Teaching Initial and Final Sounds in French Words

All language comprehension and word awareness learning using the Ecoutons, lisons, rions resource begins with a text. In our last blog, we introduced the first text, a comptine, from the Kira le grand boa sound unit. We demonstrated how language comprehension skills were explicitly taught using the "image à partager" activity. Once the Kira le grand boa comptine was presented, our focus shifted to helping students become "word aware". When comptines are presented, the following word awareness skills are addressed in each of the 5 sound units:

-introduction of the featured vowel sound

-introduction to initial and final sound identification

-introduction to syllables

In our last post, we demonstrated how we introduced the featured vowel sound following the presentation of the comptine. In this post, we will show you how Le mot mystère activity can assist you in helping students:

-review the comptine and its featured vowel sound /a/

-become aware of initial and final sounds in French words (if audible)

-introduce students to a new decodable word containing the featured vowel sound /a/

Should you wish to try this activity in your classroom, please check out how to obtain your free copy at the end of this blog post.

Le mot mystère- Setting up the Activity

STEP 1

Make a two-sided copy of the activity pages shown above. Color the illustration and laminate the page. Cut up the words of the comptine and store in a ziplock bag or an envelope until needed.

STEP 2

Using the question indicated at the top of the "mot mystere" sheet (in this case: "Kira mange de la pizza et de la______"), begin a discussion with students that lends itself to the topic at hand. I will ask my students what additional foods they enjoy eating with their pizza. I record their ideas using the ZOOM whiteboard function. As I spell the name of each food item, I make an explicit effort to have students listen and guess at the beginning and/or final sounds in each word. This serves as a "warm up" for the activity to come.

I then present the question to them: "Kira mange de la pizza et de la __________________". After reading the question together, I will try to solicit some ideas from students as to what the missing word could be and explain that we will discover the answer together by playing a game.

STEP 3

Using a document camera, display in order words from the comptine that do not contain the featured vowel sound while removing those key words that do. Display the key words in a vertical line along side the "comptine trouée".

STEP 4

Have students find specific words from the comptine by playing the following game:

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Je cherche un mot perdu. Ce mot commence par le son /p/. Le son /p/ est une consonne. Le dernier son dans ce mot fait /a/. Pouvez-vous le trouver?

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It is important that key words are selected out of order from the comptine or else students might be tempted to select words from memory while ignoring letter sounds.

As the key words are selected, you can include a sentence awareness component to the activity by encouraging the students to position the words in their correct spot. Once the comptine is filled in, students can verify their choices as you read the poem aloud to the class. If a word has been positioned incorrectly, the kids quickly come to realize that changing the position of words within a sentence impacts meaning.

STEP 5

You are now ready to unveil "Le mot mystère" and discover what Kira eats along with her pizza. To do this, you flip one word card at a time until the image and the new decodable vocabulary word are unveiled!

STEP 6

Once the activity is completed, you can place the laminated cards back in their ziplock bag or envelope and place them in a reading centre for independent or partner reading practice.

Each sound unit contains a mot mystère activity that is played following the introduction of a comptine. The students enjoy unveiling new words each time the game is played. Should you wish to try this activity in your classroom with your primary FI students, please send us an email at fumoguerriero@gmail.com.

In our next blog we will introduce syllable activities!