Living Sentences - French Classroom Game

Some days students just aren't in the mood to learn, which can make French classes frustrating for them as well as for the teacher. Playing games in French is one technique that can help recapture students' interest while helping them learn or review French. This game, called Living Sentences, is a fun way to practice vocabulary and verbs.


Set up

This game requires some preparation on the part of the teacher, but it reaps great rewards.

• Make up a list of sentences containing the vocabulary or verb forms being targeted
• Write the various words and verb forms required in each sentence on index cards
• Distribute 3 or 4 cards to each student

How to play

As you read a sentence, the students holding the cards with each of the words must stand up in front of the class and arrange themselves into the sentence, so that the class can read the sentence and all forms are correct. That is, students need to identify not only the word, but the correct forms: masculine or feminine form of adjectives, correct verb endings, etc.


Variation

Divide the class into two teams and make an identical set of cards for each one. Students on both teams make the sentences at the same time; the team that gets the sentence correct first receives points.


Notes

It's always interesting to see the kids correcting others, telling them to sit down, or urging others to stand up!

This game was shared on the Profs de français forum. Merci beaucoup !