First Week of Grade 2/3 French Immersion Activities
Figuring out what to do in the first week of school can be tough! These activities are ones I’ve done in the past to help get you started. While my examples may be in French, you can certainly do these activities in English. I have provided some English versions where possible.
These activities could easily be adapted to suit any grade from 1-4 so take the idea and run with it!
Expectations
Instead of just giving a list of rules, we talked about expectations that we have for a good student and a good teacher. Students raised their hand and told me their expectation, then chose a colour for the post it.
In this case, I wrote them in French but if you have stronger students or are doing this activity in their first language, you could have students write their own on sticky notes instead.
*English = a good student/a good teacher
“Presenting me” portrait
Portraits are always a common first project in elementary school as they allow us to get to know the students in our class. Drawing a self-portrait is really challenging so this multi-media twist is a great way to achieve the same effect without overwhelming them. I display them in the hall first, then they come back into the classroom to stay up all year.
*Example is in French, but could be done in English instead.
Alternatively, do a fun geometric self-portrait.
Since these are a little wild, it takes the pressure off making a really realistic portrait. You can also do these Todd Parr style. He has tons of books for you to take inspiration from.
Teamwork STEM challenge - Saving Fred/Sauver Fred
This is such a fun challenge and my students thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s a super popular activity so a quick Google search will give you plenty of hook presentations, plan sheets, set up pictures and more detailed instructions.
The quick notes: Teams are trying to rescue Fred the worm and get him into his lifejacket (a gummy lifesaver). The catch? They can only touch their paperclips to do this task.
For each team of 2-3, you will need: 1 clear plastic cup, one gummy worm, one gummy lifesaver (not the hard ones) and one paperclip for each student. They will wreck the paper clip so don’t give them fancy ones.
Teamwork STEM challenge - Longest paper chain
I divided students into teams of 2-3. Each team received 1 piece of paper, scissors and masking tape the length of my arm. They had 10 minutes to create the longest paper chain. Their techniques tend to be different, yielding different chain lengths which leads to great discussion about why a certain strategy worked better.
Teamwork challenge - 100 numbers to get students talking
This resource comes from Sara Vanderwerf. You will need students in groups of four and each student in the group needs a different colour marker. Teams need to work together to be the first to find all numbers from 1-100 in order. This is a great group work activity and can be a great introduction to discussions around communication and teamwork. You can get the free download on her website
Pass the drawing
This is a really fun way to get students talking about each other’s work. Each student starts with a sheet of paper. This can be printed on one side, since these won’t exactly be masterpieces.
Give students at least 1 minute to start drawing (it can be anything). Any less is not quite enough time. Once the timer goes, they must stop what they’re drawing and pass their paper to the next person. If you have tables or desk pods, pass within the group. If you have solo desks, just pass to the right or left.
Now each of the students have a new sheet with something already on it. Their job is to use their next minute to add to that first drawing.
Continue to pass around. This could be 5 or 10 rounds, up to you!
When done, my students love to come together and we look at each one. They’re a little crazy and there’s lots of laughs!
Journals
We start writing right away! We will get into writing styles and will do writing projects down the line but to start I just want to see what their writing looks like. I made this anchor chart to use on our first day and subsequent days as a reminder of writing expectations.
Since we are an immersion classroom, I also teach them how to use the variety of lexiques that we have in class to support their vocabulary.
I talk more about writing and the lexiques in my grade 2/3 french literacy post. Check it out HERE.
*English = the date, capital letters (proper nouns and the beginning of each sentence), punctuation, letters inside/on the lines, details (who, what, where, when…), spaces)
Learning how to map words
In the past I’ve done a weekly dictée (learn more about how I run that program HERE) and our morning work revolves around practicing in different ways. This year I’m not doing a weekly test, but we will still be using those words every morning and I’m just calling it “les mots de la semaine” instead.
One of the morning tasks they have is to map their words. For most of them, this is a new thing so we spend several days practicing how to do it before we start our weekly words/morning work in week 2. On the first day, we do it as a group on the board, doing a bunch of examples. On the second day, we do it as a group again first, then I pass out my mapping sheets in dry erase pouches and give them one word at a time to map. After they have time to try it themselves, we do that word together. On the third day, we start right away with them trying it on their mapping sheet with words I give them.
There’s no rhyme or reason to these words. I usually just look around the room for them. I do like to throw in problems they may encounter when they will be doing it independently in the future such as double letters, silent letters etc.
Je suis capable - Growth Mindset activity
On my wall I have the words “nous sommes capables!”. Around it, I put student pictures of them holding a sign they decorate with the words “Je suis capable!”. After talking about mindset and doing our morning affirmation for the first time, we do this activity. For more detailed instructions, book suggestions and the download, please see the post HERE.
More than Peach & Class Heart - A diversity lesson
Unfortunately, I cannot remember where I originally saw this idea but I loved it so I wanted to do it this year with my students.
We read the story “More than Peach” by Bellen Woodard (also available in French as “Plus que la couleur pêche”). This story is about changing the language around the “skin coloured crayon” to be more inclusive. After reading the story we talked about the character in the book and how we could learn from what happened in her class to make it better.
I make a heart with enough spots for all of my students, and me and added our names. I did this in PowerPoint. It was a little bit cumbersome to make sure I had enough spots but I finally made it work.
When I showed my students the heart, they noticed that not all the sections were the same size. Some were bigger or smaller or skinnier or wider. One student noted how it was like us, we aren’t all the same size! While this wasn’t part of my original discussion plan, it was such a great addition and made everyone feel great about their space on the heart, no matter the position or size.
Using the Colours of the World crayons, each student got to choose one that most closely resembled their skin. Then, they coloured in their part of the heart.
Heart template available in the “files” tab at the top of my website.
SEL lesson - Mr. Peabody’s Apples & toothpaste activity
My Peabody’s Apples is a story that teaches us about the impact that our words have and how they’re hard to take back.
A visual lesson for this is to get a tube of toothpaste (a travel size one is fine) and squeeze out all the toothpaste as fast as you can. Now have students try to put the toothpaste back inside, just as quickly. The idea here is that it’s easy to let our words out but it’s hard to take them back.
SEL lesson - crumpled paper
This lesson requires no prep other than getting a piece of paper. It is similar to the toothpaste activity in that it’s about how we treat people.
Have students say hurtful things to the paper and crumple it each time. Now, have them say nice things and apologies to the paper. You can talk about how even though they’re apologizing now, the damage has been done and the paper won’t go back to the way it started.
Personalized name tags, bookmarks & portfolios
Name tags can be used for so many different things. If you have desks, they can be used for their desk (on top or in front), for their cubby, for bathroom sign out, for a birthday board…the list is endless. The size will depend on what you plan on using them for. You may want to laminate them too, depending on their usage.
For the bookmarks I make a PowerPoint that has rectangles with names typed in block letters, it’s not fancy at all! I print them out on card stock (our school laminator has really thin film, but if you’re using your laminator, you could print on regular weight paper). Students can decorate them in any way they want. Once they’ve coloured them in, I laminate them and they can use them for their silent reading books that stay in the class.
The art portfolios are on large construction paper. I usually use the large size of card stock but we were out this year so I went with construction paper.
They have to write their name in a big way and then can decorate it anyway they want.
If I use card stock, I don’t laminate it but since the construction paper is thinner, I laminated because sometimes they take their portfolios home and I didn’t want them ripped in their backpacks.
OTHER ACTIVITY IDEAS
*Some of these have been submitted by you, thanks for your ideas! I haven’t tried all of them yet but I am always looking for new things to keep the first week fresh.
Terry Fox - Since our school participates in the Terry Fox Run every September, we usually start with some videos, books and activities to get us in the spirit for the run.
Terry’s story (read about Terry on terryfox.org)
Terry Fox, Anything’s Possible documentary (~14 min) - see below
French song: Je cours comme Terry - Gregg LeRock - see below
Duotang or notebook covers
If you do covers for any of these (even smaller labels), students can have some time to personalize their own.
Play games inside or outside
Here’s a list of no-prep brain breaks. These can be used all year but they’re a great way to get students interacting without making it awkward.
Go to the playground/play outside.
Let them play. Remember, they’ve been on summer break and sitting for so much more of the day takes some time. Plus, the rains and cold weather are coming, so why not enjoy the outdoors while it’s still nice.
Teamwork challenge - build the tallest shoe tower
Teamwork challenge - cup stacking
Book & craft
Read the book “Le pigeon doit aller à l’école” by Mo Willems. Do a directed drawing or make a handprint pigeon. See an example here.
Book & class name word search
Read the book “Our class is a family” (notre classe est une famille) and have a discussion. After, students can do a word search featuring the names of their classmates.
Book & growth mindset
Read the book “The magical yet”. Have a discussion and students will write one thing that they can’t do yet, but they hope to be able to do by the end of the year.
Forest perfume
If you have a forested area near your school, this is a great activity to talk about the 5 senses. Students are given a cup and collect things that smell like nature. During this activity, students should be respectfully collecting materials and at the end, they will return their collections to nature.
Teacher slideshow or trivia
Get to know your teacher with a slide show or trivia game with fun facts. This could be a great jumping off point if you’re doing anything about identity or projects with an “all about me” style.
School tour/scavenger hunt
Have new students joining you this year? Go on a tour so that they feel comfortable mkaing their way around independently.
Bucket filling
There are so many ways that you can have bucket filling play a role all throughout the year. Start with the books, have discussions, do actual bucket filling using pompoms or gems.
A few years ago I had students do a comic strip about their “bucket filler bandit”. Check it out here.
The best part of me (SEL, art, writing)
This is not a French book, but you can either do it in English if your curriculum/grade allows or take the idea and do French writing instead.
Read the book, have a discussion, then students will choose their own “best part of me” and write about it. You will take a black and white photo of their best part to attach to their writing. This makes for a really powerful display in the hall.
Design your birthday cupcake for a wall display
Birthday cards
Students each make a generic birthday card. These will be given to students throughout the year as their birthdays arrive. For students with summer birthdays you can choose to give them one “late” in September or “early” in June.
STEM bins
Mystery student questionnaire
Students fill out a short questionnaire with information like favourite colour, food, activity, # of siblings etc. Then, throughout September, the teacher will pull a sheet and students will try to guess the mystery student based on clues.