pinterest boards for French teachers READ: 10 words that English borrowed from French READ: FREE French Alphabet Chart READ: Free French Poster - expressions with the word POMME

Building a classroom community lies at the very heart of what we do as teachers. Yes, we’re there to teach curriculum, but students are more likely to

How to create useful routines in your French classroom As a teacher, you probably know that classroom routines are paramount to maintaining your general sanity throughout the school year. When your students have a clear idea of what is expected of them from the time of arrival through to dismissal, classroom management becomes so much easier. When there are set routines in place, you are able to focus more on teaching and less on giving instructions. Investing in teaching your students these routines from the first day of classes will keep you from wasting valuable time throughout the school year. What is a classroom routine? A classroom routine is a well-rehearsed response from your students when given a direction from you, the teacher. It is something that must be taught and practiced. It is not simply enough to give the direction once. Rehearsal and practice are key! A classroom routine can be taught for any behaviours that you would like to control in the classroom, which can be as simple as: beginning the day, handing in assignments, sharpening a pencil or asking questions. What is the best way to teach a routine? Use these 5 steps to establishing a classroom routine for your French class to make the year go more smoothly for you and your students. Step 1: Explain the routine Identify the routine that you wish to teach and explain to your students why it is important. For example, if you would like for your students to raise their hands before asking a question, explain how this will ensure that all students will benefit from the question and hearing the answer and it ensures that all students questions get answered. Be sure to clarify any part of the routine that students may have questions about before proceeding to the next step. Step 2: Model the routine You will need to act out specifically what you would like your students to do for the routine. Narrate what you are doing throughout the routine so that your students have a very clear picture of what is expected from them. If you would like your students to enter the classroom quietly and place their books in the top righthand corner of their desks, model this for your students. Step 3: Practice the routine with your students Have a few students act out and model the routine exactly as you have shown the class in the previous step, making any corrections as required. Now that all students have seen the routine performed, allow the entire class to practice the routine until they are comfortable completing it independently. Step 4: Initiate the routine Explain to your students that you wish the routine to be completed in this manner each and every time it is required throughout the school year. As the routine is completed, be sure to narrate and remind students of the proper procedure. You can gradually release responsibility to your students as you see they are consistent with the routine. Step 5: Review the routine There may be times when you feel you need to review the routine with your class. For example, after coming back from a school break, or on a day when a special event is occurring at the school. In this case, go back to step 1 of this guide and repeat as necessary. Some important daily routines that I suggest to teach your students include: Beginning the day, how to enter and exit the classroom, information to include on assignments (name, date, class, grade), school supplies, handing/collecting, bathroom/drink breaks, asking a question, emergency response, early finishers, lunch/snack time, dismissal, cleaning the classroom, classroom jobs. Other types of routines Routines can also be established to reinforce curriculum that has already been taught. These types of routines provide opportunities to master a skill, and instil confidence. When students practice a familiar skill repeatedly, they will become more confident applying the skill elsewhere. In my French classroom, I like to have routines in place for communicating in French. In doing so, I find students are more likely to communicate with me and with each other in French. For example, I always implement a warm-up activity in my classes that involves speaking in French. I rotate through these activities throughout the year, but my students know that they can always expect them before beginning a lesson. Three of these activities are: Prof du jour This is an excellent way to incorporate daily authentic speaking in the target language, increase student participation, student engagement and help your students gain confidence. A student is chosen to be the teacher of the day. They ask questions to other students in French and their classmates must also respond in French. I keep a set of questions handy on a key ring for students to refer to (shown above). Conversation prompts I use a set of 24 French speaking prompts to give students an opportunity to practice their conversational skills and gain confidence asking and answering questions in French. They are all printed on circles and attached to popsicle sticks (shown above). I place them in a jar and each student gets to choose one. They must read and respond to the question chosen. La boîte mystère ‘La boîte mystère’ is an activity that is popular with students because it gets them involved in a meaningful way. By hiding a mystery object in the box (shown above) and having students ask questions to try to guess the identity of the object, students practice asking and answering questions, while using their critical thinking skills. It is very similar to the popular ’20 questions’ game. I hope that you are find the above information helpful! I have made the resources that accompany the above routines available in the TPT shop. You can find them at the links below, or as a part of a useful bundle of 8 different useful routines for writing and speaking in the French classroom HERE. PROF DU JOUR CONVERSATION PROMPTS LA BOÎTE MYSTÈRE

Building a classroom community lies at the very heart of what we do as teachers. Yes, we’re there to teach curriculum, but students are more likely to

Love French task cards? Try them in a game of scoot for a fun & engaging way to practice French verb conjugation & vocabulary in your core or immersion class.

Are you looking for some great games to play with your students in your FSL classroom? Look no further. Today, I am sharing the ‘best of the best’ student-approved games for FSL. Many require little to no prep (yay!). Take a look below and try one with your students today! 1. Comptez! Are you looking for a fun way to review numbers? This activity works very well with learners of all ages. Seriously. Even my middle-years aged students begged to play this! Materials required: none How to play: -Have your students stand together in a circle. -The teacher says ‘un’ (1) to get the game started. -any student may call out the next number in sequence – ‘deux’ (2) -only one student may say a number at a time. If 2 or more students say the same number, the game must begin again. -You may set a goal for your students to aim for (ie- count to 10). However, play continues as high as your students wish to count! 2. Le ballon This game can be used with ANY vocabulary theme! Materials required: a soft foam ball or a balloon How to play: -Have your students stand in a circle. Give your students a theme to follow or have a student choose a theme. (ie- la maison, la météo) -Give the ball or balloon to the first player. That player says a vocabulary word that suits the theme and then throws the ball to another player. -The player that catches the ball must say another relevant vocabulary word before tossing the ball to the next player. -Words may not be repeated. 3. Le tableau This is another game for reviewing vocabulary while working in small groups. Materials: whiteboard and markers How to play: -Divide your students into 4 small groups. Draw 4 columns on the white board with the team number at the top. -Have students in each team stand in a line at the board in front of their team number column. -Write a vocabulary category on the board and challenge student teams to write 10 words each. -Team members must take turns to write (and spell correctly!) 10 different vocabulary words in the given category. The first team to complete the challenge wins! 4. La tapette à mouches La tapette à mouches is a fly swatter game for the French classroom. This game gets your students up out of their seats and moving in an active learning activity. Materials required: a whiteboard, 2 fly swatters How to play: -Write desired vocabulary words all over the whiteboard. -Divide students into 2 teams. -1 representative from each team holds a fly swatter and stands close to the board where the game is being played. -The teacher calls out a vocabulary word and students must ‘swat’ the corresponding word. -The first student to correctly identify the word wins a point for their team. Play continues with a new student each round until all students have had an opportunity to play. 5. Trashketball A fun game that reviews French vocabulary or grammar skills. This review game involves group work, decision making and recall and is easily differentiated for many levels. This activity is great for all learning styles and centers around reviewing learned material. The game will involve all students and keep them engaged with the lesson. There are 5 rounds of play in the games, each with 5 questions. With easy set-up, it is great for a last-minute lesson. This one takes a bit of prep and you may wish to use the PowerPoint presentations that I have created HERE, or create your own! Materials required: digital whiteboard/projector capable of displaying THESE PowerPoint presentations, small whiteboard and marker or scrap paper and pencil for each team, a trashcan or recycling bin, masking tape or painter’s tape, a ball/bean bag or other soft object for throwing. Setup:Place a trashcan/recycle bin in a clear lane. Use a visible line on the floor (or place a piece of painter’s tape/masking tape) a few feet away from the bin (closer for younger students and further for older students). This will be the ’shooting’ line. How to play: -Divide your class into several small teams (about 3-4 students per team). Assign one student to be the team reporter. The reporter will bring the answers to be reviewed to the teacher. Equip each team with a whiteboard and marker or a piece of scrap paper and pencil. Have each team write the numbers 1-5 down the side of the whiteboard/paper in a list. -Display the slide for round 1 on the board/projector. Give students a set amount of time to work through the problems in each round. 1-2 minutes will work for each round depending on the abilities of your class. Have each team work quickly to answer the questions on the slide during each round. -Signal to students when the time is up. Have the reporter from each team bring the answers to the teacher. The teacher will check the answers (an answer key is provided). If a team has an incorrect answer, the teacher must send the reporter back to the team to correct it. -The first team with all 5 answers correct, will get 3 throws of the ball/bean bag into the can. The 2ndteam gets 2 throws, the 3rdteam gets 1 throw. For each throw that lands in the can, the team earns 1 point. -Play resumes for all 5 rounds. At the end, tally all of the points earned for each team. The team with the highest score wins. These are my favourite 5 games. Do you have any favourites that your students LOVE? CHECK OUT MORE GAMES AVAILABLE IN MY FRECH TEACHING RESOURCE STORE ON TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS HERE!

This blog post contains a growing list of a variety of resources French Immersion and Core French teachers can use in their classrooms. The purpose of this blog post is to ensure that we have a variety of resources that put francophone black voices, experiences and perspectives at the front and center.

French attention grabbers are words or short sentences that get your students' attention in the classroom. Learn how to use them and how to invent your own.

There is no doubt that French classroom routines are really important opportunities for engaging our Core French students. Here is a quick list of my students' favourite classroom routines that you should give a shot.

Turn those extra few minutes of class into valuable time to review vocabulary or content or to reflect on recent learning.

This black and white printable comic explains how gender (masculine and feminine nouns) work in French. With lots of illustrations and friendly language, students will make sense of grammatical gender--an often confusing concept for English speakers. The resource includes: • 2 page comic • 2 reading activities with multiple-choice checks for comprehension • teacher suggestions for use • answer sheet for comprehension questions No prep needed. Also great for supply teachers. In English. All art is original by the author. For beginner/core French, grades 4 – 8. Freebees and Discounts Follow this store for product updates and sales. Often new products are free or discounted during the first 24 hours. Comments Your feedback helps to continually improve products. It’s a win-win, since you’ll earn TPT credits. If you have questions or concerns, contact me through Product Q and A, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can! Product License Don’t share this resource with other teachers. Do print unlimited copies for your students. Merci!

As French Immersion teachers, we know how valuable it is to sing. It’s a great way to practice pronunciation, vocabulary and get our students excited about learning French. This list has a range of easier to harder songs. I taught some of these to my kindergarten students and also to 2/3s so it

To prep for "la rentrée", you might be looking for French classroom icebreaker ideas. Check out this list of icebreakers you can use right now.

Speaking French On my Strategies for Speaking French page , I've outlined some of the strategies that I have put in place ...

French First Week Activities: In my previous 4 posts, I've talked about why it's so important to create an immersion atmosphere, how to set the tone for the year, and how to set expectations for the first day of French class. In this post about the French first week activities, I'll be sharing the lessons

We all know and love Kahoot, right? If you do not know about Kahoot then we have a few blog posts with tips and ideas to get you up to sp...

The title of this post should perhaps have been ’25 ideas for retrieval starters that can also be used as plenaries or simply basic lesson activities’ but it was less catchy… The only reason …

Coucou les profs ! Siguiendo con la temática de hace unas semanas, hoy os traigo tres infografías sobre la formación del passé composé y del imparfait para nivel básico. Como os comentaba, cuando r…

Explore pilllpat (agence eureka)'s 58919 photos on Flickr!

french immersion resources

Post with lots of ideas for French phonics anchor charts! Use anchor charts to help your students learn French sounds. Contrast spelling, sounds, and more!

The Unfair Game is a totally unfair twist on Jeopardy that your students will LOVE to hate! Learn how to play and find sample game boards in this post.

Dans cette fiche pédagogique, les élèves doivent écrire UN ou UNE, LE ou LA (ou L') et AU, A LA ou A L'. Cela permet de voir la différence masculin/féminin mais également les moments où l'apostrophe est utilisée. On revoit le vocabulaire des métiers et des endroits de la ville. - Fiches FLE

Si votre enfant commence à bien lire et que vous voulez vérifier s’il comprend bien ce qu’il lit, voici quelques fiches à récupérer sur le site en bas de page... Lire la suite »

Creepy crawly spiders! Heights! The dark! These are some common top fears to name a few, and if you're anything like me, heck, you're not too fond of any of those three. But do you know what the number one fear is? The one that outweighs all others? Glossophobia. (Cue the eery music) Dun, da, dun! Now before we get all panicked and shriek in horror, what exactly is this dreadful phobia? In layman's terms--the fear of public speaking. Even if you don't personally suffer from glossophobia, you probably have experienced some type of symptoms like a racing heart, sweaty palms, dry mouth, or some type of mild anxiety before speaking in front of others. So how do we get better at communicating in a group setting, and how do we prepare our students, even at a young age, to do this? Like other academic skills, how to participate in a discussion is something that needs to be taught explicitly. When I was early in my teaching career, whole class discussion typically consisted of me asking the questions while my students provided the answers. Sure, the questions were good, and by good, I mean the kinds of questions that were open-ended and required critical thinking. But still, I was the one that was doing all the leading. I was doing all the asking. I was doing all the steering. I was the driver if you will. Now instead imagine a classroom where the students are the ones in the driver's seat. The students are the ones asking the questions AND providing the answers. The students are the ones steering the discussion. Over my years of teaching, I have learned (and am still learning!) to "release control," and recently, I envisioned a classroom where student-led discussion was the norm. Thus, began my quest of how to make this happen. If I wanted my students to truly lead the discussion in my classroom, then I would need to give them the skills and tools to be able to do this. This is where gradual release comes into play. Gradual release is the process in which you basically pass the baton slowly from teacher to student as students gain independence with a particular skill or concept. Here's how it works. 1) You teach the skill directly. This involves direct instruction and modeling. 2) You involve students in the process while you still support. This is often referred to as guided instruction. For example, for a math lesson involving the steps of solving a story problem, you now do a few story problems "together." 3) You give students independent practice time with the skill while you provide feedback, both affirming and adjusting (i.e. "I see you drew a picture to help you solve the problem, great job choosing a strategy. Let's double check your addition in the tens place...") . 4) You wrap up the lesson by clearing up misconceptions, going over answers from independent work, and perhaps informally assessing students through say an exit ticket or cold calling with popsicle sticks. In sum, you go from "me" to "we" to "you." So I thought, why couldn't this process be used for teaching student-led discussion? Using the idea of gradual release, I broke down teaching student-led discussion into the six steps below: The outline above involves starting in baby steps. First, introduce students to discussion stems. It is best to only start with a few at a time as well as to choose more concrete stems to begin with like, "I have a question..." or "I agree/disagree with..." first. These stems give students the language they need to jump into the discussion both in the format of asking a question as well as replying with a comment or relevant thought. I have designed 16 meaningful discussion stem posters for students to refer to. The posters come in three different sizes, one perfect for hanging up on your classroom walls, one perfect to put on a ring and use for a small group, and one perfect for students to use as their individual resource. Second, have students begin with less-academic, more fun topics vs. essential questions that require critical thinking. The goal here is that students can initially focus mostly on their communication skills vs. having to delve into deep thinking. Of course, once students have had ample practice learning the process of student-led discussion, then by all means dive head first into critical thinking guided by your academic units! For teaching student-led discussion with juicy yet "easy" topics that hook students' interest, I created 20 discussion starters to use. Third, give students time to write down their thinking and plan out what they are going to say about the topic rather than making them think and speak on the spot. I created some planning templates that can be used for any topic or essential question so that they can be used for meaty academic topics too. (P.S. They are editable so that I can type in my topic or essential question and make as many copies as I need!! Whoopee!!) Fourth, set clear expectations before you start the student-led discussion such as what respectful listening looks like. Teach, model, and have students model these expectations so that you are setting students up for success. Fifth, give students a goal as to how many times to speak and over time, increase it. For example, for the very first practice, you might say something like, "Today, everyone needs to speak at least one time. You may participate by asking a question, making a comment, or responding to someone else's comment. If you want to participate more than one time in the discussion, you may." Here's a rubric that can help students self-monitor and self-evaluate their communication skills. Sixth, the very first time students practice student-led discussion, participate as the teacher as needed, calling on students who may need some encouragement. Over time, you will participate less and less until not at all! I made some recording sheets as an assessment tool to give students feedback, celebrate sutdents' successes, and support students in making growth in their communication skills. They come in different forms where I can record specific discussion stems students used or just in general whether students asked a question or made a comment. I also made them different sizes--one for whole class, one for small group. (PPS These are editable too so that student names can be typed directly on the sheet!) The key to this whole process is baby steps. You want students to feel safe, encouraged, and confident, and the way to do this is to give students the tools they need up front and then release them slowly towards independence. To see this "How to Teach Meaningful Student-Led Discussion Pack" in detail, click on the image below! With the resources in this pack, your students certainly will not suffer from glossophobia as you create a safe and welcoming environment where students lead the discussion as your norm. Now as calming other fears like spiders... Good luck! :)