French fall resources

I'm starting to (trying to!) wrap my head around the fact that it's almost fall - so it's time to start thinking about fall vocabulary! 

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Practicing telling/writing stories

We have worked really hard all year on creating sentences with lots of details. My kids are really comfortable now adding details to make longggggg sentences, with colours, numbers, sizes, etc.

Now we are shifting focus to more functional sentences! We are learning to tell short stories in French. We've been practicing together following a general format.

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What we've been working on in class...

It feels like time is just FLYING by! We are gearing up to write report cards next week, and life feels like a blur. I can't believe tomorrow is February 1st!!!!! 

Our school (like most schools, I'm sure) never seems to have any laminate. I always miss it when it's refilled! I've been using my winter sentence starters unlaminated (gasp!) and finally managed to get upstairs to use the last little bit that was left on the roll! 

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Fall sentence starters

We have been working hard on our fall vocabulary for a few weeks. It's so fun to hear them say the fall words with so much confidence now!

We practiced a venn diagram together as a class to compare "fall" and "winter" as part of our seasonal changes unit. Then my students tried it independently on mini whiteboards. They shared their ideas and sentences with a partner each time, before erasing and adding new ideas.

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Building sentences with new sentence starters

Happy Friday! 

I hope you survived a week of rain, wind, a full moon, and Halloween excitement! I've been struggling to get over my first cough/cold/etc of the season and I am definitely looking forward to sleeping this weekend. I am probably over-excited for that extra hour of sleep we get on Sunday! 

This week we practiced our verbs of the week and used them to focus on new sentence starters. I used to keep my sentence starters in a pocket chart, but now I keep them on my whiteboard so that we can build sentences with them. When we start a new set of vocabulary, I always copy a second set of flashcards and put them up on magnets so that my kids can grab them off the board if they need them during their writing. Having both of these on magnets means we can use them to practice making sentences! 

My students are really comfortable with "il y a" and "je vois", so we've moved on to "je mange", "je porte" and "j'aime". I've been reading the "C'est l'automne" book from my fall pack every day. I read a sentence and have them repeat it after me. It's a LOT of repetition, but it works :) As we talked in September about the importance of repetition, I haven't had any of them question it or complain about it. They actually get really excited once they know the book well! When they're really familiar with it, they like to show off and read it as a class without my help, while I just hold it up and turn the pages.

Building sentences - starters and word wall cards:

I normally keep my sentence starters off to the side of my whiteboard. As a class, we read each one together as we go through the list of starters we've learned so far. Then one student picks a starter for us and I slide it over. Then we go through the words that are part of our current word wall (it was classroom objects, now it's fall themed). I say each word and they repeat it after me (usually we use different silly voices too, to make it fun!). Then a student chooses a card to complete our sentence.

Sometimes we also use mini whiteboards at the same time, so they can write (or "dwrite" with words and pictures) it out and then "bump up" their sentences with colours and numbers. Then they read their sentence to a partner. 

I love having everything up on magnets. I can save time by not having to draw or write the parts of the sentence they choose! I get my magnets in sheets from Dollarama - they're awesome! You'll just need to practice some self restraint... I did NOT and now almost all my flashcards have magnets on them! 

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Q + A to start up conversations in FI

Part of our morning routine includes me trying to get my kids to talk in French as much as possible!!! 

I made these cards and we use them to learn questioning words (or review them in grade 2) and to practice giving answers in full sentences. 

I read each card to them and have them repeat it, and then pair them up to practice asking their partner. I let a few of them present, and then they get a new partner and repeat the activity. It gets them talking, and also helps them focus on listening to their partner and taking turns having a conversation. 

I focus on the same questions for a few weeks before switching them up. Right now we are practicing these: 

Oh how I wish my whiteboard was actually white...

With my grade 1s, the focus is on simple and complete sentences. 
With my grade 2s, the focus is on adding details (parce que, avec, etc.). 

With a split class, having activities that can work for both grades and easily be differentiated is CRUCIAL. This works well with both grades!

You could also use these with core French students! 

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En automne - grades 1 and 2

This week we practiced all our fall vocabulary! 

Grade 1:
Students drew all the fall vocabulary they have learned in the acorn template. They then practiced saying "je vois _______" with partners, using their drawings as a prompt. 

Grade 2:
Students did the same thing, but with higher expectations. Since they know "je vois" SO well from grade 1, we chose other sentence starters for them to use (il y a, je mange, je porte, etc). We talked about adding details (e.g. size, number, colour, shape) and extending their sentences (parce que, avec, etc). 

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Snowman sequence - getting my students talking!

Last week we worked on story telling. I put my students into groups of 4, and had them put 4 pictures into a sequence. They had to use the pictures to come up with a story. They could add details into the existing pictures, and draw new squares to add to the sequence as well. 

Each student was responsible for presenting one frame of the story to the class. It was good to see how the groups worked together (learning skills time!) and if they could work together to come up with a story that made sense. 

Some of the groups chose to also write their sentences down, while others just presenting using the pictures as prompts. 

This was really helpful as a formative assessment, as many of my students presented "je vois..." sentences. They got stuck on describing what was in each frame instead of telling a story. Time to really practice other sentence starters!!! 

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Getting my class talking about WINTER

I updated my cubes today to make them more specific to what we are talking about in class. Here are some of the sides: 

They are pretty simple sentence prompts for Grade 2, so the expectation for my class is that they "stretch" their sentences (add more details). The boys LOVE playing this as a centre... any excuse to throw something!! Of course, we went over "tossing"/what was ok to do in school vs. throwing the cube across the classroom. 

I bought my cubes at a teacher supply store, but I have since found the exact same ones online at amazon here. I love them! 

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Gros Grognon

This week we practiced retelling stories! We read the book "Gros grognon". It's a cute story about a bird who wakes up and he is too cranky to do ANYTHING but walk. As he walks, animals ask him what he is doing and decide to follow him. He ends up forgetting that he is angry and having fun with his friends! 

My class made great connections to the book. A lot of them could relate to waking up and feeling cranky! 

Excuse my lack of artistic skills!!! 

We decided on the beginning/middle/end parts of the story together: 

Then they went and drew the 3 parts of the story. When they were done, they came back to the carpet and practiced in partners. I had them use their drawings as a visual cue when they presented their retell to the class. 

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J’aime l’automne parce que…

We did this activity today as a way to practice making sentences with our fall words. As a class we decided that our goal would be 8 full sentences each. We also decided that they had to be entirely in French for it to count as a sentence. 

They were excited for the challenge!!! 

I like to have them quickly draw something because it's a visual prompt for them when they are sharing their work with a friend or with me. The more they draw, the more ideas they have for their sentences. 

Because we set a goal, most of them were able to hit 8 fully FRENCH sentences!

Here are some of the great drawings they did.. 

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L'automne - Show what you know!

We have been practicing our fall vocabulary for a few weeks with lots of different games. Today I had my classes show off what they know! 

Our activity was to pretend they were looking out of a window in the fall, and to draw everything they saw. 

When they were done they practiced their sentences by sharing their work with a friend. Then I met with them each 1 on 1, and they shared their work with me. I counted the number of sentences they were able to share in French, using their drawing as a visual prompt to help them. 

I was really happy with their sentences!! 

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La communication orale

Our main goal is to get our students TALKING in French. This is a game that we play in small groups...

I took a cube (from a teacher supply store) and put in different conversation starters for each side. The kids toss the cube, and say and sentence based on the side that lands face up. My boys love it because of the "throwing" element!

What games do you play with your kids to get them talking in French?

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