If you’ve been teaching for more than a few years, you know there are some activities that are tried and true, that you go back to year after year after year. There are others that you may try for a few years but then find something better. And of course, there are some that don’t make it past the first year. In this post, I’ll highlight some of the activities and projects I’ve been doing in my classroom for 10 years or more.
1. Crêpe Day – This started in my first year of teaching, back in 2010, as an event that I did to coincide with my food and meal-taking unit. Back then, a local restaurant came in and served the crêpes to the students. Eventually, I moved the event to coincide with Chandeleur, and eventually made the switch to using store-bought, then homemade, then again store-bought crêpes, inviting parents to come in and heat them up to serve to the students. Click here to learn more about how this event works in my classroom and how I tie it into Chandeleur.
2. Introductory Video for Students – At the beginning of the year, I show a video to my students, which highlights reasons to learn French, shows where French is spoken and some French speakers, and samples some francophone entertainment. I update it every few years to keep celebrities current. For copyright reasons, I can’t show the whole video but click here to watch the beginning portion that I narrate. Click here to read a 2023 post about more ways I reinforce with my students why French is important and click here to read a 2024 post about the Big Ideas in French class.
3. C’est moi – At the beginning of the year I have my students make a “C’est moi” mind map to introduce themselves and I provide an example. This gives me an opportunity to incorporate my own illustrations. Click here to read a 2021 post about how I incorporate my illustrations into my lessons.
4. Qui c’est ? – After students learn how to provide basic information about someone else, they pick a celebrity or character to write a mini biography about in French. Students have to guess who the person is. Click here to read a 2013 post I wrote about the activity.
5. End of the Year Slideshow – Slideshows have been around longer than the Internet, but you’ll be hard pressed to find a program that makes them more beautifully and more easily than Animoto. All year long, I take photos of my students working on classroom activities. Then, at the end of the year, I upload them all along with some examples of student work to Animoto and set them to French music. I also incorporate a couple of my own illustrations, such as the one above, which depicts our school. For privacy reasons, I can’t share the slideshows I’ve made here on the blog, but Animoto’s website has lots of fantastic examples.
6. Google Maps Scavenger Hunt – Every year, my students go on a Google Maps scavenger hunt to answer questions in French about various eateries they encounter. Every year, I have to visit Street View to see if the establishments are still there, and sometimes I have to update and change the questions. Essentially, the students copy and paste the addresses I provide into Google Maps, then click on the Street View image and try to find the information they need to answer the questions. Some questions want to know where you’d get a certain type of food, ask you what you want off the menu, or ask the price of something. Click here to access the instructions and list of addresses and questions for 2024. Click here to read more about my favorite cultural resources for food and meal-taking.
7. Video for Next Year’s Students – Every year in June, I have my students make a video for next year’s incoming students, showing them what they will learn in a fun way and sharing their thoughts on what helped them learn. They accomplish this using Adobe Express. Click here to watch a partial example and click here to read a 2023 post about the project.
8. Poem for Students – Awhile back, I wrote a poem that I present to my students at the end of the school year. It talks about ll the things we did in class. From time to time I update it, but it basically stays the same. I run it off and give a copy to each student.
9. Living Sentences – My colleague Robin introduced me to this activity during my first year of teaching. Most recently, I blogged about it in the 2025 post “20 of My Favorite Low-Tech Activities.” For this activity, the class is divided into two teams. The teacher prints out large words (one word or phrase takes up a whole piece of paper) that correspond to prompts shown on the board. Each student gets one word or phrase (some may get two). The two teams each have the same words and phrases. When the teacher shows the prompt, the teams rush to form the sentence with their words in a designated spot in the room.
10. Write Draw Pass – I most recently blogged about this activity in the post, “20 of My Favorite Low-Tech Activities.” I got the idea from Martina Bex‘s blog. If you’re looking for a fun activity with almost no prep work that gets students to practice their writing while having fun, look no further! Students write a sentence on a piece of paper, pass it to the person next to them who draws it, then folds the first sentence down and passes it to the next person, who writes a sentence based on the picture, and so on. It helps a lot to give example sentences. Martina even has a template you can download!
11. Sentence Strips – I resurrected sentence strips in 2023 after they had fallen by the wayside during covid and most recently blogged about them in “20 of My Favorite Low-Tech Activities.” There are many different ways to practice stringing a sentence together, but there is something about physically moving the words into place that I think is helpful for students. Although it takes more time to pass out and collect, and words inevitably get dropped on the floor or lost, students are much more engaged with the physical sentence strips than they are with any comparable computer-based activity. I also use it as a time to make my way around the room and help them. If they are missing a word, I create a space where the word should go and point to it. If they need to replace a word with something else, I pull the incorrect word out and point to the space. It’s easier to give feedback this way without using English than it is if they are using a computer. I also color code the words. Words in black are words that aren’t gendered, blue is for masculine, pink is for feminine, and purple is for non-binary. This is another activity that I do in groups.
12. Socrative – Socrative is a useful tool in my arsenal. I first blogged about it way back in the 2015 post, “The iPad Diaries Volume 10,” long before we went 1:1. Socrative is a way to formatively assess students with multiple choice or short answer questions as well as with quick polls. What I like about it is that it gives students instant feedback as they work on a task, so it is great for asynchronous review at home. It also shows me in real time how many students are getting a question right or wrong, so I can see what areas I need to focus on. The polls are an easy way to quickly gather information or opinions from students.
13. French Club Students Become Teachers – Back in 2014, a French Club student suggested the idea of going into an elementary school to teach lessons, and that spring, we did it for the first time of many more to come. It has since become one of the highlights of my teaching career. Watching students share their love of French with others is very gratifying. I first blogged about this project in the 2015 post, “Passing the Baton: French Club Students Become French Teachers!“
14. Pen Pals – Back in 2012, I connected with a school in France using ePals, and I’ve done a pen pal project with my students every year since. Students often cite this as the highlight of the year and enjoy reading the letters from their correspondents. This year, we made the switch from physical letters to digital ones owing to increased taxes on overseas mail and an uptick in letters getting lost in the mail. I first blogged about this project in the 2013 post, “Keeping the 5 Cs Alive with a Pen Pal Project.”
15. Impressionism – For many years now, I have enjoyed introducing my students to the wonders of Impressionism. I first blogged about this topic in the 2015 post, “Introducing French Students to Impressionism,” and again in the 2021 post, “More Resources for Introducing Students to Impressionism.”
16. The Price Is Right – I got this wonderful ideas from Steve Smith of Frenchteacher.net. He proposed having a game show à la The Price is Right, having students guess the price of various items. My students absolutely love this activity. They work in groups to guess the price of various items I had on the SMART Board. They also have to write their answer in a complete sentence, reinforcing the difference between il coûte, elle coûte, and ça fait. I first wrote about this activity in the 2014 blog post, “The Year in Review: My Favorite New Lessons & Activities from 2014.”
What are your tried and true activities you go back to year after year?
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