The Ultimate Guide to Teaching Landforms and Landscapes in French Class

Are you teaching a French as a Second Language class? If so, chances are that you will be teaching landforms at some point. Whether it be in an “Alberta” unit, or a “my country” unit, French landforms often appear in our curriculum. This ultimate guide will help you to teach the French terms for landforms in fun and engaging ways that students will love.

1) Start with a Google Slides Presentation

It is so important for students to hear the correct pronunciation of new vocabulary terms and associate those terms with images. A Google Slides presentation tackles both of those objectives in a short period of time. This is true when teaching landforms as well as other French vocabulary terms.

I suggest that you go through the slide deck several times. 

The first time that you go through the slides, simply play the audio for students and let them see the pictures. 

The second time that you go through, ask students to repeat the terms after they hear them. 

On the third time around, ask students to record the names of the landforms on their recording sheet. 

Then try a fourth time without the audio. See which terms students know and which ones will be trickier. 

You can continue to use a Google Slides presentation as a warm up throughout the year. Don’t have time to make your own slide deck? Check out this one that is already done for you by clicking HERE. 

2) Art Project

If you are anything like me, you are always trying to create cross curricular connections! I love asking students to design their own country. Students can create Le Monde des Chiens, Le Monde du Jeu Vidéo, etc. They get to be super creative. The only requirement is that they must include at least 10 different landforms in their country and they must be labeled in French. 

Depending on the resources I have handy, sometimes students draw their countries and colour them with pencil crayons or markers. Other times, students have access to construction paper and scrapbook paper scraps that they can use to create their landforms. 

3) Digital Activities

Digital activities are like a worksheet but better! They are better because they require less prep, no copies, and are easy to assign in Google Classroom. 

Students get to practice their vocabulary terms by manipulating moveable pieces and typing responses. As you can imagine, Digital Activities are SUPER engaging for learners.

4) Play Charades

Students love to play charades in French class! 

Choose one student to be the first actor or actress. This student will accompany you to the hallway. In the hallway, whisper one of the vocabulary terms to the student. Then, the student will go back into the class and act out that landform. The first student who guesses correctly gets to be the next actor or actress. There is a version of charades that you can play with points and teams but I find this adaptation to work really nicely, especially in a time crunch. 

5) Assess Using a Self Marking Quiz

I don’t know about you, but I barely have enough time to make dinner at night so I am NOT a fan of having to mark long assessments. This is why Google Form quizzes have changed my teaching life! Students complete the quiz online and then the computer marks them for you! Yes, digital quizzes do take a while to make, but I have one done for you and you can access it by clicking HERE! Seriously, you will save so much time! 

So, what are you waiting for? Click HERE to check out my entire French Landforms bundle on TPT. Then get ready to start this fun unit!