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Why learn French?

If you ever go to France, it’s useful to be able to speak French. And France has some fabulous places to visit. There are lots of charming cities and towns , and in the south of France there are lots of beautiful beaches. There are also lots of captivating castles dotted all over France. France’s charming capital is called Paris, and is home of the famous Eiffel Tower and Walt Disney Europe.

All over France you will find delicious French bakeries selling tasty treats, and France is also well known for it's delicious chocolates, sweet and savoury pancakes and it's large variety of cheeses.

Lyon

Annecy

What's the best way of learning French?

To learn a foreign lanuage it's useful to learn lots of nouns. Nouns are the words for people, animals, places and things. Examples of nouns include a cat, a banana and a coat. There are lots of ways to learn new words, and we learn best when we are interested and having fun. So why not try a variety of the suggestions below?

Choose a topic, for example colours or pet animals.

Learn a few words each time you study French. How many words you choose to learn is up to you! Everyone is different. I would recommend anything from 3 - 10 words each time you study. How many new words to learn each time you study depends on how much time you have or how easily you remember the words. The thing that’s great about learning languages is that there is no right or wrong amount of words you should learn each time you study. It’s whatever you are happy with. I always find it’s easier to learn words in a foreign language if you learn them as a topic as you can then go on to build sentences with these words and your word lists are easier to refer back to. It’s important to keep looking back at the words you have learnt so that you don’t forget them.

Book cover of Young Cool Kids Learn French has a winking face and the background is blue, white and red like the French flag

Young Cool Kids Learn French has been written for 5 - 7 year olds learning French. This book introduces and practices 4 or 5 words per topic.

The lovely topics include: Numbers 1 - 10, The teddy bear’s picnic, Greetings, Toys, Colours, A trip to the beach and Zoo animals.

Cool Kids Speak French Book 1

There are 6 topics in each of the two books in the series Cool Kids Speak French, and each topic starts with a picture page showing all the words for that topic. These words are then practiced, and sentences are built using these words. Finally there is a fun word search. Suggested age range: 7 - 11 year olds

Topics in book 1

* Greetings

* Numbers

* Sport

* Colours

* Animals

* Transport

Cool Kids Speak French Book 2

Each topic begins with an introductory picture page showing the words for the topic. These words are then practiced, and sentences are built using these words. Finally there is a fun word search. Suggested age range: 7 - 11 year olds

Topics in book 2

* Drinks

* Fruit

* Numbers 11 - 20

* Weather

* Clothes

* Sweet & savoury pancakes

Three pine trees and Father Christmas are depicted on the cover of French At Christmas time by Joanne Leyland

Cool Kids Speak French - Book 3

This is the third book in the series Cool Kids Speak French.

Each topic begins with an introductory picture page showing the words for the topic.These words are then practiced, and sentences are built using these words. Finally there is a fun word search.

Suggested age range: 7 - 11

French at Christmas time

This special Christmas edition is packed full of fun activity pages, word searches, colour by number pictures and board games. There are even some fabulous Christmas cards and a New Year card to make.

This great book may be photocopied for class or home use.

Suggested age range: 7 - 11

In addition to the fun activities set out in the above books, there are lots of ways of practising words that are topic based.

Why don’t you try the following?:

Create your own poster with the new French words written on it and proudly display it on the fridge or in your room. Each topic in the series Cool Kids Speak French books begins with a page full of the images for that topic. You could either use this as an example to copy, or you could create your own.

Choose some pretty coloured pencils or pens and practice writing the new words in your best hand writing.

Play Guess the word Game by looking choosing a word from the topic, and someone else has to guess what the word is. If you are using Cool Kids Speak French, you could look at the first page for each topic for inspiration aboutwhat word to choose / to guess what it is. Opposite is the first page of the animal topic in Cool Kids Speak French.

Make French - English word cards by cutting up a piece of card into approximately 5 cm x 3 cm rectangles. Ask an adult to be around while using scissors. On one side write the French word, on the other side write the English word. Test yourself on the words by looking at one side of the card, and saying what the word is in the Foreign language.

Role play situations

Another great way to learn French is to pretend you are in France, and role play situations like ordering something to eat or drink. It can be so much fun to pretend to be there and to have to speak in French for a real purpose!

On Holiday In France Cool Kids Speak French has been written so children can learn some French in the first part of the book before they go away, and then complete challenges from the second part of the book whilst they are away. By completing the challenges the children can practice the French they have learnt. The second part of the book could also be used for role play at home or school.

A selection of cold drinks and ice creams are shown on the cover of On Holiday In France Cool Kids Speak French

The fantastic topics Include:

Greetings
Numbers
Drinks
The Bakery
Ordering food
Pancakes
Ice creams
Souvenirs
Hotels
Buying chocolates
campsites & around town

Making your own sentences

Once you have learnt some nouns (words for things, people, animals and places) you can then learn how to build simple sentences.

Learning a language is fun, a bit like putting together the pieces in an amazing jigsaw puzzle and before you know it, you are making something really impressive.

Once you can put together you own sentences you can speak French, and that is a good skill to have.

There are lots of ways of learning how to make your own sentences. The books in the range Cool Kids Speak French introduce the new words in each topic, then practice how to make simple sentence structures. By developing sentences using the new words, you can learn how to make your own sentences. You can also practice making your own sentences by taking part in role roles.

Cool Kids Do Maths In French

This photocopiable book is filled with fun activity sheets using the numbers 1 - 100 in French. On each activity sheet there is support in French for the numbers you need to complete the fun activities.

Topics include:

* Numbers 1 - 10

* Numbers 11 - 20

* Numbers 21 - 40

* Numbers 41 - 60

* Numbers 60 - 80

* Numbers 80 -100

* Fractions

Games are a great way of practicing either new words or sentence structures.

You can either design your own board game with pictures in the spaces for the French you are learning, or use the great games in the book opposite. To play a board game, you will need a dice and one counter for each player. The counters could be anything from cubes to small toys to rubbers - they just have to fit in the spaces in the game!

Photocopiable Games For Teaching French is packed full of games like snakes and ladders, board games, four in a row as well as photocopiable mini cards with which you can play numerous games. The games are differentiated to suit three different levels of ability in a class, and make a great resource to embed either new words or sentence structures.

Book cover of Photocopiable Games For Teaching French showing images of some of the words that appear in the games

Stories are another great way of learning a foreign language, after all we all like stories!

For young learners aged 5-7 , it’s nice to have the story in English with key words in the foreign language so that it’s easy to follow the story and focus the language learning on key vocabulary.

Daniel and the French robot is about a robot who teaches Daniel French. There are 3 lovely books available, and in each book there is two stories.

The French robot and three children appear on the cover of Daniel And The French Robot Book 1 First Words In French

A pretend French cafe and images of the easy French words to learn appear on the cover of Daniel And The French Robot Book 2

Illustrations of some easy French words for children to learn are shown on the cover of Daniel And The French Robot Book 3

Sophie And The French Magician is about a magician that Sophie sees and the magician does various tricks in French. There are two stories in book 1.

The French magician, three children and 2 adults On the cover of Sophie And The French Magician

Jack And The French Languasaurus is about a French speaking dinosaur that teaches French to a little boy called Jack. There are 3 books in the series, and each book has two stories.

A French speaking dinosaur, some sheep and some fruit are depicted on the cover of Jack And The French Languasaurus Book 1

A red, white and blue dinosaur and some farm animals are illustrated on the cover of Jack And The French Languasaurus Book 2

A dinosaur, treasure chest and clothes appear on the cover of Jack And The French Languasaurus Book 3 First Words In French

The following stories have been written for children aged 7 - 11 who are learning French. The lovely stories are written only in French so as to immerse the children in the French language using simple sentence structures, but there are lots of great pictures to help children understand the storyline. And at the back of the book is a French - English translation of the story and a French vocabulary page. There are also some lyrics that can be either sung as a song or made into a rap to help you learn French!