Why you should be playing more games in French

Speaking French

On my Strategies for Speaking French page, I've outlined some of the strategies that I have put in place in order to encourage my students to speak French. Honestly, one of the best strategies that I've put in place is to make learning French fun. In order to promote speaking and listening, my students play a lot of games in French. 

Why play games?

If kids find the games fun, then they want to play them. And in my classroom, I use games that specifically encourage students to be speaking and listening. We don't play silent games in French class. At first, I did a lot of speaking activities but I found that students were much more motivated and desired to speak French more if there was a game element added to the activity. For example, I used to do the activity "Questions au hasard" with my students and while it is a good activity, I noticed that students didn't seem very excited about doing it. That was because there was no end goal besides just speaking French. I added in a score sheet and created a few simple rules to turn it into more of a game and noticed a big difference in how it was being received with my students.

Introducing Games

Whenever I introduce a new game, I project a reference sheet or the game up on the Smartboard and gather the students around the game and go through the instructions (using student-friendly language in French) and by modelling the rules. Then I play the game with the class. Next I have students break out into pairs and EVERYONE plays the game with a partner at the same time. 

I go from group to group to listen in on their conversations and to offer assistance and feedback if needed. When I notice that students are doing a good job or putting forth a great effort, I reward that with a "billet".


I use these French behaviour tickets to reward positive behaviour. Students may exchange these "billets" for three "billes" (see "Les billes - marbles" for more details) or some extra time for P.A.T. for the class.  

As I mentioned in another blog post, I find it important to create enough copies of the games so that everyone can play at the same time. This allows me to easily notice who needs support and how students are handling the game. It always affords me an opportunity to see how I might tweak the game if need be. Aside from purchased cards (UNO, decks of cards, flashcards), I laminate all of my games (game boards, score trackers, reference sheets), so that they can be used year after year. 


I created a reference sheet with commonly used phrases when playing games that I introduce and use with my students when they are playing games so that everything can be done in French. 
After we have played the games enough that students are familiar with them, we play them in Game Centers, with French buddies, and when students have completed work early.






Where do I get my games? 

I have created most my games myself (or with my wife). It has taken hours and hours to create these games, as we aim to make them fun but also functional in helping students to improve their French. Most of them are available in our TeachersPayTeachers store (some are a free download, some are not). We have purchased a few of our games from other vendors - if you click on the title of each game, it will take you to where you can buy that game. 

It does take a long time to actually physically produce them, especially since I like to have a class set of everything. It costs money to print in colour (thank goodness Ontario teachers who are Edvantage members now have a 10% discount off of certain printing services at Staples - see the deal through Edvantage), it takes time to cut everything out, laminate it and cut it out again. I suggest you buy a good paper trimmer and a good laminator. We like 5mm laminating pouches the best and buy ours from Walmart. We often put on Netflix in the background while we make our games. HOWEVER, it is completely worth the effort. Once you've made them, then you have them forever. My students highly enjoy playing games, so they enjoy speaking French. I try to package my games so that they all fit neatly into pencil cases or soap boxes that go into specific bins from Dollarama so everything looks nice and orderly. This is a picture of just part of my games wall. 

What games do I use and how do I use them?

Games to get students speaking: 

UNO Card Game: 
Materials for a class of 20 students: -6 decks of UNO cards (can buy from many locations - Dollarama, Walmart, etc)
-6 reference sheets
-Students play in groups of 3-4.

I purchased my card sets from Walmart and labelled each card set with a unique number and bought containers from the Dollarama to hold the cards (since soap containers were not big enough for the UNO decks). I created a simple reference sheet for my students that included phrases such as "J'ai un # (couleur)." "Manque ton tour." "Je change la couleur à (nouvelle couleur)." My rule is that you cannot play silently, you must tell your partner what you are doing every time you play a card or pick up a card. 

Pige dans le lac (Go Fish) 
Materials for a class of 20 students: 
-10 decks of cards (numbered so that lost cards can be returned to the correct deck and stored in a numbered soap container)
-10 reference sheets

- Students play in pairs.

Students practice asking questions with the verb "avoir". They also review their basic numbers in French. I created this reference page to help support more speaking in French while students are playing the game. 

Qui suis-je (Guessing Game) 
Materials for a class of 20 students: 
-10 decks of cards (numbered so that lost cards can be returned to the correct deck and stored in a numbered soap container)
-10 reference sheets

- Students play in pairs. 

Students pretend to be a number and try to guess who their partner is (what number they have), using the the verb "être". They are also practicing basic numbers and numeration in French with "higher than" and "lower than" phrases in French. I created this game after I saw how much my students loved playing "Pige dans le lac". 

Questions au hasard 
Materials for a class of 20 students: 
-10 game boards 
-24 BINGO chips per game board (I store mine in plastic baggies from the Dollarama and buy the BINGO chips from Walmart)
-20 score cards (1 per player) 
-10 dice (1 per game)

- Students play in pairs. This is the game that started out as a speaking activity that we created but then we modified it into a game. Students take turns asking and answering questions. As they answer questions, they fill up a score sheet, which has two slots per question. The first person to have their score sheet completed wins.
This has students practice asking "est-ce que" questions with the verbs "pouvoir", "vouloir", "aimer", "avoir", "être" and "préférer". Each question is started but students need to actually come up with what they are asking. There are many stems and possible ways suggested for students to complete the question, which gives to support to those who need it. Students are not required to use those examples. Students also practice how to answer the question in a complete sentence and there is a "parce que" stem to encourage students to justify their answers. 

I also have versions that practice "qu'est-ce que" questions, intonation, and inversion, as well as a question variety pack (comment, quand, quel/quelle, combien, où, and qui questions) and a futur proche & passé composé (with the verbs aller, visiter, and faire). I love how much differentiation is available with this game. Students of all levels can access this game so that it suits their needs and challenges them at the right level. Some students might just be working on asking questions using the support stems and answering them in a complete sentence without the "parce que". Other students may just be using the question starters but coming up with their own unique endings and answering questions with detailed justifications of their answers. 

I start out giving the students regular dice and if they are on task, I will promote them larger dice. I have three sizes in total.

 

Le Défi Français 1 - Now available in our TPT store!
Materials for a class of 20 students: 
-10 game sets
-20 player tokens (1 per player) 
-10 dice (1 per game)

- Students play in pairs. 

This is a board game that I created that involves all the great elements of a board game - a special "track" on the board, with some twists and turns, question cards (of varying difficulty, worth different point values), and chance cards (that affect players). I currently have made three versions of this game - my students LOVE this game! It promotes so much speaking. Each game has 30 different easy questions and 10 different hard questions. The questions vary from version to version and the game mechanics change in the different versions as well.

Le Défi Français 2 

Materials for a class of 20 students: 
-10 game sets
-20 player tokens (1 per player) 
-10 dice (1 per game)

- Students play in pairs. 

This is the second version of Le Défi Français. In this version, students are exposed to 50 new question cards (30 easier questions, 20 harder questions) and risk cards! Sometimes when students land on a question square, they have the option of taking a risk card, after they've answered their question. The risk cards can have HUGE rewards or SERIOUS consequences! However, students can choose whether or not they want to draw the card. The first person to finish the game gets a 5 point bonus and triggers the end of the game. The player with the most points wins!


Connectez les mots
Materials for a class of 20 students: 
-10 packages of English-French flashcards from Canadian Curriculum Press (we bought them at Staples)
-10 game boards
-40 BINGO chips per game (20 of one colour and 20 of a different colour)
- Students play in pairs. 

My wife bought these flashcards at Staples and didn't know what she could do with them since they show a picture of what's on the reverse side. We both liked the cards and thought it would be a great way to introduce/review French vocabulary so I came up with the idea to use them in a "Connect 4" type of game. I created a game board with the words all typed out. Students lay down the cards and select a card that is face up by saying it's name. If they are correct, they get to place a BINGO chip on that square on the game board and the card is flipped over so that the image on the reverse is revealed and the turn is over. If the guess is incorrect *to verify, the students flip over the card as the answer is on the back corner*, that turn ends.  You can play to see who can get the most chips on the board, or who can create as many four-in-a-row as possible. It's a great way to expose students to more vocabulary.

Spot it (Basic French) 
Materials for a class of 20 students: 
-6 games of Spot it! (I refer to the game as "Trouve-le")
-optional: I made a reference page for this and print of 10 copies of the reference page to go with the game.
- Students play in groups of 3-4. 

I teach my students how to play each of the different versions of Spot it!, we play it in French. Instructions are included with the game. My students really enjoy this game and as an added bonus it exposes them to 57 French vocabulary words. 

Games to help students with French sounds/French reading:

Les mots fréquents 

Materials for a class of 20 students: 
-10 sets of Les mots fréquents

I have made High Frequency Word lists for Grade 1, 2 and 3 French Immersion, each containing 100 words: 100 high frequency cards for Level 1 (Grade 1 French Immersion), 100 high frequency cards for Level 2 (Grade 2 French Immersion), and 100 high frequency cards for Level 3 (Grade 3 French Immersion). Each level has 5 sub-sets of cards: A, B, C, D, and E. Each sub-set of cards contains 20 different high frequency words. The file for each level contains two copies of each sub-set, which is what you need in order to play the games as the goal of each game is to make pairs of the same word. 

Students learn 300 new high frequency words in French through four fun games with these double-sided flashcards. Reference sheets are included for each game so the students can play them all in French These are AMAZING and are helping my students learn their high frequency words in a fun, hands-on way. 

La course des voyelles
Materials for a class of 20 students: 
-10 game sets
     -Each set has :
     -100 cards in total (20 cards per vowel sound)
     -game board
     -hint or “indices” trackers (each tracker contains 6 slots for tokens)
     -2 sided reference sheet (side 1: title page side 2: all pictures and words for each vowel sound)
-10 dice (1 per game)
-10 player tokens (1 per player)
-hint tokens (6 per player – this could be counters/chips)

Here is a game that I created to practice French vowel sounds, while also building/reviewing vocabulary. Students roll to advance along the game board, drawing cards of images and identifying the vocabulary it represents. Students have a reference sheet to use if they need it, but they have a limited number of times they can use it for help. There is exposure to over 100 different French words through this one game!

BINGO - Les sons

Materials for a class of 20 students: 
-20 BINGO cards
-Smart Notebook Interactive Bingo word caller (or caller sheet (to cut out individual words to call) and tracking sheet to keep track of the words called)
- BINGO chips (many)
-We play as a class.

I created this game to help my students practice their sounds, but to also introduce/review French vocabulary. Each game focuses on the sound a specific sound, with 24 different vocabulary words that contain that sound. I made BINGO games for 10 sounds in total. Every word is on every card, but no two cards are the same, so students are engaged every time a word a called as they search to find the word on their card. 

Serpents et échelles 
Materials for a class of 20 students: 
-10 copies of Serpents et échelles des syllabes (from Littératout)
     - each set contains 1 game board and a set of easy syllable cards and a set of more difficult syllable cards
-20 game tokens (1 per player)
-10 dice (1 per game)
-Students play in pairs.
I found this game on Littératout (which requires a paid subscription) and my students really liked it. I ended up creating a slightly different game board because I found that the Snakes & Ladder board game from their site didn't facilitate very long games. However, the syllable cards are great! Students roll a dice and before they can advance, they have to draw a syllable card and read it out loud (they can choose an easy one or a difficult one). Once they have read it, they can advance to the space that they rolled.  It's a great way to refine pronunciation as well as improve reading skills. 
Our version of the board is available here. 

La course à dix 
Materials for a class of 20 students: 
-10 game boards
-20 BINGO chips per game board (I store mine in plastic baggies from the Dollarama and buy the BINGO chips from Walmart)
-ten 12-sided dice (1 per game- we purchased from a local gaming store)
- Students play in pairs. 

I created this game to help my students continue to practice their sounds in a fun way. It's a sound-word association game with some risk involved! Students try to fill up their score card first but have to be careful because there is always a risk that the other player could remove some of their chips. Each game board has three different ways of playing the game and features 10 different sounds.



La tour française 
Materials for a class of 20 students: 
-10 sets of tumbling blocks (from Dollarama but could be from anywhere, Jenga works too)
  -I divide the number of blocks by 7 and number them equally from 1 to 7. 
-20 stories (I print enough copies so that there are two copies of the story per tower so that students don't need to share their story)
-Students play in pairs.
I created this game as an engaging way to practice reading comprehension, as well as active listening. Students pick a block, answer a question about a French text and keep the block (as a point) if they answered correctly. We made four unique stories and each story has 14 comprehension questions. The answers can all be found in the text. If the answer is not correct, the block must be returned to the top of the tower. My students really love to play this game!

Writing Activity 

While this is not a game, this is an activity that I do with my students once they have been playing our oral communication games so that they can practice their writing.  

Check out this blog post to learn more. 

Please check back as I am always adding to this list and I still have games in my classroom that I use to add to this post. If you have any games that you think I should be using, or that you would like to see created, please send me an email at kurtisandamandahartnell@gmail.com . Thanks for reading!