Games to Teach Foreign Language - Suggestions Needed

[aka-mad4themouse]

I teach French to grade school students in my school district (a grades 1&2 class and a grades 3-4 class). The class is voluntary, meets once per week and lasts 40 minutes. I've been doing it for several years now and really enjoy it but I need to breathe some fresh life into the curriculum, if not for the kids, then for myself. Does anyone have suggestions for games that can be played in the classroom that do not require a lot of materials or long set times? I'd appreciate any ideas you can offer.

 

[TheGoofster]

I teach French to grade school students in my school district (a grades 1&2 class and a grades 3-4 class). The class is voluntary, meets once per week and lasts 40 minutes. I've been doing it for several years now and really enjoy it but I need to breathe some fresh life into the curriculum, if not for the kids, then for myself. Does anyone have suggestions for games that can be played in the classroom that do not require a lot of materials or long set times? I'd appreciate any ideas you can offer.

We've used MadLibs quite often when teaching English to Spanish students. Easy to use, almost no set up required, and the kids really enjoy it. With younger kids you might want to get the younger version of Madlibs.

 

[brasswillow]

How about Bingo. You could either have a card with pictures of objects, words, or a mix of pictures and words. You either call out a word or show a picture and they have to match picture to word or word to picture. If you want very little prep work all you would need to do is make up a list of words and have the kids make their own bingo cards.

 

[momsgoofy]

I've taught sign language and Spanish for kids ages 5 - 12 over the last 10 years and here are some of my games I use...some everyone knows and some I've made up to make learning fun. I've got quite a stash of prizes for the kids, too. I collect kids meal toys, freebies from the cereal boxes, stickers, pencils, pens, rulers...whatever I can get my hands on that kids might like and don't cost much or are preferably free. Our local state fair has tons of booths with freebies the kids like.

Bingo...I use this for animals, holidays or just about anything...whatever the topic I'm teaching is. I just print the grids myself and the "numbers" for calling...same thing...just print them myself and cut them up to pull out of a hat.

Simon says....this is a good way of teaching commands and verbs. I use my name...Laura says sit...stand...walk...run...all of the motions are done in place. The kids love this one.

"Family Feud" - I divide the class into 2 groups and have each one come up and pull the "family member" out of the hat. Whatever the student pulls out they have to say in the language. The other side guesses what it is in English. If they can guess it correctly, they get a point. The team with the most points wins. I throw 5 point bonuses in the hat...a simple sentence.

To teach foods, I pretend that the kids have to cook for me. I break them up into small groups and pick a meal (breakfast, lunch or dinner) and they can prepare anything they want, but it has the menu has to be told to the class in the language. I once had some kids fix me hamburgers for breakfast.

For colors and shapes, I have the kids color pictures for me. Sometimes I do the pages as color by numbers so they can see the names for the colors in the language. I've used art projects to teach colors also. I don't know if you've seen the tissue paper flowers, but I let the kids make those in class to teach colors. I had many different colors of tissue paper and the kids had to use the vocabulary to get the materials.

I take whatever games or fun things I can think of to keep the kids interested, which is kind of a shame, but kids today have so many things that are exciting to compete with that you've gotta hold their attention some how.

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

Thanks for the great suggestions. I think that I actually saw some French MadLibs books on a teaching website. Maybe I'll order one to see how I can use it.

I already do colors & shapes BINGO, animal charades, color-by-numbers sheets, the "hotter/colder" game for directions, the fly swatter game, Jacques a dit (French Simon says), Le Pendu (hangman - for reviewing the alphabet and basic phrases), Jeopardy and a matching game (pictures and words). I'm going to have to try the Family Feud game. It sounds like fun.

I use the overhead projector to show a hidden pictures image on the white board and then have the students direct another by shouting "higher", "lower", "to the right", "to the left", etc. in French.

We do a numbers game by making a grid on the white board and writing a number in each block. The students divide into 2 teams and a student from one team tosses a damp sponge at the grid. The sponge leaves a wet spot where it hits so that there are fewer arguments about where it landed. Whatever number it hits is the number that they have to give me in French. Numbers are worth their own value in points. So the number 38 (which we learn later) is worth more than the number 3. If the student cannot give me the correct number, then the opposing team gets to "steal" it for half the points. Winning team earns bragging rights and gets dismissed first.

I don't like to get too artsy-craftsy b/c I don't have my own classroom. I have to make sure that I leave the classroom I use on time and in clean condition for the incoming teacher and her class. So, we might do a little bit of cutting and very little gluing...definitely no paint. We make our own paper digital clocks and then I have the children set their clocks to certain times which I give in French. I learned a long time ago that very few of today's kids can read an analog clock when they're in the early primary grades and very few language worksheets have anything other than analog clocks on them.

Anyone else have any ideas to liven things up?

 

[SplshMtnLvr28]

Frap frap!

It's really good for teaching vocab. My french teacher in middle school used it, and now even in high school it's really helpful.

First, write a bunch of the vocab words on the white/blackboard, in either french or english. Then, divide the class into two teams, give one person from each a flyswatter (or they can just use their hands, but fly swatters make it more fun ) and then you say a word (in english if you wrote the words on the board in french, and vice versa) and then who ever slaps it with the flyswatter first gets the point for their team, and then everyone takes turns.

It's really fun!

 

[Kathring]

When I was in 6th grade, we had a fun contest in our French class. WAY back when (lol!), the Big Mac ingredients list sang as a song was big on TV. We had to learn & recite that entire thing in French. I won for our class and the winners got a pizza party (guess that was easier than McDs food, but we were kinda bummed about it).

To this day 25+ year later, I can still recite that whole thing! LMAO - yep, THAT was usefull info - two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun - LOL! (Can not for the life of me remeber how to spell that all in French now!)

 

[Northstar]

Here's a good link to games (on a site geared to teaching English as a second/foreign language to kids, but most of the games will translate easily):

http://www.esl4kids.net/games.html


Another good one, if you can make a bit of open space and don't mind the kids being a bit noisy (it's a good pick-me-up rather than a settler) is a combo of Red Rover and Musical Chairs... everybody except one person sits in chairs in a circle. The one person without a chair calls out a color, or with more advanced students, a color and/or an article of clothing (green T-shirt! Brown shorts!) Everybody who's wearing that color or thing has to get up and dash to trade seats with somebody else who had to get up. The person in the middle, who called the color, grabs a chair. So somebody is left standing and becomes the person to call the next color/item of clothing.