Are you looking for creative and fun French activities to teach French adjectives? If so, you are definitely in the right place! Teaching this particular French grammar concept can be a little tricky given the fact that there are thousands of French adjective rules. That said, if you structure your lessons with intent, understanding French adjectives can be made a lot easier for our students.
Colour by code – understand French adjectives rules by exploring
When teaching adjective rules, the biggest mistake I made was TELLING my students all of the rules! This is a rule that pretty much applies to all French grammar lessons!
I know. That sounds wild, doesn’t it?
Just giving our students French adjectives lists or lists of French adjectives rules does not mean your students will have a good grasp of the concept or know how to use them!
Instead of telling your students the rules, have them explore and analyze the rules by themselves! This first activity does just that!
It took me SIX hours to create this colour by code activity and I have ZERO regrets!
I have my students explore French adjectives rules by analyzing what the adjective ends in and whether that ending is masculine, feminine, neutral, masculine plural or feminine plural.
How I set up this colour by code worksheet with my students:
- Project the worksheet on your board.
- Pick 1 adjective from the colour by code sheet
- Go to www.wordreference.com and type the adjective into the search bar (see image below)
- I zoom into the orange rectangle and show them which form of the adjective is masculine or feminine.
Me voici – get your French students to describe their identities with French adjectives
In my classroom, we spent a lot of time celebrating our identities as well as the diversity of the francophone world. One of the activities we do in French 8 (or French 1 if you’re from the US) is practice describing our identities.
This resource is a free download in my TPT store!
Acrostic poem
This next activity is simple, but effective! I have my beginner French students write an acrostic poem. Each letter of their first name will be a placeholder for an adjective that describes them.
Crayola
Finally, we have an activity which I LOVE so, SO much!
Basically, I asked my students to create a list of 20 adjectives that describe their identities. PS, I let me students know that the choice of adjectives is THEIR choice.
If they want to choose words that describe their religion, ethnicity, race, gender or sexual orientation – they absolutely can! However, if they don’t want to, that is okay too <3.
Also, if you choose to do this activity, I ask that you have diverse shades of crayons/markers/pencil crayons for your students with melanin!
