Here are some resources that I made based on a text about malaria in French at http://blog.imagesdoc.com/2010/04/cest-quoi-le-paludisme-eva-9-ans-12/ which I came across via http://lhsfrenchdevoirs.wikispaces.com/Le+paludisme (and originally via @tonitheisen on Twitter)
I think there is a growing sense that MFL teachers spend too much time introducing new vocabulary. It's the kind of thing MFL teachers have been doing for years: present vocab / choral repetition / individual repetition / selective repetion such as repeat if it's true / what number is it? / is it A or B? / what's missing? / playing simple games in front of the class with the vocab, etc, etc. I'm sure all MFL teachers are familiar with this sort of thing. Lots of singing and dancing at the front of the class & lots of noisy repetition from students.
Vocab mats etc are used by some to avoid the need to spend so much class time presenting new vocab: give them