I’m looking forward to meeting my new French students in just a few weeks. One of the challenges for me as a teacher at the beginning of every school year is to learn oh, so many new names. And for us foreign language teachers, it’s even more daunting as every student has both a “real” name and a name from the target culture. Oh la la!  I think my head is already spinning!

At least those target language names give us a reason and a valid context for playing name games in class.  After all, even if all of the students already know one another, they don’t know their classmates’ new French names.

I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve to practice names, especially with younger children.  I rely a lot on name tags, seating charts, and word-association at the beginning, of course.  As for play, I enjoy :

• Memory Games
• Duck Duck Goose-style circle games
• Ball Toss Games
• Name Chants
• Hangman
• Alphabet Name Bingo

Today I’d like to share with you a game that my 10-12 year old French campers and I cooked up this summer.  It’s great for older learners (upper elementary through high school) and it’s played in small groups.  You need about 5-6 players and one deck of playing cards for each group.  Here’s how you play:

Object:  Be the first player to run out of cards.

1.  Students go around the circle and introduce themselves using their new French names.

2.  One student deals out the entire deck of cards until none remain.

3.  Players hold the cards in a pile, face down in their hand.

4.  On the count of 3, players chant together the expression,”What’s your name?”  Comment t’appelles-tu?

5. On the last beat of the question-chant, every player flips up their top card.  If any of the cards are identical, those players must race to say each other’s name.  The first to do so gives the card to their opponent.  If no cards are identical, players simply leave them down and repeat with the next card.

6.  Each time the question is repeated, the cards are placed face up on top of those already played.  When two players race to say the others’ name, the winner now can pass over the entire stack of previously played cards.  Whenever players run out of cards in hand, they pick up the discarded pile in front of them, turn them over, and continue play.

7.  The game is over when one player runs completely out of cards.

Switch groups and play again!

I went into my pre-k and elementary classes armed with a brand new set of bean bags this week.  I’ve been brainstorming some of the games and activities for foreign language classes.  Here are a few:

• Pass the bean bags around the circle while saying color or counting.
• Balance the bean bag on your . . .  head, hand, arm, leg, foot, etc.  Nice TPR practice!
• Toss the bean bag back and forth with a friend while counting.
• Toss bean bags into various colored baskets.
• Toss bean bags onto pictures for listening comprehension practice.
• Play Hot Potato with music from the target culture.
• Dance and toss around bean bags to music from the target culture.
• Play relay games.

How else do you use bean bags in a foreign language class?  Please leave a comment!

Today my son and I were reviewing the Spanish days of the week.

The Spanish calendar begins on Monday (instead of the American Sunday), and the days are not capitalized.  They are .  .  .

lunes – Monday

martes – Tuesday

miércoles – Wednesday

jueves – Thursday

viernes – Friday

sábado – Saturday

domingo – Sunday

Here are a ten activities for practicing the Spanish days of the week with kids:

1.  Sing the days!  There’s a nice selection of clips on YouTube, like this one or this one.

2.  Toss, kick, or roll a ball while saying the days of the week.

3.  Jump rope while reciting the days of the week.  How fast can you go?  How many times can you say all of the days without stopping?

4.  Prepare a hopscotch trail labeled with the Spanish days of the week.  Hop & say!

5.  Label the days of your family calendar in Spanish.

6.  Print and cut these free Spanish Days Flash Cards, mix them up, and put them back in the correct order.

7.  Match the English and Spanish flash cards.

8.  Flip all of the flash cards upside down.  Turn over two at a time, trying to get an English-Spanish match.  If you do, keep the cards for points and take another turn.

9.  Attach the flash card for the current day on the refrigerator or bathroom mirror.

10.  Unscramble the days.  Click here for a free Spanish Days worksheet.

Like these ideas?  Coming soon . . . fiveminutespanish.com

Image from sxc.hu

Here’s a fun, quick vocabulary game that my 7 year-old and I enjoyed today.  We were reviewing Spanish colors and prepared two sets of flash cards:  one set of colored cards, and one set of Spanish color words.  (I NEVER use English translations!  Picture-word is the way to go!)

Before the actual game, we sang color songs, identified flash cards, and named the colors we saw on our clothes and around the house.  We matched the sets of flash cards, picture to word.  Now, we were ready for the big Bingo game!

My son and I each prepared a simple four-square grid.  We chose different color flash cards to set in each square of our grids.  The word flash cards were turned upside down in a pile.  Taking turns, we would pick up the top word card from the pile, announce the color, and attempt to create a sentence.  Whichever one of us had that flashcard on our bingo card would turn it upside down.  Play continued until one person had every flash card on the grid flipped over.  That’s a Bingo!

Bingo Flip-Up is a simple games kids will enjoy playing again and again!  It’s great for play at home or in small groups in a classroom.

Have fun playing in a foreign language!

Image credit: clipart.com

Middle School Madness: Cooking Up Foreign Language Fun and Games. Every foreign language activity and game that you need to get your students talking, playing, and writing in the target language is here. Over 50 in all! Formatted like a recipe book, the directions, materials, and time durations are crystal clear. The ACTFL five C’s are covered in all sorts of communicative tasks, connections, content, and some cultural activities. These activities can be used with 5th-9th grade foreign language and ESL students. Get ready for some target language fun!

Guess what?!  My humble little blog, Foreign Language Fun, is now available in the iTunes store as a FREE app for your iphone, ipod, or ipad!  Please go download it and check it out.

Foreign Language Fun FREE app:

I’m thinking I can start taking a slightly new direction with this blog to serve app users, too.  You’ll be able to see the ten most recent blog posts in the palm of your hand.  Please comment and let me know what kinds of posts would be most useful.  Would you like more ideas and activities for practicing language with kids?  More podcasts?  More snippets of language?  More lessons?  Facts/research/advocacy/news?  Speak up . . . I’d love to make this something you can really use for both inspiration and practical ideas.

If you are a foreign language teacher, you might also be interested in our Foreign Language House Games book app, available in iTunes for $1.99.  This is the iphone/ipod version of our games guide that normally sells in print or as a download for $8.50.  It’s nothing fancy as far as graphics, but we thought it would be a great, convenient tool for language teachers.  Over 50 classroom language learning games are clearly explained and categorized so that you can easily find an idea for a lesson–even at the last minute!  The activities are designed for novice-level language learners of all ages.  If you already use your ipod in the classroom, wouldn’t it be nice to have all of those activity ideas at your fingertips?

Foreign Language House Games and Activities book app ($1.99)

I just got my first iPod Touch a couple of weeks ago and discovered the world of apps!  This is a whole new territory for me & I’m really excited by the possibilities.  Please let me know what you think and how I can make these apps most useful for you!

Image by clipart.com

I was just looking through my son’s Highlights magazine (www.Highlights.com) and I came across a fantastic game that can be effectively adapted to help kids practice numbers in Spanish, French, Chinese . . . any foreign language.  In the March 2010 issue there’s an activity on pg. 38 by Jennifer Coleman called “Make 11.”  Two players count to three and extend any number of fingers.  Count the total number of fingers between the two players in the target language.  See how many tries it takes to equal 11.

11 ELEVEN

onze (French)

once (Spanish)

elf (German)

undici (Italian)

ju-ichi (Japanese)

shí y? (Mandarin)

I’m going to play with an entire classroom of children this afternoon, but I’ll make it a wee bit competitive by seeing which set of players can be the first to make eleven.

Have fun playing!  Thank you, Highlights, for another fantastic idea.

Photo Credit: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/935146

This Valentine’s Day, teach kids colors in French, Spanish, and English by fishing for hearts.  This is a favorite pre-k activity, but it can be adapted for older kids, too.  First, you’ll need some colored paper hearts.  Click hearts for a free pdf. Make a few copies, cut, and laminate.  Place a paper clip on each heart and put the hearts on the floor.  Prepare a fishing pole by attaching a string to a stick, and tying a magnet to the string.  You’re ready!  Let’s fish!

For young children, call out colors in the target language of your choice and let the children take turns dangling the fishing pole over the hearts until they catch the right one.

Older kids can enjoy a little competition.  Give fishing poles to two players and see who can be the first to capture the correct heart for a point.  You can also hold up a sign and require students to read the color.  Variations are endless:  make multiple sets of hearts for group play, place one letter on each heart that will spell out a word, or blindfold students and have them follow oral directions to find the right heart.  One special heart can even have a sticker hidden on the back that earns the recipient a reward such as a piece of candy.

Here are the vocabulary words you’ll need for the colors in English, French, and Spanish:

red – rouge – rojo

pink – rose – rosado

blue – bleu – azul

purple – violet – violeta

yellow – jaune – amarillo

green – vert – verde

white – blanc – blanco

orange – orange – anaranjado

heart – coeur -corazón

To continue the Valentine’s Day fun, check out our holiday downloads of games, activities, and worksheets:

FRENCH:

Graphing Conversation Hearts in French

French Valentine Math

French Valentine Hearts:  coloring and sizes

French Valentine Bingo

French Valentine Tic Tac Toe

French Valentine Activities and Worksheets BUNDLE! Buy the bundle & save!

French Valentine Gouin Series

SPANISH:

Graphing Conversation Hearts in Spanish

Spanish Valentine Math

Spanish Valentine Hearts

Spanish Valentine Bingo

Spanish Valentine Tic Tac Toe

Bundle of Spanish Valentine Games Buy the bundle & save!

Spanish Valentine Gouin Series

ENGLISH:

Valentine Vocabulary Bingo for ESL/EFL

Valentine Vocabulary Tic Tac Toe Games for ESL/EFL

ESL/EFL Valentine Activities and Worksheets BUNDLE The above 2 activities plus MUCH more!  Buy the bundle & save!

ESL Valentine Gouin Series

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Check this out:  Necco Conversation Sweethearts in Spanish (36-1oz boxes dulce beso para la cariña en Español)

Image credit:  http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1170044

September.  Most students are back in school, and it’s a safe guess that foreign language teachers are starting off the year with some basics: alphabet, names, greetings and introductions. I like to have my older students choose names from the target culture as their new identity for the year.  I personally don’t require it, and I don’t even offer the possibility to students younger than 12.  But it’s fun and helps to keep the language “flowing” during the lessons.

Today I’d like to share one of my first-week-of-school activities that’s a hit year after year–Name Bingo.  Once my students choose a French name, they practice spelling it out loud using the French alphabet.  They receive a bingo grid and write their own name in one of the squares.  Now the activity becomes interactive as the students walk around the classroom to ask their classmates, “What’s your name?” and “How do you spell that?” so that they can add it to their bingo grid.  (Spelling names is a practical life skill, by the way.  Just today, I had to spell my last name two times.)

Once the students have filled in their bingo card, the teacher spells names of various people in the class to be X’ed off.   4 X’s in a row is a Bingo.  Don’t forget the prizes!  

To purchase an inexpensive French Name Bingo printable with directions, click here.  And click here for the Spanish version.  Play this game completely in the target language.  Your newbies will feel successful and proud!

Photo Credit:  by Cecile Graat at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1132275

Buzz is a favorite filler activity in my foreign language classes.  When I have a few minutes to spare at the end of a lesson, I take the opportunity to practice counting with this classic game.  It’s an oldie but a goodie!  Learners as young as 7 enjoy the challenge of Buzz.  Want to know how to play?  Here’s an excerpt from our newest Foreign Language House publication, Middle School Madness:  Cooking Up Foreign Language Fun and Games:

Ingredients:

• One soft ball (squishy or Koosh)

Serving Size: The whole class

Time:  5-10 minutes

Method:

The whole class stands.

1. Toss the ball to the first player and say the number “one.”
2. This player will continue counting with “two” and toss the ball to the next person.
3. Tossing and counting continue around the room.
4. Whenever there is a multiple of 5 (or whatever multiple you choose at the start of the game) the player must say “Buzz” instead of the number.
5. Players must sit if they say an incorrect number, do not know the answer, forget to say Buzz, or drop the ball.
6. All players left standing at the end of the game are winners!
7. For an added challenge, you may continue with higher numbers, or begin counting backwards.

For over 50 more fun language learning activities, order Middle School Madness as an instant digital download or paperback.

For more counting ideas, check out my article on Foreign Language Number Games.