Category Archives: Activities and Games

Foreign Language Writing and Spelling Practice Activity

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This is a fun and engaging activity that will help students to practice and review the spelling of  vocabulary. Students work/play in groups of 2 or 3.  Cards with pictures first need to be cut out individually and placed in a pile next to the game board with the picture side facing down.  This is also a good use of Memory/Concentration cards that you have in your classroom.

Foreign (Worlf) Language Writing and Spelling Practice Activity (French, Spanish) wlteacher.wordpress.com

The first player begins by taking the first card from the top of the pile and looking at the picture. He/she must then write the word for the picture in the grid on the game board (without articles). Players should use pencil so that the letters can be erased if the word is not spelled correctly.  If another player questions the spelling, he/she can either look at the spelling on the reference sheet or ask the teacher. If the spelling is incorrect the word must be erased and the player loses the turn. If the spelling is correct, play continues to the next player. Once it is decided that the word is spelled correctly in the grid, the player counts up the point value of each letter (in the corner of the box) and adds it to the total under the grid.

Foreign (Worlf) Language Writing and Spelling Practice Activity (French, Spanish) wlteacher.wordpress.comPlayers can write the words anywhere in the grid (horizontally: left/right or vertically: top/bottom). If a player uses a letter already on the board he/she doubles the point value of the square of the shared letter. New words do not have to build on existing words. Players can’t add onto a word that is already in the puzzle, but words can begin and end in adjoining squares.  If a player is unable to identify the word or can’t fit in on the board the turn is forfeited. It is best to set a time limit and the deck of picture cards can be shuffled and reused, or the rule can be to go through the deck 2-4 times. The player with the highest total wins the game.

Foreign (Worlf) Language Writing and Spelling Practice Activity (French, Spanish) wlteacher.wordpress.com

These activities can be made by creating grids in a WORD document or you can download these activities that are ready to use:

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Foreign Language Speaking Activity that Moves Students from Novice to Intermediate

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At the novice level, students are speaking with single words and lists initially, then move on to chunked phrases.  As students move up to the intermediate proficiency level they begin to create discrete sentences on their own that move beyond chunked phrases.  This tends to be the most challenging for students as they begin to create with language and are not relying on memorized phrases to chunk together.  Teachers can help scaffold this process for students by assisting them in creating sentences.

Foreign Language Speaking Activity that Moves Students from Novice to Intermediate (French, Spanish) www.wlclassroom.comI have found that using question words with students is a simple and effective way to have students add details to their sentences that move from memorized, chunked phrases to discrete sentences that are created by the student.  The more they do this the more they will grow in confidence and begin to do it on their own when writing.

Here is a version of Memory (or concentration) with a twist. Instead of using pictures and words this version uses verb forms.  Half of the cards have a subject pronoun and an infinitive. The other cards have the correct verb form to match each subject/verb pair.  Along with the conjugated verb forms are 2 or 3 questions words as well as an affirmative or negative symbol [(+) (-)]. 

In order for the player to win the pair he or she  must say a complete sentence that includes the subject and correct verb form as well as the information from the question words and in the negative if indicated. If the player is not able to make a complete sentence he does not get the pair of cards and must turn them back over.  The winner is the player who has the most cards when all of the cards have been claimed.  The verb cards look like this:

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This activity helps move student speaking from the novice level to the intermediate level by showing them how easily and effectively they can can speak in complete, discrete sentences.

You can download resources to use with this proficiency-building activity by clicking the links below.

 

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Foreign Language Vocabulary Activities (The Barrier)

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I try to find new ways to use these materials beyond their original intended purpose before giving up on them.  One such activity is the Memory or Concentration game that always seems to be on a shelf somewhere in the classroom.

In this variation two students sit facing each other and place a barrier such a book between each other so that each one can’t see the tabletop area in front of the other person.  One student takes the picture cards and the other takes the cards with the words.   The student with the words lines the cards up in any order that he wants.  He then reads off the list to the other person who lines up his picture cards in the order that he hears.  When done, the barrier is removed and they can check to see that they are lined up in the same order.  They can then switch sides or try other variations such as having the student with the picture cards read off the list and the student with the word cards lines them up in the correct order.  Here is what it may look like:

French Memory Games

Spanish Memory Games

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Posted in Activities and Games, Listening, Speaking

Foreign Language Verb Form Practice Activity (Powerpoint)

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This is a great way to have students practice verb forms and tenses . The powerpoint is projected  on a white board so that you can write in the  the subjects, the verbs, and the tenses (present, future, Preterit, Imperfect, commands, etc.) or they can be easily typed right onto the powerpoint slides as in the example below.  On each click the die “rolls” and three dice appear. The students say or write the verb form represented by the number combination. I usually have students write their answers on small dry-erase boards. This is a great template for use with any verbs or tenses.

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Foreign Language Vocabulary Practice-Go Fish!

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Foreign (World) Language Vocabulary Practice: Go Fish! (French, Spanish) wlteacher.wordpress.comStudents know how to play Go Fish and it great to be able to tap into this to have students practice vocabulary.  This activity remains very communicative because students must use the vocabulary to play, but the goal is to collect the cards.   The teacher simply needs to print out and cut up the cards and give a group of 3-4 students the pile to play. Several sets work best so that several groups can play. This is a an effective review game and a ideal opportunity for students to speak with each other in the foreign language.  Go Fish! also works well as a station activity.

Download Go Fish! games here:

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Writing Practice in the Foreign Language Using Verb Forms

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You’ll be surprised by how quickly and confidently your students are writing when you use this activity with them.  This is a great way to build confidence in writing, while reviewing and practicing verb forms and meaning.  Before engaging in the activities, there are slides to review subject pronouns and verb forms.

Before each activity, students number their paper or mini white board 1-8. A picture of a subject and an infinitive are revealed on the left side of the screen and possible sentence endings are listed on the right side of the screen.  Students write the correct verb form and an appropriate ending from the list. There is typically only one possible ending, but in some cases there may be more than one possibility. Students have 1:30 (one minute and thirty seconds) to write all 8 sentences. When the time is up the words are covered over. Students check their work in the next slide. The next slide repeats the exercise, but the verbs and subject pronouns are paired differently. Students have one minute this time through since they are familiar with the sentence endings.

 

Download powerpoints here:

 

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Classic Memory Game to Help with Vocabulary Retention

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Classic Memory Game to Help with Vocabulary Retention (French, Spanish) wlteacher.wordpress.com

Students enjoy playing Memory to review and practice vocabulary.   The cards can also be printed back to back and used as flashcards with pictures on one side and words on the other. Depending on the level of the students, they can make sentence out loud each time they get a pair.  I have found that this is also a great station activity.

Download  Memory Games on these topics :

French Memory Games

Spanish Memory Games

Numbers 1-20
Sports and Activities
Animals
City Places
Class Objects
Clothing
Colors
Food and Drinks
Fruits and Vegetables
Rooms ad Furniture
Musical Instruments
Jobs and Professions
Transportation

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Writing Activity to Increase Complexity and Length of Sentences

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Once students have a solid grasp of verb forms in various tenses they can begin writing longer and more complex sentences with this powerpoint activity. Students begin with a verb (in the infinitive) and a subject pronoun. The animation of the powerpoint is set up to first have students write some ideas to include in a sentence and then students use this information to write sentences that go beyond a simple subject-verb-object sentence. Students will gain confidence in their writing as they see that they are able to build on their sentences with elements that they create on their own. The animation is set up to give a limited amount of time and students try to beat the clock by writing out their sentence that may include up to 12-15 words or more. Before beginning the activity, the powerpoint includes a review of verb forms and after students write they are prompted to share their sentence with a partner and with the class. Before moving on to a new sentence, students count up their words and add it to their total. This step does a great deal for their confidence as they are able to concretely see how many words are in their sentences.

Powerpoint Activty with Regular Verbs in French

Powerpoint with Regular Verbs in Spanish

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Interactive and Communicative Whole-Class Speaking Activity

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This is a very engaging and interactive way for students to practice  vocabulary in a communicative way. It requires students to speak to everyone in the class in order to complete the task. The activity employs information-gap and jigsaw language teaching techniques to engage student participation.

Each student has pictures of 4 things/objects (the example below uses city locations)  and students also have a sheet with all of the objects.   Students circulate and ask their classmates if they have the various objects (or are going to tge various places in the example below) and record their name if the answer is YES.

This is a great way to get students talking to everyone in the class and it reinforces the vocabulary through repetition in a meaningful and communicative context.

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Download Whole-Class Communicative Speaking Activities Here:

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Verb Form Writing and Speaking Activity-Interactive Powerpoint

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This is an engaging class activity to review and reinforce verb forms. The teacher divides the class into teams (ABCD). Teams choose a square and say the number of the square  and either say or write the correct verb form. The teacher clicks the square (while in slideshow mode) to reveal the correct answer and the points that the team earns. The point values are arbitrary and meant to add a bit of excitement to the game. If the team is correct, the teacher types the score in the box next to the team letter. The team with the highest score at the end wins.

 

 

 

 

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