Does anyone know what day it is? These past few weeks of staying at home to help flatten the curve during this global pandemic have left many of us feeling out of sorts without our daily routines. In all seriousness, though, I do hope that you are well and that you have not been directly affected by Covid-19. I am grateful to be able to report that my family and I are well, despite the challenges of finding our new "normal". As a teacher, I am finding it just as challenging, as I presume many teachers are as well. However, I thought I would share a handy tool that I have been using over the years to support my students at home. It is called Symbaloo, a social bookmarking site that allows you to manage all your online resources by creating visually appealing webmixes that can be shared, updated, and even embedded into a web site.

In the Symbaloo webmix that I share with my French students in grades 1 to 4, I have collected a series of Quizlet study cards, where they can listen to the French pronunciation, play matching games or customize their own auto-graded tests. Many of them are based on popular themes, as seen on the top two rows (see below), and I have also included a handful of AIM Language vocabulary lists for La poule Maboule, Le petit chat, Où est mon chien? and Les trois petits cochons. In addition, I've thrown in a couple of Kahoot challenges, audiobooks and a collection of some of my favourite French songs on Youtube, which are embedded directly in the webmix to avoid opening multiple windows.

Previously, I would share the link to my Symbaloo webmix using a customized shortened URL (bit.ly/prfrench) but sometimes students will click on the advertisements. As a work-around, you can embed your webmix into a website or blog, so I created a Google Site for that very reason. I have also embedded my webmix below so you can access a variety of online French activities. I hope that it may come in handy for your own children who are learning French. Feel free to share and stay well, mes amis!