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French Fall Songs for the Classroom
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As an FSL teacher, you know the power of music to help students learn French. So here’s a list of French Fall songs for the classroom!
These music videos will get your kiddos singing and practicing the language.
Check them out below.
There are many activities we can do with songs in the second-language classroom.
But, sometimes just singing along is enough work because it helps with speaking fluency, cadence, and pronunciation.
Playing songs is a great energy booster and brain break as well.
So, let’s check out the list, where I suggest activities I’d do with each of the videos.
This is a list of music videos. For a list of French fall “non-songs, click here.
French Fall Songs for the Classroom: French Immersion and Core French
L’automne grelotte
This song has simple lyrics, which makes it great for beginners.
It has repeated words and obvious rhymes, so it’s super fun for little kids.
I also love that there are important sounds (phonemes) if you want to focus on phonics, e.g. “euil(le)”, “on/om”.
With little ones, I’d probably create a choreography to go with the song.
For slightly older kids, I might go for a cloze (fill-in-the-blanks) activity, BUT I wouldn’t have them fill in the blanks as they listen to the song for the first time.
Present the lines of the song as sentences with words missing and have students predict or infer which words would best fill in the blanks. If needed, you can provide them with a word bank.
Then, they’d listen to the song to check whether their answers are right.
Of course, with this specific video here, play it with sound only (not showing the images) because the lyrics are on screen and it would defeat the purpose of working on listening.
Petite feuille
This is also a song with very simple lyrics.
In addition to the activities mentioned in the video above and other common video-watching activities, here’s one idea you can try.
As this video shows the leaf ending on the floor, between two pumpkins, I’d do an extension writing (or speaking) activity: I’d have students brainstorm what the conversation between the pumpkins and the leaf would be.
What would they talk about?
What would they do next?
You could keep it as a speaking activity where students say what ideas they have.
Or you could have them write about it.
Or better yet, they could create a comic strip about the interaction between the characters.
Automne
I think this video is a natural choice for a brain-break moment because students can mimic the movements they see on the video.
You can challenge students to memorize the song so that you can all go outside (before it gets too cold!) and sing and dance with real fallen leaves!
Colchiques dans les prés
Depending on the grade/age of students, I’d go for a noun-verb matching pre-viewing activity.
So, before listening to the song, I’d write two columns on the board: one with nouns and the other with verbs.
For example, the first column would have the words: les colchiques, la feuille, les châtaignes, les nuages, le chant.
The second column would have the verbs: fleurissent, tombe, se fendent, s’étirent, murmure, appelle.
Ask students to tell you which verbs they think would go with which nouns. Tell them that one of the nouns takes two verbs.
As in activities described above, have students listen to the song to check their answers.
As an extension activity, you could have students list other fall-themed objects (instead of asking them to list nouns if they don’t know that grammar category yet) and what “actions” these objects do (to elicit verbs without calling them verbs).
Automne
A common “mistake” some teachers make is to think that some songs are too hard for students to understand, so they don’t play those songs in their classroom.
As I see it, and as I teach it, students do NOT need to understand every single word in a song in order to benefit from language activities around that song.
Now, let’s imagine a group of students who are right between A1 and A2 levels of proficiency.
They might not get all the lyrics from this video, but here’s an activity they should still be able to do.
Tell students you’ll be showing a video WITHOUT audio and you want them to list as many items they see in the video. For example, feuilles, arbres, enfants, pluie, gottes, eau, bottes, champignon, etc.
You can play the whole video or just part of it.
You could also split the class into two or three groups and have each group list items to turn this into a competition.
Then, you’d play the video WITH audio and tell students to listen for the words in their lists.
This part is important: be sure to make students focus on “finding” the words from their lists. This will keep the from feeling like they don’t understand the song, which could make them feel frustrated.
Next, see which group got more words correctly.
Chanson d’automne
You could try some of the activities I’ve mentioned in the videos above (or slight variations): cloze activity, matching words, listing what they see in the video, etc.
So what I’m going to do here is give you an idea that relates to this video, but it’s not about the video itself.
It would be a great lesson integrating language and Art.
Have students talk about vocabulary words (including colours) and the 4 seasons: What words/colours they associate with each season?
If your students are more proficient, you could then have them work with the lyrics of the song: have them make changes to the lyrics to adapt it to each season.
“Peux-tu sentir cette petite brise froide? Tournons autour car l’automne arrive.” could turn into “Peux-tu sentir les rayons du soleil? Tournons autour car l’été arrive.”
Bel automne
For this video, I’d probably go for a listening comprehension activity, where I’d ask pre-viewing questions that students can only answer by listening to the song.
For example: “Pourquoi le soleil est fatigué?”, “Comment est-ce que les feuilles dorment?” or “Qu’est-ce que les enfants vont adorer?”.
The answers to those questions are in the video word for word, so they’re simpler questions (not necessarily easier, but simpler).
But you could also ask questions that involve predicting or inferring, such as “Pourquoi l’allée est belle et colorée?” While the answer to this question is, of course, in the video too, it requires students to think about it instead of just repeating the lyrics.
And there you have it: a list of 7 French fall songs for the classroom that your students will love!
Do you know any other songs that should be in this list?
