Early Start French Pack 2
13. Les passe-temps Leisure activities
Discovering mutual interests, likes and dislikes, is an important part of developing relationships between children. This section enables pupils to talk about some of the sports and pastimes they like and don’t like doing in their free time. We have included seven sporting activities and one “couch potato” pastime as a starting point, with some additional suggestions included in “extra words and phrases” at the end of this chapter. Some pupils will be able to give simple reasons to support their preferences.
VIDEO
Football - spectators watching football at Lens football club. Children playing football in the school playground. “Le football”. Roller blades - boys skating in and out of the crowds on the seafront on a sunny summer day at Berck-sur-Mer. “Le roller”. Swimming - Saturday swimming class at the leisure centre in Berck-sur-Mer. “La natation”. Horse-riding - children learning to ride at the indoor centre in Berck-sur-Mer. “L’équitation”. Sailing - children sailing small boats at the summer sailing school in Wimereux. “La voile”. Sand-yachting - instructor teaching children to steer sand-yachts in a club on Boulogne beach. “Le char à voile”. Kites - flying kites on Berck-sur-Mer beach. “Faire du cerf-volant”. Watching TV - children watching a programme at Arnaud’s house. “Regarder la télé”.
NEW WORDS AND PHRASES le football le roller la natation l’équitation la voile le char à voile faire du cerf volant regarder la télé
- football - skating - swimming - horse-riding - sailing - sand-yachting - kite-flying - watching telly(TV)
Qu’est-ce que tu aimes faire? What do you like to do? Je déteste ... - I hate .... CD Track 25
HOW FRENCH WORKS Saying what you like to do French-speakers will commonly say “I like ...”, adding a noun that names their pastime, e.g. “J’aime le football”. NOTE: it is “ le football” in this phrase, as seen before when talking about food, e.g. “J’aime le fromage”. Two pastimes in the list above are named with noun-phrases: “kite-flying” is “faire du cerf-volant”; “telly-watching” is “regarder la télé”. These fit into the structure “J’aime...” in the same way. We suggest pupils learn to use them as complete
Scene from video section 13: “Je n’aime pas la natation”.
Each of the pastimes is then repeated, with children saying whether they like it or not (see this chapter’s “talking points”). Boys: “J’aime le football”. Girl: “Je déteste le football”. Boys: “J’aime le roller... c’est cool!” Girl 1: “J’aime la natation”. Girl 2: “Je n’aime pas la natation”. Girls: “J’aime l’équitation”. Boys: “J’aime la voile”. Children: “J’aime le char à voile”.
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2.13 Les passe-temps Activities
Girl: “J’aime faire du cerf-volant”. Girl: “J’aime regarder la télé”. Questions and answers: Q: “Qu’est-ce que tu aimes faire?” Arnaud on swing: ”Regarder la télé et le football”. Q: “... et le weekend, qu’est-ce que tu aimes faire?” Girl at desk: ”L’équitation”. Q: “... et toi, qu’est-ce que tu aimes faire?” Girl outside classroom: ”L’équitation”.
1. Warm up
You could start the lesson with a short game to remind children of what they can say about “likes and dislikes” with regard to food.
2. Watch the video
❑ Watch video section 13: “Les passe-temps“ to introduce the new words for leisure activities.
3. Get used to the sounds
❑ Echoing: Make flashcards from enlarged copies of the pictures on the activity sheets or display on the OHP/whiteboard. Use these together with the “happy face” symbol which represents “j’aime”. Show the “happy face” and one of the sporting pictures, and say the appropriate phrase, e.g. “J’aime le football”. Say it with lots of facial expression and enjoyment in your voice. Pupils echo the phrase and intonation. Continue with each of the pictures that match words pupils know.
Scene from video section 13: “J’aime regarder la télé”.
KEY SOUNDS
❑ Echoing: Repeat the process using the “sad/ grumpy face” picture which represents “je n’aime pas”, e.g. “Je n’aime pas la natation”. Try and show in your voice and by your facial expression just how much you dislike swimming! Pupils echo the phrase and intonation. Continue with each of the pastimes pictures.
Listen and enjoy copying these typical sounds: where have you heard them before?
“ ” as in natation
équitation Heard before in: marron crayon
(Listen to the native speakers - try to copy their typically French sounds.)
4. Respond with understanding
❑ Invite ten confident pupils to come to the front of the class. Give eight of them one of the pastimes pictures each and the remaining two pupils the “j’aime” and “je n’aime pas” symbols from chapter 2.10.
CD Track 25
Planning your lessons
In this section, pupils will again use the phrases for ‘I like.../ I don’t like...’, which may need revising. The video introduces new words for various sports and pastimes. When these are familiar, you can introduce others, or help children discover the French names of pastimes they want to talk about. Some pupils will be able to progress to giving simple reasons for their preferences. This is an opportunity to find out about the leisure interests of French people, and compare them with your community.
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Early Start French Pack 2 5. Working in pairs
When you say, e.g. “J’aime le football”, the pupil with the football picture holds it up for everyone to see and the child with the “j’aime” symbol holds up his/her picture. The rest of the class echoes the phrase. At this early stage, some mimes may help - and will certainly make the activity more amusing! If pupils have caught onto the idea quickly, gradually increase the pace at which you call out the phrases.
❑ Give pairs of children multiple copies of the pastimes pictures and “j’aime”/“je n’aime pas” symbols. They make two piles, one of activities and one of symbols. They take it in turns to select a symbol and a picture and to say the combination of symbol and activity, e.g. “J’aime le roller” or “je n’aime pas l’équitation”. ❑ Play “snap”
❑ Show the football picture either as a flashcard or display it on the whiteboard/OHP. Use your class puppet to demonstrate the following question and answer sequence: Ask the puppet, “Tu aimes le football?” Puppet replies: “Oui, j’aime le football”. Now show the picture of children swimming. Puppet asks you, “Aimes-tu la natation?” You reply: “Non, je n’aime pas la natation”. Repeat this question and answer sequence with the pupils. Either you or the puppet can ask the questions. The children reply, “Oui, j’aime ...” or “Non, je n’aime pas ...” At this early stage, it is a good idea to show the appropriate pictures.
Pupils can cut out the pictures, pool their sets and use them to play “snap”. The game should include saying the activity as the card is played. To make the game fun, they will need several sets of pictures.
6. Watch the video again
❑ Show video section 13: “Les passe-temps” again for reinforcement.
❑ Make multiple copies of the pastimes pictures. Each child in the class selects a picture of an activity s/he likes doing. Demonstrate what to do with the puppet: you and the puppet each choose a picture -which (for the game) will be the only pastime you like. If yours is the sailing picture, say to the puppet, “Moi, j’aime la voile - et toi?” If the puppet has chosen a different picture, e.g. swimming, he says, “Non, j’aime la natation”. If he has chosen the same picture, he says, “Oui, j’aime la voile”. Now ask everyone to move round the room and repeat the question-and-answer dialogue with as many people as possible. It is a good idea if you and the puppet join in.
7. Look again at sounds
❑ Now that the new words and sounds are familiar, play either “listen to the sounds” (described in Chapter 2.2: “En ville”) or “find the sound” (described in Chapter 2.3: “Toutes directions”).
Introducing the written word
When pupils have had plenty of exposure to the sounds of the new words and phrases, you may like to show them the final sequence of video section 13: “Les passe-temps”, in which each of the key phrases is repeated with text superimposed on the pictures.
❑ Play “musical questions” As an alternative to the previous activity, you can play music. When the music stops, pupils do the question-and-answer dialogue with the nearest person.
❑ Play “word-picture match 1 and 2” (described in Chapter 2.2: “En ville”).
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2.13 Les passe-temps survey, swap results, and discuss similarities and differences between the two sets of results.
When pupils are confident with using the names of pastimes from the video, help them learn other words so they can talk about about the pastimes that are important to them.
❑ Art and design: Pupils can design a frieze for classroom display showing their favourite sporting activities labelled in French.
CROSS-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
Town Guide project
❑ D ictionary skills: Many of the words for different sports are similar in English, French and other European languages e.g. sport: French Spanish German football: le football, el fútbol, der Fußball tennis: le tennis , el tenis, der Tennis rugby: le rugby, el rugby, der Rugby cricket: le cricket, el criquet, der Kricket judo: le judo, el yudo, der Judo If pupils are already familiar with how a bilingual dictionary works, they could, as a group or whole class activity, look up the French words for other sports and pastimes. With their knowledge of key sounds, they can try to work out how to pronounce them. Compare with the names in English. ❑ Survey - ICT: Pupils can find out from each other what spare-time activities they like and don’t like. See “extra words and phrases” for more words for pastimes. You could also help children find words they want in a bilingual dictionary - see note in “how French works”.
❑ Geography: Pupils preparing a Guide for their own town could research what sporting activities are available. ■ When and where do they take place? ■ How do visitors get there? ■ How much does it cost? Pupils could also consider which of your local amenities might be of particular interest to French visitors.
“Imaginary Town” project
❑ Geography: If pupils are making a model town, they could include a football pitch, a sports centre, a horse-riding centre or a beach. They can choose where these leisure facilities should be sited. ■ H o w will they fit in with the environment? ■ Will people be able to get there easily?
EXTRA WORDS AND PHRASES Giving reasons *
... pourquoi? C’est super ... why? It’s great C’est ...cool facile difficile intéressant ennuyeux amusant
- It’s cool - easy - difficult - interesting - boring - fun
NOTE to teachers: when you use the phrase, “c’est ...” (it is ...) the adjective stays in the masculine form, e.g. J’aime la voile, c’est amusant. * See chapter 2.10 for more words.
Some pupils may be ready to give reasons for their preferences. See “extra words and phrases” for some starting points; also Ch.2.10 for more about doing a simple survey in French. Children can record the results of their survey on a spreadsheet and display it as a graph. You could ask a French school to do a similar
Hear these phrases pronounced on the audio CD for teachers. CD Track 25
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Early Start French Pack 2 Cultural awareness ■ How many children prefer individual sports, and how many like team games? ■ Pupils can swap information with their link school about their favourite sports. ■ Send them the results of your survey with illustrations, e.g. drawings, photographs, video of the activities. ■ Ask pupils to think of how to explain the rules of an unfamiliar sporting activity to their French counterparts, e.g. rounders, netball, cricket. Instead of written French, they could use drawings, diagrams, photographs or video clips, with simple key instructions in English: How many players are there in each team? How are points scored? What is forbidden? ■ Ask your French partner school to do the same. Can you follow each other ’s
Talking point
EVERYDAY LIFE IN FRANCE Favourite French leisure activities
Sport is a big part of French people’s lives - much more than in previous generations. French adults have more holidays and shorter working hours than most other Europeans.
“J’aime le roller. C’est cool!” Increasingly French people prefer individual sports to team games.
EXTRA WORDS AND PHRASES
9 out of 10 French people say they engage in some sort of sporting activity. Increasingly these are individual sports rather than team games. Amongst men, the most popular are: (1) swimming, (2) cycling, (3) boules (pétanque), (4) tennis, (5) Alpine skiing. For women, the top five are: (1) swimming, (2) cycling, (3=) walking and gymnastics, (5) jogging. Cycling superstars and football Every summer millions watch the Tour de France on TV, and line its 4,000 km route around France, cheering their famous heroes. It is the world’s biggest sporting event. About 200 top cylists from around the world face a 22 day endurance test, including mountain climbs and speed races on the flat. At least 50 of these super-fit athletes will drop out with exhaustion or injury before the dramatic finish in Paris. Now football is challenging cycle racing’s place as France’s most popular spectator sport. There was national joy at France’s victory at home in the 1998 World Cup, beating Brazil 3:0. Most French boys and girls support a team, but French football gets smaller crowds and less TV income than British and other major European clubs. Many star players go abroad for more money. See www.earlystart.co.uk.
MORE SPORTS & PASTIMES
la trottinette - scooter le cyclisme - cycling le basket - basketball la danse - dancing la gymnastique - gymnastics le judo - judo le rugby - rugby le tennis - tennis les randonnées (f) - walks (rambles) les jeux électroniques - computer games un vélo tout-terrain (VTT) a mountain bike
= included on activity sheet
Hear these phrases pronounced on the audio CD for teachers. CD Track 25
RECORDING & ASSESSMENT
Children are now ready to record their achievements to date on the “can-do statements”: 11. FOOD AND DRINK to 13. SPORTS AND PASTIMES. (Find them after chapter 2.16). Each child could add his or her completed sheets to their European Languages Portfolio.
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Les passe-temps
Je m’appelle .............................
This page may be photocopied for classroom use
Š 2004 Early Start Lan-
Les passe-temps
Je m’appelle .............................
= see “extra words and phrases”
This page may be photocopied for classroom use
© 2004 Early Start Languages