French For Kids – Free Lesson Plan For Home or the Classroom

French Lesson Plan for Teachers and Parents to teach kids French!

Bonjour! Welcome to the final lesson in our Learn French for kids series. I am Felicity, creator of Mini Languages® where young children learn French at our UK classes and by using our online courses and resources.

Hopefully you have tried out the first five French lessons for kids which were focused on building French into your daily routine. Make sure to download all the free kids’ French resources that support them.

For this final instalment, I am going to provide a different kind of kids’ French lesson plan. It is a set of early years activities which make up a broader, structured lesson. It would work well as a home lesson or in a school or nursery environment and is still based on the ethos of play, nurture and encouragement which is at the heart of all Mini Languages® lessons and resources.

French lesson plan for little kids

Today’s lesson will focus on the circus! I have also included a BUMPER selection of Mini Languages® resources to support the activities all for FREE!

I have condensed it into seven French activities for beginners but you could run it over several sessions and even add in your own ideas.

Find your FREE printable materials below.

If you haven’t already, join our Raising Bilingual Kids Facebook Group, a community of parents raising bilingual kids!

French vocabulary objectives (pronunciation in brackets)

CIRCUS NOUNS

• Le cirque (seerk) – circus
• L’éléphant (ey-ley-fauhn) – elephant
• L’acrobate (akrhoh-bat)- acrobat
• Le clown (clouhn) – clown
• Le train du cirque (trh-ahn d-ew seerk) – circus train
• Le magicien (ma-dshees-yahn) – magician

SHAPES & COLOURS

• Le carré (karh-ey) – square
• Le triangle (trhee-yauhn-gl ) – triangle
• Le cœur (keuh-rh)- heart
• Le rond (rh-ohn) – circle
• Colours (see Lesson 4)

VERBS

• Colorier – to colour in
• Être – to be
• Transformer – to transform

EXPRESSIONS

• De quelle couleur est… – What colour is…
• Où est… – Where is…?
• En haut (auhn oh) – Up high
• En bas (auhn bah) – Down low

Free kids’ French resources for this lesson

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Click on the links to download and print.

• Mini Circus Flashcards
• Large Circus Flashcards
• Mp3 “J’ai un gros nez rouge”
• Clown Colouring Activity Sheet with Song Words
• Clown Shapes Activity sheet
• Memo Cards: Colours (see free resources in Lesson 4)
• Memo Cards: Shapes

Activity 1 – Introducing the Circus Theme

Resources:

• Print (and laminate if poss) Mini Circus Flashcards
• Box or bag

What to do:

1. Place all Mini Circus Flashcards in a box or bag. Reveal them one by one and ask the children to repeat.
2. Place the cards in the middle and ask “Où est…?” (Where is…?). The children to point at the correct card.
3. Make up full body actions together for each of the circus flashcards.

Top tip: Using full body movement helps retain new learning so don’t skip this step!

Activity 2 – Clown Song

Resources:

• Mp3 “J’ai un gros nez rouge”
• Song Words from Clown Colouring Activity Sheet

What to do:

1. Introduce the song and show the actions whilst standing.
2. Ask; “À quoi vous fait penser cette chanson?” (What do you think this song is about?). Réponse (Answer): Un clown!
3. Pull out the Mini or Large Clown Flashcard to reinforce visually.
4. Encourage child(ren) to join in and sing twice together standing and doing the actions.

Top tip: You could take this topic further and introduce body and facial parts.

Activity 3 – Clown Colouring

Resources:

• Clown Colouring Activity Sheet with Song Words
• Memo Cards: Colours

What to do:

1. Look at colours together in French using the Colours Memo Cards
2. “Ensuite, on va faire du coloriage!” (Next, we are going to do some colouring-in)
3. Guide the children in colouring in the clown on the activity sheet i.e. “De quelle couleur est le nez du clown?” (What colour is the clown’s nose?)
4. Sing the “J’ai un gros nez rouge” song again. You can use the activity sheet to point out key vocabulary in the song.

Activity 4 – Active Shapes

Resources:

• Memo Cards: Shapes
• Box or bag
• Long ribbons or scarves

What to do:

1. Introduce the shapes using the Shapes Memo Cards then ask the children to make the shapes with their hands saying the shapes with you.
2. Ask everyone to stand up “On se lève?” (Shall we stand?)
3. With the children, use your whole bodies to try to make the shapes saying the words at the same time.
4. With a ribbon, take turns to make the shapes in the air.

Activity 5 – Clown shapes sheet

Resources:

• Clown Shapes Activity sheet (shapes pre-cut out for younger learners)

What to do:

1. Use Clown Shapes Activity sheet with shapes pre-cut-out
2. Introduce and name the cut-out shapes as a revision from Activity 4.
3. Then, distribute a glue stick and a set of shapes along with an activity sheet to each child.

Top tip: You can also use these activities to ask children to write their names on the sheet “Marque ton prénom/ Marquez vos prénoms sur la feuille” (Write your name/ your names on the page)

Activity 6 – Abracadabra!

Resources:

• A magic wand (Une baguette magique)
• Magician Flashcard
• Images of animals (suggestions: un lapin, une grenouille, un éléphant)

What to do:

1. Explain that you are now a magician! “Je suis un magicien! Voici ma baguette magique!” (I am a magician! Here is my magic wand!) You can use theMagician Flashcard to avoid translating.
2. Show the animal images and decide on an action for each one.
3. “Je te transforme en lapin/ grenouille/ éléphant!” (I transform you into a…)
4. Children to imitate that animal.
5. Take turns to let children ‘be the teacher’. Encourage them to say “Je te transforme en…” and point the magic wand at each other.

Activity 7 – Acrobat Ribbons

Resources:

• Acrobat Circus Flashcard
• Long ribbons or scarves

What to do:

1. Explain that you are now all acrobats! “Nous sommes des acrobates!” You can use theAcrobat Flashcard to avoid translating.
2. Use the ribbons or scarves to skip in a circle and raise the scarf saying “En haut!” then lower saying “En bas!”

As you can see this topic can be taken in so many directions and enables the children to be active but also creative. This is how languages should be taught! So I hope that you have enjoyed it.

This Teach Kids French series has been brought to you by Mini Languages® in collaboration with Bilingual Kidspot. See the whole series: Learn French for Kids

I hope that it has inspired you to increase your child’s exposure to a new language – you can do it! If you are a tutor or early-years teacher, then I hope the resources have saved you time. You can find lots more resources plus videos, MP3s and a cool online tool at www.minilanguagesforkids.com

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