I love technology...

When I was young, and someone in the house was watching Jeopardy, I would be bored out of my mind!  It was so uneventful.  Who knew that Jeopardy would be the game that saved my butt so far this year!

I am very, VERY lucky to have SMART Boards in most of the classes I teach every day.  This large white board is one of my main "hooks".  This board is one of the only ways (so far) to get these "cool junior kids" to speak French.  I decided to create a template for a Jeopardy game on SMART Notebook.  I thought it would be a very long process, having to link all of the buttons to different pages, but that program is so simple and straightforward that I was done in no time! 

I create five columns (one for each category) and made six buttons under each category (100 points, 200 points... all the way to 600 points).  Students could select a button and then the race began!  In teams, the students had to find the answer before the other teams in order to earn the points.  The kids LOVE IT!  I've been using it to review vocabulary in the past couple of weeks, from numbers to letters, months to days of the week.  By starting with this simple vocabulary, even with the junior students, I've been able to give them the confidence needed to begin speaking French regularly in the classroom.  I've already noticed a difference, and it's only week 3! 

The beauty of the template that I created is that I can modify it and use it for so many different things!  Learning different vocabulary, translating, asking properly formulated questions, etc., etc., ETC.!!!

Here's a snapshot of the game:

Don't forget to create button on each page to bring you back to the main page!  It makes your life way easier!

 
*Also, make a button that leads to a page where you keep track of teams points ("Équipes").

Tomato Splat is also a great SMART Notebook game you can use.  In the "Interactive and Multimedia" part of the "Lesson Activity Tool" section, you will find loads of interactive games you can create for the students.  You will find Tomato Splat under the Word Guess game.  Once you select Word Guess, select Edit and choose Tomato Splat.

With this game, I was able to review and assess the students' knowledge of letters in French, without making it boring by just reciting the alphabet over and over again.  It's like Hang Man, but way better!  Oh, and make sure you turn on the sound option, the kids love it!

I love technology...  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERCzN91JicA&feature=related

... Always and forever.

And once again, I was able to hook the cool junior kids!  Yes!