Guest blogger: Shea Rate

As the leaves begin to turn and the air gets crisp, fall is the perfect season to bring a little seasonal magic into your French classroom! For Grade 3/4 students, engaging with fall-themed activities not only builds vocabulary but also deepens their cultural and sensory experiences with the language. Here are a few simple and fun ideas to celebrate l'automne en français!

1. Autumn Vocabulary Hunt

Introduce key fall vocabulary such as la feuille, le vent, la citrouille, la pomme, and l’écureuil. Then, take students on a “chasse au trĂ©sor d’automne” (fall scavenger hunt) around the schoolyard or classroom, finding real or pictured items to match the French words.

2. Create a Fall Word Wall

Build a vibrant word wall full of fall-themed French words and phrases. Include visuals and encourage students to add new words they learn during the season. This can become a go-to reference for writing and speaking activities.

3. Simple Fall-Themed Crafts

Try a paper pumpkin craft and label parts in French! For example: la tige (stem), la feuille (leaf), l’orange, le vert. Add short descriptive phrases like Ma citrouille est grande et orange.

4. French Fall Songs

Teach a simple fall song like “L’automne est là” or adapt a familiar tune with fall vocabulary. Singing is a great way to reinforce pronunciation and rhythm in language learning.

5. Mini Fall Poems or Acrostics

Use fall-themed words (e.g., POMME, FEUILLE) as inspiration for short French poems or acrostics. Keep it simple and scaffolded—students can work in pairs or use sentence starters like J’aime
, Il y a
, or C’est



6. Taste Test and Descriptions

Host a mini apple tasting in class with different varieties (une pomme rouge, une pomme verte, une pomme jaune) and have students describe them in French using their senses: C’est sucrĂ©! C’est croquant!

I have included a document that I created with lists of French Fall vocabulary that can be used with students for the vocabulary word wall and word hunt: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1adevCoajrKXGD2LePDidDhh7Q7GgJecgf6qUGY2PsO0/edit?usp=sharing

Here is a nice fall playlist that I found that I played while the students were working in their centers: