Foreign Language Vocabulary and Verb Form Activities-Based on Sudoku

I always see kids and adults working on Sudoku puzzles in books and in newspapers. I decided that I wanted to take advantage of the Sudoku craze.  I figured that if kids were into this number puzzle they could possibly transfer this enjoyment and motivation onto a Sudoku-like vocabulary activity.  I tried a few different ways of crafting it, but it got a bit complicated and the end result was that there was more of a focus on the logic than on the letters, spelling, and vocabulary.  But, I didn’t give up.

I eventually came up with a way to use the Sudoku solutions board to make a verb form activity.  Students need to find the correct verb form in the grid (there are multiple) and fill in the correct number.  When each box has a number, the student can verify his or her work by adding up each row.  The total will be 45 for each row, column and diagonal (since each line will have the numbers 1-9, which add up to 45).  Here is an example:

–Find the « je » form of the verbs « manger » and « finir » and write the number « 1 » in the box (nine number « 1 » total).  Continue with the other subjects.  To check your answers, add up the numbers in each row, column and diagonal. The total is 45.

You can easily make your own boards using the solutions to Sudoku puzzles (available in any Sudoku book or in a newspaper.  You can write the verb forms in by hand, but I find that it is easier to make a template in a Word document with the numbers so that you can just type over the number.  Make a few templates that you can use so that the numbers are not in the same places every time.  Here are a few templates to get you started or you can download some Sudoku verb activities that are already made:

• French Verb Activities
• Spanish Verb Activities