Need some no-prep French games to mix up your lessons a bit? Here are some of my favorite French games to play in core or immersion that require little to no prep and can be played with a wide variety of vocabulary topics and verb tenses. These French games are perfect for engaging students!

We want students up, talking and using the language, and this bunch of French games is a great way to engage them while providing a lot of options for practice.

Using no-prep French games helps you engage your students without stressing about making a complex lesson!

Ceci ou cela

I love to use this game as a way to add movement. Have all students stand up. Dedicate one side of your room as “ceci” and the other side as “cela.” Students move to the side they prefer. Here’s how it works:

You’ll call out “les fraises” for your ceci word and “les cerises” for your cela word. Students move to the side they prefer. That’s it! You can extend the learning by asking each side follow-up questions, but if you are focusing on listening, you may prefer to just call out more words in the time you have available.

The magic number race

This is one of my favorite no-prep French games to practice verb conjugation. I just learned a lot of teachers call this game six, but I just call it the dice verb game or the magic number race, because I don’t always have them roll for a six. I didn’t even know that was what most people do!

Here’s how it works:

• Put students in groups of 3 or 4.
• Hand out some blank verb chart sheets and a die to each group. I typically have them do about 5-6 verbs per game, so a sheet with 5-6 blank verb charts is perfect.
• You can make sheets with the verbs already on them, but to save time and recopy the same sheets, I just use blank sheets and write the verbs we are going to use on the board.

• Pick the magic number and tell students.
• One student will start conjugating the verbs in any tense you want. The student to his/her right will roll the die and try to get the magic number.
• Once that student rolls the magic number, he/she will take the paper, make any corrections, and continue to conjugate while the student to his/her right tries to roll the magic number and take the paper.
• Play continues until the sheet is complete. Once a group has finished, I have them bring it to me to check, but I have the other groups keep going. If their sheet is not correct, I will highlight the ones to fix and send them back to their desk. The first group with a complete and correct sheet wins.

No-prep French games like this one encourage students to think work together as they practice important skills.

Sparkle (In French, I call it Étincelle.)

My French immersion students LOVED this game to practice spelling words and it’s one of my favorite no-prep French games to play when we’ve got an extra 5-10 minutes. Here’s how you play:

• Put students in a circle or have students stand at their desks and go up and down the class rows. Before you play, show students the direction of game play (from student A’s desk to student B’s desk and so on).
• Give them a spelling word.
• Student A will say the first letter.
• Student B will say the second letter, and they’ll continue until the word is completely spelled out.
• After the word is spelled, the next student says “sparkle” or “étincelle” if you want a French word. If students ask, it’s the conjugation for the verb étinceler for the subject je (or the imperative for tu).
• The player next to him or her will sit down. (I actually stopped doing this, because it forces them out of the game!)
• If a player says the wrong letter or does not say sparkle after the word is spelled correctly, he or she is out and has to sit down.
• The game continues with new spelling words until only one student is left in the game. That student is the winner.

Sparkle is just one of many no-prep French games that can be used for spelling practice, but I love how easy it is and students love the familiarity once you’ve played a few times.

Ball Toss

Ball Toss is another example of effective no-prep French games to reinforce vocabulary, and verbs, and it’s perfect for when students are full of energy.

Here’s what you do:

• Have all students stand up and form a large circle.
• Give one of your students a ball. I buy cheap beach balls so they are big enough for most students to catch and won’t bounce everywhere.
• Call out a vocabulary word to translate or a verb to conjugate.
• Have the student with the ball answer and then toss the ball to another student.
• You can call out another question or you can have the student who threw the ball call out a word or verb.
• Play continues as long as you want.

You can make this more challenging by having students use the word or verb in a sentence.

You can make it a competition by having students who answer incorrectly sit down, but I don’t usually do this, because some kids will just answer wrong so they don’t have to play.

Bingo

I know this game is probably already in your toolkit, but I can’t NOT mention it, because every student loves this game! Just print off some bingo boards and grab some game markers and you are good to go! You can find a ton French bingo boards at my TpT store!

Dessinons !

This one is super-simple! Write some vocabulary words on index cards, fold them in half, and put them in a box.

Call a student to the board, have him/her draw the word and have the classmates guess. You can play in teams or just as a whole class.

Vrai ou faux?

This one is also super-simple and is great for practicing listening comprehension.

Call out a series of statements and have students decide if each statement is true or false.

If it is true, they’ll put their hands on their heads. If it is false, they’ll put their hands on their stomachs. You can change the motions, but I just make sure that they don’t just leave their hands on their desks if it is false, because there may be a student who just sits there!

Flyswatters (Tapette à mouches)

This is a really fun game that takes a little prep, but it only takes me about 5 minutes to write on my board. If you make slides for your interactive whiteboard, you’ll be set for years!

Here’s what you do:

• Write (or use pictures on your whiteboard) a bunch of vocabulary words from your unit on your class board.
• Divide students into 2 groups.
• Call a student from each group up to the board and give each player a flyswatter.
• Call out a vocabulary word in English and have them find the French word. You can also call out the French word and have them find the correct image.
• Students will race to find the correct word first and they’ll tap it.
• The student who gets it first gets a point and the team who gets the most points wins.

Le nombre mystère

• This is a great one to play to practice numbers. Long after your number unit is over, your students will still need help with their numbers, so this is a great way to circle back to them anytime you have leftover time!
• Just grab some index cards and write a number on each one.
• Put the cards in a box.
• Call a student up to the front and have him/her draw a card.
• Classmates will try to guess the number and the student will give tell them to go higher or lower until the number is guessed.

Four corners

This is one of my favorite no-prep French games that you can play with any level. It’s perfect for practicing French listening comprehension, but you can ask follow-up questions so this doubles as a French speaking activity.

For playing with beginners to review vocabulary, I like to use j’adore, j’aime, je n’aime pas, and je déteste. You’ll call out different verbs in the infinitive form and have students move to the corner that indicates how they feel about the word you call out. For example, if you called out nager, they would go to the corner that reflects how they feel about swimming.

Once they are in their chosen corners, you can extend the learning by having them talk to a partner and explain why they feel that way. If that is too difficult for beginners, you can ask follow-up questions like “Où est-ce que tu aimes nager ?” to the students in the j’adore and j’aime corners or “Quel sport est-ce que tu préfères ?” for the students in the je n’aime pas and je déteste corners.

For intermediate and advanced students, I use cards like these shown below. This French listening activity becomes a starting point for more in-depth discussions. You can extend the learning easily and it becomes a speaking activity, too!

Learn more about this activity and find these free posters here.

Quiz, Quiz, Trade

Have students make flashcards to review your unit vocabulary or buy a set of French flashcards from TpT. You can assign each group a section of vocabulary or you can just let them pick from this list.

One side will have the French word and the other side will have the English word or the definition in French for French immersion.

Pair students up with a partner. Partner A will ask partner B the correct word and partner B will answer. Then, partner A will give the correct word for partner B’s card. After both students have answered, they’ll trade cards.

After the first round, everyone will pair up with a new partner, and this will continue until time is up.

La chaîne des mots

This is a great, fast-paced vocabulary review game you can play with students who have been learning French for a while and know a lot of words.

Start with a French vocabulary word. Each student must add a related word or continue a pattern.

For example, you might start with pomme and the next student will say banane and the next will say orange.

Students can change categories by naming something of another category that is the same color. For example, after orange, they could say carotte and the next word would then need to be a vegetable. They could also say tigre and the next word would need to be an animal.

I hope you found some no-prep French games you can use in your classroom!