You want me to teach French? Je ne pas speak French!! And the teacher was called away because of an emergency and left no lesson plans?? You’ve got to be kidding. But they aren’t kidding – this is very possible. Here a couple of ideas that work well for all grade levels.

1.If the students have their textbooks with them or in the classroom, there are often easy dialogues in each chapter. Have the students pick a dialogue and practice it in partners. Then, have the students practice is in an angry voice, a sad voice, an opera voice, rap etc. Have students present their dialogue in their favourite voice.

2. BINGO – this is a staple lesson for French substitutes for years! It’s like the chicken soup of French class. Many French classrooms already have Bingo cards and chips. If not, students need to write BINGO on a scrap piece of paper. Under each letter, they write 5 random numbers from 1 to 10. Then, you call out random letters from BINGO and numbers from 1 to 10. For example, you may call out N 9 – any student who has written 9 under the letter N crosses it out. The first student to cross out a whole row of numbers wins. If students pull out their own BINGO dabbers, you know you’re in trouble!