ideas for french homework

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser or activate Google Chrome Frame to improve your experience.

22 French Activities for Students of All Levels to Liven Up Your Lessons

Teaching French can be challenging—there’s no doubt about it.

Coming up with new activities, keeping students involved and finding new and interesting ways of integrating French into student activities can all be a challenge.

But have no fear—we’ve got your back. Check out this handy list to liven up your French language classroom, with activities that are creative, innovative and effective.

Read on to learn about 22 of my favorite classroom activities that your students will love.

1. Dictionary Quest

3. sentence create, 5. web quest: spend 500 euros, 6. french trivial pursuit, 7. acting the context, 8. french website, 9. competitive tongue twisters, 10. film study, 11. actor for a day.

• 12. Le Jeu de la Barrière (Barrier Game)

13. Match Sounds with Spelling

14. imitate that accent, 15. 3, 2, 1, action, 16. we wrote a song, 17. say it faster, 18. read my lips, 19. record yourself, 20. written dictation.

• 21. “À quoi je pense?”: 20 French Questions

22. Fly Swat

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

This simple but fun activity requires students to find out information for themselves and to pass it on to other students. It works by students teaching their peers, which is one of the most effective ways of reinforcing learning.

Here’s how to go about it:

• Student pairs use a dictionary to find the meaning of a series of words chosen by the teacher. The choice of words can be entirely random or deliberately weird , so you can have some real fun letting your imagination run wild. (Here’s another post to explore for some zany French words .) Put the list of words on the board and turn it into a race.
• Challenge the students to find three other words of their own choice and share and explain the meaning to another pair of students. Giving students the opportunity to explore language looking for words they like is a wonderful way to engage them—it becomes a veritable treasure hunt. The super big bonus is that students reinforce their new vocabulary when they share their words with friends.

This is a great speaking activity. Students love it because it gives them the opportunity to talk about others and themselves. You need to ensure that students ask extended questions and give extended responses.

Here’s how it works:

• Divide the class into three or more groups. Each group is assigned a station where they will find a card with a series of questions.
• Each group is given five minutes to think of their answers (full French sentences) to those questions and practice them.
• All the groups move around to the next station and repeat the process.
• The groups mingle and take turns asking and answering the questions.

The result is a lot of French conversation.

Here are some example questions. This is just one possible topic—the model is infinitely adaptable.

Tu t’entends bien avec ton père?   (Do you get along well with your father?)

Tu t’entends bien avec ta mère? (Do you get along well with your mother?)

Tu t’entends bien avec ton frère?  (Do you get along well with your brother?)

Tu t’entends bien avec ta soeur? (Do you get along well with your sister?)

Décris ton père. (Describe your father.)

Décris ta mère. (Describe your mother.)

Décris ton frère. (Describe your brother.)

Décris ta soeur. (Describe your sister.)

Qu’est-ce que tu aimes faire avec ton père? (What do you like doing with your father?)

Qu’est-ce que tu aimes faire avec ta mère? (What do you like doing with your mother?)

Qu’est-ce que tu aimes faire avec ton frère? (What do you like doing with your brother?)

Qu’est-ce que tu aimes faire avec ta sœur? (What do you like doing with your sister?)

It is best to use this activity or these examples after you have taught the language needed to respond with more than a simple yes/no. The students need to give reasons and details for it to work.

For example, the response to “ Tu t’entends bien avec ton frère?” might be “Non, parce qu’il est gâté et égoïste.” (No, because he is spoiled and selfish.)

This activity can turn into a great competition and it really reinforces students’ knowledge of French syntax. It has the added advantage of being really simple to set up.

• Divide the class into pairs, and give each pair a group of ten or more French words that can be formed into multiple sentences. Obviously, you need to choose the words carefully and do the activity yourself so that you know that complete sentences are possible. Here’s an example: “Dans ma chambre il y a une télévision et un ordinateur et j’ai un chat gris avec les yeux grands.” (In my bedroom there’s a television and a computer and I have a gray cat with big eyes.)
• Each pair must create as many sentences from that selection as possible.
• Points are awarded for each correct sentence and points are deducted for grammar errors.

One great feature of this learning activity is that students must discuss spelling, word order and other aspects of grammar . Once more, students are teaching each other—one of the most important qualities for learning activities.

This is a great way to get students to collaborate with each other in the learning process. You can use this highly adaptable learning activity to help students teach themselves about a huge range of topics from intricate grammar points to understanding complex texts, and you can vary the amounts of French used according to the level of your class.

In this example, the students will be learning about how to create  French accents on a computer.

• Choose a text that explains how to change your keyboard language. ( This site has a very clear explanation.) Print it on a solid card.
• Cut up your chosen text just like the pieces of a puzzle so that all the sentences are jumbled.
• Repeat the above two steps for the text that explains how to recreate the actual accents. ( Here is a great explanation.) Print on a solid card and cut it up.
• Divide your class into groups, and assign a topic to each group. It’s a good idea to have two or more groups doing each topic.
• Each group has a set time to put the pieces of their puzzle together. It’s a good idea to make this phase of the activity competitive—it adds some fun. The very process of reassembling the text requires the students to engage with and understand the text.
• Each group then discusses their particular topic (within their group only—to make sure they understand it) and makes notes or copies the text into their notebooks.
• Each member of each group then teams up with a member of a different group and they teach the other what they have learned, e.g., a student who knows how to change the keyboard language teaches a student who knows how to do the accents.

Students need to talk to each other to fill in the gaps in their knowledge.

Once again, student-teaching-student is a really effective model. Most students (especially teenagers) will listen to each other more readily than to the teacher and the student passing on knowledge reinforces his/her own knowledge in the process.

For this activity, students are given a list of websites (in French) and an imaginary 500 euros to spend on a weekend in Paris.

Tell students that they need to research and get prices for:

• Transport to and from the airport and their hotel
• Their accommodations for the weekend
• Their activities

Students will need to budget carefully as Paris is expensive and 500 euros will not go a long way. Here are some useful pages from the RATP site to organize transport to and from the airport: Accéder aux aeroports   and  Visiter Paris .

Students can research their accommodation and sightseeing activities using  parisinfo.com  and tourisme.fr .

Here’s how the activity works:

• Students research the given sites and decide how they are going to spend their money.
• Students tell the class (in French) about how they spent their money, what they did and what they thought of it.

That’s right! Making your own version of Trivial Pursuit is a great way to boost participation in class while helping your students learn new things and test what they know—all in French!

First, start by creating (or buying) a French culture equivalent of the famous board game: Build your own board using cardboard and color crayons or paint. Don’t forget to buy game pieces, wedges and a die. You can find it all at your favorite arts and crafts store, or just use pieces from another game. You an also get the class involved, making the game together while speaking in French.

Then make the question cards. All cards should be in French and include questions from each of the six Trivial Pursuit categories, with answers on the back. All in French, of course—no translations allowed!

Remember how everything is color-coded:

• Bleu : Géographie  (Blue: Geography)
• Rose : Divertissements  (Pink: Entertainment)
• Jaune : Histoire  (Yellow: History)
• Violet : Arts et Littérature  (Purple: Arts and Literature)
• Vert : Sciences et Nature  (Green: Science and Nature)
• Orange : Sports et Loisirs  (Orange: Sports and Leisure)

Keep it as authentic as possible, or customize your own categories based on what your students have studied in class.

Some fun ideas for categories include:

• Chansons françaises  (French songs)  
• Gastronomie  (gastronomy)  
• XXème siècle  (20th century)  
• Présidents français  (French presidents)  

Make sure you have enough material to create a full category, and get creative when you create questions!

Next step: Find a French-culture-related prize to award to the winner or winning group. These could include a trip to a French bakery, picking the French movie of their choice for the class’ next movie session, etc. 

If you lack the time to create a full game, or if you just want to up class participation, you can let your students contribute their own question cards. Or you can just take the easy road and buy French editions .

Oh, but let’s not forget that you can also access the online version —just download it and start playing, using the classroom projector.

This is a great activity for students as it allows them to express their creativity and find different ways to communicate their thoughts in French.

Here’s how it works:

• First, prepare the activity. Write a few topics on pieces of paper. Great topics can include French movie names, or famous French figures, such as Balzac, Victor Hugo or Emmanuel Macron. Fold them, and place them in an urn.
• Invite one or more students, if they’re playing as a group, to the center of the classroom. Then, present them with the urn and ask them to pick one piece of paper. They should read it and optionally discuss it together for a few seconds, but not share it with their classmates: Then, they should act it out!
• Students have one minute to make others guess the word by improvising a mini-play about the word in question. If they fail to make their classmates guess the word, they incur a penalty. Whoever guesses the greatest number of words wins!

Put students in groups of three or four. The assignment is fairly simple but still challenging: Students will have to imagine the company of their dreams, then create a website describing the company’s mission statement, team, product or service description and contact info… all in French! No English allowed.

The company can be anything: a consulting company, a restaurant, a media firm—you name it. Whatever inspires them!

They should focus on both the writing and the website creation portion. Google offers templates, and  the process is fairly easy .

This activity is great not only for helping your students perfect their French writing skills, but also allowing them to build a portfolio in French!

This is one of our favorite ways to practice French pronunciation while having fun! Tongue twisters are entertaining, utilize words that most French learners don’t always think of using in a playful manner, and can be the fun challenge your students have been looking for.

The activity is fairly simple: How fast and easily can your students say…

Ton thé t’a-t-il ôté ta toux ?  (Did your tea remove your cough?)

Le ver vert va vers le verre vert.  (The green worm goes toward the green glass.)

Make it fun by gamifying the exercise: Students earn 50 points if they manage to say the sentences correctly and quickly, and incur a penalty if they fail (have to say the tongue twister on one foot, while dancing, while acting, etc.).

Keep track of their scores on the board. Students have the option to buy immunity badges (200 points) and penalties that they can activate on other students (asking them to say three tongue twisters of their choice in a row, to repeat the same tongue twister five times, etc). Each penalty is worth 150 points.

Whoever gets the most points wins!

French movie lovers, unite! This activity is always a hit with students for all the right reasons: movies are as entertaining as they are educational and cultural.

Film study is a great way to bring the classroom together and show your students how they can maximize their French skills by changing the way they watch movies in French.

Start by picking popular films or TV series according to students’ interests and age range. There are numerous movies that are just perfect for your French students:

• “La Marche de l’Empereur”   and  “L’arnacoeur”  are great for beginners to intermediate learners.
• “Les Visiteurs”   and   “La Grande Vadrouille,”  which include cultural elements and plays on words, may be better for your more advanced students.

Depending on the type of streaming or viewing service you are using, if any, you may have the option to play movies with or without French subtitles. You can either add them right away, or play a scene without them, and then replay the scene and add them.

Adding subtitles immediately will enable your students to follow the progression of the movie and hopefully only read them if they need. Adding them only for a replay will test them more and require their full attention, but may break the flow.

What you should definitely do, however, is build a discussion around the movie you’ve watched in class by doing at least one of the following:

• Study symbolism in the movie.
• Discuss the storyline and the acting.
• Comment on the costume and settings.
• Imagine what could have happened before the story or what happens next.

This activity can lead to student assignments: Create groups and let students come up with a unique presentation about the movie. Some great topics can be “Love in X,” “Y’s movies,” “Movement in French cinema,” “Why Z is such an iconic movie,” etc.

Presentations are a great way to test your students’ oral skills but also to understand what they really got out of the film. They should be organized and prove a point, but the idea is to let the presenters express themselves!

Such mini exposés should last approximately 10 minutes, with a 5-minute Q&A session with the rest of the class to follow.

Acting is the perfect exercise if you’re trying to help your students come out of their shells. It helps build confidence and the ability to speak in public. It also helps them explore different ranges of emotions—all in a different language!

For this activity, let students make their own French movie.

This is a great long-term assignment that can both fill class time and be done as ongoing homework. Students can create their own videos and edit them. A 15-minute movie is ideal: It’s long enough to enable them to develop a story, but short enough that it doesn’t require too much time commitment on their part.

• Students should work in groups of four or five and the entire exercise should take between three to five weeks. They will create their own storyline, write a script, learn it and act it! They should also create a poster for their film.
• Everyone should have a part, even if it’s minor. If a student just has small parts to say, that’s fine as long as they’ve still contributed significantly to the writing. Contributions to the project should be equal if possible.
• You have the option to turn these “movies” into plays if your school or your students don’t have a camera. 

Some great topics could include “French chef at work,” “A mad scientist’s first date,” “Meet the parents” or “Running for president.”

To make sure that all students have a solid understanding of how to write a script, devote a full lesson to script writing.

In this session, you should go over with your class the basic elements that make for a good script (taking 20 to 30 minutes): It all starts with standard storytelling elements. The groups should spend some time thinking about the following:

• Finding a title.
• Setting a date/location for the story.
• Envisioning and developing the characters (names, looks, personality traits, goals, fears, challenges, etc.).
• Clarifying the premise. (What is the story about? What’s at stake?)

Then, they should proceed to draft a story outline. Generally, multiple drafts are necessary and will require some back-and-forth between the team members before they actually proceed to write the script.

Students should treat this activity as a group homework assignment: It’s up to them to organize regular meetings to meet and make sure that the script progresses.

12.  Le Jeu de la Barrière  (Barrier Game)

This is a great game to develop listening and speaking skills. It tests your students’ comprehension and communication ability.

Put students in pairs. One student will give instructions in French, and their partner will receive directions. Place their desks next to or in front of one another, and separate them by some kind of barrier, such as a large book, a piece of cardboard or a box lid. They need to be able to hear (but not see) each other.

Then, give the students who will give instructions a hat that contains various drawings, simple maps or pictures, or even small objects.

Make sure the pictures are not too complex and easy to reproduce. Great examples include a house with a chimney on the right-hand side, two windows, etc., five stars circling a square, a simple, hand-drawn map of city hall, a school, a restaurant, etc.

As your students give their description to their partners, they will listen to the instructions and try to reproduce the picture exactly from spoken directions alone. Then, they will exchange pictures and see how close they are to the original. Your students should take turns: Whoever gave instructions now should receive them and vice-versa.

This activity sounds easy, but can be very trying for those who have never played the game. Students generally get better and better with practice, which is why they also tend to really love it.

This is a fun activity that teaches your students proper French pronunciation rules.

The game is simple. Ahead of time, create two stacks of cards, one featuring  sounds  and another with actual  words  fully written out.

For the  sound  pile, write down sounds the way that you teach them in regular settings. Some teachers use phonetics (writing down the symbol “ɔ̃” to refer to the French sound “ on ” on the sound cards), but others might prefer to stick to the sounds in French (writing “ on ” instead of the symbol “ɔ̃”).

Matching word cards for “ on ” could be  c on fiture  (jam),  b on b on  (candy) or  jamb on  (ham). Use a magnet board and place the sound cards all over it.

Then, divide students into two teams, forming lines, place the word cards in a box between them. One student from each group will randomly pick a word card and rush to the board to match it with its sound.

If the match is correct, they can rush back to their team and let the next student continue. The game is over when no more word cards are left. The team who has identified the most matches correctly wins!

This is a fun game based on listening and mimicking. It uses accent because unusual French accents captivate students easily.

To get started, find French accent recordings online. The  AccentsdeFrance  website features an extensive collection of taped accents from various French regions available for free download. As a bonus, the site also conveniently lists idiomatic expressions and words that are used in a given region to give your lessons more substance and color.

Play the recording once so everyone can hear the accent, then ask a random student to repeat it. Let the rest of the class judge if the sounds are similar, and give your final verdict on which sounds are correct and the ones that were most difficult. Then, let everyone repeat it and proceed to another accent until every student has participated.

This is a cool memorization game that uses dramatization to engage your students’ pronunciation skills.

To play the game, start by selecting French movie clips, preferably with dubbing for younger or beginner students and without for your most advanced learners. Ask students to focus on enunciation and not to rush through their dialogue.

The goal here is for them to really sound just like the character they’ll be playing, accent included! Make it no more than two minutes per recording so students can alternate playing specific parts.  Check out this collection of exciting French movies  to find the perfect movie clips for this activity.

Then, let students take the stage!

• Pair students into two or more groups (depending on the clips you’ve chosen), and let them hear the recording twice.
• Then, mute the sound and let them act the part in front of the class! If you have a class with more timid students (or you’re short on time), let them perform in front of small groups.
• Then ask students to pick their favorite performance and reward the winners with a small gift, such as delicious French cookies or a French magazine!

This is a thrilling collaborative lyric writing game where a group of students sings together and teaches each other how to perfect the song’s pronunciation—including rhythm, cadence and accent.

The game is a lot of fun. Here’s how it works:

• Students work in teams of three or four and  pick a song they all enjoy .
• Then, let the rest of the class work together to re-write the lyrics in French and to practice it. That means singing!
• Ask one student per group to be the “Pronunciation Maestro.” They’ll be responsible for listening to the sounds of each student and making sure that they’re using the correct French pronunciation and enunciation.

In another session, each group will sing their song out loud and teach it to the class. Students then vote for their favorite.

This is an exciting game to practice difficult pronunciation and, most importantly, enunciation!

The point of the game is simple: to say difficult sentences faster and faster, without error. That means nothing if students don’t properly enunciate and agglutinate sounds together! Write down various sentences (or have students write down sentences) on small pieces of paper and place them in a box.

To start, gather your students in a large circle and ask for a volunteer. That student will randomly pick one piece of paper from the box and read his sentence out loud as fast as he can.

The student next to him clockwise will now have to say the sentence, and so on, until every student has said it or until one student stumbles. This student will receive a penalty, chosen by other students, and will be the first one to pick the next piece of paper to start the next round!

This activity uses absolutely no speaking to focus on enunciation and the discovery of sounds. This forces students to be more focused on the sounds and movements of the whole mouth during conversations.

• Write down short questions and sentences on pieces of paper. 
• Pair students together. One student will take a question and mimic it with his mouth, but not actually say it out loud.
• The other student needs to repeat it out loud as well as answer the question.
• If the student guesses right the first time, his team gets 10 points.

The rest of the points are awarded as follow: 5 points if he gets it right the 2nd time, 2 points on the 3rd attempt and 1 point on the 4th attempt. However, the pair must not proceed to another question until the other student has guessed correctly. The team with the most points in 15 minutes wins.

This challenging mirroring exercise helps your students gain awareness of their own pronunciation mistakes while allowing them to express themselves.

The idea is to record them during their oral presentations and let one of their peers give a “diagnosis” of what the student needs to do to improve their pronunciation skills.

• Ask students to first choose a trusted friend as their partner for this exercise—this will allow shy students to be more comfortable with the feedback they receive.
• This friend will then watch the video (at home or in your school’s multimedia room) and write down specific and general observations along with concrete recommendations, tips and exercises to help the other student with their pronunciation.

“Written dictation” does not sound like fun, but played this way it’s a winner and your students will have a ball.

• Place several copies of French text appropriate to the students’ level around the classroom. To be effective, the text needs to be at least 8-10 lines long so that students cannot memorize it all in one go.
• Each team has one or two runners, a scribe and a checker (to check for errors).
• At the bell, the runner(s) goes to one of the copies of text, memorizes as much as they can and returns to repeat it (verbally, in French) to the scribe.
• The scribe then writes it down while the runner returns and memorizes the next section of text.
• The checker is allowed to point out mistakes (in French, “ Il y a une erreur là ”) in the scribe’s writing. After some time, change places so that everyone has a turn at memorizing, speaking and writing French.

Deduct points for errors and the team with the most points wins.

21. “ À quoi je pense?”:  20 French Questions

One student in the hot seat thinks of an object or person, and the class then has to guess who or what it is by asking questions. The answers may only be “ oui ” or “ non. ” If the class cannot work out the object/person, then the same student has another turn.

Prepare the kinds of questions (in French) students will need to ask and display them on posters around the room. You now have a permanent resource, a rich source of language and fun that you can use with all age levels.

Examples will include  phrases in French  such as:

• Est-ce que c’est un animal ?  (Is it an animal?)
• Est-ce que c’est une personne ?   (Is it an person?)
• Est-ce que c’est un homme ?   (Is it a man?)
• Est-ce que c’est une femme ?  (Is it a woman?)
• Est-ce que c’est dans la classe ?   (Is it in the class?)
• Est-ce que c’est un(e) athlète ?   (Is it a sports person?)
• Est-ce que c’est une personne du passé ?   (Is it a person from the past?)
• Est-ce que c’est une personne  vivante  ?   (Is it a living person?)

This is a really fun—be warned—sometimes riotous game for those really difficult days such as the last period before  the summer holidays . With some thought, this game can also have a great educational purpose.

• Write or ask a student to write some French words or numbers on the board, at least 15.
• A volunteer student reads out a clue or partial sentence in French, e.g.,  “2+6-5=…” or “ il fait  …” with the blank matching one of the words or numbers on the board.
• One member from each team races to the board and attempts to slap the correct answer, e.g.,“3” or “ beau ” with their flyswatters.

Points are awarded for correct answers.

The student reading out the clues practices reading French and pronunciation, while the other students practice listening and reading—a win-win for teacher and students.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading these fun, creative and effective French classroom activities and games.

They’re guaranteed to get students into the mode of active learning, which help keep them on the right track in their language learning.

Good luck and good teaching!

Enter your e-mail address to get your free PDF!

We hate SPAM and promise to keep your email address safe

• Free Resources
• Shop Lesson Plans
• Private Tutoring
• French Lesson Plans
• Spanish Lesson Plans
• Culture and Holidays
• Games and Activities
• Teaching Tips
• Vocab and Grammar

25 French Writing Activities, French Writing Projects

In this series on teaching French writing activities, we’ve already discussed using templates to model good writing , as well as the importance of French transition words to decrease choppiness .  This post will continue the writing discussion with 25 ideas for great French writing projects and French writing activities to use all year long for your middle school and high school students.

Without further ado, here are some ideas:

French Writing Activities (Level 1)

For level 1, I focus primarily on speaking and communication skills for at least the first half of the year before adding in a whole lot of writing.  Sentences or short paragraphs are fine, but avoid long compositions until they are more confident and competent with their communication skills.

That said, here are a few shorter projects:

Postcard project (Level 1) 

Students pretend they are on vacation in a Francophone country.  Pass out an index card and have students draw/print and paste photos of the scenery on one side and describe their vacation on the other.

Teach them a little bit of passé composé to help them talk about where they went and what they saw.  (Je suis allé . . ., Nous sommes allés, J’ai vu, Nous avons vu, C’était amusant, intéressant, un voyage fantastique).  Don’t teach them the whole verb conjugation – only teach that “Je suis allé/e” means “I went”, “Nous sommes allés” means we went, “J’ai vu” means “I saw”, “Nous avons vu” means “We saw” and “C’était” means “It was “.  Ex.  I’m in Switzerland.  There are so many beautiful mountains hers.  The weather is cold and today it’s snowing.  Yesterday we went to the Alps to go skiing.  Etc.

Social Media Profile

Have students write their own Facebook profile or other social media profile.  They can answer questions such as:  Where do you live, what do you like to do, what is your profession, etc.

Secret Valentines

Select another student’s name for each student (boys to boys, girls to boys, girls to girls) and have them write super cheesy valentines to their secret valentine.  Tell them that the whole point is to write the cheesiest valentine.  Students give you the valentines when they are done and you pass them out.  They try to guess who their secret valentine is.

Grab your free list of Valentine’s vocab in the Free Resource Library .

All about Me Writing Project

This one is great for an end-of-year project.  Students describe themselves, their families, their likes and dislikes, etc.  Get this free template in the Free Resource Library .

All about Me French Writing Project

French Writing Activities (Level 2)  

Instagram posts.

Students take photos and write Instagram posts describing what they did over the summer, winter break, spring break, etc.

Personal Narrative

All about Me Project (with or without the template).  See above.

Describe a Typical Day  

Students describe their daily routine (great for reflexive verbs and time).  If you want to add an extra fun element to this, offer extra credit if they act their days out in front of the class as funny people.  Student A is behind Student B and is the arms and does all the actions while Student A talks.  This is really funny as they try to brush teeth, hair, etc.  Students love this activity.

Collage People

Students cut out pictures of different activities and paste them (or they can draw them) onto an outline of a person.  They then write about the person that they have created, describing their likes and dislikes.

French Photo Collage

Commands Projects

How to project .

Write instructions explaining how to make or do something (could be a recipe or a simple craft).

Create a Pamphlet 

Make a pamphlet or brochure for a gym/weight loss program.

Passé Composé Projects

One crazy family.

Write about a crazy family and all the crazy things that they did all week long.  Have them act out the actions in front of the class with props.

Ex.  The Cartier family is really crazy.  On Tuesday, Marta ate worms and crickets for dinner.  On Friday night, Louise and Rose rode elephants and parked them in the supermarket parking lot.  What a mess!

Postcard project  (Level 2)

Students pretend they are on vacation in a Francophone country.  Pass out an index card and have students draw/print and paste photos of the scenery on one side and describe their vacation on the other.  Can be used with just passé composé or passé composé and imparfait.

25 French Writing Activities

Imperfect Projects

Your life as a kid.

Write about what your life was like when you were a kid.  Students leave the name off and attach a photo from when they were little.  Post them around the class with a number next to each essay.  Students try to guess who each person is.

Famous Person’s Life 

Write about the life of a famous person.

Penpal Letters

Connect with another class in a Francophone country and have your students correspond with other students throughout the year.  Collect the letter and mail them in one big envelope to save on postage (or even better, correspond via email).

Letter for Next Year

Write a letter to next year’s students telling them about your teacher and what they should expect from French class.

French 3, 4, 5 Writing Activities

Passé composé vs. imparfait projects, class story.

Write a class story.  Begin with a starter sentence like:  It was a dark and stormy night.  Students in class take turns adding on sentences.  To get more touches with the language, divide the class into groups and let them brainstorm their own stories and then write on the board as they go.  Share and correct the stories as a class afterward.

Life in the Past

Compare and contrast life today with life 50 years ago.

Photo Prompt

Use a funny photo as a writing prompt.  Ex. What happened to cause this event?

Photo Writing

Show a picture with lots of things happening in it.  Have students write as much as they can about the picture for 2-5 minutes.

Describe the Scene in French

Retell a Fairy Tale

Students write out a traditional fairy tale but change some of the details to give it a funny twist.

Change the Ending

Write the ending to a story that the class is reading before you read it.

Famous People 

Students research a famous Francophone and write a resume based on that person’s life.  I like to have them add an audio-visual element to the presentation (showcasing their art, music, etc.).

Movie/Book Review

Students write a review critiquing a movie or book.

Students write a blog post about a topic of their choosing:  exercise, sports, fashion, healthy eating, etc.  Have them use info. that you are studying (specific verb tenses or grammar points, transition words ) in their posts.

Journal Writing

Have students write once a week in Spanish journals (either in class or at home).  Be sure to tell them not to write stuff that is super personal because you will be reading it.

Journal Writing with Prompts 

Give students a new prompt for each writing session.  Base the prompts on the season or specific grammar points that you’re studying.  Ex.  (For Halloween)  Describe the best Halloween costume that you ever wore.  Ex. (For imperfect subjunctive)  If you could change one thing about your school, what would it be?

Controversial Opinion Piece

Students present one side of a debate for a controversial topic.  As the teacher, you may wish to select certain topics to choose from or you may decide to give students permission to choose (just have them check with you first before they start to write).

Future Plans 

Describe what your life will be like in 10, 20, or 30 years.

Conditional

Have students answer any of the following writing prompts:  1.  What would you do if you won $1,000,000?  2.  What changes would you make if you were the principal of your school?  3.  If you could have any special power, what would it be and why?

End of Year Projects for Upper-Level Students

French Fairy Tales :  Students write and illustrate fairy tales using complex verb tenses and transition words.  Give them a specific amount of transition words to use (10-15), and specific verbs (must use at least 3 conditional, 5 preterite, 5 imperfect, 3 subjunctive, etc.).  Get the instructions, rubrics, and samples to show your students here .

Write a Chapter:   Write an additional chapter from a book that you’ve read this year.  Include elements in the style of that particular author.  My favorite book is “Le Petit Nico” .  In each chapter, Nico gets into some sort of problem but manages to find a way out of it.  This also works well for “Le Petit Prince”.

Le Petit Nicolas

Hope you found these ideas helpful and inspiring!  Have a great writing project that we should all know about – let me know in the comments so I can add it to this post.

Want more?  Check out the other posts in this series about writing:    Teaching French Writing Using Templates and How to Use French Transition Words to Improve Student Writing .

Happy Teaching! ~Sherry

You Might Also Like

Connect with Me on Social Media

French Lesson Plans for the Whole Year!

French Transition Words to Improve Writing

No comments, leave a reply cancel reply.

Welcome to our collection of resources for learning French online!

We have more than 15 resources and apps for learning French. These resources were created for students and French teachers. Some of these resources will be useful for native French speakers (for example the "Convert to Unicode"). All of these apps and resources will work with most modern browsers.

Our French apps and resources range from very simple apps (such as the "Alphabetize" or "Word Count" apps) to amazing worksheet or wordsearch generators which are all completely customizable. All these resources are super user friendly and offer a large input range. Give them a go!

Alphabetize French Text   With this resource you can automatically sort words horizontally, vertically and alphabetically or reverse alphabetically. This resource will keep the same format for your whole document.

French Word Search Creator   Create French wordsearches with this worksheet generator with a separate answer key provided for teachers and customizable fonts and sizes.

Convert French Text into Uppercase, Lowercase, and Sentence Case   Convert any French text into UPPER CASE, lower case, Or Sentence Case, etc. 

Convert French TXT Files From Uppercase To Lowercase   Convert the contents of any French .TXT file into UPPER CASE, lower case, Or Sentence Case, etc. 

Convert French Srt Files From Uppercase To Lowercase   Upload your French .SRT subtitle file and convert it to UPPER CASE, lower case, Or Sentence Case, etc.

Count French Characters And Words   A perfect app for writers, students and anyone who wants to know the stats of their text. This app counts the words and letters in your text.

French Font As Image   Turn any French text into an image for social media or your web signature with this resource. All with a range of fonts, sizes and colors available.

Change French Text Orientation   This resource lets you change the orientation of your French text. You can make your text read left-to-right, right-to-left and top-to-bottom.

Convert French Text Into Unicode   This resource lets you convert French text to Unicode. This will allow accents such as é, è and ç to be expressed online regardless of whether or not a browser has a French keyboard installed. You can also use this resource to convert Unicode back into French.

French Worksheet Generators

We have a number of worksheet generators for teachers to create fun ways to teach French. These worksheets are all completely customizable and many of them provide optional answer sheets for teachers. These worksheets can be used many different situations to test grammar, vocabulary and comprehension. They can be set as homework, for used to play word games in class.

French Sentence Fill In The Gap    Remove words from French text and sentences for students to fill with the correct answer. Select multiple words you want to remove from the text which will appear in a separate box for students to select.

French Sentences Create Blank Spaces   This worksheet allows teachers to create blank spaces in French texts and sentences for students to fill in with their own answers. Select the word you want to leave blank and that word will appear in brackets at the end of the sentence, for example "J'aime jouer à ____ (sport)". This resource is very versatile as there are no fixed answers.

French Words Scramble   This is a great resource for testing a French learner's vocabulary and spelling. Enter your words and each individual word will be scrambled. Sentences will remain in the same order but students must unscramble the word and provide the correct spelling.

Jumble Up French Sentences   This resource is great for checking a student's knowledge of sentence structure and grammar rules. Write out a sentence and this generator will jumble up the words randomly. You can also choose to keep the French text in sentence case or entirely lower case.

Create French Number Bingo Sheets   Turn practicing French numbers into a fun game with these bingo sheets. Both of these bingo worksheets will also promote listening skills. With this worksheet generator you can choose which numbers will appear.   

Create French Random Number Bingo Sheets   This worksheet generator works exactly as the previous resource, but here you can choose the range in which you'd like randomized numbers to appear. Whether its un to vingt, or cent to deux mille and beyond.

Learning French can be tricky seem first. With its gendered nouns, conjugated verbs, silent letters and the complicated number system there is a lot for learners of the language of Voltaire and Victor Hugo to master. But whether you're looking to learn or to teach French, we have loads of resources to make sure its never been easier! All completely customizable and compatible with all modern browsers, these resources help teachers and learners of all levels and abilities. Give them a try and see how much fun you can have!

© 2012-2021 Shudian Ltd.| Privacy Policy & Terms of Use | Contact us

10 Fun French Class Activities - No Prep Warm-ups for the French language Classroom

No warm-up? Lesson needs some “umph”? Or maybe you just need to kill some time? No worries, I’ve got you covered with these awesome French class activities!

These are my 10 most awesome NO PREP warm-ups that I rely on all the time! They have been used over and over with grades 8-12, university students, and adults too.

I love starting class with some kind of fun, interactive activity to get students into “French-mode”. They are pretty much always speaking-oriented and if I can get my students moving around the classroom talking to multiple people, even better!

Okay, now that I’m sure you are super excited for some warm-up activity awesomeness, let’s go! 😀

I’m going to start with one of my absolute favourite French class activities – what I like to call “ The Island of Obstacles “.

The name sounds complicated but it is super easy to organize and play. After the first time you use it, you will be able to throw it in without any effort at all. PLUS, it covers those two warm-up elements that I love: the speaking and the moving around!

WARM-UP #1:   ISLAND OF OBSTACLES

LENGTH : 15-20 minutes

OVERVIEW : You draw a fast map of an island on the board which contains a variety of obstacles. Before students know the point of the game, you tell them to choose only one object from either their bag or around the classroom (within reason, and it cannot be a cell phone). *Another option is to get them to draw an object on a piece of paper for more variety* . The students are then told that they have been shipwrecked on one side of the island and they need to work together as a team to make it to the rescue boat on the opposite side. At the end, they describe how they made it across using their objects and teamwork.

GRAMMAR : Multiple options (the easiest ones are the present and future tenses because they need to talk about their plans and solutions to the problems)

THE DETAILED VERSION

STEP 1: Create Interest, Draw the Map

The first part is creating interest in your class about what kind of activity is going to be happening.

As students are entering the classroom , I like to be quickly drawing the island. I always make sure to include at least 4-5 “difficulties” that the students will encounter on the island.

The students come in and ask questions about what I’m drawing, laugh at the poorly drawn animals, and try to figure out what the activity is. It sets up a great vibe for the beginning of class!

Options for obstacles:

– mountains to pass over / through

– a river to cross with no bridge

– a forest with hungry, wild animals

– cannibals who live on the island

– hungry sharks in the water between the island and the lifeboat

– a windstorm to endure

– whatever other creative things you come up with!

Here’s an example of a map that you could draw that has 1 – sharks, 2 – cannibals, 3 – river with alligators, and 4 – mountains to climb! (Don’t mind the terrible drawing)

STEP 2:  Students choose their items

Next, before telling the students what the activity is , ask them to choose ONE item from around the class or from their bags. It CANNOT be a cell phone (they will just try to call for help and skirt around the activity).

**Another variation is give them paper and they can draw one item of their choice. This is lots of fun and gives them more freedom to draw a completely random object!**

STEP 3:  Describe the Challenge

Tell students that they have been shipwrecked !!

They have made it alive off the boat but now they are stranded on the island. Their only hope is to work together in small teams to make it to the rescue ship on the other side.

Their task is to convince others why their item is useful and how it can benefit the team in their goal of getting to the rescue boat. Once the team is formed, they must be able to explain together how they are overcoming each of the obstacles.

**The rescue boat can only take groups of 3 people so students must work hard to sell the usefulness of their items!**

Make sure they know that:

– they cannot change their items

– groups are no more than 3 people

– cell phones cannot be used

– at the end of the activity they will be asked to describe how they made it to the rescue boat and how they will use their items

– they are not allowed to swim around the outside of the island to avoid the obstacles

– once you accept a group member you cannot swap them out, even if someone else has a more useful object

– the boat will not come to them if they wait

STEP 4:  Let them mingle!

At this stage, let them wander with their items! I give them approximately 10 minutes to talk to other students in the class (in French) and plead their case. I walk around and give suggestions / help with vocabulary and sentence building.

STEP 5:  The Wrap-up

When you see that most students have found a group, give a 1 minute warning and make sure they are thinking about how they will summarize their escape plan.

Once the minute is up, ask groups to share their items, how they used / will use them and what they did / will do to make it off the island.

I love the creativity that comes out during this portion. There are tons of hilarious ideas!

Once a few groups have shared their strategies, we proceed to the next part of the lesson.

WARM-UP #2:   THE DRAWING EXCHANGE

If you have been studying prepositions and your students could use a fun little refresher, this activity is great practice!

LENGTH :  10-15 minutes

OVERVIEW :  Students draw a simple picture (hidden from their partners) based on a theme that you provide and then explain to their partner how to draw the picture using prepositions of place + the necessary vocabulary.

GRAMMAR : For this one, students need to have some basic knowledge of prepositions and of whatever theme you choose.

STEP 1:  The Initial Drawing

Students are each given one piece of paper upon which they will draw their beautiful masterpieces !! (joking lol… basic pictures)

Make sure to give them a basic theme to follow so that they have an idea of what you want them to draw. A few easy themes are:

• things in the kitchen
• a scene of a classroom
• a zoo / farm
• places in the city
• things in the bedroom
• a scene at a party

Reassure them that it should be a fast, easy drawing so it doesn’t become too elaborate – there is always an artist who finds it difficult to do a less than perfect job!

STEP 2:  Find a partner and describe the drawing

After they have finished drawing their pictures, students choose partners and explain to the partner how to draw the beautiful designs they have made on their papers.

Make sure there is no looking! It is so much more fun if they can’t see the initial drawing and really have to listen to the description!

STEP 3:  The Reveal

After they are done describing / drawing the location of the objects, students show the papers to each other and they get to see how close they were!

WARM-UP #3: THE LAST LETTER RACE

LENGTH : 10-15 minutes

OVERVIEW : This game builds upon an English game that many of us know from when we were kids! Do you remember the countries / states game where you had to use the last letter of the previous word to start the next word ? This is like that… but French… and more general… and competitive! Woo! Students have 90 seconds to write down as many words as they can in a team and beat the other teams.

GRAMMAR : None necessary, just a fun vocabulary game!

STEP 1: The Board

Divide the board into 4 sections (for the 4 teams you will make – you can make less sections if you have a smaller class)

STEP 2: Student Teams

Divide your students into teams of 4-5 people and get them to line up one behind the other in front of their section of the board.

**You can do this multiple times so that the whole class gets involved or if you have a small class you might be able to just do multiple rounds with the same teams!

STEP 3: The Game

Give students the same starting word and get the first person in each line to write it down on the board.

All following words MUST start with the last letter of the previous word!

Tell them that they will have 90 seconds to get as many words on the board as they can and beat the other teams.

After a student writes a word, they must go to the back of the line and the next student moves up to write a word. Each student can only write one word at a time.

**I usually say that this can be ANY French word if the students are not very strong just so that they have fun and enjoy using French! If the students are more advanced, I give them themes (animals, things at school, household objects, sports, etc)

STEP 4: Set the Timer, Watch them go!

This is the fun part where they write and run as quickly as they can to get the most possible words on the board. After the 90 seconds are up, we see which team got the most words and usually a rematch is quickly demanded!

WARM-UP #4:  3 TRUTHS AND A LIE

OVERVIEW : Although this is one that gets mentioned a lot, I think it deserves to be put in here among my top contenders! For this activity, students write 3 true sentences about themselves and 1 lie . Next, in small groups they read the sentences and their classmates need to figure out which one the lie is!

GRAMMAR : None necessary! Basic sentence format is all they need.

STEP 1:  The Teacher Intro

I like to start off the class by writing my own example on the board. Students love trying to figure out which one is the lie and it gets them interested in the game from the beginning. PLUS, they have an example on the board that they can copy if they feel stuck!

STEP 2: The Student Task

Students each use a piece of paper to write their own 3 truths and a lie that they will be sharing with their small group.

Make sure that students try to make these sentences unique ! Perhaps something interesting that their classmates don’t know about them yet! This is a great chance to create some class camaraderie and give all your students the opportunity to share something awesome about themselves.

STEP 3: The Discussion

At the end of the task, I like to ask the class what they learned ! Did they find out something cool about one of their classmates? Something surprising?

*If you are strapped for time you could probably leave this part out, but I like to do it because it provides a bit of closure for the activity and students are happy to share all the fun things they learned about each other! It gives me a chance to learn more cool things about my class too!

WARM-UP #5:  PASS THE PENGUIN

Although this title gives the impression that there are lots of fun penguins in this game (which I totally wish there were), really that is just what I call it because we have a lot of penguin stuffies in our house that I use for it! You can use something else and make up your own fun name! 🙂

OVERVIEW : If you have ever played “Pass the Bomb”, this is quite similar! Students are given a theme and a variable time limit . When the timer (monitored by me) begins, the student who is holding the penguin says a word related to the theme and passes the penguin to the next person. This continues as quickly as possible until the timer goes off. At this point, the person still holding a penguin receives an “P”. The student with the least “P”s at the end of all the rounds (as many as you feel like doing!) is the winner!

GRAMMAR : None needed, just pick some themes with common vocabulary words so that they have lots to choose from!

STEP 1:  Penguin Distribution and Rules

Divide the class into small groups of 5-6 people and give each group 1 penguin . (You can really use anything that you have available to pass around – whatever’s convenient!)

I bring the penguins into class if I have planned ahead of time to do the game. I also keep a set of squishy balls in the classroom for these games as well in case of emergency!

STEP 2:  Game Play

Explain that the goal of the game is to NOT get stuck holding the penguin . Each student must say one word that relates to the given theme and pass the penguin quickly to the next person. When the timer goes off, the person with the penguin receives a “P”.

Set the timer on your phone (watch, computer, anything you have available) for a random time between 30 and 90 seconds.

After the timer is set and you are ready to press go, tell students the theme that they need to be saying the words for (if you tell them too early they start to make lists) .

*Make sure that they know NOT to repeat words that other students have said and that they must pass the penguin quickly to avoid being stuck with a “P”!

Do as many rounds as you like! (6-7 rounds is usually a good amount – students get warmed up without it dragging on for too long)

STEP 3:  Count the “P”s

After you have finished all the rounds, ask the students as a class how many “P”s they received. Usually, I start by asking about the highest possible number of “P”s and work my way up to the winner!

WARM-UP #6: 90 SECOND CONVO

LENGTH : 10 minutes

OVERVIEW : Students line up in two lines, directly opposite each other . I give them a topic that they are to talk about with their partner (the person opposite them) for a full 90 seconds . After that 90 seconds is up, the line moves down by 2 spots so that each person is lined up with a new partner . And the cycle continues! All you need to do is come up with a new talking point every 90 seconds, and there are endless things to talk about!

GRAMMAR : None needed! I try to use fun, relevant topics that students would be interested in talking about (eg. TikTok videos, the best thing to do in the summer, the worst homework I had this week, the best animal to have as a pet, etc)

STEP 1:  Line Up Time!

Ask the class to line up in two equal lines with students facing  each other. *If there is an uneven number, the group at the end can work in 3 or you can participate too! (Usually I prefer to walk around and make sure that everyone is on task and speaking in French)

STEP 2:  The Convos

In this second part, I announce the topic to the students and tell them that they have 90 seconds to talk and they have to keep going until it’s over!

**I emphasize the fact that it’s okay if they don’t know every word , the important thing is to try and carry on the conversation despite that and use the strategies that we have practiced in class to work around this.

After the 90 seconds is over, ask the class to shift down 2-3 places so that everyone has a new partner. Give them a new topic, and start the timer!

Repeat as many times as you like!

STEP 3: The Breakdown

After I have done 5-6 rounds of the game, I get the students to return to their seats and I ask what they learned from others in the class or any interesting conversation points that were shared.

We also talk about words that they had to work around and strategies that they used. This is a great chance to review communication strategies and to add some new vocabulary / phrases to the mix in a more informal way!

**If I have heard a particularly useful word or phrase (or common error!) that I think would benefit the whole class, I write it on the board and make sure to address it.

WARM-UP #7:  BIG WORD, LITTLE WORDS

OVERVIEW : Students work in groups to find as many small words as they can within a larger word that is written on the board.

GRAMMAR : None needed!

STEP 1: The Big Word

Choose a long French word (or it can be two words together if you like) and write it all in capital letters on the board.

*It doesn’t matter if the long word is one that they already know, it just needs to have a lot of common letters that they can use to make other words!

Some good words / combos are:

• mondialisation
• économie nationale
• dictionnaire (bilingue)
• présentations
• particulièrement
• départements
• traditionnellement
• continentale

STEP 2:  The Game

After you write the word on the board, divide the students  into small groups and tell them that they will have 2-3 minutes to find as many small words as they can within the big words.

*They can rearrange the letters as much as they want, but they can’t use the same letter twice (unless of course it is already there twice in the word).

At the end of the 2-3 minutes, see how many words each team has come up with!

I like to do 3 rounds of this and then add up the total score of each team at the end so we have a “final tally”, also creating a little more drama for the final round  🙂

HEUREUSEMENT, MALHEUREUSEMENT

LENGTH : 5-10 minutes

OVERVIEW : Students work in groups to make a complete story using sentences that start with either “heureusement” or “malheureusement”.

GRAMMAR : I do this with either the present tense (and the story is read as if it is happening in the moment), or with the passé composé/ imparfait (and the students have to write a story from the past).

STEP 1:  A New Beginning

Brainstorm an interesting beginning to a story with your students and write the situation on the board . My students have loved coming up with weird scenarios even without knowing the next part of the activity!

I usually give them two options of story starters at this point and the person who writes the first sentence can choose.

STEP 2: Story Writing

In this next part, I tell students that they are going to write a story about what happens next ! They can choose either of the story starters and continue from there.

The important parts are: 1) that they must alternate starting their sentences with “heureusement” and “malheureusement” and 2) the student writing the sentence should only be able to see the sentence immediately before their own, not the whole story (Example: Student #4 can see sentence #3 but not sentences #1 and #2) .

After a student has finished writing his/her sentence, they fold the paper down so that only the sentence they just wrote is showing.

In small groups of approximately 5-6 students, they make their stories and at the end, each group gets a turn to share what they have written!

I love this part because it’s so interesting to see the different directions that the stories take from the same starting point!

WARM UP #9:  VOCABULARY FACE-OFF

OVERVIEW : Students line up in two teams facing each other (only the front two students are looking at each other, everyone else is lined up behind them waiting for their turns).   The two students at the front “face off” to see who can say the  most words related to the topic without pausing. The winner stays at the front until they lose to a member of the opposing team. The loser goes to the back of the line (or off to the side) until the next round. The goal is to see which team is left standing!

GRAMMAR: No specific grammar necessary – just choose topics that students can easily come up with words for!

STEP 1:  Line ’em Up!

Divide students into two equal lines and arrange them so that two students are facing each other and the others behind them.

STEP 2:  Game Explanation

Explain to the students that they are having a “ vocabulary face-off ” with the other team. The goal is to be the team that still has members left.

Once the first two students are facing each other, tell them that they will alternate saying words related to the category until someone pauses for too long . At that point, the person who paused will go to the back of the line (or off to the side) until the next round.

You can choose how long you want to continue with a certain category. (If not many words have been used, I will keep the same one for a few different students and switch it up once it seems like they are starting to have trouble.)

Some good categories are:

• school subjects
• animals at the zoo
• modes of transportation
• feelings / emotions
• verbs that end in -er (or -ir / -re)

(You can make these harder if your students are more advanced!)

Continue going until one of the teams is out of players and you have a victor!

WARM UP #10:  AN INTERESTING FACT

LENGTH : 15 minutes

OVERVIEW : Students each write one interesting fact that no one knows about themselves on a small piece of paper and put it into a pile. Students are divided into four different groups (or more if your class is large) and work together to guess who wrote the interesting facts from the other groups . The group with the most correct answers wins!

GRAMMAR: Nothing in particular, though you can tailor this to your lesson. If you are working on past events, ask students to write an interesting past experience. If you are doing the present tense, ask students to write a fact about themselves, an activity that they enjoy, something they are afraid of, etc.

STEP 1: The Written Portion

Divide your class into groups of 5 (or 4 if you have a small class). This makes the guessing so much easier and it takes a lot less time!

Students each write one sentence about themselves (ideally something that people would not easily guess!) and put it into a pile. **Students from each group keep their pieces of paper in the same pile. Don’t mix the whole class into one.

STEP 2:  The Guessing Portion

After you have the 5 (or 4) separate piles of student responses, give the piles to other groups in the class. The groups will work together to decide who they think wrote each of the sentences. Make sure that they know which group the answers came from!

Usually I get the students to write who they think the answer is from directly on the papers so that they don’t forget and it’s easy to read at the end.

STEP 3:  The Finale

When groups have finished writing who they think the answers are from, groups take turns to read the sentences they were given and their guesses as to who wrote them .

They get to find out how many they got right and I write the number on the board.

I go through each of the 5 groups and the one with the highest number of correct answers wins! 😀

This is a really fun way to learn more about your class and get students communicating with and about each other in a positive way!

I hope this post has given you some ideas of fun things that you could incorporate into your classroom warm-up routine.

I would love to hear comments or other suggestions that you have for awesome warm-up activities!

Looking for more fun, French class activities? Check out my post on 10 Awesome Song Activities for the French Classroom !

1 thought on “10 Fun French Class Activities – No Prep Warm-ups for your French Classroom”

Pingback: How to Teach French Adjectives - The Happy Maple Language Co

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• May 3, 2021
• One Comment

English ESL Conversation Questions – Social Media

English esl conversation questions – jobs / professions, french conversation questions – music / la musique, the italian verb files – dare, 10 best song activities for the italian classroom, 10 fun french class activities – no prep warm-ups for your french classroom, italian conversation questions – sport e hobby, french conversation questions – les jeux olympiques, the italian verb files – venire, english esl conversation questions – movies.

The happy maple language co

COPYRIGHT © 2021 happymaplelanguageco •  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

You are using an outdated browser. Upgrade your browser today or install Google Chrome Frame to better experience this site.

• French »
• French Language Learning Library »

French Writing Practice

French writing exercises by level.

Practise your French writing skills with our ever-growing collection of interactive French writing exercises for every  CEFR level from A0 to C1! If you're unsure about your current proficiency, try our test to get your French level  before diving into the exercises.

All writing exercises are made by our qualified native French teachers to help you improve your writing skills and confidence.

Kwizbot  will give you a series of prompts to translate to French. He’ll show you where you make mistakes as you go along and will suggest related lessons for you.

Boost your French writing skills by adding the lessons you find most interesting to your  Notebook and practising them later.

Click on any exercise to get started.

A1: Beginner French writing exercises

• A Christmas feast Celebrations & Important Dates Food & Drink Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Sébastien is in charge of Christmas Eve Dinner this year.
• A French lunch menu Food & Drink Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif possessif Article Here's the typical lunch menu of a French coffee shop.
• A French woman Employment Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Élodie tells us about her everyday life as a lawyer specialising in women's rights.
• A day in my cat Max's life Family & Relationships Adjectif possessif Article Article contracté Juliette tells about her cat's daily routine.
• A day in the city of Le Mans Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Audrey had a nice time visiting Le Mans, in northwestern France.
• A dream Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif possessif Article Geoffrey tells us about one of his dreams.
• A love story Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Cécile and Andrew meet in a bar.
• A rainy afternoon Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Soizic and Armelle meet up on a rainy day in Brest.
• A romantic Valentine Celebrations & Important Dates Family & Relationships Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Henri tells us about his special plans for Valentine's Day.
• A winter meal Food & Drink Accord Adjectif Adjectif possessif Bernard has his perfect comfort meal for cold nights.
• Actress Anne Dorval Famous People Film & TV Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Claire tells us about her favourite actress, French-Canadian Anne Dorval.
• Anne's Easter loot Celebrations & Important Dates Accord Adjectif Adjectif possessif Anne lists all the treats she found during her Easter egg hunt.
• Annoying Things Family & Relationships Adjectif Adverbe Article Philippe and Julien share some of the things that really annoy them.
• Arnaud and Ophélie describe themselves Family & Relationships Accord Adjectif Adjectif possessif Arnaud and Ophélie describe themselves physically.
• At midnight Celebrations & Important Dates Family & Relationships Food & Drink Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Adverbe Sébastien's family celebrates Christmas on the evening of the 24th.
• At the beach Free Food & Drink Sports & Leisure Adjectif Article Article défini Conversation at the beach between an ice cream vendor and a customer.
• At the beach Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif possessif Article Tom is telling us about his day at the beach.
• At the bookshop Employment Literature, Poetry, Theatre Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe François needs help choosing a book.
• At the gift shop Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Mike and Linda pick some souvenirs in a Montmartre gift shop.
• At the newsagent's Employment Family & Relationships Adjectif Adverbe Article Sophie is buying a few items at a French newsagent's.
• At the sporting goods store Sports & Leisure Accord Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Alain is buying tennis equipment for his son.
• Baby at the beach Family & Relationships Accord Adjectif Adjectif possessif Baby enjoys being at the beach with his family.
• Back to School Family & Relationships Language & Education Accord Adjectif Adjectif possessif Mathieu tells us about going back to school tomorrow.
• Ball Sports Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif possessif Article Vincent and Leila discuss their favourite ball sports.
• Beyoncé Family & Relationships Famous People Music Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe The famous singer introduces herself.
• Board games Family & Relationships Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Jonathan is playing board games with his family.
• Booking a hotel room Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif possessif Article Pierre wants to book a room in a hotel.
• Can I come? Family & Relationships Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif possessif Article Marie chats with her roommate's friend Damien.
• Cleaning with my family Family & Relationships Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Jonathan and his family are cleaning the house today!
• Corsica is beautiful! Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif possessif Article Julien explains why he thinks Corsica is so beautiful.
• Do you like the French language? Language & Education Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Noémie and Léo have opposite opinions on the French language!
• Do you like theme parks? Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adverbe Louis and Zoé give their opposite opinions on theme parks.
• Driving in the city Family & Relationships Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adverbe Forme négative Sophie and Christophe talk about driving in city centres [US: downtown].
• Easter decorations Free Celebrations & Important Dates Family & Relationships Sports & Leisure Accord Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Alice and her sister Zoé are decorating their house for Easter.
• Easter preparations Celebrations & Important Dates Language & Education Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Today, Daniel and his pupils are getting ready for Easter.
• Exchanging a scarf Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Article Christine is returning a scarf to the shop
• Father of two Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif possessif Article Léon talks about his two beloved children.
• Filling in a form Employment Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif possessif Article Olivier answers questions from a form.
• Food shopping for a picnic Food & Drink Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Daniel and Aline are buying food for a picnic.
• Gardening with Jacqueline Family & Relationships Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif possessif Article Julia always loves to take care of her aunt's garden with her.
• Going on a diet Family & Relationships Food & Drink Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Marie has a plan to lose weight this year.
• Going shopping Family & Relationships Food & Drink Accord Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Annie and Nicolas discuss her upcoming trip to the shop.
• Hanukkah with my family Celebrations & Important Dates Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Rachelle celebrates Hanukkah with her family every year.
• Hello! I'm Mario! Famous People Sports & Leisure Accord Adjectif Adjectif possessif The famous plumber introduces himself.
• Hello, my name is France! Politics, History & Economics Accord Adjectif Adjectif possessif The country France introduces itself.
• Helping my neighbourhood Family & Relationships Adjectif possessif Adverbe Article Noémie likes helping her neighbours after school.
• Helping the planet Technology & Science Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe François does his best to help the planet in his everyday life.
• How to stay healthy Food & Drink Sports & Leisure Accord Adjectif Adjectif possessif Matthieu tells us about his healthy habits.
• How to vote at a polling station in France? Politics, History & Economics Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Learn how to vote in a French election.
• I hate the rain! Sports & Leisure Adverbe Article défini Article indéfini Annie stays in on rainy days
• Load more …

A2: Lower Intermediate French writing exercises

• A Creole picnic Food & Drink Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Accord Adjectif Adjectif possessif During a visit to La Réunion, Julie and Léo went for a typical Creole meal.
• A family of dog lovers Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Anthony had many dogs growing up, but Pip was special.
• A few days in Dordogne Free Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Monique tells Patrick about her coming holiday [US: vacation].
• A football accident Family & Relationships Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Anthony had his friend Bruno over to play...
• A great party for Mum [US:Mom]! Celebrations & Important Dates Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Manon and her sister Aline treated their mother for Mother's Day.
• A nice train journey Family & Relationships Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Lucie and her boyfriend Marc went to the countryside by train this weekend.
• A noisy hotel room Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Bertrand complains to the hotel reception about noises during the night.
• A romantic trip to Paris Family & Relationships Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Anna took her boyfriend on a romantic trip to Paris.
• A romantic weekend away Family & Relationships Sports & Leisure Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Adverbe Aline and her boyfriend went away for a relaxing weekend.
• Afternoon ice cream Free Food & Drink Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Lucie and Greg feel like an ice cream this afternoon.
• An Easter egg hunt Celebrations & Important Dates Accord Adjectif Adjectif possessif Discover where Julien and his siblings found their Easter eggs!
• Arriving at the hotel Employment Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Aline checks into her Parisian hotel.
• At my best friend's wedding Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Patrick gives a toast at Stéphane's wedding.
• At rapper Soprano's concert Music Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Romain was thrilled to finally see his idol Soprano live!
• At the Chinese restaurant Food & Drink Adjectif Adjectif possessif Article James is ordering food in a Chinese restaurant.
• At the New Year's Eve House Party Celebrations & Important Dates Accord Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Mathieu welcomes his guest at his New Year's Eve house party.
• At the allergist's Employment Technology & Science Accord Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Pierre went to the allergist to get a diagnosis.
• At the bar Food & Drink Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adverbe Au bar Patricia and Samuel discuss what drinks they want to order.
• At the bureau de change Employment Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif possessif Article Patrick needs to change some dollars upon arriving in Paris.
• At the dermatologist's Employment Technology & Science Accord Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Manon needs help with her eczema.
• At the farmers' market Food & Drink Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Stéphane enjoys a visit to his local farmers' market.
• At the grocery store Employment Family & Relationships Food & Drink Accord Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Julie and Frank need some things from the grocery store.
• At the medieval market in Orléans Art & Design Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adverbe Flora and Sami enjoy Orléans's medieval market.
• At the mountain restaurant Food & Drink Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Gérard and Sylvie stop for lunch after their mountain hike.
• At the post office Family & Relationships Adjectif possessif Adverbe Article Christophe has a few errands to run at the post office.
• At the shoe store Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Christine is looking for a pair of shoes with the help of a nice sales assistant.
• Bastille Day in the South of France Celebrations & Important Dates Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adverbe Bernard tells us about celebrating Bastille Day last summer.
• Bedtime stories Family & Relationships Literature, Poetry, Theatre Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Florian remembers the bedtime ritual he had with his daughter.
• Breakfast in the sun Family & Relationships Food & Drink Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Sabrina surprised Thomas with a nice breakfast on the balcony.
• Calling the hotel's room service Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Valérie calls room service from her hotel room.
• Chocolate mousse cooking tips! Food & Drink Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe André gives us some tips to make the perfect chocolate mousse.
• Conversation on the plane Family & Relationships Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Pascal and Julie get acquainted on a flight to Montpellier.
• Cooking as a family Family & Relationships Food & Drink Accord Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Yesterday, Antoine and his family made tartiflette together.
• Dividing the restaurant bill Food & Drink Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Sports & Leisure Adjectif possessif Adverbe Article Isabelle and her friends are splitting the bill at the restaurant.
• Do you have a favourite male singer? Famous People Music Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Simone and Amélie are talking about their favourite French-speaking male singers.
• Do you have any dirty clothes? Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Bastien and his mother debate the need for a dirty laundry basket.
• Driving in France Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Technology & Science Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Here are a few things to be aware of when driving in France!
• Fireworks Celebrations & Important Dates Family & Relationships Sports & Leisure Accord Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Juliette went to watch New Year's fireworks yesterday.
• Fishing with Dad Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Benjamin went fishing with his father last Sunday.
• Getting to know each other Employment Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe New colleagues Julien and Olivier get to know each other over a coffee.
• Giving up tobacco Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Amélie has stopped smoking and she's so happy about it!
• Holiday [US: Vacation] by the sea Family & Relationships Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Édouard remembers his childhood seaside holidays [US: vacations] in the south of France.
• I love autumn! Family & Relationships Food & Drink Sports & Leisure Accord Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Jacqueline tells us what she loves to do in the fall.
• I love my grandmother! Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Lucas tells us about his lovely grandmother.
• I prefer going skiing Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Pierre tells us why he prefers going skiing rather than beach holidays.
• In a taxi Family & Relationships Article Article contracté Article partitif Magalie needs her taxi to take her for a few errands.
• In the changing rooms Family & Relationships Sports & Leisure Accord Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Mélanie is trying on a dress... and testing Pierre's patience!
• Instagram love Family & Relationships Technology & Science Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Adverbe Julien and Sandra became famous thanks to their Instagram account.
• Instructions for a test Language & Education Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Teacher Marc read out the instructions for today's French test.
• Jojo is such a joker! Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Thomas talks about his school friend Jojo, who loves a joke.

B1: Intermediate French writing exercises

• A French April Fool's Celebrations & Important Dates Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Cécile and her sons are making the traditional French fish for April Fool's day.
• A Horror Story Celebrations & Important Dates Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe On a dark October night, Emma received a disturbing call...
• A childhood passion Family & Relationships Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Vincent and his brother loved video games growing up.
• A clichéd break-up Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif François uses all the clichéd breakup lines to leave his girlfriend Sophie.
• A family day at the park Family & Relationships Food & Drink Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif possessif Article Benoît will spend this Saturday at the park with his daughter Mia.
• A game of hide and seek Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Article Linda and Christian are watching from afar a game of hide and seek between the children.
• A good work routine Employment Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Marc plans to improve his work routine.
• A greener future Technology & Science Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Julien is seeing a future where people are more eco-conscious.
• A special Monday Celebrations & Important Dates Family & Relationships Sports & Leisure Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Adverbe Anna is looking forward to a lazy Easter Monday!
• A strange encounter Family & Relationships Literature, Poetry, Theatre Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Yoann had the strangest encounter in the Broceliande forest!
• A trip to the cinema Film & TV Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Antoine and his daughter Emma are planning a trip to the movies.
• A weather forecast Technology & Science Adjectif Adverbe Article Find out what tomorrow's weather will be like.
• A weekend in Montpellier Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Élise and Lucas plan their weekend in the southern French city.
• An amazing New Year's Eve meal Celebrations & Important Dates Food & Drink Accord Adjectif Adjectif possessif Henriette is planning a dazzling meal for New Year!
• An annoying cat allergy Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Éloïse suffers from an annoying cat allergy.
• An incredibly caring boy Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Lydia's son, Olivier, is such a caring person.
• An old scary tradition Celebrations & Important Dates Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Yoann recalls celebrating the old Celtic tradition of Samhain with his Gran.
• Animal emergency Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Julien's cat is stuck in the tree!
• Around the world by motorcycle Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Joël would love to travel the world on his motorcycle.
• Artist Chéri Chérin Art & Design Famous People Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Learn about the amazing Congolese artist Chéri Chérin.
• Asking about a hotel room Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Catherine has a few questions about the hotel room she's booked.
• At the amusement park Sports & Leisure Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Thomas will go to the amusement park with his friend Samia for their birthday this year.
• At the doctor's Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Robert goes to the doctor for a consultation.
• At the till Employment Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Peter is at the till [US: cash register] of a French supermarket.
• Becoming a model Art & Design Employment Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Enjoy some useful tips on becoming a model.
• Birthday makeover Family & Relationships Accord Adjectif Adjectif indéfini "New year, new me" Julia thought on her 20th birthday.
• Busy Schedule Family & Relationships Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Isabelle recaps what everyone will have to do on Saturday!
• Camping at home Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Gabriel and Rose are making plans for the weekend.
• Cathy's future holiday [US: vacation] in Montpellier Free Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Learn about Cathy's plan to spend her holiday [US: vacation] in Montpellier.
• Christmas in the mountains Celebrations & Important Dates Family & Relationships Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Antoine will spend Christmas at his dad's house in the Alps, if he can get there!
• Christmas specialities Celebrations & Important Dates Food & Drink Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Paul tells us about some traditional French Christmas dishes.
• Conversation between the election's two rounds Politics, History & Economics Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Marc explains the French presidential election process to his friend Alice.
• Corsican polyphonic singing Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Music Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Do you know about this bewitchingly melodic tradition from Corsica?
• Cycling in Nantes Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Sports & Leisure Accord Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Isabelle agrees with Nantes's status as France's "cycling capital".
• Dalida Famous People Music Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Learn about Dalida, an iconic French-speaking singer.
• Dealing with your emotions Sports & Leisure Technology & Science Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Here's a guide to keeping calm.
• Discussing a ski weekend Sports & Leisure Accord Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Laurent and his friend Matt are planning their ski weekend.
• Dreaming of Paris Family & Relationships Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Grégory imagines his ideal Valentine's Day's proposal.
• Easter baking class Celebrations & Important Dates Food & Drink Accord Adjectif Adjectif possessif Flora and Yvan enjoy decorating their Easter chocolate bunnies.
• Family holiday car trip Family & Relationships Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif possessif Adverbe Concordance des Temps Let the squabbles begin!
• Flying anxiety Family & Relationships Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Jean-Luc has a plan to deal with his fear of flying.
• Following the GPS Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Technology & Science Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Follow this GPS's instructions to reach your destination.
• Getting ready for autumn Celebrations & Important Dates Family & Relationships Sports & Leisure Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Article Rosalie won't get caught out by the arrival of autumn this year.
• Giving up smoking Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe François tells us how he managed to stop smoking.
• Going back in time Family & Relationships Politics, History & Economics Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adverbe Marine asks Amanda, Bruno and Sébastien what they would do if they could go back in time.
• Going to the bank Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif possessif Article Flora and her father need to go to the bank.
• How to share household chores equally Family & Relationships Accord Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Follow Céline's tips to share household chores more equally.
• I love swimming! Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Thomas tells us about his love for swimming and his hope to one day dive from up high!
• I miss French food! Food & Drink Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adverbe Hélène tells Betty how she's coping with missing French food abroad.
• I want to help! Family & Relationships Adjectif possessif Adverbe Article Suzanne wishes she had more time to help others.

B2: Upper Intermediate French writing exercises

• "Amélie": my favourite film! Film & TV Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Lisa explains why "Amélie" is her favourite film.
• A History of French TV Film & TV Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Learn some interesting facts about the beginnings of French TV.
• A busy weekend ahead Family & Relationships Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Adverbe Olivier sums up his busy schedule for the weekend.
• A day in the countryside Free Family & Relationships Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Marie spent last weekend in the countryside with her daughters.
• A great Advent calendar Celebrations & Important Dates Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Find out how to make a unique Advent calendar.
• A great passion for reading Literature, Poetry, Theatre Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Florence talks about her grandmother's passion for books.
• A nice morning surprise Food & Drink Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Lucie will serve a delicious breakfast in bed to her fiancée on their anniversary.
• A nice table "à la française" Food & Drink Adjectif Adjectif possessif Article Jacqueline explains the intricacies of setting the table the French way.
• A nightmare journey Free Family & Relationships Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Adverbe Josiane and Robert explain why they're an hour late to their friends' place.
• A perfect interview Employment Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Léo's just had the best job interview of his life!
• A slippery drive Technology & Science Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Richard struggled to get to work this morning: everything was frozen!
• At the football [US: soccer] game Celebrations & Important Dates Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Henri took his dad to a football [US:soccer] game for Father's Day.
• At the neighbours' house Family & Relationships Food & Drink Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Véronique and Bruno are at their neighbours' house for an aperitif.
• Bad Movie Review Film & TV Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Bernadette delivers a scathing movie review.
• Barbara Famous People Music Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Laëtitia talks about her passion for fascinating French singer Barbara.
• Bayonne, France's chocolate capital Food & Drink Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Learn why Bayonne is considered the French capital of chocolate.
• Brasserie La Coupole Food & Drink Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Accord Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Vincent always eats here when he's in Paris.
• British National Museums Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini National museums are free in the UK, as Paul happily found out.
• Building a snowman Sports & Leisure Accord Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Martine and Bastien enjoyed building a snowman.
• Camping with your dog Family & Relationships Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Patrick gives us some advice on taking your dog camping with you.
• Catherine Ségurane: a local heroine Famous People Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Politics, History & Economics Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Toni, a tourist guide from Nice talks about local legend Catherine Ségurane.
• City vs dog poop Family & Relationships Politics, History & Economics Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Alain and Pauline discuss the city's measures to fight against dog waste.
• Composting is awesome! Technology & Science Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Elsa explains composting to her friend Pierre.
• Congratulations on your degree! Family & Relationships Language & Education Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Thomas's aunt and uncle send him an email to congratulate him on getting his Master degree.
• Conversation between friends Family & Relationships Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Friends Simon and Isabelle are catching up.
• Couples' annoying habits Family & Relationships Adjectif indéfini Adverbe Article Olivier gets so annoyed by the way couples behave sometimes!
• Easter, a family celebration Celebrations & Important Dates Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini François and his family celebrate the religious holiday of Easter.
• Family Reunion Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini At a family reunion, Lea sees her aunt Patricia for the first time in years.
• Finding the perfect anniversary gift Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif possessif Article Jean-Paul is listing his gift ideas for his wife on their anniversary.
• Food shopping in farm shops Food & Drink Politics, History & Economics Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Find out the advantages and disadvantages of food shopping in a farm shop.
• French Easter specialties Celebrations & Important Dates Accord Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Discover some of France's regional Easter specialties.
• French-style lemon tart recipe Food & Drink Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Follow the recipe to make a delicious lemon tart.
• Garip Ay's amazing paintings Art & Design Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Jean-Pierre tells us about the work of this fascinating Turkish artist.
• Getting ready for the holiday [US: vacation] Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Article Article contracté Bastien and Alicia are getting ready for tomorrow's departure.
• Giving back Celebrations & Important Dates Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Especially during the holiday season, it's good to give back to those less fortunate than us...
• Going lily-of-the-valley picking Family & Relationships Sports & Leisure Accord Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Jean-Pierre's family goes to pick lily-of-the-valley every year.
• Heatwave Politics, History & Economics Technology & Science Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini A weather forecast on one of the hottest days of the year.
• High cost of cigarette packaging change Politics, History & Economics Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Learn about the cost of the new policy on cigarette packaging in France.
• I can't find my shirt! Family & Relationships Adjectif possessif Adverbe Article Claire and Julien are almost ready to go out...except for Julien's missing shirt!
• In a clothes store Sports & Leisure Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Patrick complains to the sales assistant about a defective item.
• In the return taxi Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Aline talks about her trip with the taxi driver on her way back to the airport.
• Long time no see! Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Marina and her cousin Tom catch up after quite a while.
• Louise Bourgeois Art & Design Famous People Politics, History & Economics Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Marie-Claire tells us about her favourite French artist.
• Mice invasion Family & Relationships Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Lisa and Paul are discussing options to get rid of Lisa's mice.
• Moving house chores Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Sophie had so many chores to do before moving into her new apartment.
• My car is a real beater! Sports & Leisure Technology & Science Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Yann's car has so many problems!
• My chosen family Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Magalie found her own loving family.
• My dream invention Technology & Science Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Sonia asks Sylvie what invention she'd dream to see becoming a reality.
• My exotic Christmas Celebrations & Important Dates Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Aline is remembering spending last Christmas in Marrakech, Morocco.
• My first Easter memory Celebrations & Important Dates Family & Relationships Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Alexandre remembers the first time he went egg hunting.

C1: Advanced French writing exercises

• 3 Culinary delights from French-speaking countries Food & Drink Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Find out about three dishes from French-speaking countries.
• A bad matchmaker Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Sophie tells us about her failed attempt at matchmaking.
• A couple's ups and downs Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Hélène explains how she and her partner managed to navigate out of a rough patch.
• A difficult sibling relationship Family & Relationships Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Yvan has always had a fraught relationship with his sister.
• A dreadful teenager Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Philippe recalls his bad behaviour as a teenage boy.
• A ghost story Celebrations & Important Dates Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Hugo is visiting his mother on All Saints' Day.
• A hard time at work Employment Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Adverbe Érica went through a rough time at work.
• A horrible storm! Technology & Science Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Julien remembers spending a horrible night due to a violent storm.
• A last minute request Employment Family & Relationships Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Isabelle's colleague keeps making her miserable...
• A long-standing friendship Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Carole tells us about her long-standing relationship with her friend Aline.
• A lovely car Technology & Science Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Find out about Michel's beloved 2CV car.
• A lovely encounter Family & Relationships Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif On her daily walk, Audrey met a furry little friend in need of help...
• A special Christmas in Switzerland Celebrations & Important Dates Food & Drink Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Damien recalls a wonderful family Christmas holiday in Switzerland.
• A sudden reappearance Family & Relationships Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif After years of disappearance, Olivia's friend is back.
• Advice for new pet owners Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Laurent asks people for their advice on welcoming a new pet at home.
• Alice and the Caterpillar (Alice in Wonderland) Literature, Poetry, Theatre Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Alice meets the mysterious Caterpillar in this adapted excerpt from "Alice in Wonderland"
• An animal tale Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini By a lovely winter morning, Henri the hare meets poorly Lili the rabbit.
• An incredible trip on the Canal du Midi Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Patrice recalls his trip along the Canal du Midi.
• An upcycling tutorial Art & Design Sports & Leisure Technology & Science Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Find out a few ideas for your upcycling projets.
• Anna's birthday party Family & Relationships Food & Drink Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Clément discusses the organisation of his daughter's birthday party with his friend Charlotte.
• At Uncle Robert's 70th birthday Family & Relationships Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Adverbe Laura catches up with her cousin Charlotte at a family event.
• At the psychiatrist's Employment Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Mme Dupont is talking to her psychiatrist.
• At the ski resort Sports & Leisure Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Paul needs to get ski gear for himself and his family.
• Back to School shopping Family & Relationships Language & Education Accord Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Viviane and Christian try and get everything on their children's school supply list.
• Bathroom chat Family & Relationships Accord Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Bruno and Sonia are having a chat in the bathroom.
• Brest during World War II Politics, History & Economics Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Alex is talking about WWII in Brest with his granddad.
• Californian dream Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adverbe Olivia finally followed her dream to move to California.
• Camping in the woods Free Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Nathalie enjoys camping in the middle of the woods.
• Coco Chanel Famous People Politics, History & Economics Adjectif Adjectif possessif Article Learn about this extraordinary woman who became a fashion icon.
• Complaining about a hotel room Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Gérard complains to the receptionist about the state of his hotel room.
• Coping with the heatwave Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif possessif Adverbe Emma asks how Simon and his pregnant girlfriend Christelle coped with the extreme heat.
• Drôme provençale, a little piece of heaven Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Politics, History & Economics Accord Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Vincent tells us about this beautiful region in the South of France.
• Engagement dinner's speech Family & Relationships Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Adverbe The bride's father thanks the guests for attending and announces the evening programme.
• Engagement surprise Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Louise enjoys an unexpected visit at her engagement party.
• Finding love at a yoga retreat Family & Relationships Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Seniors Germaine and Pierrot didn't expect to fall in love at a yoga retreat.
• Fireside memories Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Manuelle has warm memories of family times by the fireside.
• First day back to school Family & Relationships Food & Drink Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Sabrina tells us what she'll do on her children's first day back to school.
• French Mobile Phone Habits Politics, History & Economics Technology & Science Accord Adjectif Adjectif indéfini We're taking a look at the importance of mobile phones in French people's lives.
• Gardening weekend Sports & Leisure Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Jean-Pierre had a busy weekend taking care of his garden.
• Gastronomical review Food & Drink Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Discover a mouthwatering review of a French restaurant.
• Gluten-free living Food & Drink Adjectif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif Alexandre tells us how he dealt with his newly discovered gluten allergy.
• Gustave Moreau Museum Art & Design Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Claire tells us about her fascination for 19th-century symbolist painter Gustave Moreau.
• Holidaying in July Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini July is a hard time to organise holiday [US: vacation] for, as Martine and Sam found out!
• How to show your love? Family & Relationships Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Marianne and her partner Adèle are making some changes to show their appreciation for each other more.
• In the lives of the writers of French romance novels Employment Literature, Poetry, Theatre Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif possessif Discover what the life of a French writer of romance novels looks like.
• Jean-Marc Vallée Famous People Film & TV Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Nathan and Florence discuss the late Quebecois director Jean-Marc Vallée.
• Johnny Hallyday, a French icon Famous People Music Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Paul and his mum talk about her favourite French singer, Johnny Hallyday.
• La Petite France in Strasbourg Art & Design Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Discover this unique area of Strasbourg, a UNESCO site and tourists' favourite.
• Last-minute hesitations Family & Relationships Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Adjectif possessif François is torn between his love for Marianne and his duty to the Duchess who he's about to marry.
• Letter to Santa Celebrations & Important Dates Adjectif Adjectif démonstratif Adjectif indéfini Timothée writes to Santa, hoping he's been good enough this year...

In this section

• Hanukkah 2023 Menorah
• Christmas 2023 Advent Calendar
• Tips and ideas to improve your French writing skills
• French Glossary and Jargon Buster

Resources you can trust

GCSE French classroom resources

This collection of French resources for students in years 10 and 11 is packed with tried-and-tested activities on GCSE topics to enrich teaching and learning throughout the course. It also offers revision and exam preparation, including speaking practice for Foundation and Higher tiers, differentiated listening, reading comprehension, translation tasks and exam-style writing questions. For more support with GCSE exam preparation, take a look at our range of teaching packs .  

• (-) Show all (525)
• Languages (261)
• French (260)
• Spanish (2)
• Primary (1)
• All key stages (385)
• (-) KS4 (261)
• (-) All global tags (287)
• Speaking (63)
• Listening (51)
• Translation (47)
• Foundation (36)
• Higher (34)
• Vocabulary learning (28)
• Writing (14)
• Pronunciation and phonics (7)
• Reading (6)
• Dictation (1)

Resource type

• Worksheet (75)
• Differentiated (57)
• Revision (45)
• Exam preparation (37)
• Student activity (30)
• Game/quiz (27)
• Complete lesson (23)
• Starter/Plenary (17)
• Knowledge organisers (16)
• Role play/debate/discussion (16)
• Homework (5)
• Presentation (5)
• Teaching pack (5)
• Teaching ideas (4)
• Assessment (2)
• Display/posters (2)
• Templates (2)
• Self-assessment (1)
• Edexcel (41)
• WJEC/Eduqas (34)
• All exam boards (5)

Search results

• Skip to primary navigation
• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar
• Skip to footer

Mme R's French Resources

French resources for busy teachers

French worksheets for holidays

I love teaching French holiday and seasonal vocabulary! It’s such a nice break from the textbook, novel, or vocabulary unit I’ve been working on. Whether you’re looking for a some French holiday worksheets to to practice vocabulary or just want to bring in some seasonal fun, I’ve got you covered!

Here are some of my favorite French holiday resources:

No-prep french holiday worksheets.

Even though I love holiday resources, it’s not always easy to find the time when there are so many other things that students need to learn! Because of that, all my French holiday worksheets include review pages for grammar, verbs, and vocabulary that students are already working on. It’s really easy to bring in seasonal fun while still reinforcing those important concepts!

Find quick and easy activities that you can use to support what you are already teaching! Just add some seasonal fun to support your lessons and use the holiday-themed vocabulary for fast finishers, sub plans, learning centers, or as a fun break.

French speaking activities

Students are taking French to learn how to speak, so let’s give them a lot of chances to do just that! Whether it’s a set of speaking cards, a Find Someone Who activity, or a fun class favorite like this J’ai… qui a… game, I’ve got you covered!

French Games

I’ve never had a class that didn’t love Bingo, but the games don’t stop there! Vocabulary slap and board games make for a lot of fun just before a holiday, too!

What better way to decorate your classroom for an upcoming holiday? I love using word walls in my French classroom for a fun and easy way to expose students to a lot of new French vocabulary. Plus, they just really brighten up the room!

Not looking to teach about holidays but love French seasonal activities?

I’ve got tons of French resources for the seasons, too. From no-prep French worksheets to speaking activities, games, and Boom Cards™, there are so many ways to bring seasonal vocabulary into your French class!

Here are just a few of my French seasonal teaching resources:

Find all my French holiday and seasonal resources at my TpT store.

Still Looking for Something?

Privacy Overview

Get a FREE reading comprehension article on the origins of maple syrup & le temps des sucres

Anti-racism & Representation

Teaching ideas, 14 fantastic beginner french resources.

Hey there fellow beginner French teacher. Are you feeling lost and confused about how to teach your beginner French class? Do you spend hours looking for beginner French lessons and beginner French worksheets? You are definitely in the right

Don’t forget to grab your beginner French freebie!

1. french greetings and saluations.

One of the first lessons I begin my beginner French class with is salutations and important questions! This beginner French worksheet is a great tool to practice those important questions students will be asking in French.

Bonus tip : I play musical chairs (without the chairs) and have students dance around the classroom. When the music stops, they have to find their closest peer and have a quick French conversation with them!

2. French vocabulary

This beginner French resource is a package of the most essential vocabulary beginner French students will learn in the first year of French.

It includes notes, worksheets and other tools on the following topics :

Pronunciation patterns, numbers, writing the date, colours, seasons, salutations, essential questions, pronouns, prepositions, interrogatory words, and basic vocabulary.

3. French school supply vocabulary

School supply vocabulary is one of the first things we cover in a beginner French class.

In my class, the first term of French class is intense speaking activities, much like a late immersion class. However, sometimes I need a break from the chaos and performance of this teaching style. For that reason, this resource comes in handy. Students can work independently or in partners on a series of vocab-based worksheets and activities on school supplies and my voice gets a break!

4. French indefinite and definite articles

In my classroom, I teach basic grammar and instead try to teach French in a more “natural” way. However, when I do need to teach grammar, I like my worksheets to be simple, aesthetically pleasing and efficient.

I use these notes and worksheets to teach my students indefinite and definite articles, as they pretty much are the foundations of the language!

5. Quelle heure est-il?

I am going to be honest — I do NOT love to teach time in French. I think this is probably because telling time is SO complicated in the French language.

That being said, I find that teaching students the 24-hour clock is actually really important due to its widespread use in universities and during overseas travel. I am also Canadian and Québec uses the 24-hour clock. For that reason, I teach how to read the clock AND telling time in French.

Finally, what I love about this resource is the game my students play to show their understanding of what they have learnt in this mini-unit.

All notes and worksheets included too!

6. Teaching French weather expressions

What is a MORE fun way of FSL students learning French weather vocabulary than becoming little meteorologists? This beginner French resource contains notes, worksheets, a peer survey, instructions and a rubric for weather presentations.

7. Me voici storybook

One of the very first units I begin with in FSL is an All About Me unit.

We learn adjectives, agreement, expressing our interests and preferences, etc.

At the end of the unit, students write picture books describing themselves and their preferences.

8. Food bingo freebie

Stop what you’re doing and go download this freebie pronto! My students absolutely LOVE playing food bingo. I laminate my bingo sheets and students circle their choices using whiteboard markers.

It also includes food bingo vocab worksheets.

9. Introduction aux verbes être et avoir

Everything you need to introduce your students to these important verbs is in this resource.

The resource includes step by step notes, practice, speaking and writing activities and task cards.

10. Le verbe aller et les endroits en ville

Aller et les endroits en ville is another unit my beginner FSL students complete.

They learn the verb aller, its’ conjugations, important prepositions, and location vocabulary.

One of my favourite activities in this resource is a Google Maps virtual tour activity. Students must find two locations in Québec on Google Maps and write a sentence describing what method of transport they should take between the two locations.

11. Introduction aux verbes réguliers

This was one of the first resources I ever made for my beginner French class. Don’t worry — it has been updated many times over the years!

It includes so many notes, worksheets, fun speaking and writing activities in order to help students master regular verbs in French.

12. Unité thématique : la nourriture

This is the final unit my beginner students complete and it is SO MUCH fun!

Students discover all about food and cooking vocabulary and complete a number of reading, speaking, writing AND reading and written comprehension activities.

13. Jeu de vocabulaire : la nourriture

I created this game to reinforce food vocabulary for my beginner students. I also play this in several different courses to refresh their memories when it comes to this essential vocabulary.

14. French verbs vouloir and pouvoir

Finally, I always end the year off by teaching the verbs vouloir and pouvoir. I keep it super simple and have my students complete listening comprehension activity and have them describes things they want vs. things they can do!

If you liked these beginner French resources, please share what you do in your class in the comments below!

• Read more about: Activities , Back to School , Beginner French , Ideas & Inspiration , Resources , Teacher Organization , Teaching French Grammar , Uncategorized

You might also like...

French Picture Books with Asian Characters

French Graphic Organizers for French Reading & French Writing

Canadian French Festivals to Explore in the Classroom

Follow along, @fleavecmmed.

Parfois je suis un renard

Get a FREE activity to accompany the picture book Parfois je suis un renard

© FLE Avec MmeD • Website by KristenDoyle.co

Simplifying Language Learning | KS3, GCSE, iGCSE, A-Level, Conversational, Business & Pleasure | German, French, Spanish, Italian & Arabic Language Resources & Tuition

• Teaching Tips

Homework Ideas for French German and Spanish Classrooms

• Read Time: 2minutes
• Leave a comment

Homework – Do Your Students Do It?

Looking at the results of a (somewhat crude!) Twitter poll which I recently carried out, attracting 87 responses, if homework is an important component of education, why is homework only handed in to an acceptable standard and submitted on time to 6% of teachers? 

The Homework Struggle Is Real!

Am I Wasting My Time?

I really feel that I am wasting my time on setting homework to classes where only a minority put the effort into completing the work. For this reason, I am going to take drastic action and completely stop requesting written and spoken homework (for the most part), due to copying and Google Translate sentences.

Getting students to re-do their work or completing it again themselves in a detention hasn’t really helped much. So, instead, I will be giving vocabulary learning homework, cultural research homework for French and German speaking countries, as well as listening tasks and preparation for the next lesson’s activities. This will take me little or no time to prepare, and should reduce students not completing the homework themselves, but also (hopefully!) have more impact on all students handing it in on time.

20 Homework Activities They Might Actually Do

As part of my homework activities for MFL preparations for next year, I have put together a list of twenty No Prep Low Prep Homework Activities for the MFL Classroom. View the resource here to download > Click Here To Download The Low-Prep, No-Prep Homework Resource and begin using it today! It includes lots of low prep homework activities to try out. If you download the homework tasks handout, please do leave me a comment and let me know what you think!

How do you feel about setting homework tasks for your language class students – is it worth it? What types of homework do you set?

You May Also Be Interested In...

The Best French VLOGS on YouTube for GCSE, iGCSE & A2

• by theidealteacher

How To Nail Goodbye Lenin – Film Teaching & Learning Resources

The French Pronunciation Chart You Need -Pronounce Tricky Sounds Easily

A-Level German – 10 Awesome Hacks – How To Improve Your Grade

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

• Medium Gift
• My Own Gift

First Name *

Email Address *

Make this an anonymous donation.

Donation Total: £0.50

Fancy buying me a cup of coffee? 

This helps me to maintain the website and continue uploading my resources to share with you. Every penny helps.

Thank-you so much in advance for your generosity! - Sabina (aka 'The Ideal Teacher')

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD >   No Prep Low Prep Homework Activities for the MFL Classroom (18997 downloads )

• Skip to primary navigation
• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar
• Skip to footer

La Libre Language Learning

Empower All Learners. End the Overwhelm. Teach for Proficiency.

French Classroom Decor Ideas for Proficiency Oriented Instruction

September 10, 2021 by Devon 2 Comments

A Look Inside my French Classroom

We French teachers are a curious bunch. We love to peek inside another French classroom even though we live in one every day! Today I’m rolling down memory lane and sharing pictures from my first only French class. I usually taught both high school French and Spanish while I was still teaching full time (I now create resources and support French teachers full time).

Like many of you, this class I’m sharing with you was cut short in 2020 when we went to teaching from home.

However hard it was to do asynchronous quarantine teaching, it made me love and appreciate the simple joy of creating a learning environment.

One of my class routines was a weekly Chanson de la Semaine – see my 10 favorite songs for French class here

Grab the Coeur de Pirate CLOZE song listening activity here if you’re ready to get right into it!

I love the process of creating a classroom – waaaay more than home decor, ironically enough lolz. My apartment looks like a college flower freak decorated it. Classroom organization and setup is one of the joys of teaching I really miss.

Since I’m not joining in the joy of decorating a classroom this year, I want to share my favorite classroom setups for French class with you today. These are real classroom photos from a high school French class, so faces are blurred to protect their anonymity.

Feel free to email me at [email protected] or comment below for any questions about where I got or how I did any of the setup you see in the pictures.

Setup for Proficiency

One thing you’ll notice is that I was a very imperfect proficiency-oriented teacher. Everything about my setup was to enable good target language routines, maximize comprehensible input, and center my students as the focus of class rather than units or language features. I didn’t always succeed, but good communication in French was always the goal. Below you’ll see that my word wall, whiteboard space for announcements like weekly class passwords, and special person interview bulletin boards were all for helping facilitate more French in the classroom.

One caveat: there’s one routine I regret I never tried. I highly recommend deskless classroom for a proficiency centered classroom, but had to leave the classroom for health + burnout reasons. I therefore didn’t make that a priority my last year teaching. But for real, if I was in the classroom now, that would be my first move. So many colleagues have told me amazing stories about how it’s changed the way their high schoolers interact, so I say try it!!

Need Help with Proficiency?

While we’re on the topic, (proficiency joke), have you ever wondered how to make the leap yourself?

I made you a guide that shows you the crucial steps (in time-saving and sanity-preserving order) to help you navigate the roadmap to proficiency. Get your free roadmap to help you transition to proficiency-oriented instruction and tips for all things world language and CI here!

OK now that you’ve got the f ree ebook to help you transition to proficiency (plus a buncha bonuses) , you’re all set! Let’s keep setting up this French class for a great year.

French Classroom Decor Ideas

From word walls to French bulletin boards, I was all about simple decor that promoted language use. But I’m not above raiding the free poster stash that previous teachers always leave behind. Here are some pictures of my favorite French classroom decor moments.

My French Classroom in Action

Here are some photos of my French classroom in action – there’s always posters falling off the walls, lamination peeling at the corners, and messy desks. This was real life, not a highlight reel, so enjoy!

I hope it gives you some ideas. Small caveat – I had small class sizes this year with my largest at 14, so the desks are very spread out. Scroll to the bottom for what my 30+ class looked like in previous years.

French Word Walls

Next, let’s look at the classroom decor for French. By far my favorite and hardest working part of my classroom (besides the flags) were always the high frequency French word walls. I always had 2 on deck, one for the simple set of sweet 16 verbs, and the full 120 plus high frequency terms that were essential to my students’ reading and writing success. Below is an example from my large Spanish and French split class:

French High Frequency Verb Tools for (Literally) Every Lesson

No, I never covered this up. These terms were always available during freewrites and reads. I did often cover and uncover the sweet 16 terms as I did test them on those often, but this large set below was their go-to for the essential connector words.

Having a word wall made everything about teaching with more target language easier. I had a word bank always on deck, and students knew which words were the most important and that they would see and hear the most.

Here is the word wall in my smaller class at a different school. Yep, same word wall.

Since I laminated them and used cardstock, I could (rather painstakingly) peel off the sticky tack and slap them on a new classroom wall in not too much time.

Speaking of moving between classrooms, you might need some recs for the good stuff when you stock up on word walls and posters for your French classroom. Here are my best recommended tools that I loooved while in the classroom.

Essential French Classroom Decor Tools

With word walls and posters galore, I was a die-hard cardstock and lamination fan. I taught in coastal South Carolina where I live, which is an uber-hot and humid climate. EVERYTHING falls off the walls and curls, so lamination was clutch.

However, I would like to present you with an alternative if it’s available to you. There are many teachers in the social ecosystem that have more eco-friendly and sustainable alternatives to lamination.

Eco-Friendly Alternatives to Lamination

I didn’t learn until I was out of the classroom that lamination isn’t recyclable — eeek. Check out these more sustainable alternatives from the sustainable teacher.

Cardstock is completely recyclable, and will work hard for you on your wall. This is my favorite cardstock brand, but you can literally use anything. It’s also in my experience cheaper, less time consuming, and easier than the lamination process. So what’s the non-curling/falling key?

My dear teacher friend, the key is sticky tack*. This brand is my favorite*. I’ve tried the blue kind and it’s impossible to get off the walls, but that could also be very specific to the paint and cinderblock situation I was usually in, or my humid climate. That being said, the gray brand above is tried and true.

I put up this entire word wall with the gray sticky tack mentioned above. If you love this high frequency word wall with third person terms, you can get your own here!

I also used hot glue * if you have a hot glue gun. That stuff lasts forever and comes off easily, but it will peel cheap school paint. (Sorry, school!)

More Classroom Setup Tools

I also used punch-out classroom decor letters for simple signage. I borrowed leftovers from teachers so make sure you ask around. This is one of those things that teachers always have a stash of. Keep in mind that we as language teachers use different letters than those that make signs in English.

Classroom Setup Tips to Save Money

Pro tip: just tear up the extra letters like the xs to make your French accents instead of buying a more expensive pack. I honestly don’t remember the brand I used, but these ones look very similar if you need a place to start. Check out the punch-out letters here *.

The last tool you’ll need is bulletin board border-cover-stuff-thingys. This brand has a solid assortment of colors, but be sure to raid the staff room and send out an email before you buy. Librarians and administrators always have this stuff stashed away.

*These are affiliate links, meaning I get a small commission if you choose to purchase from this link at no cost to you. This helps me to provide you with more awesome free content like this blog! I only recommend what I love and used in my classroom. You can also find most of these brands at your local retailer.

Those other posters I bought one year on Teacher’s Discovery, or someone gave them to me.. I honestly don’t remember. I don’t really love them and never used or referred to them, but they did help cover some ugly wall space. Teacher’s Discovery has a ton of decor, but I’m sure you know that from the catalogs they send you 😉

Bulletin Board Ideas for French Class

This is my favorite bulletin board for how good it looked in my Spanish and French classroom. My other degree is in Caribbean politics and history, so I used to focus my culture lessons on the area I knew best . It’s also where I’ve traveled the most. But I honestly only used the display twice at the beginning of the year.

Even though the bulletin board above looks cool, it didn’t really help me teach. So I moved to a more word-centered model my next classroom with the La Personne Spéciale French classroom posters below.

Francophone Culture Bulletin Boards

I didn’t use my Francophone country labels for a bulletin board, but many French teachers do.

These pictures are not from my classroom since I prefer to use these tools as desk labels, but here are some pictures to generate some inspiration.

These Francophone country labels are also an essential piece of my sub plans and first day lesson plans , and compliment my digital Francophone research projects and virtual field trips.

Special Person Interview Setup for French Class

When I got serious about making special person interviews a weekly routine in class, I decided to use my odd bulletin board space to help facilitate it with room for posters and the title. This is also where I wrote the daily agenda, objective, and class password.

Speaking of Special Person Interviews, are you curious on how to start them? I interviewed the creator of this gamechanger activity Bryce Hedstrom and he walks you through how to get started in this post.

Culturally Responsive Classroom Setup

Before we wrap up , I want to leave you with a thought to ponder about what message our classrooms send to our students. A lightbulb went off for me when I read this quote from Zaretta Hammond’s Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain *:

Something I started to ask myself after I read this quote was — what worldview am I presenting? How much of the dominant culture am I over-representing, and how can I reverse that?

It’s worth asking the same things about the messages in your classroom decor. For example, it was definitely a mistake to have the messages of being on time and diligently doing homework at home, as these are messages of the dominant culture.

Almost all my students worked outside of school, and their homework scores didn’t reflect or parallel their efforts in class. But when I switched it to the first 10 minutes of each Wednesday flex time, my school’s required homework percentage shot up because they were so diligent and focused while in class.

I’m no expert in this field, but it matters a lot to me. I hope it helps to generate some more thoughtful selection of your classroom materials and posters.

More French in the Classroom with Smart Decor!

I started out like almost every French teacher on the block – looking for gorgeous things to put in my room and splash my colorful personality all over the place. But you know what?

It got expensive, and it got exhausting. Not to mention I spent hella time making and then taking down bulletin boards I never used. I was a high school teacher y’all — bulletin boards are only for displaying work that will stay there all.year.long or for things that my students can actually use.

The best classroom posters or literally anything I put on my walls were things that helped my students speak and understand more French, or more about Francophone culture.

French Classroom Setup Tips

My final takeaways after I got smart(er) about good French classroom design?

• Every poster and bulletin board should maximize French use in the classroom and/or expand global citizenship
• Personality is awesome too, but isn’t worth lots of money
• Raid the free piles and don’t be shy about asking around the school for basics like letters and bulletin board-cover-thingys
• It’s not that hard or time-consuming to make your own posters. I made my own color words posters, Francophone countries and musicians posters, and word walls. I honestly regret spending money on most of the things I bought from larger retailers, except this one really sweet world map.
• If you’re like me and most other teachers and you have to use your own money to supplement your paltry school stipend (or they give you nothing), choose high quality resources over decor. You can always get creative with decor.
• Your classroom doesn’t need to be perfectly set up on Day 1. Mine NEVER was. It just needs to look complete (no completely blank walls or half-done boards and you’re good)
• You don’t need to laminate as much as you think. I learned this the hard way.

My Best French Classroom Decor Tip

I saved the best for last – are you ready?

Whenever you feel bad about your classroom, take a lil’ field trip to the nearest slack history teacher’s room (every high school has one). You know the one — the teacher that every kid loves because they’re that students’ coach, and they’re an amazing teacher, but they literally have one cat poster from 1987 and the school’s required tech policy (complete with graffiti from last year) on the wall…and that’s it.

Enjoy a laugh with them about how their classroom looks like a jail cell, and skip back to your bright, beautiful, and perfectly imperfect French class 🥰

Skip the English hallway altogether, we’ll never compete with those classroom decor heroes.

What does your classroom look like this year? What’s your favorite part of your classroom? Again, you can always contact me in the comments below, reach out on social on Instagram or Facebook , or email me at [email protected] with questions about anything you see in the pictures. I’d love to hear from you!

Free Conference for World Language Teachers 

If you’re ready to jump in and get started with proficiency and teaching with comprehensible input, I have another resource to help you on your journey below:

Sign Up for the  Next Practical & Comprehensible Free Virtual Conference!  Every year, I gather together the best and brightest in the field of world language to share with you how to switch to proficiency through comprehensible input.  All with practical ideas that you can use tomorrow . It’s a FREE virtual conference –  join the waitlist and find out more about the speakers here.

Sincerely jealous of your classroom this year, and rooting for you as always,

Reader Interactions

October 7, 2021 at 18:11

Hi! I was wondering if you have your speaking activity hunt somewhere? I’m always looking for ways to do more movement in my class!

October 8, 2021 at 11:40

Hey Christina! Thanks for asking – are you asking about the weekend chat scavenger hunt? I honestly just wrote questions on whiteboards around the room and asked students to write their names and answers under the questions. You can easily replicate it! Although it does give me a great idea for future products. Stay tuned! Let me know how else I can help – [email protected] 🙂

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Latest on Instagram

Featured Posts

World Language Teachers Furthering the Conversation on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice

Creating and working towards fostering a de-colonized, culturally relevant and responsive world language classroom is some DEEP work that also results in wildly magnifying your students’ results in your classroom and effectiveness as a teacher. This journey to examine our own roles as both participants and enablers in a rather broken education system based on […]

Latest on Facebook

Latest from TPT Shop

Latest on youtube channel.

• Share full article

News Analysis

Just How Dangerous Is Europe’s Rising Far Right?

Anti-immigration parties with fascist roots — and an uncertain commitment to democracy — are now mainstream.

Credit... Illustration by Pablo Delcan

Supported by

By Roger Cohen

Roger Cohen, who has worked at The New York Times for over three decades, reported from Paris and eastern France.

• May 5, 2024

Jordan Bardella, 28, is the new face of the far right in France. Measured, clean-cut and raised in the hardscrabble northern suburbs of Paris, he laces his speeches with references to Victor Hugo and believes that “no country succeeds by denying or being ashamed of itself.”

That phrase, at a recent rally in the eastern town of Montbéliard, brought a chorus of “Jordan! Jordan!” from a crowd that had lined up for hours to see him. Cries of “Patrie” — homeland — filled the hall. Bardellamania is in the air.

Mr. Bardella, the son of Italian immigrants and a college dropout who joined the National Front party (now National Rally) at 16, is the protégé of Marine Le Pen, the perennial hard-right French presidential candidate . Moderate in tone if not content, he is also the personification of the normalization — or banalization — of a party once seen as a quasi-fascist threat to the Republic.

Across Europe, the far right is becoming the right, absent any compelling message from traditional conservative parties. If “far” suggests outlier, it has become a misnomer. Not only have the parties of an anti-immigrant right surged, they have seen the barriers that once kept them out crumble as they are absorbed into the arc of Western democracies.

In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has political roots in a neo-fascist party, now leads Italy’s most right-wing government since Mussolini. In Sweden, the center-right government depends on the fast-growing Sweden Democrats, another party with neo-Nazi origins , for its parliamentary majority. In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders , who has called Moroccan immigrants “scum,” won national elections in November at the head of his Party for Freedom, and center-right parties there have agreed to negotiate with him to form a governing coalition.

In France, Mr. Bardella, as president of the National Rally, is leading his party’s campaign for the elections in June to the European Parliament, a relatively powerless institution but one still important for being the only directly elected body with representatives from all European Union countries.

Precisely because the Parliament is relatively weak, the election is closely watched as a measure of uninhibited popular sentiment, where voters register their discontent with potentially powerful downstream effects on national politics.

This year the far-right surge across the continent looks dramatic. The latest polls show the National Rally with a clear lead, set to take some 31 percent of the vote in France compared with about 16 percent for the centrist Renaissance coalition of President Emmanuel Macron. Mr. Bardella is the only politician among France’s 50 “favorite personalities,” according to a recent ranking in the Journal du Dimanche newspaper .

The result is that anti-immigrant parties may win as many as a quarter of the seats in the 720-seat European Parliament. This could lead to a hardening of immigration regulations Europewide, hostility to environmental reform, and pressure to be more amenable to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

For France, it means that a party that is nationalist, xenophobic and Islamophobic may well emerge reinforced — accepted, legitimized and eminently electable to high office in a way that would have been unthinkable even a decade ago.

France used to call its barrier to the hard right “la digue,” or the dam . The floodgates are now open in France, but also beyond. Mr. Macron’s successor in 2027 — he is term limited — may well come from a party whose founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen , called the Holocaust a “detail” of history.

Could this resurgence of parties with fascist roots really overturn European freedom and democracy? The optimistic view is that they are no more than pale descendants of history’s tyrants, constrained by the existence of a European Union that was created to guarantee peace among its members. That is a lulling view. The language of these parties may be less incandescent than former President Donald J. Trump’s invocations of “bloodshed,” but as they whip up support by scapegoating immigrants, and even move to lock in systems that could perpetuate their power, the threat to the postwar order seems real enough.

Not a Monolith

Historical lessons, it seems, fade after three generations. Warnings of the disasters that engulfed 20th-century Europe under fascist governments tend not to resonate with 21st-century supporters of xenophobic nationalist movements that have none of the militarism of fascism, nor the personality cults of its dictatorial leaders, but are fed by hatred of “the other” and jingoistic hymns to national glory.

Europe’s collective cataclysm between 1914 and 1945 seems like ancient history to many people, even if the blood shed in the trenches of Ukraine summons images of that time. “You can no longer rely on saying, ‘This is evil, because look what happened in the fascist past,’” said Nathalie Tocci, a leading Italian political scientist. “You have to have an argument for why those ideas are bad today.”

The post-fascist or fascist-lite European right of today is not monolithic. At the most menacing end of the spectrum stands the Alternative for Germany party, founded in 2013 and now polling as high as 20 percent . It contains about 10,000 extremists, according to the country’s domestic intelligence service. Plans for mass deportation of immigrants and even a plot to overthrow the government have been linked to it.

The National Rally in France began life in 1972 as the National Front, the creation of Mr. Le Pen, who described the United States as a “mongrel nation” and the Nazi-puppet Vichy regime in France as not “especially inhumane.”

As for Ms. Meloni, she got her start in the postwar Italian Social Movement, founded in 1946 by Mussolini supporters bent on defending the legacy of fascism. It had violent strands into the 1970s, but it eventually folded and its leaders broke off to start new more moderate parties, though still proud of their lineage. The symbol of the Brothers of Italy is a tricolor flame, previously used by a neo-fascist party, and its hostility to immigrants remains firm.

The path to power, or the brink of it, by the far right has been a long one. Over the almost 80-year arc of the postwar period, the once-dominant center-left and center-right — represented in France by the Socialists and the Gaullists, and in Germany by the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats — have seen the foundations of their support (labor unions for the left and the church for the right) gradually erode.

This accelerated with globalization after the end of the Cold War and the onset of atomization with the arrival of the smartphone (that prodigious generator of status anxiety), leading to more unequal, more polarized, more fretful societies. The political commons shrank. The definition of truth wobbled. Parliaments and parties grew more marginal as political heft shifted to social media.

Increasingly, with major ideological disputes over the place of the state in the economy settled, moderate right and moderate left began to feel indistinguishable to many people. They had no answers to mass migration. The working class, long the cornerstone of socialism in Europe, migrated en masse to the anti-immigrant right as an expression of frustration at growing inequality and stagnant paychecks.

The core confrontation in Western societies is no longer over internal issues. It is global vs. national, the connected living in the “somewhere” of the knowledge economy vs. the forgotten living “nowhere” in industrial wastelands and rural areas. There lies the frustration, even fury, on which a Trump, a Meloni, a Wilders, a Le Pen could build.

Progressive changes in social mores have offered a new rhetorical weapon to these leaders. For them, as for Mr. Putin, it has been easy to present a simplistic portrayal of the West of liberal urban elites as the decadent locus of cultural suicide, the place where family, church, nation and traditional notions of marriage and gender go to die.

“There is a disproportionate sense of disappointment in our societies,” Thomas Bagger, the state secretary of the German Foreign Office, told me. “We lost our trust that we had figured out the long arc of history and that it bends toward democracy. Russia lost its idea of the future, and Putin turned to the past. We are in danger of falling into the same trap.”

Normalized, but Still Extreme

The hard right in Europe has moderated and prepared itself to govern. It has abandoned calls to leave the European Union — the disaster of Brexit made sure of that — and to leave the shared euro currency. It has toned down, but not eliminated, outright racism, even if Islamophobia lurks everywhere.

Mass immigration — some 5.1 million immigrants entered the European Union in 2022 , more than double the number the previous year — is the core issue behind the changing nature of the right in Europe. It is widely resented, particularly because aging populations have put enormous financial pressure on the cherished social safety nets that they, and previous generations, have long paid into. Overlooked are the benefits that immigrants can bring to societies with shrinking labor forces and tax bases. Instead the focus is on migrants benefiting from handouts.

“We have to make our country less attractive to a form of immigration that sees us as a social cash machine,” Mr. Bardella said. “The vocation of France is not to support all the world’s misery! Social assistance and child benefits must be reserved for French citizens.”

Quiet-spoken and methodical, he is no demagogue. But in its last election program in 2022, the National Rally called for a referendum to amend France’s Constitution. One proposed new article read: “Foreigners must respect France’s identity and way of life, and not engage in political activity contrary to national interests. Their presence must not constitute an unreasonable burden on public finances and the social welfare system. Family reunification of foreigners may be prohibited or limited.”

The program also envisaged the expulsion of undocumented immigrants. “Because they are sovereign, and the only sovereign, the French people have the right to make decisions considered necessary to remain themselves,” it said.

Another serious question that looms over these movements is this: If elected, would such parties ever leave office?

Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, who has been in power for a total of 18 years and is an ally of Mr. Trump, has established a template for the new right. Demonize migrants and neutralize an independent judiciary. Subjugate much of the news media. Create loyal new elites through crony capitalism. Energize a national narrative of victimhood and heroism through the manipulation of historical memory. Claim that the “people’s will” overrides constitutional checks and balances.

The upshot is a form of European single-party rule that retains a veneer of democracy while skewing the contest sufficiently to ensure that it is likely to yield only one result.

In Italy, Ms. Meloni has proposed a constitutional change that would automatically give the party with the highest number of votes (right now her Brothers of Italy) 55 percent of the seats in Parliament. She says it would make Italian governments more stable, but her opponents fear that it could also create opportunities for a future autocrat.

Following the Orban playbook would face strong constitutional pushback in France, with its fierce attachment to freedom and human rights as embodied in the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. But if the National Rally controlled the presidency and Parliament, all bets would be off.

“The normalization of the right does not necessarily make it less extreme,” said Ms. Tocci, the Italian political scientist. “If constraints loosen, perhaps with the return of Trump as president in November, Meloni will be more than happy to show her true face. If Trump and Orban agree to force Ukraine to surrender, she will not think twice.”

That said, the right’s ascendancy is not universal, uniform or assured. Poland, through a protest movement, led the liberation of Europe from the Soviet imperium, culminating with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Last year, in a November election, Poland ousted its nationalist governing party, Law and Justice, which had led an assault on the rule of law. The party had also propagated xenophobic hatred, portrayed the country as eternal victim and distanced Poland from the European Union.

“Poles said, ‘We have a more positive vision to put in the place of a dark view of human and national life,’” Mr. Bagger, the German state secretary, said. “They pulled themselves back from the brink.”

Underestimating the resourcefulness and resilience of democracies is always dangerous. But so, too, is discounting the unimaginable. As Mr. Bardella’s beloved Victor Hugo wrote, “Nothing is more imminent than the impossible.”

Roger Cohen is the Paris Bureau chief for The Times, covering France and beyond. He has reported on wars in Lebanon, Bosnia and Ukraine, and between Israel and Gaza, in more than four decades as a journalist. At The Times, he has been a correspondent, foreign editor and columnist. More about Roger Cohen

Advertisement