Before starting this unit, you might want to check that the children can recall:

• The verb jouer – to play.
• How to conjugate regular, present tense verbs in French, e.g.: Je joue, tu joues, il joue, elle joue – I play, you play, he plays, she plays.
• How to say how old you are or how old someone is.

Optional – provide each child with a copy of the Knowledge catcher (see link: Assessment – French Y6: French football champions) and ask them to complete it to the best of their ability. Explain that at the end of the unit, they will revisit it, adding more information in a different colour.

Ask the children what they think this new unit is about and then explain that the unit is called ‘French football champions’. Explain to the children that France has a reputation as a great footballing nation, winning the World Cup in 1998 and 2018. More recently, in 2022, France reached the World Cup final again but lost to Argentina, as seen in the video link.

Ask for a volunteer to remind the class what is meant by the word ‘cognate’, which has been covered in previous units. (Cognates are words that have a common language origin. If two words in different languages look exactly the same, we use the term ‘cognate’, if they are very similar, we use the term ‘near cognate’).

Display the Presentation: Le ballon.

Using the slide, introduce the word, le ballon – the ball, saying the French word or playing the audio file.

Ask the children what they think the word means and why. Hopefully, the children will recognise the near cognate and make the link with the English words ‘ball’ and ‘balloon’.

Ask the children to practise saying the word, le ballon.

Prompt a class discussion about any vocabulary learning games that the children have enjoyed playing in the past. Ask the children to evaluate, through discussion, how effective these games have been and why.

Explain that in this lesson, the children will be exploring and evaluating different strategies for learning new vocabulary.

Display the Presentation: French football vocabulary. Ask the children to discuss in their pairs what each of the words might mean, remembering to use their knowledge of cognates and near cognates to help. Ask the children to write down their guesses for each translation. These could be recorded on the Activity: Vocabulary list (one each). Encourage the pupils to say how they think the words should be pronounced.

Use the Presentation: French football vocabulary to reveal the answers. Encourage the children to practise their pronunciation of each word aloud by copying the teacher or the audio buttons. Draw the children’s attention to the different words for male and female football players.

4. Ask the children if anyone has thought of any useful methods for remembering some of the new vocabulary. Invite the children to discuss in table groups and feedback to the class. For example:

• The children may make the link between terrain (pitch) and terrain or territory in English. The children may have come across this link before with L’Angleterre – England and la Terre – the Earth. 
• Some pupils may think the word, sifflet – whistle, sounds a bit like a whistle.

5. Explain to the children that they will be exploring ways to learn this new vocabulary. Display the Presentation: Score a vocabulary goal.

Display slides 1 and give the class one minute to recall the meaning of as many of the words shown as they can. They can say these out loud.

Use slides 2-4 to model the different techniques that the children will explore, such as flash cards and word pyramids (which are explained below). On slide 4 click on the arrow to show how to build the word pyramid.

Hand out the following (one between two):

• The Resource: Score a vocabulary goal, which provides instructions for how to try each technique.
• The Resource: Vocabulary list with translations, which is a list of the vocabulary in French with English translations which the children can use to assist them.
• The Activity: Flash card template, which the children can use to create their flash cards.

Explain that the children will score a goal for each method used and each new word that they practise. The children can track their scores on whiteboards or scrap paper.

Challenge the children to score as many buts – goals, as possible. Inform the children that half-way through you will blow le sifflet – the whistle, for mi-temps – half time.

Activities:

Flash cards

The children make their own flashcards using the Activity: Flash card template. Each child in the pair chooses three words and makes a flashcard for each word. They write the word in French on one side and the translation or a picture on the reverse. They then take it in turns to test each other, looking at the translation and giving the French word, and by looking at the French word and giving the translation.

Word pyramid

The children choose a word to make a pyramid with and then translate. Repeat with several words. E.g.:

t

te

ter

terr

terra

terrai

terrain

pitch

Remember to blow the whistle to tell the children they are halfway through the lesson.

Ask the children how many goals they scored by asking:

Combien de buts ? – How many goals?

Ask volunteers to answer, using the format:

J’ai [cinq] buts – I have [five] goals.

Encourage the volunteers to say the French words they feel they have tried and learned. Ask the class to repeat these words (in French).

Ask the children which method of learning they liked the best and which they thought was the most effective and why.

Display slide 5 of the Presentation: Score a vocabulary goal. Click to reveal each word in French and ask the class to translate into English. Ask for volunteers to share tips on strategies for memorising these words.

Further resources

Activities

• Invite the class to make flash cards for each piece of new vocabulary and display them in the classroom.
• Use the new vocabulary in PE lessons.
• Practise key sounds using the Pupil phoneme videos.
• Contact your local football team and see if they have any French players who might be willing to visit your French lessons.