The French verb song, written by Joseph Biswell with some simplifications by me in the final bars, is here
Download French verb song copyrighted
This song is used with all of the following, with minor variations to fit the verb to the tune. It then seems to fit any other French verb, including reflexives. I am currently using this in the first lessons with all classes, from Year 2 onwards. The children very much enjoy singing the songs with the gestures, and quickly identify the pronouns. The different parts of the verb are reinforced and practised whenever possible, in positive and negative forms.
The actions are the same in all cases, beginning by singing the song with the pronouns. I started to teach the pronouns separately in this way after an eleven year old found he could not remember them, and so could not do his homework of learning a verb. There is nothing more direct or more important to the pupil than je, and so this is our starting point.
Je (point to self, whole hand –finger pointing is rude)
Tu (point to a friend, whole hand – they can’t help smiling !)
Il (point to a boy, not your tu friend)
Elle (ditto a girl)
Nous Big circular sweep with both hands
Vous Point to teacher with both hands – explain that vous is a mark of respect to a grown up. With very young children, I sometimes also say I'm twice as big as they are
Ils Point to two boys both hands
Elles Point to two girls both hands
We practise simple questions once we've done some singing - "hands up if you're il/elle". Who thinks nous means we? Who thinks it means they? etc. (I teach the French for hands up etc in the second and subsequent lessons - for the moment, I want them to identify personally with their gender)
Then I explain how do not in English becomes ne and pas in French, which we put round the verb like a sandwich. I’ve explained separately the practice of knocking off a vowel when two clash, eg tu ne es pas would be jerky, so we have tu n’es pas. We sing this with shaking of the head as well as the actions we've learned with pronouns :
Je ne suis pas
Tu n’es pas
Il n’est pas
Elle n’est pas
Nous ne sommes pas
Vous n’êtes pas
Ils ne sont pas
Elles ne sont pas
We practise this much as we did the pronouns, and I help the children pick out the letters that are not pronounced, noticing that they are at the ends of words.
Then we remove the negative, and sing, with same actions,
Je suis
Tu es
Il est
Elle est
Nous sommes
Vous êtes
Ils sont
Elles sont
We practise a lot, making very simple positive and negative sentences, eg Je suis poli(e) Je suis anglais(e), and sing any other verbs we might want to use. Everything kept v simple before we move to the same song with avoir.
The idea of the sandwich came from Jo Rhys-Jones. I thought of putting the negative first, as it seemed easier to take it off than to put it on. We reinforce the idea of pas with Not Now Bernard, which I’ve translated (Pas maintenant, Bernard) and which they already know. We also explain the connections between spoken and written French, focusing, whenever they occur, on letters that are not pronounced at the ends of words and on the pattern of knocking the vowel off a short word and inserting the apostrophe. When we write, we look away from the board and trace words or phrases on our arm with our finger – we then write them on a board or in a book, only when we’re sure we can get them right. We do not write much in the early stages and never copy, but what we write, we try to write as accurately as possible, and do not go past mistakes.
The response of the children has convinced me that this is a useful thing to do, and a good basis for building sentences. They do enjoy the song and the actions, simple though they be. I teach verbs in the context of a lot of early work on gender (boys’ and girls’ words with the younger ones), and have a principle that, as soon as we can do something, we add a little to it but not too much. So, we might write Je suis poli (boy) Je suis polie, (girl), and practise until we get it right. This gives the pupils satisfaction, and hence motivation.