Spooky French Culture Lessons that are perfect for October!

I hate busy-work. It is a waste of time for my students and a waste of time for me to plan. I like my lessons to have a broader purpose that supports the goals I have for students. I used to teach students Halloween vocabulary but I found it took up a lot of time, students didn’t really acquire the words and it was out of context of the rest of what I was teaching and they didn’t use the words again all year. I felt like it wasn’t really supporting my students' progress. Now, I teach spooky cultural lessons at Halloween time instead of vocabulary and they are so much more interesting and we have fun while doing it!

Catacombes lesson

Throughout October I have pictures of the Catacombes hanging on my door and an image of the Catacombes entrance sign “Arrête! C’est ici l’Empire de la Mort”. This builds interest and curiosity among all my students. The images make the perfect Halloween decorations!

In 8th grade I teach students about the history of the Catacombes. It is such a creepy place with an interesting history that it is very on theme with Halloween. It is the perfect time to talk about such a unique tourist attraction in Paris. I describe what the Catacombes are and how they came to be. We talk as a class why we would or would not want to visit the Catacombes. I also have a reading about an AirBnB in the Catacombes. Find my Catacombes lesson on my TPT store.

Famous Francophone Cemetery Scavenger Hunt

I love this activity. It is one of my favorites all year. I turn off all the lights, and close the curtains to make it as dark as possible. I meet students outside in the hallway to set the tone and give them a clipboard with the note sheet and a flashlight. They have to visit each of the five tombs hanging in the classroom, read them to find the information and figure out who each of the five famous people are. The next day I do a presentation that goes into more detail about each of the five people and then I usually have a Google Form summative so it’s an easy culture grade. The activity is challenging for students because they have to read the gravestones in French but they end up being very successful and it is such a different activity than we usually do so it is memorable for them.

I got this activity from Brianna Reese from the French Teachers in the US Facebook group. She has three versions now so I am able to do it every year with my sixth, seventh and eighth graders. Find her post with links to the activities here.

Both of these activities are fun and interesting and have a spooky theme that make them perfect for October but are culturally relevant.

Looking for other ideas for October? Check out this post on a Spooky Movie Talk we love!