Learn French Board Games for Classroom - 5x Race to Paris Bundle for Schools (20 Decks)

This game is without a doubt the best Language learning game I've ever used as a Teacher of Languages - we've got a whole cupboard full of more expensive alternatives that fail to deliver what this game does in bundles; fun and learning at the same time. All the learners (including my own kids, aged 8 and 11), that I've played it with it have loved it, maybe because it's accessible to everyone whatever their level and satisfying because it allows you to forget whatever worries you might have about not being able to produce anything meaningful in French. It just allows you to get making sentences and using the language. You know you are on to a winner when your pupils turn up to lessons asking "are we playing kloo today?", and you get told at Parents' evening that a Year 8 insisted on the game being on his Birthday List.

I use the board in a carousel of other activities or use the cards as a reward or extension activity; they are great as an additional tool to my teaching.

In the box you get a board, 4 cars to move around the board and 4 decks of cards, of 64 cards each. The cards are also available to purchase individually. There is one on the theme of "People", the second is about eating, the third on everyday places and the last one on everyday objects. You can use the cards with the board or as a stand alone game. Game play is easier to understand than explain - luckily the Kloo website, which also contains extra cards to print off, includes videos which explain the game really simply. It's easy to pick up game play and there's no feeling of failure as you play because everyone can score points. It quickly gets quite competitive and is totally engaging for pupils and adults alike.

The basic idea is to discard cards by building up sentences, starting from a red verb card - if you don't have a verb you just discard one card. The aim then is to translate the sentence, or as much of it as you can into your first Language and scoring points for points' sake or to move around the board - all fully explained in the series of videos. Making sentences sounds tricky but clever design of the cards make it child's play - as you can hopefully see from the real example in the photo at the bottom of this review. Each card is colour coded so red is for verbs, nouns are blue and connectives are green and so on. A red card will have arrows on it showing you what could come next in the sequence - you can't go wrong! The words at the top of the cards have a phonetic transcription underneath them and also at the bottom of the card are translations into English from other cards meaning, if you keep your wits about you as you play even without referring to a dictionary (allowed in the game) you may find yourself recognising and learning new words. There's a good mix of cognates (words that are similar to English words) but also plenty of key vocabulary for each topic.

I've watched pupils play (and found myself joining in), with both the board game and just the decks. The board provides added twists for four players as you move around trying to get to Paris with a little plastic car and finding yourself being asked to translate, but the cards just by themselves can be played with in multiple ways either by groups or individuals. Everything is well made - the cards are proper coated cards and seem to be standing up well to enthusiastic use by my pupils. It all just works and is a successful game, it's very clever and totally absorbing. The game works equally well at home and in a school setting. It is accessible for beginners but equally, and in part thanks to the free expansion cards on the kloo website, interesting for those who are more confident in French too.

With my "teacher hat" on I think the game ticks all the boxes in the new curriculum where's there's a real focus on translation and transactional French. It's great to have in the classroom as an activity for reward, to encourage those who struggle with a Foreign Language but, equally, to make French accessible for those who find it difficult. As a mum I love the game too because I actually find it fun to play (even though I have a slight advantage in translating!) - the luck of the draw and the fact that you can level the playing field by using a dictionary means I can still find myself being soundly beaten by my kids.

Great for Learners of all Levels. I have no reservations wholeheartedly recommending this game - I genuinely think it's one of the best learning aids I've used in my classroom, it can be used in so many different ways. I'm passionate about teaching and learning languages and this game just makes sharing my love of French and conviction that it can be fun just that bit easier. Every French classroom needs one, it's as simple as that!

Excellent - my classes love it!

Recommend 100%. Excellent customer service, fast shipping, and the game is a fun way for the whole family to learn a new language (Spanish in our case). Continued success to all at the Kloo team!