Sans problèmes!

Cloclo and the family

Before embarking on jobs, year 9 have revised the family.  I wanted to revise personal pronouns especially mon, ma, mes as students will use these for written tasks. Claude François (aka Cloclo) was one of my favorite singer and "Si j'avais un marteau" springs to my mind when mentioning members of the family.   We listened to the song and I issued each table of 4 students with a word from the song.  They had to stand up every time they heard it.  It was a fun activity and certainly raised their listening skills. 

 

 

The words are below

Suggested words to listen for:

Marteau, cloche, ferme, bonheur, le jour, la nuit, la soupe, chanson, heureux, liberté, coeur,

Mon père, ma mère, mes frères, mes sœurs

Download Si j'avais un marteau

Afterwards we concentrated on the personal pronouns and students did not have any problems in identifying the personal pronouns. We were able to establish the following rule:

Je is I and my is mon for masculine, ma for feminine and mes for plural

Tu is you and your is ton for masculine, ta for feminine and tes for plural

Il is he and his is son for masculine, sa for feminine and ses for plural

Elle is she and her is son for masculine, sa for feminine and ses for pluraI

An idea would be to create a little rap to remember the pronouns, here is an idea, please submit yours!  A prize for the best one brought to me in class next week!

Download Mon ton son

Le futur

As you know, I a very keen to use songs and poetry to teach grammar.  Year 10 have been revising the future tense. 

One of my favorite poem is "Demain dès l'aube" by Victor Hugo.  Previously, we had looked at how the future is formed.  We looked at the following Powerpoint (not mine! thanks to the author if (s)he reads this post. Download Futur

I found a song version of the song on Youtube  and we listened to it:  demain dès l'aube

Voici les questions que j'ai posées après avoir écouté la chanson:

1. Comment est la chanson? (gaie / triste/ mélancolique etc..)
2. Quel instrument de musique reconnaissez-vous?
3. Quels mots avez-vous reconnus?

We then looked at this website.  We talked about Victor Hugo and his work especially the work that they all knew but were not aware of-  "Notre Dame de Paris" and "Les Misérables".

We read the poem and looked at the photos and listened to the music. 

J'ai ensuite posé ces questions

1. Qu'est-ce que la musique représente pour vous?
2. Quel est le thème du poëme?
3. Quels sont vos impressions -  Je pense que / A mon avis c'est...

We then looked at poem

Download Demain

J'ai fait l'exercice suivant:

1. Soulignez les verbes au futur en orange, présent en vert.
2. Surlignez les mots transparents
3. Recherchez 5 mots dans le dictionnaire - comparez avec votre partenaire et les autres élèves sur votre table.

Everybody enjoyed the poem, we translated it together and they read it in pairs.  One student volunteered to record herself,  she did it spontaneously and this is her first attempt:

Demain

 

 

Merci Harriet, c'était superbe!

To finish we did some work on Task Magic Download Demain

Le week-end dernier

We have been using different tools in the classroom to produce role-plays. Recently, I was recommended xtranormal, a progamme which produces movies from texts.  Here is my first attempt, make yourown and send it to me

L'imparfait

In order to describe how to use the imperfect, practise the following exercise. 

Click on the link to access the song in Youtube:

 Legionnaire

This song is also good to look at how people are described.  Do the following worksheet.

Mon legionnaire -

Le passé composé

Year 8 and 10 have been working on le "Passé-Composé.  During the lessons, I have used the following Powerpoints which I acquired from another on MFL resources forum a few years ago.  I do not know the author but would like to thank him or her.  The Powerpoints are easy to follow and should help you undestand / revise

1.  Passé Composé-  avec avoir (Perfect tense using to have)
2.  Passé Composé-  avec être (Perfect tense using to be)

You can also get a lot of help from The languages on line website-  choose French and then scroll down to Grammar and do the exercises on Perfect tense.

In class, we have been listening to "Les bêtises by Bébé Lily"-  this is the story of a little girl who gets up to a lot of mischief when her parents are out

 

 Practise some the sentences from the song on this Task magic exercise :Download Bebe lily You will need to download the home version if you want to use it from home.
 

Les pays et les nationalités

To revise for this unit, look at my previous post on countries and nationalities

You can also check the powerpoint that we saw in class.  Thank you to Rachel Hawkes for the inspiration and letting me adapt her work.

 Download Le monde

Le Monde

View more presentations from Marie-france Perkins. (tags: countries nationalities)

The Infinitive

In order to cope with the different forms of the verbs, you need to be fully acquainted with the Infinitive.  First it is important that you know what an infinitive is in English.  Read the following notes and be ready to answer questions in class!!

The infinitive is the "name" or "base" of the verb before it is broken down into different parts.

You can recognise it in several ways:

• It has no subjects (i.e- je, tu, il. Paul etc..) -YOU DO NOT KNOW YET WHO IS DOING THE ACTION
• In French it commonly ends in -er, -ir, -re (although there are some exceptions!!)
• When you look up a verb in the dictionary, it is always given by its infinitive (name!)

Look at the following words in English. Can you underline the infinitive?

I am            he eats           you talk                   to like                we drink          to eat         

to      talk                 to drink                 you drink                   you like              to be

How do you recognise them? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Now look at the French words and underline the infinitives!

Je suis                      jouer                        faire                                          il fait                 

 nous  regardons                   regarder                j'écoute                      elle joue      

 écouter

How do you recognise them? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Find the infinitives (English and French) in the following sentences

-I like to play on the computer

J'aime jouer à l'ordinateur.

-He likes to go to the cinema

Il aime aller au cinéma

Elle aime écouter de la musique

Nous allons danser à la disco.

Je déteste faire du bricolage.

What do you notice when you have a sentence with 2 verbs that follow each other?

(Thanks to Miss Hewitt for  producing this post)

Les verbes en _ER

As you know, I am always very keen to use songs to boost your learning. Year 7 have learnt the verbs finishing in –ER

Here is the verb parler: to speak

Je parle

Tu parles

Il/elle parle

Nous parlons

Vous parlez

Ils/elles parlent

Je parle –E

Tu parles –ES

Il/elle parle – E

Nous parlons- ONS

Vous parlez- EZ

Ils/elles parlent-ENT

Can you recognize the tune ?

Aller-to go

A great way of learning verbs is to sing them. Year 9 have been revising the immediate future (I am going to do. I am going to go etc). In order to remember the verb ALLER, they have recorded this. Can you recognise the tune?

Je vais tu vasil/elle vanous allonsvous allezils/elles vontAller-to go

Year 8- Le matin

In order to revise for your next Unit Test have a go at the following exercises:

Letterdrop

Tetris

Pairs

C'est ma routine

Bataille navale

Check if you remember how to do the reflexive verbs:

Reflexive verbs ( les verbes pronominaux) mean when you do something to yourself- ie je me lave would mean "I wash myself" because nobody else does it for you or do they?.

So think about action you do during the day and use them logically.

DO NOT SAY "JE ME MANGE" -  YOU ARE NOT A CANNIBAL AND YOU DO NOT EAT YOURSELF!!!!!

Check the structure and use it for:

Se réveiller, se lever, s'habiller, se doucher, se laver, se brosser les dents etc.

Je me lave                                               Nous nous lavons

Tu te laves                                              Vous vous lavez

Il se lave                                                  Ils se lavent

Elle se lave                                              Elles se lavent

On se lave

These verbs use être in the perfect tense and follow the rule of the être verbs ( See my post on perfect tense)