Noël: French Christmas Vocabulary Speaking and Writing Activities

Add some Christmas to your French class this year. Is your board covered in words and chart paper? Do you share a classroom? These speaking and writing activities are completely portable. This product is great for students who have had at least a year of Core French/FSL.There is a lot of vocabulary so it wouldn't be suitable for first-year beginners. Check out the preview for a closer look.

This is similar to my Halloween product called French Halloween Speaking and Writing Activities. This one contains totally new nouns, a lot of the same verbs (it's good to keep practicing those!), some of the same activities with a new Christmas theme, and four brand new activities and/or worksheets.

While not necessarily a unit, this variety of activities will help your students move step-by-step from pronouncing and understanding words to speaking and writing their own sentences. There is something for each step of the way. You may need to add some of your own practice activities, or you may need to take some out. It depends where your students are at. Even though there are no specific lesson plans, there are several pages of ideas and ways to use each of these activities. If you teach FSL (at 100 minutes a week), you will probably need several weeks to go from learning the vocab to using it in speaking and writing.

The Graphic Organizer/Mini Word Wall:

The Christmas themed graphic organizer/personal mini word wall is a powerful visual for your students. The words are categorized and sequenced to create holiday themed sentences in French. Students choose a word from each category as they go from left to right across the page. There are many possible combinations. You will find students are more motivated to express themselves in French when they can say and write their own creative sentences! I'm hoping that you and your students will write in additional words to make this a working document.

The words:

•24 Christmas and other nouns are included in the handouts. Each noun has a corresponding flash card and word wall card: un bas de Noël, un biscuit, des bonbons, un bonhomme de neige, une boule de Noël, un cadeau, une canne de Noël, une chanson, un chapeau, la cheminée, le ciel, une couronne, une étoile, le houx, des jouets, des lumières de Noël, un lutin, une maison (en pain d'épice), la neige, le Père Noël, un renne, un sapin de Noël, le traîneau

•Several additional flash cards/word wall cards are included. (I just didn't want to overwhelm beginners). There are blank handout pages for you and your students to add these to their picture dictionaries if you want: un garçon, une fille, il, elle, tout le monde, un bonhomme en pain d'épice, un sac, du lait, des biscuits, du chocolat chaud, des lutins

•Alternate flash cards/word wall cards for some of the synonyms: une canne, un sapin, une boule, un arbre de Noël, une maison, un ornement, un bonhomme de pain d'épice

•25 common verbs which are listed in the present tense third person singular as: attérit, chante, cherche, danse, descend, donne, écoute, entend, est, fait, joue, mange, marche, met, monte, ouvre, parle, porte, regarde, s'assoit, saute, trouve, veut, voit, vole. (You don't need to worry about conjugating each of these verbs with the kids. This is all they need for now.)

•Prepositions: avec, dans, sur, sous + 5 more for your reference if you want to expand

If your students aren't familiar with any of these words, you could introduce the verbs separately in November, without a mention of Christmas. The "draw-your-own" picture dictionary for the 25 verbs (mentioned below) doesn't have a seasonal theme, as I use it all year. You could then introduce the rest of these materials when you're feeling a little more of the Christmas spirit.

These activities will help you teach all the vocabulary on the graphic organizer/word wall:

•24 color flash cards of the nouns used in the mini word wall

•a picture dictionary for all the nouns and blank pages for additions

•French/English dictionary pages for all nouns and verbs with space to add new words

•Draw-your-own picture dictionary handout for the 25 verbs

•Preposition picture dictionary handout plus a draw-your-own option

•two picture clue crossword puzzles that correspond with each page of the picture dictionary

•a blank "make-your-own" word search puzzle template

•a partner game which uses the sentence frame “Est-ce que tu as_____?” or "Est-ce qu'il y a _____?" An alternate version allows for custom questions.

•Scrambled sentence cards group activity and worksheet to record the unscrambled sentences

•A teacher-led listening/drawing activity that is great for calming down an excited class at this time of year!

•8 simple picture speaking or writing prompts to help students use "Il y a ...."

•a blank page of festive themed writing paper for students to try some creative writing

•Four + pages of ideas and instructions

PLEASE NOTE: The flash cards/word wall cards are in color only. All the other pages are either black and white only, or in both color and black and white.

If you want something a little simpler to help your students learn a few Christmas words, try this: French Christmas Dominoes, Handout, Word Wall Cards, and More

Or, you could try this Christmas present from me to you: Une petite surprise de Noël

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This is a .zip file. Make sure you have the right application to download this type of file. I created these products on a Mac and the files are in pdf. They should be compatible with all computers, but sometimes there is an extra step involved to open the .zip files. Also, be aware that this is a rather large file. It may take a few moments to download everything. This link can tell you more:Teachers Pay Teachers Technical Support

These pages are licensed for you to copy and use personally in your own classroom. Please do not distribute without additional licenses. It is also prohibited to post these materials anywhere on the internet, even for your own classroom's website. However, a link to this site or my Pinterest page is welcomed.

I think you deserve a freebie for reading all the way to the bottom of this page!! Have your pick:

French Winter Listening and Drawing Activity

French Classroom Labels