French 1 for Schools – Lesson 1

In this video, you will see French people greeting each other in various ways. Make a note, if you can, of the various greetings you can hear.

Notice also all the cultural elements of the video. What catches your eye? In what ways does it look different from your home country?

In this video, you will learn some of the phrases used for greeting someone in French at various points of the day and in different contexts.

This short animation with voices of native French children will present you with possible answers to the “Ça va ?” (How are you?) question.

Make a note, if you can, of these answers.

In this video, you will learn various ways to respond to the “Ça va ?” question, as well as express other feelings and emotions.

The culture hunt consists of 8 short animations: each animation is mainly in English, with a few French words/expressions. They are all “stand alone” animations and don’t have to follow a particular order. Please refer to the Teacher’s Notes to see how to use them.

Challenge 1 – Games

Download the flashcards with various greetings and emotions. Teach your learners the difference between all these greetings. Embed them as part of your morning and/or evening routine.

There are various games you can play with a printed set of Flashcards, such as “mime the flashcard”, “find the missing flashcard” (KIM’s game); or with two sets: memory game, snap game, etc.

Emotion cards

Challenge 2 – Talking

Use French to greet your learners, colleagues or family members at home at different moments of the day and get them to greet back to you and to one another too! You could film yourself and your learners doing a daily routine over a couple of weeks.

Can you see the progression? It might be worth giving them a cultural note: French people kiss on the cheeks when they meet each other and to say good-bye (one kiss on each cheek at the very least!). Using a puppet or by drawing a face on their finger (2 eyes and a mouth will do), pupils can practise greeting and “kissing” one another!

Recycle your learning

Game – Teach your family phrases in French and play the Observation Game.
Pupils take their mini pack of 8 cards home, teach the question and the 3 possible answers to their family and then play the game (see Teacher’s Notes).

Once you’ve managed your Challenges, you can start lesson 2!