Vocabulary Pictures
This activity for introducing or practicing vocabulary works well as a cross curricular
activity as it can integrate into other subject areas such as Art, penmanship or cursive
writing, or creative writing.
Materials:
Colouring books or simple black-line drawings from the internet. If possible, get
drawings that coordinate with the unit or theme such as drawings of jungle or zoo
animals for a unit on wild animals or drawings of fruit or a fruit basket for a theme on
food.
Blank 8 ½” x 11” paper
Pencils, crayons
Procedure:
Decide on the vocabulary and/or vocabulary phrases that you want to introduce to the
students.
Decide how you want the vocabulary used.
• write the French vocabulary word followed by the English translation
• write the vocabulary words in sentence frames such as “La pomme est rouge” or “La
banane est jaune”.
• use the vocabulary to write a simple story.
Once the students know the expectations for the vocabulary, staple a blank sheet of paper
over each black line drawing so that the lines can be seen easily through the paper.
The students will then use the tracing lines and in their best penmanship, will write the
vocabulary words over and over creating a “drawing” made with lacey handwriting.
In order to fill in all the lines on the drawing, the vocabulary words will need to be
written many times. This will help with the repetition required to learn the words as well
as give them lots of practice with their penmanship. When they are finished writing, they
may colour the pictures and if all different pictures are used, this can make an attractive
bulletin board.