French Clothing Vocabulary

If your daughter has a doll or a barbie doll that has clothes is a great way to teach and reinforce clothing vocabulary. You can have your son or daughter change the clothes and practice all sorts of words. Here's a list of some clothing vocabulary:

un manteau - coat
un blouson - jacket
un pull sweater
un tee-shirt - T-shirt
un pantalon - pants
un jean - jeans
un short - shorts
des chaussettes (f) - socks
des chaussures (f) - shoes
un pyjama - pajamas

Candy Land...

The game Candy Land is a great game that you can use to teach French colors and numbers and basic commands. I think most people have some kind of version of the game or I'm sure you can pick it up at a neighborhood garage sale or wal-mart for a decent price.

Candy Land has your basic colors and the numbers don't go too high, you either have un or deux blocks of colors on the card. You can begin to put the numbers and colors together. For example deux bleu (two blue) or un jaune (one yellow). The more French your child knows, the more complex you can make it. It's a great fun way to teach your child a little French.

Visit the zoo and practice French

If there is a zoo close to you, it would be a great opportunity to teach your children the animals’ names in French. And if there are any new animals to your children, that is an opportunity to teach them only in French. So, when they see that animal they will only say the name in French.

Here are a few french animal names:

The lion - le lion
The tiger - le tigre
The bear - l’ours
The elephant - l'éléphant
The monkey - le singe

Blast off!!!!

A lot of children can say their numbers in French from 1-10, but can they say them backwards? This is a great way to ensure that your child knows their numbers forwards and backwards. It's a fun way to teach your kids numbers too!

If you have a rocket ship you can pretend it is going into space by counting down! If you don’t have one, you can make one out of an empty toliet paper roll and adding a little decoration to it!

10 - dix
9 - neuf
8 - huit
7 - sept
6 - six
5 - cinq
4 - quatre
3 - trois
2 - deux
1 - un
Blast off! Décollage!

Yule log - la bûche de Noël

If you are learning French in your house, why not add a little French culture as well. You can make a Yule Log cake (la bûche de Noël). Mmmmm…They are so yummy.

Here are a few that I found:

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,186,140176-234204,00.html

http://recipeland.com/recipe/v/A-Buche-De-Noel----French-Yule-Log-Cake-24325

You can even make it a family tradition!

Vive le vent! Christmas Carols in French

What a great way to teach your kids to French – singing Christmas carols in French to the tune of English Christmas carols.

Here is one song I found on the website below. It is sung to the tune of Jingle Bells, all of the lyrics can be found at: http://bogglesworldesl.com/french/french_christmas_songs.htm

Vive le vent
Sur le long chemin
Tout blanc de neige blanche
Un vieux monsieur s'avance
Avec sa canne dans la main
Et tout là-haut le vent
Qui siffle dans les branches
Lui souffle la romance
Qu'ill chantait petit enfant.

(Refrain)
Vive le vent, vive le vent
Vive le vent d'hiver
Qui s'en va sifflant, soufflant
Dans les grands sapins verts...
Oh! Vive le vent, vive le vent
Vive le vent d'hiver
Boule de neige et jour de l'an
Et bonne année grand-mère...

Pudding Painting

Here’s a fun little activity for any child, including the child who has no time to learn French. Make some instant pudding (any flavor will do. I think Chocolate or a dark color will work better than vanilla for this activity). Put some freezer paper in front of your child on the table and let them finger paint with the pudding. The way you can sneak a little French in, is by having them make different shapes. You can say the word in French and they can paint it. Then, you can have them repeat the word in French. Their reward for a good job can be licking their fingers!

The great thing about shapes in French is that most of them are very similar to English, so you won’t have to translate to your child. They should be able to figure the words out.

Useful French Vocabulary:
the circle – le cercle
the oval – l’ovale
the triangle – le triangle
the square – le carré
the diamond – le losange
the rectangle – le rectangle

French Christmas Vocabulary!

Holidays are a great time to introduce fun new vocabulary to your children. You can use a chalk board or wipe off board and draw pictures so that they will have a mental picture of the word in their mind. Below are a few words that you could teach:

Christmas – Noël
The present – le cadeau
Santa Claus - Père Noë or Papa Noël
The snow – la neige
The snowman – le bonhomme de neige
The sleigh - un traîneau
The reindeer – un renne

Christmas Cookies!

My daughter loves making cut-out cookies. I wanted to spice it up a bit. So, now I make her speak French when we do it. We put food dye in the frosting, so she talks about the different cookies she’s making and the colors she is making them. A super easy way to do this is just to buy some refridgerated sugar cookie dough and then you don’t have to make everything from scratch. You can make the icing by simply adding a little water to powder sugar and putting food dye in it. Have fun teaching your children fun and eating the results!

Useful French Vocabulary:
Blue – bleu
Yellow – jaune
Orange – orange
Green – vert
Red – rouge
Pink – rose
Light blue – bleu clair
Brown – marron
Grey – gris
White – blanc
Black - noir

Making Snowmen and learning French with your child

Do you have some cotton balls? And some paper? Then you have a potential snowman and a little French teaching thrown in.

What you will need:
Cotton balls
Constuction paper or plain white paper
Scissors
Crayons
Glue

What to do:
1. Have your son/daughter cut a piece of paper as big as they would like their snowman to be.
2. Pour out some of the cotton balls and have your child line them up and count them in French.
3. Then, have your child glue them on the cut out snow man, counting again in French.
4. Your child can accessorize their snowman by drawing, coloring and cutting out a hat, scarf and boots. As they color them they can practice their colors and also the names of the clothing.

Useful Vocabulary:
Hat – le chapeau
Scarf – l'écharpe
Boots – les bottes
Snowman – le bonhomme de neige