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Day 0
Design your challenge plan as a poster to put on your wall. Decorate it and have a space for your daily ticks. You could write out the challenges or draw pictures, for example for the greeting, draw a stick person with a speech bubble. We’ve given some help with pronunciations of French words but it’s best if you can ask a French-speaking person to help you if possible.
Day 1
Greet one member of your family or a friend in French. Options:
Salut! [saloo] Hi!
Bonjour [boh-joor] Good morning
Ça va? [sah vah] OK?
Day 2
1 Un [ahn]
2 Deux [der]
3 Trois [trwah]
4 Quatre [katr]
5 Cinq [sank]
6 Six [sees]
7 Sept [set]
8 Huit [weet]
9 Neuf [nerf]
10 Dix [dees]
0 Zero [zairo]
De plus?? [der ploos] More??
Day 3
La casqette [la kasket] cap
Le tee-shirt [ler tee-shirt] t-shirt
La chemise [la shmeez] shirt
Le pull [ler pool] jumper
Le pantalon [ler ponter-lon] trousers
La jupe [la shoop] skirt
La robe [la rob] dress
Le short [ler short] shorts
Les chaussettes [leh show-set] socks
Les chaussures [leh show-sewer] shoes
Les bottes [leh bot] boots
Le collant [leh kol-on] tights
L’écharpe [leh-sharp] scarf
Le manteau [ler mon-to] coat
Les gants [leh gon] gloves
Day 4
Learn a French song.
Here’s one of the most well-known French songs. It’s all about a monk called Frère Jacques. You may know the tune already or can get someone to sing it for you.
Frère Jacques! Frère Jacques! (Brother Jack! Brother Jack!)
Dormez-vous? Dormez-vous? (Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping?)
Sonnez les matines ! Sonnez les matines! (Ring the morning bells! Ring the morning bells!)
Din, dan, don; din, dan, don (Ding, dang, dong; ding, dang, dong)
You can find lots of other French – and other language – songs with lyrics and music on this excellent website: www.lyricstranslate.com
Day 5
Name five animals in French and draw their pictures. They could be farm animals or jungle animals. No help this time but you might find it useful to have a good picture dictionary. Here are three available from b small:
Hello French! French-English Picture Dictionary
French-English Picture Dictionary
Day 6
La Belgique [la bel-sheek] Belgium
La Côte d’Ivoire [la kot deevwah] Ivory Coast
La France [la frah-ns] France
Le Sénégal [la sen-eh-gal] Senegal
Le Canada [ler kan-ah-da] Canada
Can you find them on in an atlas or on a globe?
Bonus point! What are the names of their capital cities? (Answers at the end of this post)
Day 7
Oui [wee] Yes
Non [noh] No
S’il vous plaît [seel voo pleh] Please
Merci [mairsee] Thank you
Très bien [treh bee-ah] Very good
Excusez-moi [ex-kew-seh-mwah] Excuse me
If you’ve enjoyed this challenge, can you invent some more activities for you and your friends to practise French?
Amuse-toi bien! [am-yoos twah bee-ah] Have fun!
Answers to Challenge 6
Here are the French names for the capitals: Belgium – Bruxelles [broo-sel]; Ivory Coast – officially Yamoussoukro [yamoo-sookroo] but largest city is Abidjan [abee-sha]; France – Paris [paree]; Senegal – Dakar [dak-ar]; Canada – French is mainly spoken in the province of Québec: Québec [keb-ek] is its capital with Montréal [mo-reh-al], the largest city.
