The students LOVED the snack bar. We ended up drawing our own snack bars in groups and setting up a conversation around each snack bar. Loads of fun!!! Thank you! Karine Tregear




Over 600 K-12 French resources at your fingertips!
Complete French courses plus
Weekly news videos in levelled French!
Planet French online courses and the News
There has always been demand for easy texts in all media for second language students.
Franco-Ontariens Course Demo
CLICK THE VIDEO TO PREVIEW Here is a preview of our amazing kit LES FRANCO-ONTARIENS. The kit has everything you need to cover the theme. The book has stunning photographs and the DVDs come with tons of videos. We went everywhere in Ontario and met great people. Take a look. MASSIVE, COMPREHENSIVE and FUN FRENCH KIT:…
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French culture Kits and Packs
BOOKSMARTS FRENCH CULTURE KITS AND PACKS Over 600 levelled French resources!
Resources designed with differentiation in mind
Planet French is an online site that includes over 40 complete French courses. Each course is made up of content at three levels of difficulty spanning grades 2 to 12, to make it easy and quick for teachers to instantly apply differentiated instruction.
Le Moyen Age: New online course in levelled French
We’re releasing a new Booksmarts French kit: Le Moyen Äge. This kit covers the period starting at the fall of the Roman Empire all the way to the Renaissance. The level of French is perfect for immersion and extended French. It addresses the need for a compelling social studies resource that explains causal relationships rather…
Le Monde des Animaux French Kit
This kit has 12 videos in easy French and intermediate French, plus new ones added. We keep adding new videos and easy French books to our kits. With online access, the kits are never stale, and always get new material. We don’t remove any material either. An eBook available online The online eBook has an…
Teaching in the Robot Age
Experts tell us many jobs will be done by robots instead of by humans. When? Very soon. It’s already begun. Bank tellers have been replaced to a large degree by ATMs and soon even financial analysts will see their jobs go to artificial intelligence. Most finance firms already use AI to make stock predictions at…
Episode Le Racisme-George Floyd Partie 1
Planet French brings Canadian and World news and current events to the French classroom. The articles and videos are age and level-appropriate. The text is under the videos, and many articles feature a self-correcting quizz at the bottom. Episode #195 is the first of a multi-part series on racism. Planet French subscriptions are available for…
Notre-Dame: les travaux recommancent!
Cette semaine on recommence la reconstruction de l’église Notre Dame. La cathédrale historique existe depuis 800 ans. Elle brûle en 2019. Clique sur l’image pour voir la vidéo de l’incendie et de notre reportage. Ou clique ici pour voir la vidéo de l’intérieur de Notre-Dame prise par l’équipe de Planet French. On essaye de la sauver. Mais…
Teaching French with Ethics
I recently published a Planet French episode involving the police forcefully arresting a teenage girl dressed as a Star Wars Storm Trooper in Lethbridge, Alberta. I hesitated before publishing this piece. I thought no one would want to watch it. I thought everyone would steer clear of it because at the heart of it was…
How sweet it is: Histoires d’Érablière
There’s a place deep in a Canadian forest where time has stopped. So has my jeep: I’ve arrived. In this strange land people wear clothes from another time, cook food from another planet, and speak French. The giant smiling lumberjack welcomes me and our camera crew to La Sucrerie de la Montagne. Une érablière rustique,…
How polyglots learn
Polyglots use strategies to learn multiple languages. Each polyglot is different. Here are some strategies they use: 1. Meaning/Patterns/Context: Some polyglots learn the most useful word groups with the highest frequencies first. They learn phrases instead of individual words. 2. Repeated exposure to and repeated use of the language: They expose themselves to the language…
Canoe race Course de canots à glace Carnaval
Do you know what’s possibly the most insane winter competition in the world ? Out in Quebec city they race canoes on the St-Lawrence River. In February. It’s part of Le Carnaval de Quebec and let me tell you, it’s freeeezing. I know, I’m there every year. Consider this: Teams of…
Learn French with French culture and Haiti !
One of the best ways to learn French is through French culture. One of the least known but most interesting French cultural hotspots is Haiti. This video shares samples from the French resource Bienvenue en Haiti, from www.Booksmarts.biz, one of the leading French resources provider.
New science courses: La Terre et l’Espace!
Booksmarts Planet French have just released a new online course called LA TERRE ET L’ESPACE. It targets immersion students and helps students reach curriculum outcomes with short videos in levelled French. These short, concise lessons clearly explain science concepts in levelled French. Science courses include tectonic plates, volcanos, light, chemistry, the rock cycle, the water…
Canadian students score 6th place in worldwide PISA results
According to an article by Crawford Kilian, students from wealthy backgrounds scored better than students from less fortunate socio economic backgrounds. The results show girls significantly outscored boys in reading. Click here for the full article. Using online learning platforms like planet French helps bridge the gap between rich/poor, girls/boys because students can instantly access…
New science courses: les cellules
Booksmarts Planet French have just released a new video in the course “Les cellules” called “Les différents types de cellules”. In this week’s release, we cover the components of animal and plant cells and photosynthesis. This lesson follows the lesson covering cell theory. We are producing science courses in levelled French covering the science curriculum.…
Can a school get ahead financially and pedagogically?
So you’re teaching French and today you’re looking for an article or video in levelled French to show your students. You want to engage them with a short 2 minute piece they can understand, drum up conversation and then explicitly teach a concept. Great. Say the piece you need has to explain Canada’s government, or…
I showed your site at “Parents Night” and they were thrilled! My students love Planet French! We are doing clothes in 8th grade so I had them watch the segment on “Les vêtements de vélo” and answer a questionnaire about it. Merci pour tout! Nicole Baker
My students and I loved the video les pommes and worked very well with it . Mrs. Mazur
The Halloween videos were very entertaining and students were able to follow along with you. The topics were interesting to my intermediate students and your rate of speech is understandable for them. Judith Ward
Thanks so much – btw I LOVED the zombies video!” “Madeline Turan
Margie James, French teacher in Ontario, says: With the different color coded levels, it was really neat that I had it all in one pack…it’s hard to differentiate all the time…And the videos really helped as they were able to use all the visual cues…it’s great !
J. Lattanzio, French teacher in Dundas “I really liked the layout of this new book with the three different levels of reading difficulty colour-coded , the interesting historical facts found within, the various dialogues that could be easily acted out by students to practice their oral skills, and all of the colourful pictures. My students enjoyed the video very much and are engaged with all the activities that Guy supplied. They are motivated to practice all four skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking ) and engage with each other in a much more dynamic way.”
Perfect! …They love it! …Thanks again! Merci Beaucoup!!” Louise OLOF
Cher Guy, Mes élèves ont tellement adoré votre livre et vidéo (…) Les élèves s’amusaient beaucoup en faisant ces activités, (…) ! C’était vraiment un plaisir (…) !!! Merci beaucoup! Bien à vous, ” Stephanie Potier West Hills Middle School
My students and I enjoy your products… as we get to watch your videos and read the books. …Thank you for your efforts. They support me in mine.” Melinna MacKenzie GP Christian School
I just clicked on one of the stories and videos and it looks perfect for the level of our students. Thanks again, Patrice”
I’ve been using Planet French for the past 4 months and I really like it. My students can access most resources (videos, news, e-texts,…). Both Core French and French Immersion students can access resources. And my students love the fact that they can actually understand when I show them a video or when we read a book. We just finished the unit (=Booksmarts kit) about Bonhomme Carnaval, which comes with a teacher’s guide (with an AOT = culminating task), an e-book, and videos. My students were engaged and learned a lot. We also had a lot of discussions which was great for their oral French. We will continue to watch the news, and we will use the Booksmarts kit “Le Monde des Animaux” during our study of “Habitats”. There are also videos that I will integrate in my health unit on nutrition. And I haven’t explored all the resources yet! ” Agnes MacNay Gr.4 FI Room 5 Notre Dame School, ON
“I am truly enjoying having access to all of the videos and lessons and ebooks on Planet French. Thanks for all you do! Your materials are excellent and are very much appreciated! Bonne Journée!” Debbie Blais Jaffray Elem/Junior Secondary, BC
“I am new in this role and I haven’t really had the time yet to look at and try out all of your resources. So far I have just been using some videos, which are just great for my grade fours with the slow, clear French. I like how the videos are seasonal or related to current events. e.g. The videos about Ouragan Irma were very topical and interesting for us. Keep up the great work!” Clare, CESD73, BC
Toi, tu es fantastique!” Josée Boutin SK-12 French as a Second Language Consultant Kawartha Pine Ridge DSB, ON
You are awesome! Thank you Guy:)” Laura Harrison, French Consultant, SD68, Nanaimo, BC
Love the videos for Valentine’s day. So love having something theme related to watch, in FRENCH !!!!! Thank you” Lise Callahan
I love your site and it is my favourite for listening activities for sure.
My students also love you and they say, bonjour! Thanks.” Tara Lee Carpenter, 4-8 French/Arts, Primary and EY Prep Coverage
First and foremost I want to say thank you to whomever I spoke to on the phone during the last few days. You have excellent customer service—were genuinely helpful and not just trying to sell a product. It was greatly appreciated. As a teacher buying this out of pocket, the customer service really is one of the factors that made me take the plunge. I will be sure to spread the word on these products as I learned about them on Facebook.”Merci,Alicia Mancuso
I have been using ‘Les nouvelles’ with my French as a second language students at the beginning of class. Your news sets the tone for the hour and the students look forward to seeing M. Pina Colada, as they refer to you =) We listen to the selection twice and the students report out what they understood or they ask questions about what they did not understand. So it is for speaking and listening purposes. They enjoy seeing different parts of Canada as well as the cultural information provided.”
Merci beaucoup, Nori
Just received the videos and books that we ordered. Just wanted to let you know that these are a wonderful resource for us …
Thanks so much!”
Colleen, Ecole Edwards School