To practise the perfect tense, give each pupil a small piece of paper and ask each one to draw a specific picture representing an activity - a football, a TV screen, an iPod, a tennis racket.
Fold the paper in four to conceal the picture, and place in a carrier bag. Shuffle and pass the bag around for pupils to pick one each.
They mustn’t show the picture to anyone else. They must return it to the bag and pick another if they get their own. Give them 10 minutes to get up and find who has the picture they originally drew by asking everyone the question: Tu as regarde la television samedi dernier?Tu as joue au foot samedi dernier?
Forbid any use of English. Answers might be: Non, je n’ai pas joue au foot, etcOui, j’ai joue au foot, etc.
Once they find what they are looking for, they sit down. When everyone is seated, the game is over. Pupils have now practiced and mastered the perfect tense, the negative construction and the je and tu forms - and, hopefully, their French accent.
Ana Anstead teaches French at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School in Ashbourne, Derbyshire.
