This was a lesson I did with a class of Prèmiere Européene who are, for the most part, an enthiusiastic group. Each student had access to a computer and worked in groups of 2 or 3. I gave each group a different English-speaking country or American state such as: Hawaii, North Carolina, New York, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Alaska, Florida.

Step 1: Find out the population, climate, currency and location of your place.

Step 2: Find out how to get there from Paris. (This was especially interesting for the group who had Hawaii since they were forced to go through either Texas or Chicago to get there)

Step 3: Figure out what you would pack in your suitcase (This forced them to write in the conditional tense which is always a struggle in a foreign language)

Step 4: Where will you stay? Find an actual hotel and explain why you chose it (perhaps because of the leisure facilities or the number of stars or location, etc.)

Step 5: What will you likely eat and drink while you're there? Explore online restaurant menus and read about the traditional cuisine on sites such as Wikipedia, wikitravel or tripadvisor.

The kids also looked at pictures and videos of their state/country and became very engaged in the activity.