To all my grade one teachers out there… How have you been finding your students’ French alphabet knowledge since the pandemic?
In my case, I have had to review the alphabet with my grade one students each year so far. Even though they are *supposed* to know all 36 phonemes in French before coming to grade one, they haven’t had a full/normal school year in years.
So, each September since 2020, I have KNOWN my incoming students would need alphabet review. But, in grade one, we just don’t have time to do as intensive an ABC bootcamp as I do in maternelle.
So, I created a really simple (but effective!) routine to add to our literacy block the first few weeks of school.
(If you teach maternelle, you might want to add parts of this to your ABC bootcamp too – as always, do what works for you!)
This routine will allow your students to practice the French alphabet in about 30 mins a day (I also do a morning message before we begin). The lessons focus on letter sound and a bit of letter formation, along with how each letter looks.
It includes a script & activities for 35 days of lessons – four letters a week + one review game, and then two days for each of Cc & Gg at the end so you can cover both their sounds.
On the left side of the script, you’ll see instructions for what you say/do. On the right side, you’ll see what your students do. At the bottom are some extension ideas if you want to do them.
There are posters and vocabulary words for the teacher to show, and a two-page spread of activities for students to do and add to an interactive notebook.
The teacher vocabulary cards (in colour) I’ve printed, laminated, stuck an envelope on the back, and I just put the 6 things that begin with the target letter inside the envelopes.
Activities included
Each letter has five different activities.
- Trace the letter – practice correct letter formation while making the letter sound.
- Beginning sounds – glue 6 pictures (in back and white) into their notebook that begin with the target letter.
- Silly sentence – read a silly sentence, full of the target letter. They will fill in the missing target letter in the sentence.
- Find and colour – find and colour the target letter hidden among a variety of letters.
- Find and colour version two – find and colour the objects that begin with the target letter.
I recommend having your students glue their activities into a coil-bound scribbler. I get mine for like 25 cents from Staples every summer.
Another great thing about this interactive notebook?
All activities require STRAIGHT CUTS ONLY!! Just print, copy, and cut them out with one slice using your school paper cutter!
This makes life SO much easier with our young students as they build their stamina.
See? All squares and rectangles!
French alphabet review games
Spiral review is so important, so this resource includes an alphabet review game.
The review game is a chant, similar to my “Pomme, pomme, petite et ronde” review game.
If you prefer to use Pomme, pomme or do a mix of both, go for it!
When I first created this resource, we needed to social distance. So, I added a version of this chant that could be played socially distant at my students’ desks. That means that you’ll see two versions of it. Choose whichever works for you!
Just remember to only use cards for the letters that you’ve taught/reviewed up to that point. So, if you’re following my script, you’ll add 4 new letters each week to the game.
Alphabet order
The letter order in the lessons/scripts is the order that I follow. Long consonants, vowels, short consonants, and then the tricky letters at the end. Feel free to change it! You’ll just need to adjust the review game to make sure you have the right cards each week.
If we have a four day week, I will either skip the review lesson for that week or add it to the afternoon of the day before.
I like to keep on track with my weeks haha, so that we aren’t ending mid week.
I’ve got a binder with all the scripts (in order) and a master copy of each student page printed. I just bring the binder to the copy room each week on a prep to make the copies I need for the entire following week.
For the socially distant version of the review game, you could either print a new copy each week for your students to write on, or laminate and have them write on with dry erase markers.
If you want a closer look at the activities in Enseignons l’alphabet en 35 jours, definitely check out this FREE sample from the sons composés version. The activities are very similar between the two, so you’ll be able to see how it’s all structured.
Just click HERE, enter your name & email, and I’ll send it right to your inbox.
This resource/routine has really helped me effectively review and reteach the alphabet with my grade one students ever since the pandemic. You can find my 35 day alphabet review resource at my TPT store HERE.
Hopefully someday I won’t need it anymore, and my students will all know their letters before coming to grade one, but I love knowing that I have this in my back pocket for anytime I need it!