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French Interactive Halloween activities, a selection of French Halloween videos and a freebie!

I'm really excited about my new French Halloween resource! This is the kind of thing I really wished I had available when I was in the classroom.

You have probably seen or heard of interactive notebook activities, foldables, "cahiers interactifs", or "leçons à manipuler".  This post will not go into depth as to what they are. I'll leave that for a later post.

All I'll say is that they are engaging activities that will get your students really involved with their learning.

I had already released resources that included some interactive activities, but I guess this is the first one that is entirely made up of those.



Let's take a closer look!

Emergent Reader Foldable Mini-books: there are two mini-books in three versions.
The same sentence is used for repetitive practice: "C'est l'Halloween! Je vois…". One mini-book contains only masculine words, e.g "un chapeau", "un chat", etc and the other book is for feminine words, e.g. "une sorcière", "une citrouille",  etc.
Each of those comes in three versions: to be read and colored, with a gap to be completed (cloze activity), and with a drawing to be made (reading comprehension).
The teacher would have to select which version would be most appropriate for the group of students or the teacher could even use the different versions to differentiate the activity.

 French Hallowen Lapbook

I've included instructions with pictures of how to fold the mini-books, but I'd like to take this opportunity to share this video that I've found on YouTube:




Accordion foldable activity - choosing a Halloween costume - in two versions (for boys and girls)
The accordion flap contains Halloween costume options and it is helpful in introducing or reviewing vocabulary. For Halloween, they can choose any of those costumes. You can have a class discussion about which costumes they'd love to wear on Halloween and why. Then, they later write the costume they have chosen to complete the second sentence. Instructions of how to cut and glue are included in the resource.

 French Halloween Lapbook

Bat and Spider Facts Sorting Activity
There are eight simple sentences with facts about bats and spiders, e.g. "elle peut voler". Students have to cut out all the pieces on the page. Sort the flaps containing the information and glue them around the correct image. Instructions of how to cut and glue are included in the resource.

 French Halloween Lapbook

Colorful Candy & Haunted House Coloring Page/Lapbook Cover
I've also included two easy coloring pages:
- one is to practice color words
- one is a haunted house coloring page. You can use this one to support a listening exercise. You can have students color the house according to your instructions or you can have one student color and have this student instruct another student on how to color it. Then, they check to see if the houses look the same. This page can also be glued to the back of the lap book or to the front page (see finished product picture below).

HOW TO ASSEMBLE THE LAPBOOK

The activities can be done in one day or spread throughout a week. It's really up to the teacher. The foldable mini-books and flaps can be glued to notebooks OR they can assembled to create a lapbook.

Lapbooks are an incredibly hands-on way to let the student take charge of their own learning. They are involved with all aspects of creating the lapbook so they feel really connected to what they're practicing/learning. Lapbooks also serve to let the student review vocabulary/concepts by themselves at home. Parents can easily refer to them to have their kids practice more at home. And the best thing is that kids won't even notice how much they're "working" because they'll be entertained by the creative aspect of lapbooking.

In order to create lapbooks, you'll need a file folder for each student.
Here's a video on how to prepare turn a file folder into a lapbook.



The finished Halloween lap book should end up looking like this:

 French Halloween Lapbook

Click on any of the images above to check it out on TpT or on the pictures below for more Halloween resources! Remember: if you'd like to buy all three resources, check out the bundle for huge savings! Plus, the bundle includes a bonus!

    French Halloween Interactive Activities for Notebooks or Lapbooks     French Halloween Sentence Builders & Writing Templates

     French Halloween Word Wall & Scavenger Hunt     French Halloween Bundle of Resources

And to help you with the Halloween activities, I've made a selection of Halloween videos in French. 

I recommend using the links below the videos to show them in your classroom. Those are SafeShare links. SafeShare is a way to avoid having distracting and/or inappropriate content around the video itself. (I'm not being paid to say that. This is really a way to protect kids from seeing what they're not supposed to be seeing).

Check it out:



SafeShare link: C'est l'halloween - Matt Maxwell



SafeShare link:Toupie et Binou - Citrouille en fête



SafeShare link:BABELZONE - La chanson des squelettes - Teach French with LCF Clubs



SafeShare link:François le fantôme - Matt Maxwell

And finally, you deserve something for making it all the way to the end of this post. Here' s a FREE French Halloween Posters/Flashcards (click on the image to download it from Dropbox).

 FREE French Halloween Posters

This set of posters has been made with fonts by KG Fonts and graphics from Graphics From the Pond and The Spanglish Señorita.



I've started a new blog. The name says it all: For French Immersion Blog. Come check it out and subscribe to the For French Immersion Newsletter. Merci!


READ at For French Immersion7 Pinterest boards for French teachers



Thank you for stopping by!


A selection of 20 FREE clipart sets: Fall, Pumpkins, Halloween, and Thanksgiving!

Apparently, I'm not the only one with a clipart addiction. My selection of 30 FREE clipart sets for back-to-school is one of my most popular posts!

I'm back again with a new selection of FREE clipart sets. This time around I've selected some for fall, Halloween, and Thanksgiving.

Writing posts like this is my way of saying thanks to all clip artists who are SO generous with us! Thank YOU!



As before, I've selected sets from artists you might not know yet or sets from your favorite artists that you might have missed.

You can check out my latest clipart finds by following my Crazy for Clipart Pinterest board:

Follow Lucy S.'s board Crazy for Clip Art (mostly free sets) on Pinterest.


Here we go!

- Happy Fall Pumpkin by Digi Web Studio

 FREE clipart sets

- FREE Pumpkin Borders and Paper by Classroom Core

 FREE Pumpkin Borders and Papers

- Free Leaf Digi Paper Pages by Graphics from the Pond

Free Leaf Digi Paper Pages

- Free Fall is in the Air by Cindy Calenti

 Free Fall is in the Air

- Free Lots of Dots Little Acorns by Loving Learning with Ms. Longo

 Free Lots of Dots Little Acorns

- Free Frolicking Fall Leaves by The Doodle Oven

 Free Frolicking Fall Leaves


- Pumpkin Picking Clipart Freebie by Teaches Third in Georgia

 Pumpkin Picking Freebie

- Free Autumn Numbers by Artifex

 Free Autumn Numbers

- Free Jack O'Lantern and Stripes Halloween Borders and Digital Papers by Jax and Jake

 Free Jack O'Lantern and Stripes Halloween Borders and Papers

- Pumpkins Emotions Clipart Freebie by Rebekah Brock

 Pumpkins Emotions Clipart Freebie

- Freebie Halloween Treats by Classroom Doodle Diva

 Freebie Halloween Treats

- Ghost Clipart Freebie by Whimsy Clips

 Ghost Clipart Freebie

- Free Bone Tallies Clipart by KB Konnected

 Free Bone Tallies Clipart

- Halloween Little Witches Mini Freebie Clipart Set by The 3am Teacher

Halloween Little Witches Mini Freebie

- Halloween Clipart Freebie - Ghosts by Teacher Karma

 Halloween Clipart Freebie - Ghosts

- Free School Zombies Clipart by NinjaWoman Clipart Studio

 Free School Zombies Clipart

- Free Halloween Counting Ghosts and Haunted House by Winterpix Wonders

 Free Halloween Counting Ghosts and Haunted House

- Free Thanksgiving/Fall Clipart by A Sketchy Guy

 Free Thanksgiving/Fall Clipart

- Mayflower Clip Art Freebie by Busy Bee Clip Art (Sarah Warner)

 Mayflower Clip Art Freebie

- Turkey in Disguise Clipart Freebie by Teaching in the Tongass

 Turkey in Disguise Clipart Freebie

That's all folks! If you download and like the sets, remember to show the artists your love by leaving them feedback!

READ: Free K-3 APPLES Resources and Ideas


Thank you for stopping by!

10 words that English borrowed from German

I'm back with another installment in my series 10 words that English borrowed from… and the focus today is on German!

I don't speak a word in German, except for these words that are used in English. I'm sure my pronunciation is completely off, so it's a good thing that you're reading it and not listening to it!




1. NOODLE
I had no idea, before writing this post, that "noodle" derives from a German word! The original word has a slightly different spelling: nudel.
When I hear the word, I always think of a Chinese or Japanese dish, but I know that's probably just me :)

2. KAPUT
It can also be written with a double "t" as in German. The German word actually derives from the French word "capot" so, maybe, this should be listed under 10 words that English borrowed from French? If you don't know what it means, it is "no longer working", "broken".

3. ZEITGEIST
The general spirit of an era as in "the new movie really captured the 'zeitgeist' of the 60s".

4. KINDERGARTEN
"Kinder" means children and "garten" means, well, "garden" (you didn't see that coming, right?)
Here's a video with a brief explanation of how the word found its way into English.




5. HAMBURGER 
The name of one of the most famous American sandwiches derives from the name of the city of Hamburg in Germany.

6. POODLE, ROTTWEILER, SCHNAUZER
If you love dogs, you'll know that these words refer to dog breeds. I had never realized until now that they are all words that come from German.

Poodle: it derives from "Pudel", which is short for "Pudelhund".
Rottweiler: there is a city in Germany called Rottweil.
Schauzer: it derives from "Schnauze", which means snout.

7. ÜBER
This word meaning "over, beyond" has been adopted as a prefix in English as in übermodel, überfamous, übercool, and so on. Let me ask you something: are you übertired of hearing people using the prefix "über"?

8. WANDERLUST
I love this word, but I don't know if I like it for how it sounds or for what it means. All I can say is that from time to time I'm taken by wanderlust and I wish I could succumb to this strong desire to travel.
This word is also an example of how similar English is to German in some occasions.

9. POLTERGEIST
Raise your hand if you learned the meaning of this word by watching the 80s movie!
In German, "poltern" means "to knock" and "Geist" means "spirit" (as in #3 zeitgeist).

And I couldn't resist embedding the original movie trailer from 1982:



10. DOPPELGÄNGER
As we're approaching Halloween, I thought I'd finish the list with "Poltergeist" and "Doppelgänger" as I believe you can have students working with these two words to generate many scary stories.
"Doppelgänger" refers to a double. It can either be a ghostly one or not, but it usually is the cause of much fear and angst.


So, tell me, did you know all of these words? Are there any German words commonly used in English that I should have included?


Thanks for reading!

Read: 10 words that English borrowed from Japanese


Read: 10 words that English borrowed from Spanish


Read: 10 words that English borrowed from French



All things APPLE - Free K-3 Apple Resources and Ideas

In keeping up with my "hopes" from The Sunday Scoop list, I'm here for another blog post.

Apples are great because not only are they delicious (think warm apple pie with vanilla ice cream!), but they also lend themselves very well to fantastic educational resources.

GRAPHICS by Kari Bolt and FONTS by KG fonts
I've rounded up some amazing freebies for you to check out!
(They're all free as I post. If they happen not to be free when you check them out, let me know so I can update this post. Thanks!)

Here they are:

- Apple-tastic Freebie by Lisa Mattes - K-2 ELA/Math

 K-3 Apple Freebies


 K-3 Apple Freebies



- Apple Addition with regrouping by The Third Wheel - 3-4 Math

 K-3 Apple Freebies

Last but not least, here is my very own Apple True or False Balancing Equations Sorting Freebie.
It's a fun way to check out how well your students can work with balancing equations (addition and subtraction within 20).

 K-3 Apple Freebies


 Free Apple Balancing Equations Sort

And if you're looking for all kinds of apple ideas (crafts, Science experiments, bulletin board ideas, etc) to go with your apple lessons, check out and follow my A barre-ful of apples Pinterest board!

Follow Lucy S.'s board A Barrel-ful of Apples on Pinterest.

Thank you so much for reading!

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