Mainly during 2022, but with some new additions this year (2023), I built up a pretty large bank of starters for French lessons, nearly all of which can be adapted for other languages.
I've always said that you don't have to begin every lesson with a 'starter' (or 'warmer', as they are often called in the TEFL/TESL world). But they can provide a snappy beginning to a lesson, ideally involving retrieval from previous lessons and making a link with the lesson to come. (I actually think that latter point is not crucial, since in all learning there is good evidence that spacing out and interweaving different activities can be beneficial for learning. So having a contrast between the starter and the 'main course' of the lesson can be justified.)
The list below comprises activities I designed for learners in their first three years of study. So I first list the Y7 (beginner) starters, then the Y8, then the Y9 starters. This means all the activities are broadly at the A1 to A2 level in CEFR terms. But you could could easily use of adapt them for older learners.
Finally, although I have called these starters, they could be used or adapted as fillers, plenaries, or just as part of a full lesson plan. The titles of each starter give a good idea of what's involved. The original resources (mainly Powerpoints) are editable. They are all designed to be clear, accessible and non-gimmicky. The focus is nearly always on connected language, not isolated words. Suggestions for use are provided with each resource.
All the activities can be accessed through a subscription to the frenchteacher.net site.
Y7/primary (beginner)
- 5 sentence maker slides
- 5 sentence maker slides (common -er verbs)
- 5 sentence completion slides
- 5 short gap-fill paragraphs
- Fizz-buzz numbers game
- Pictures with true/false sentences. 5 slides.
- Phonics bingo game. 8 cards provided.
- Vocab championship
- Putting words/phrases in the right order
- Make sentences from a word/phrase list
- Odd one out. 20 slides of sentences.
- ‘Change one thing’. 20 slides of sentences to alter.
- Quick translation (very easy) 12 slides of sentences to translate
- Quick translation (easy). 20 slides with gapped clues.
- Quick translation (harder). 20 slides with first letter clues.
- ‘Finish the sentence.’ 10 slides.
- ‘Finish my sentence.’ Listening + vocab retrieval.
- ‘Mini battleships translation.’ 10 games (Word).
- ‘Start the sentence.’ 20 slides – focus on verb retrieval.
- ‘Match up.’ 20 slides.
- ‘Insert the gaps’ 10 slides.
- ‘Vrai ou faux?’ 20 slides.
- ‘Which answer?’ 20 slides.
- ‘Which question?’ 20 slides.
- ‘Match and complete’ 5 slides.
- Easy crossword (Fr to Eng)
- Spelling challenge. 10 slides.
Y8 (1-2 years of French)
- ‘Change on thing’. 20 slides, each with four sentences
- Odd one out. 20 slides, each with four sentences
- Missing verb. 25 slides.
- Re-ordering words. 10 slides, each with four sentences
- Gap-fill. 5 short paragraphs with options
- Gap-fill. 5 short paragraphs without options (harder)
- 5 sentence-making grids
- ‘Spot the errors’. 20 slides each with 4 sentences
- ‘Correct the sentence’. 20 slides.
- ‘Insert the verb’. 20 slides, each with 4 sentences.
- Vocab championship (also on Y7 page)
- ‘Yes/no game’. 10 slides.
- ‘Sentence stealers’. 10 slides.
- ‘Spot the errors’ (with pictures) 10 slides.
- ‘Mini battleships translation’. 10 games (Word).
- ‘Mini three chunk battleships’. 5 games (Word).
- ‘Start the sentence’. 20 slides. Focus on verb retrieval.
- French general knowledge quiz. 20 slides.
- ‘Match up.’ 20 slides.
- ‘Missing word.’ 25 slides.
- ‘Paired sentence completion’ (Word)
- ‘Complete and translate.’ 25 slides.
- ‘Finish my sentence.’ Listening and vocab retrieval.
- ‘Match and complete.’ 10 slides, 10 vocab topics.
Y9 (2-3 years of French)
- 15 sentence making grids
- ‘Change one thing.’ 20 sets of 4 sentences
- Odd one out. 20 sets of 4 sentences
- 10 short gap-fill paragraphs (with options)
- 5 short gap-fill paragraphs (no options)
- ‘Make a 10-word sentence. 15 slides.
- ‘Change one phrase.’ 20 slides.
- Quick translation into French. 20 slides, 2 sentences per slide
- 7 guessing games
- 10 fluency tasks (oral or written)
- Tonguetwisters
- ‘Listen and draw’. 7 images.
- ‘Finish the sentence’. 10 slides.
- ‘False facts dictation’. 10 slides.
- ‘Yes/no game’. 10 slides.
- ‘Mini battleships’. 10 games (Word).
- ‘Mini battleships translation’. 10 games (Word).
- ‘Mini battleships 3 chunk translation’. 10 games (Word).
- ‘Start the sentence’. 20 slides. Focus on verb retrieval.
- ‘Opinions and reasons’. 20 slides.
- ‘Ever-changing sentence’. 10 slides.
- ‘Possible or unlikely?’ 20 slides.
- ‘Find five facts.’ 10 slides, each with a short reading.
- ‘What happened next?’ 20 slides.
- ‘Word cloud challenge.’ 1 slide.
- ‘What’s the sign?’ 40 slides.
- ‘Match up’ (focus on grammar) 20 slides.
- ‘Which answer?’ (focus on tenses) 20 slides.
- ‘Tense spotting.’ 20 slides.
- ‘What’s the question?’ 15 slides.
- ‘Vocab recall challenge.’ 15 slides.
- ‘Comparisons.’ 10 slides.
- Paired sentence completion (Word)
- ‘Which time phrase?’ 15 slides.
- ‘Sentence creation.’ 20 slides.
- ‘Sentence challenge.’ 10 slides.
- ‘Disappearing text.’ 5 slides.
- ‘Instant chat.’ 10 slides.
- ‘Finish my sentence.’ Listening – 36 sentences.
- ‘Start my sentence.’ Listening – 36 sentences.
- ‘Two truths and a lie.’
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