This page comes with lots of language games & ideas for making the french class a more enjoyable experience. These games are great to liven up the Irish class too!

Bingo
An ideal way to reinforce children's knowledge of French numbers is to play Bingo. Instead of calling out the numbers in English, the teacher should say the numbers in French. The children will therefore have to translate the numbers to English and see if they have that number on their Bingo card

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Bingo with a twist

Each student has a piece of paper with an empty bingo grid. The teacher writes 20-25 words on the board. The students choose 9 words and write them on the grid. The teacher calls out words and the students check them off, once they have crossed off all their words they yell... BINGO!

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Ou est Frédéric?
This is an idea for getting children to talk simply to one another in French. You need a small soft toy. It should have a French name. (I've choosen Frédéric).Choose someone who will have to locate the toy and ask them to leave the room or cover their eyes while you give the toy to another child. They should hide the toy. The task is then for the child who left the room to find the toy. They can ask anyone but must say, "Bonjour, Je m'appelle (child's name), et Toi?
The child they have asked should respond with ,"Bonjour, Je m'appelle (their name)," or "Bonjour, Je m'appelle Frédéric," if they have Jaques. To make the task easier, inform the guesser which table the toy is on (or which part of the class the toy is in).
I find that 3 guesses is enough. If the toy isn't found, then a rousing chorus of 'Ou est Frédéric?' usually brings him out.

Click here for a list of French names.

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Connect 4

s	t	g	h	j	y	u	t
a	d	e	t	g	b	n	a
e	r	q	w	t	y	u	i
o	p	l	k	j	h	g	f
d	s	a	c	v	b	n	m
z	x	q	s	d	f	g	h
j	i	o	w	a	e	t	y
a	s	e	t	y	i	k	o

Children love this one. Draw a grid of letters on the board. Any letters. Split the class into two groups (a red team & a green team). A member from each group picks a letter and says "Je veux avoir 's'. Soleil commence avec 's'" or "Je veux avoir 'v'. Pain commence avec 'p" .The relevant letter is then ringed in the teams colour by the teacher. The object of the game is for each group to get 4 letters in a row. This game is great for reinforcing some vocabulary previously learned and also for re-inforcing the correvt pronunciation of the alphabet.

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Les Maths

Tables in french is great for re-inforcing numbers & it gets the children thinking in french. Start off by saying the sum & giving the answer e.g. "Deux plus cinc, ca fait sept." Some children will click on to what you're doing. For those who don't you can write the sum on the board. Start off with simple adding. When the class gets the hang of these you can move on to subtraction (moins), multiplication (par) and division (divisé par).

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Pictionary...
For introducing vocabulary, as well as the standard flashcards (some made by the children too), you can use a variation of pictionary.

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Guess Who?

Guess who? is a great game for teaching vocabulary about 'myself'. The children learn to ask questions such as Est ce que il/elle a les cheveux blonds?....Est ce que il/elle a les yeux bruns?....Est ce que il/elle port des lunnettes?

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Comment est ce qu'on m'appelle?

This game is similar to Guess Who. The children sit around a circle are each given a card with the name of a well known person on it. The card is stuck to their forehead so that each child cannot see his/her card. The object of the game is for each child to find out who he/she is. Each child gets to ask as many 'oui/non - questions' as he/she wants as long as the answers are 'oui'. As soon as he/she gets a 'non' it's the turn of the next child in the group.

This game could be linked to a lesson on famous french poeple.

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Circle Time

For this simple activity, the children all sit in a circle. Each child says something about themselves and then asks the person beside them a question. This child answers the question & asks the person beside them a question........

Je m'appelle Marie...Comment tu t'appelle?.....Je m'appelle Mark...J'ai onze ans...Quel âge as tu?.......................

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I Spy

Cherchez quelque chose de rouge, bleu, jaune etc….

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