Games, Activities & Lesson Ideas – Passive to Active
Teacher led Activities (Whole class)
Introducing Vocabulary (repetitive)
Standard choral rep
Teacher says number in French, pupils say corresponding
word/phrase in French.
Teacher says word/phrase in French, pupils say number
(leave French on board whilst introducing but cover French to
test passively).
Teams – Split into two or four teams. Each team shouts the
word/phrase in turn. Loudest team wins. Or most in time team
wins. (You can also say team who shouts the word/phrase in the
funniest/angriest voice wins).
Mexican wave – Split class into four rows, give each row a
particular word/phrase and when you point to that team they
must shout their particular word/phrase. Or if you want them to
learn a particular sentence, give each team part of the sentence
and get each team to chant the parts of the sentence in the order
Find the sticker - Same as hot and cold. Students chant word or
phrase louder as a pupil gets closer to the hidden sticker.
Detective – Pupil detective leaves the room. Choose another pupil
in the room who then decides on a signal (e.g. coughing, tapping
the table). Class chant a word repeatedly until they see or hear
the agreed upon signal at which point they start chanting the next
word/phrase on the grid. After a minute, stop the class and the
detective (who has been observing the class) has three guesses to
figure who was giving the signal.
Telepathic – choose a word/phrase from the grid and write the
number on a whiteboard. Pupils take it in turns to guess the
phrase by saying the word they think it is in French. Correct their
pronunciation as you play.
Read my lips – display grid with words in French and English.
Mouth one of the words in French and pupils have to guess which
one it was. (Remove French words from grid to play passively.)
Girls v Boys - Point to a word. If it’s an even number, the girls
shout word in French and if it’s an odd number the boys shout out
word in French. Give points based on participation or accuracy of
pronunciation.
Passive Games & Activities
Ooh la la
Lotto – Pupils choose 4/6/8 numbers. Show English words and say
one of the words in French aloud. If the pupil has the
corresponding number they cross it off. First pupil to cross off all
their numbers wins. Keep note of the numbers of the words you
say and check by getting the student to repeat the numbers back
to you in French.
More able groups: get a student to act as the teacher and read
out/say from memory the words in French to the class.
Reading lotto - same as above but project grid with words in
French and teacher says English translation aloud.
Stand up lotto – pupils write down three words from the lesson in
English in back of their book. Teacher says words in French. If
they hear one of their three words called out, they must sit down.
Pupil/pupils left standing win.
Listening lotto – tell pupils you are going to read a paragraph on
the topic you have just taught. Pupils must predict 6 (or more)
words that they think will appear in your paragraph. As you read
the paragraph, pupils tally how many times they hear each word
they predicted and pupil with the most tallies wins. Gets pupils
thinking about key words linked to the topic and teaches them the
skill of predicting what they may hear (useful for listening exam).
Strip lotto – project grid with English translations of words
taught. Each pupil has a strip of paper and must choose 7 numbers
from the grid and write them vertically down their piece of paper,
leaving a gap between each number. They can write the same
number more than once. Teacher reads aloud a word in French and
if a pupil has that number at the top or bottom of their strip of
paper they can tear it off. If they have the number but it is in
the middle, they must ignore it. Eventually they will have torn all
numbers off and have one piece left. Once they hear the word
which corresponds to their remaining number they shout lotto.
When playing, ask all pupils to put torn off numbers in a line in the
order they tore them off, so that you can check they haven’t
cheated (keep a note of numbers of words you say in the order
you said them).
Individual Slam – one student at the board. Teacher calls out
words in French and pupil slams correct English word. Pupil who
hits the most words correctly in a minute wins.
Slam – same as above but in two teams. First to five wins. Winner
stays on.
Killer Slam – same as above but choose two teams of 6 or 8. Pupil
who wins stays on and loser from other team is eliminated.
Winning gets to choose next “victim” from opposing team. First
team to eliminate all players on the opposing team wins.
Reading Slam – same as above but print grid with words in French
and teacher calls out words in English.
Slam with fly swatters - same as normal slam but pupils hit words
using fly swatters (they think it’s a different game!).
Passive plenaries
Passive test – Randomly select pupils. Say word in French, they
must tell you what the word means in English.
Petit test – Pupils write numbers one to ten in back of books. Read
out ten words in French, they must write the English in back of
book. Go through answers as whole class.
Levez-vous – Point to word in English on board and say word in
French. If word matches, pupils stand up. If it doesn’t match,
they sit down.
Toy throw – throw toy to a student, say number in French. Pupil
must tell you the meaning of the word that corresponds to that
number on the grid. Pupil then throws toy to another student and
says a number in French, and that student must then translate
into English etc.
Around the world – Pupil stands up and stands behind the chair of
another pupil in the next row. Teacher shouts a word in French
and the first pupil to shout out the English translation wins and
then moves on to the next row, standing behind a pupil in that row.
Pupil who can stay on the longest wins.
Mini whiteboards – teacher reads a word in French. Pupils write
the number of the corresponding English translate on the grid on
their whiteboard and all students display boards.
For more able groups, you could display the words in French
only and describe one of the words in French, e.g. c’est un
fruit jaune (banana).
Qu’est-ce qui manque – display grid with English words only. Read
all of the words aloud in French in order but miss out one (or more
to increase difficulty). When you’ve finished, pupils must tell you
which words you missed out. To maximise participation, hand out
mini whiteboards and get all pupils to write the numbers of the
missing words on their boards and show you.
Active Games – Single Phrases
Plus & minus game
Battleships
Connect four
Noughts & crosses
Wheel of fortune
Heads down thumbs up – Choose between 4-6 pupils to come to
the front. Give them each a mini whiteboard and they write a
number from the grid of words/phrases you have introduced. All
other pupils put their heads on the table and put their thumbs
out. Pupils at front put their boards down and have ten secs to
squeeze the thumb of one pupil in the room and come back to the
front. Pupils all sit up and pupils who had their thumbs squeezed
all stand up. Pupils at the front show the numbers on their boards.
Each pupil stood up must try to guess who squeezed their thumb
by saying the French word which corresponds to the number on
the board of the person they think squeezed their thumb. If they
get it right, they swap.
Jumping jacks – Display grid with English translations of vocab
items introduced. Start a timer for one minute. The whole class
must say all of the vocab items correctly in the minute, but only
one pupil can say a word/phrase at one time and they must go
through them in order. If a pupil wants to attempt to say the
word they must stand up and say it aloud correctly. If another
pupil stands at the same time, all pupils must sit down and they
must restart from the first word/phrase in the grid.
(You can play this game passively with French words projected and
pupils call out English translations.)
Gamble – split class into two teams. Choose one pupil from each
team. Ask one of the pupils how many words/phrases they think
they could say in French correctly in one minute. If the pupil say
six, ask the other pupil if they could do seven and if they say yes
ask the other if they could do eight, etc, until a pupil says no.
When a pupil says no, the other pupil must then come to the board
and attempt to say as many words as they said they could in a
minute. If they succeed, their team wins five points and the
person from the other team must do a dare (e.g. sing a song,
dance). If they do not succeed, the other team wins five points
and the person who accepted the challenge and failed must do a
dare.
Poker – Display grid with English words on. All pupils must draw an
identical blank grid in the back of their books. Point to the first
word and pupils have 5 seconds to decide if they would be
confident enough to say the word in French accurately. If they
feel confident, they tick the first box on the grid they have
drawn in the back of their book. However, if they don’t feel
confident, they can still tick the box and bluff. Teacher then asks
all pupils who ticked their box to put their hand up and will pick
only one pupil to say the French word aloud. If the pupil who is
chosen says the word in French accurately, they get a point for
that square but if they make a mistake they lose all the points
they have earned so far (so the risk is higher as the game
progresses). All other pupils who put their hand up still receive a
point for putting themselves forward whether the chosen pupil
says the French word accurately or not. Pupil(s) with the most
points remaining at the end win(s).
Around the world – See passive for instructions, but teacher calls
out English word and first student to shout word in French wins.
Choisi une victime – split class into two teams. Pupil from one team
must choose a pupil from the opposing team and give them a word
from the lesson to translate.
Flashing – if you have flashcards with pictures for each word,
stand on a chair in front of class. Flash them one of the cards
quickly and first pupil to shout out word in French wins.
Snakes & ladders – split class into two teams. Choose two team
captains. Team captain chooses a member from their team who
must then correctly translate a word/phrase into French given to
them by the teacher. If correctly translated, the pupil gets to
catch the flying dice and team captain moves the team’s counter
on the snakes and ladders board displayed on interactive
whiteboard.
Deal or no deal
Shark attack
Vous avez cinq seconds/Beat the mouse
Horse race/Car race
Active Games – Pulling together/Creating sentences
See all of above games, use same way but with sentences to
translate instead of single words.
1,2,3,4 challenges – display sentences in English for individual
pupils to translate into French orally. The first sentence starts
off quite easy and is worth 1 point whereas the second sentence is
more or less the same but more difficult (extra detail, connective
to link phrases, quality phrase, etc) and worth 2 points, etc. Give
pupils 30 secs- 1 min (depending on difficulty of sentence and
ability of group) to discuss the answer before choosing one pupil
at random to say the sentence aloud in front of the class.
Jeopardy
Mastermind I - split parts of a longer sentence into three
sections, giving 3-4 options for each section, and display on board
in English. Teacher writes a sentence in French (in secret)
choosing one option from each section. Pupils must say the whole
sentence in French choosing one option from each section to
translate. Teacher tells pupils how many sections they guessed
correctly, until a pupil guesses the whole sentence, that the
teacher wrote down, correctly.
Mastermind II - similar to above but split a longer sentence into
5-6 sections, giving 3-4 options per section. Teacher writes a
sentence in French (secretly) choosing one option from each
section. Pupil must translate an option from first section and
teacher tells them immediately if they are wrong or right. If
right, they continue to the next section and translate an option.
If wrong, it passes on to the next pupil who must then start again
from the beginning. Do not allow pupils to write anything down as
they must listen to each other and memorise which parts of the
sentence other pupils guessed correctly.
Active Plenaries
Apple pie – select one pupil to come to the front of the class and
stand with the hands over their eyes and their back to the class.
All other pupils must swap seats. Choose one pupil (point at them)
and say a word from the lesson in English which they must say
aloud in French but when they say it they must disguise their
voice by saying the word in a silly voice. The pupil at the front
then has to guess who said the French word.
Ping pong – choose two pupils to play against one another. Both
pupils stand facing the board. Display grid with English words
taught during the lesson. Teacher points to a word at random on
the grid and pupils take it in turns to correctly translate words
into French. First pupil to hesitate for too long or make a mistake
loses.
Mallet’s mallet – similar to above but do not display grid. Two
pupils come to the front and take it in turns to say a word in
French linked to a topic they have been studying (i.e. food items).
First pupil to repeat a word that has already been said, make a
mistake or hesitate too long is out and teacher “hits” them on the
head with a soft toy or inflatable mallet/hammer.