MFL Activities Lots of activities ideas and resources

MFL Activities Lots of activities, ideas and resources to use in your MFL lessons.

SKILLS reading numeracy listening ICT speaking writing dictionary

Mood Cards When doing a speaking activity each student is given a mood card. They have to portray this mood while they are speaking and their partner must guess the word in the TL. nervioso/a

Darts Bought from the 99 p Store. I use as a plenary. If students get the question right they can throw the dart. Group with the most points wins. A good one for the boys.

Adjectives (2) Another good idea when covering adjectives. Take photo to stick in their books.

Dice Gap Fill 1 2 3 4 5 6 A Luc Pierre Yohan Thierry Quentin Laurent B sept quinze dix-sept dix-huit neuf six C Normalem ent Tous les jours Une fois par semaine Une fois par mois Tous les deux jours Quelquefoi s D du pain grillé des céréales un pain au chocolat du fruit E du jus d’orange du thé du café du jus de de l’eau pomme du lait F six sept huit G H I un du pain croissant neuf dix onze la ma la salle à la le salon le jardin cuisine chambre manger voiture ma mon ma mes mon soeur frère copain famille parents petit ami savoure nourriss délicieux bon goûteux génial ux ant Roll the dice and fill in the gaps of your paragraph. A Salut, je m’appelle ________ et B j’ai ______ ans. C _____________ au petit déjeuner D je mange _________ et E je bois ____________. F D’habitude je mange le petit déjeuner à _____ heures G dans _______ H avec __________. I J’adore manger du pain grillé avec du beurre et de la confiture parce que c’est _________.

Trapdoor Student has to read through guessing the correct answer. If they get it right they carry on. If they get it wrong someone else ha to have a go but start from the beginning. Lots of repetition – great for listening skills. First one to the end wins a prize.

Adjectives Nice idea when learning adjectives. Students could do this for homework.

Creative Descriptions Fun way of presenting a piece of writing.

Number Flashcards Write some random numbers (including negatives) on the board and stick flashcards over them. Students are in teams, they tell you a phrase, you take off the flashcard and that is the number of points they get.

Question Chairs Hide Common Core questions under their seat and announce 'hot seat' sometime during the day. Whoever has a question under their seat has to answer it.

Guess the Word Everybody standing up. Write a word on a whiteboard and students have to guess what it is and write it on their own. They reveal their boards then teacher reveals theirs. If they have matched, they can sit down. If not, they rub off their word and start again.

Phrase of the Week Give students a word/phrase of the week. If they use it correctly in context they win a raffle ticket. One of these is picked out at the end of each week and this student wins a lolly.

JAUNE BLEU ROUGE BRUN BLANC NOIR ORANGE VERT VIOLET GRIS BLEU ROUGE BRUN BLANC NOIR GRIS VERT VIOLET JAUNE BLEU ROUGE BRUN BLANC NOIR ORANGE VERT VIOLET

Heads and Tails Sentences Give students some starts and ends of sentences and they have to join them up. Hier je suis allé J’ai voyagé J’ai visité J’ai mangé en avion. un croissant. en France. les monuments.

What do you know about…? Tell your partner everything you know about…

Ball Repetition Students throw the ball around the room repeating the word after the teacher.

Card Finder Place flashcards on the walls around the room. Say the word in the TL/English and students point to the correct part of the room.

Miming Mime a word and students shout in the target language.

Passez la bombe Buy a kitchen timer and put it in a small black box. Put the timer in the box. When you play, set the timer for between 1 -2 mins, put into box and say a question you've covered recently which can have many different answers. Pass the bomb to first pupil, who can pass it on when they've said an answer. Whoever is holding the bomb when it goes off has to do a forfeit.

4 Chairs 4 chairs at the front of the class. The rest of class must ask each in turn a question. If they are correct the person stays on the chair. If not the questioner takes place. The 4 still on the chairs at the exact moment the bell rings gain points/sweets.

First Letters Give the students the first letter of each word in a sentence. They have to figure out what the sentence is. JVABDLM Je vais au bord de la mer.

Knocking Out Teeth Divide the class into two teams. Ask individual team members questions. Draw two big mouths on the whiteboard, giving each about 8 teeth. If they get it RIGHT, you erase one tooth from the OPPONENTS mouth. Other suggestions: • Draw sweets and take them away • Eat up each others’ apples, bananas, ice-creams, etc. • Draw a person for each; then, with each mistake they make, draw a part of something around them; if they lose, they end up with a large monster’s mouth swallowing them.

(1) Mon collège s’appelle (2) J’aime (4) Je déteste les maths parce que le prof est les maths l’histoire l’anglais Ridgewood School. Hallcross School. Danum School. (3) parce que c’est ennuyeuse irascible méchante (5) Le dessin est plus ennuyeux que (6) Ma matière préférée est la géographie le sport l’espagnol (7) parce que facile. intéressant. amusant. l’histoire la technologie les sciences j’adore apprendre les langues. c’est très facile.

Encore Une Fois Similar to previous. One volunteer to leave the room. Rest of class agree on answers. The volunteer comes back in and begins to read and guesses a/b/c. If correct he continues. If incorrect he must go back to the beginning and guess again. Every time the volunteer gets the answer wrong, he must go back to the beginning and class says ”encore une fois”. This could then be done in pairs. (1) Mon collège s’appelle Ridgewood School. Hallcross School. Danum School.

6 15 19 6 9 0 21 22 6 24 12 22 Students crack the code to guess the topic of today’s lesson. A B C D E F G H I J K L M 19 18 6 12 22 11 2 21 25 10 9 5 3 N O P Q R S T U VWX Y Z 16 24 13 17 15 1 0 23 7 4 20 14 8

Find in the text Students underline/highlight (in different colours) verbs, adjectives, verbs in the present tense etc.

Say the next word Provide students with a text. Read the text aloud then stop. Students have to say the next word/next word in the sequence.

Against the clock Time pupils to read out a paragraph/sentence.

Gap Fill Write words/sentences in the board with letters/words missing. Students have to fill in the gaps. ___ m’appelle John. J’____ en Angleterre avec ____ famille.

Find the missing word Read out a list of words. E. G. days of the week, months, colours. Then reread the list omitting one word. Students have to say the missing word.

Moving dictation Teacher reads out a text, the students write a sentence and then pass their exercise book to another student who writes the next sentence.

Adjective Students find an adjective for first letter of their name.

Kings and Queens At the end of the lesson, get two pupils up the front, you say the English, the first kid to say the word in the target language wins and the other sits down, to be replaced by another pupil. The person left standing when the bell goes is officially king or queen of the class.

Beat the Teacher Write down numbers on the board. Point at a number and say what it is. Pupils repeat. If you say the word incorrectly they have to stay quiet. If they are quiet they gain a point.

Snap Students are given a pack of cards with images/words in English. Students play ‘Snap’ and the first person to say the word in the target language gets to keep the card. The student with the most cards wins.

Mini Whiteboards Ask students questions which they answer on their mini whiteboards. If someone’s answer isn’t quite right, hold up their board and ask how it could be improved.

Separate Words Writeasentenceinthe targetlanguagewhich studentshavetosepar ate.

Choral Repetition When doing choral repetition ask certain people to repeat e. g. girls, boys, people with blue eyes, people who have a pet.

Elevens Go around the room saying 1, 2 or 3 numbers in the target language. Number 11 is out.

Verb Murderer One student goes out of the room, another is the murderer. Students chant verb endings. The murderer has to give a signal for everyone to change the chant, the other student has to guess who the murderer is.

Amateur Dramatics Students walk around the room, teacher says stop and a word from the topic E. G. verb, weather, animal and the students have to act that word out.

Brain Gym Images right left both Students are given a sheet of images with colours next to them. When they hear the word for that image they put up the correct hand/s.

Brain Gym Tenses right - future left - preterite both – present vamos puedo fui voy a ir

Wingdings Code Students are given a text in the target language and have to use the codes to figure out the meaning.

YMCA When introducing new vocab students make an F or an M shape depending on whether they think the word is masculine or feminine.

Find your partner Students are given a question/answer, start/end of sentence, word in English/TL and have to find their partner.

Jumbled Images Give students a text and some images. They put the images in the correct order. Lundi je joue au tennis. Mardi je fais de la natation. Mercredi je fais du shopping.

Bingo Ideal as a starter activity to practise numbers in target language.

Countdown Students think of words in the target language using the letters provided.

Spot the Mistake Write sentences on the board relating to the current topic which include common errors made my students. Students have to spot the errors and correct them.

Word search Create a word search using the link below. Good to get them thinking at the start of the lesson.

Under the Desk Introduce new vocabulary by sticking words under pupils’ desks before they arrive. They have to race to find the meaning of their word in the dictionary then share with the rest of the class.

Odd One Out Write lists of words on the board in the target language. Students have to decide which is the odd one out from each set and why.

One of two game Students are shown images and have to decide which of the two words it is. 1. amarillo 2. naranja

Think, pair, share Think of 1 thing you learnt last lesson. Discuss it with your partner. Join up with another pair and discuss your answers as a group.

Spelling Bee Split the class into two teams. Students take it in turns to spell words from the current topic. The team with the most correctly spelt words wins.

True Wall False Wall Teacher reads out a statement and if it is correct, pupils turn to the true wall. If it is incorrect, they turn to the false wall and offer a suggestion as to why.

Put text in correct order Cut up a text into sentences and students have to read through it and put it in the correct order.

Pupil Feedback Tell a couple of pupils at the start of the lesson that they will be expected to feedback at the end. These pupils write up a summary of the main points on the board. The rest of the class decides if they agree or disagree with their summary.

Think, pair, share Think of 1 thing you have learnt today. Discuss it with your partner. Join up with another pair and discuss your answers as a group.

XOXO Split the class into 2 teams. Draw a 6 x 6 grid with words/images in each box. If a student from the team is able to say the word in the box they can put a X or a O. The team which gets 3 in a row wins.

Test Your Partner At the back of your partner’s book. Write 3 questions about what you have learnt in today’s lesson. Your partner answers them and you mark them.

Present Tense Write a sentence in the present tense using vocabulary you have learnt in today’s lesson.

Strip Bingo Students write a list of words from the current topic on a piece of paper. If the teacher calls out a word from the top or bottom of their sheet they must tear it off. The first student to get all their words read out is the winner. dog cat ea guin pig use mo

I went to the supermarket… Students play ‘I went to the supermarket and I bought…’ using vocabulary learnt throughout the lesson.

Memory game Students have to say which word is missing/has disappeared from the Power. Point.

Like/dislike Make like/dislike and activity cards. In pairs, students take it in turns to take a card from each pile and try to say the sentence. E. G Me gusta nadar en la piscina.

Vocab matchup Make cards/Smart Board games with words in English and the target language. Students have to match up the words. They could time themselves to do this.

Find words in the text Find and highlight these words in the text: a) normally b) in the garden c) when it rains Normalement j’aime jouer au foot dans le jardin avec mon frère. Quand il pleut j’aime aller au cinéma avec ma famille.

Running dictation Place texts on the wall around the room. In groups students have to take it in turns to remember as much of the text as they can in 1 minute before returning to their table and dictating to the writer. The group with the text closest to the on the wall wins.

Back to back descriptions Students sit back to back. One student describes an object/image to the other who has to draw it.

Stand up sit down Say sentences in the target language. Students sit down when the sentence applies to them. E. G. J’ai les yeux bleus.

Wordle (1) Students type up their written work onto the website below. Repeated words will be bigger than others. Good for GCSE. *Apparently if you put a tilde in between two words it keeps them together.

Wordle (2) Type in a list of vocabulary such as adjectives to describe people. They have to underline in red, words to describe their mum etc.

Wordle (3) Type in a list of words from a speaking activity. Get the students to listen to the text and number the words when they hear them. *Include words which aren’t there as well.

Tagxedo Similar to Wordle. Not used it much yet but looks like it may be better!

Finger Spelling In pairs students use their finger to draw a word in the TL on their partner’s back. Their partner has to guess the word.

Dominoes Make vocab domino cards for students to match up. Example

Who am I? Students are given cards with objects/people on them and they have to guess what they are by asking their teammates questions.

Creative Writing This one could be useful when learning the conditional.

Spot the Difference

Presenting Vocabulary Would look great in their books.

Colours A creative way of presenting colours.