French Lesson Plan

The Family (La Famille)

Purpose and requirements:
The students will learn how to talk about their
families and describe family members and their
relationships. The lesson is ideal for pre-teen
children or early beginners.
It is mainly focused on the indicatif prsent and
adjectifs possessifs. Students at this point should
know the pronoms personnels (je, tu, il...) verbs
like to be, to have, and to live, so they are able to
make simple present tense sentences, ask simple
questions and answer them. They should also have
used the negative form with ne...pas. Ideally, they
know il y a or cest or both.

Lesson objectives:

Communication: talk about/describe their

family
Grammar focus: adjectifs possessifs,
interrogation (cest / ce sont, il y a, qui,
o). There is no est-il or est-que or ya t-il;
questions are only presented based on the
intonation.
Vocabulary: family members
Culture: French names, French jokes
Pronunciation: intonation when asking
questions in the affirmative form

Material:

A vintage family portrait, the dialogue (listed

below), and the labels with names
Students family portraits (to bring for the
lesson)
Small portraits of various men, women, and
children of all ages: about 10 to 15 portraits
per student.
Scissors, glue, paper, pencils

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French Lesson Plan

The Family (La Famille)

Bridge-in:

Guidelines:

The dialogue could be recorded with two voices, but it

should be read by two students, only after listening to
it at least twice (either with a recording or the teacher
reading). Intonation is important as the questions do
not always use the (grammatical) interrogative form.

Thomas : Grand-mre, qui sont les personnes

sur la photo ?
Louise : Ce sont mes grands-parents avec leurs
enfants.
Thomas : Avec leurs enfants ? Alors... sur la
photo, il y a ton pre ?
Louise : Non, mon papa nest pas sur la photo :
cest la famille de ma mre.
Thomas : Ah bon ! Et... o est ta maman ?
Louise : Ma maman, cest la petite fille gauche,
elle sappelle...
Thomas : je sais ! Elle sappelle Jeanne !
Louise : Oui, cest a ! Ma mre sappelle Jeanne
et ma grand-mre, cest Thrse.
Thomas : Thrse ? Comme ma maman ?
Louise : Oui, ma fille a le mme prnom que ma
grand-mre, cest un hommage.
Thomas : Alors, le monsieur avec la moustache
et la barbe, cest ton grand-pre ?
Louise : Oui, cest mon grand-pre, il sappelle
Henri.
Thomas : Et qui sont les enfants ?
Louise : Ce sont mes tantes et mes oncles !
Thomas : Tes oncles ? Tu as des oncles ?
Louise : Oui, droite, cest mon oncle Pierre, ton
grand-oncle, tu comprends ?
Thomas : Oui, je comprends. Alors Pierre a
quatre surs ?
Louise : Mais non ! Il y a trois filles et deux
garons sur la photo ! Pierre a un frre et trois
surs.
Thomas : Il y a deux garons sur la photo ?
Louise : Oui, devant ma grand-mre, cest un
petit garon, mon oncle Jean.
Thomas : Ah daccord ! Et comment sappellent
tes tantes ?
Louise : Lane sappelle milie, ensuite il y a ma
mre et la plus jeune, cest Franoise.

The goal of the activity is to complete a family tree.

The teacher draws the following structure (empty,
except for Thomas) on the board before reading or
listening to the dialogue.

Thrse
milie

Jeanne

Henri
Franoise

Pierre

Louise

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Thrse
Thomas

Jean

French Lesson Plan

The Family (La Famille)

Continuing the Lesson:
Once the family tree is correct, the teacher can check
that the vocabulary list has been understood by
asking questions :
1. Qui est le pre de Jeanne ? (Henri)
2. Qui est la mre de Louise ? (Jeanne)
3. Qui est le grand-pre de Louise ? (Henri)
4. Qui est la grand-mre de Louise ? (Thrse)
5. Comment sappelle la fille de Louise ? (Thrse)
6. Comment sappellent les filles de Thrse et
Henri ? (Emilie, Jeanne et Franois)
7. Comment sappellent les fils de Thrse et
Henri ? (Pierre et Jean)
8. Comment sappelle le frre de Jean ? (Pierre)
9. Est-ce que Jeanne a trois surs ? (Non, deux)
10. Est-ce que Louise a trois tantes ? (Non,
deux)

Activities:
1. For this lesson, students were asked to bring a
family portrait. It can be any type of family portrait
with anyone in the picture from one person to
many more. The student does not have to be in
the picture. It could be an old family portrait or a
recent one.
2. The family tree dialogue uses the following
adjectifs possessifs : mon / ton ma / ta mes /
tes (and leurs). The teacher shows students how
they are used depending on the person (je or tu)
and the gender feminine or masculine, plural or
singular. Examples should be extracted from
the dialogue:
Ma mre sappelle Jeanne.
O est ta maman ?
Cest mon grand-pre, il sappelle Henri.
Sur la photo, il y a ton pre ?
Ce sont mes tantes et mes oncles !

After the dialogue and vocabulary explanations, the

teacher gives big labels to students with the following
names on them: Louise, Thrse, Thrse, Henri,
milie, Jeanne, Franoise, Pierre, Jean.
Students have ~five to ten minutes to place the labels
at the right places on the family tree. They should be
free to discuss together and they should choose one
student to place the labels on the family tree chart.

Tips:
1. Before the labeling activity starts, the teacher
should extract the main family member
vocabulary to write a list on the board adding a
few words for feminine/masculine equivalence. It
should not be necessary to translate at this point:
le pre (papa), la mre (maman) le grand-pre,
la grand-mre, la fille, le fils (be careful with the
possible confusion with une petite fille) un enfant,
des enfants, un frre, une sur, un oncle, une
tante, un grand-oncle, une grand-tante.
2. This is a good opportunity to introduce or revise
qui est-ce / quest-ce que cest and est-ce que
/ est-ce que cest as well as to work on the
intonation.
The table below shows how adjectifs possessifs are
used. This should be provided after the activity.

Masculin Fminin
Pluriel
Je
Mon frre Ma sur Mes frres /



Mes surs
Tu
Ton pre
Ta mre
Tes parents
Il / Elle
Son oncle Sa tante
Ses oncles /
Ses tantes
Nous
Notre grand-pre /
Nos grands

Notre grand-mre
parents
Vous
Votre fils / Votre fille
Vos enfants
Ils / Elles Leur fils / Leur fille
Leurs enfants

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French Lesson Plan

The Family (La Famille)

3. A Preparation : Students have five minutes
to look at their family portraits in order to get
ready to answer questions from other students.
They should also look at the dialogue to extract
possible questions. They can:
write a description of their family on their own
train in pairs to ask each other questions.

B Questions : the teacher should ask which

students would like to answer questions about
their family portraits. The teacher then collects
pictures and lets students raise hands to ask their
questions. It is easier for them than going in front
of the class with their pictures.

Tips:

With the dialogue, students have a few questions

to ask and answer: qui sont les personnes sur
la photo ? Qui est la petite fille, qui est le petit
garon, etc. but the teacher should go from pair
to pair to answer students vocabulary questions.
Small class: the activity allows all students to
answer questions about their family portraits.
Bigger class: when some students have not
answered questions, they can:
- exchange pictures and prepare questions for
the next lesson
- present their family directly; if so, these students
should be advised to use the questions phase to
prepare their presentation.

Game:
The goal: Using an imaginary family tree, students will have to find one family member with the help of hints.
Instructions/Preparation: The teacher distributes 15 portraits of various people of all ages on a sheet of paper.
Students (in pairs, in groups, or on their own) have to create an imaginary family tree by cutting out peoples
portraits and gluing them on a tree they draw.
Internet connection: If the class has an internet connection, there are websites providing lists of typical French
names; one of the most complete lists can be found here: http://www.lesprenoms.net/lustrehf18901998.htm
No Internet connection: The teacher can write a list of French names on the board while students prepare
their family trees classifying them as male or female and older or contemporary.
New family member vocabulary may appear in this activity: cousin / cousine, petits-enfants, petit-fils, petitefille (petite-fille meaning grand-daughter, not petite fille meaning little girl)
The Hints: Students give their family members names and write them on the tree, they pick one family member,
and then have to prepare two hints to give to the class so students can guess who it is. They should give a
difficult hint first and then an easy one.
The teacher must provide examples of hints (je suis une fille / un garon mon pre a un frre mes parents
ont trois enfants je suis le cousin de... je suis la fille de....) and inform students that hints using the negative
form could be even more difficult (mon pre ne sappelle pas - nest pas ma grand-mre ma mre nest
pas sur larbre )
The teacher should check that students will not give the answer with their first hint.

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French Lesson Plan

The Family (La Famille)

Pre-test:
Students are asked to complete the missing cells of the table below with sentences for Thomas and then add
their own personal information. If students have no information of their own to add, they can leave the cell
empty as students will raise their hands to answer only when they have the ability to answer.

Linformation

Le verbe

Thomas

La mre

Thrse

sappeler

Sa mre sappelle Thrse

Le pre

Professeur

tre

Les grands-parents

Paris

habiter

Le chien

Rex

sappeler

La sur

10 ans

Les cousins
Le grand-pre

Strasbourg

Moi

avoir
habiter

Sur sa photo de
tre
famille

Son grand-pre nest pas
sur sa photo de famille

Closure:
To use the adjectifs possessifs, students can make sentences for the list of people/things/places below. A
table can be filled in on the board for each students name in columns or rows. The table does not have to
be completely filled in for bigger classes. Some students probably know the answers for other students and
therefore should answer for them, using son / sa / ses. The teacher should ask some students directly and for
others, ask if anyone knows, then ask the students to confirm it is correct. Ideas for the table topics:

meilleur(e) ami(e)
chanteur prfr / chanteuse prfre
loisirs / sports prfrs
adresse
matire prfre ( lcole)
marque prfre
film prfr
animaux

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French Lesson Plan

The Family (La Famille)

Assessment:
Worksheets and quizzes are possible assessments but they can be done either as homework or in class to start
the next lesson. Quiz 1 introduces further family member vocabulary.
This is the vintage family picture used to create the dialogue and the first family tree activity.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/imnotquitejack/4153783693/

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