La bûche de Noël, our latest French club creation

La bûche de Noël

This is a traditional French dessert that we were not able to make in December.  However, it's not too late to savour "la bûche de Noël"!  We enjoyed using our skills to decorate it in French club this week.  Here is our recipe:

La bûche de Noël

4 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa 
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Powdered sugar
250 mL whipping cream, whipped with 2 tbsp powdered sugar
chocolate icing (We used Duncan Hines'.)
strawberries for garnish, if desired

Heat oven to 375.  Line jelly roll pan with parchment paper.  Beat eggs on high speed for 5 minutes in medium bowl.  Gradually add sugar.  Beat in water and vanilla on low speed.  Gradually add flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt, beating just until batter is smooth. Pour into pan, spreading into corners.  

Bake 15 minutes.  Immediately loosen cake from pan and invert onto clean tea towel generously sprinkled with powdered sugar.  Carefully remove paper.  While hot, gently roll cake and towel together.  Allow to cool on wire rack.  Unroll cake and remove towel.  Fill with whipping cream.

Decorate roll with chocolate icing, creating the appearance of a log.  Garnish with strawberries or any other fruit; sprinkle with icing sugar.

Savourez-la!

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On another note, we hope that the weather will be a bit better so that we can begin our snow sculpture carving.

We are working on our journal entries describing our families (Gr. 3/4, 4/5), our school activities (5/6) and our weekend activities in the future or past tenses (7/8).

Please check our latest link to "Muzzy" which has French subtitles and is a good introduction to some basic French vocabulary and structures.

Our "Question of the Week" for Grades 3-6 is "Est-ce que tu as des frères et des soeurs?".  For Gr. 7/8, we will be asking "Qu'est-ce que tu as fait ce weekend?"

À bientôt,

Mme Christensen

How to Build a Snow Sculpture, Part 2

Le voilà!

We removed the plywood, and voilà!  The small particles in the snow create a subtle marbling in the block.  As soon as we have nicer weather, we can start to transfer grid lines onto the snow block to start our design.  Stay posted for our progress!

www.colour-splash.ca

In and around St. Boniface you can find examples of completed snow sculptures; we will see more as Festival du Voyageur approaches.  I promised I'd show you another example of my cousin's work from previous winters to demonstrate what some snow sculptors are capable of! Here is a lovely sculpture of a traditional Ukrainian couple.

On another note, we have been busy in Gr. 3/4 and 4/5 having conversations about our families.  Some students from Grades 3/4 have been presenting family pictures to our class. We will continue with more presentations this week, followed by journal entries. 

Bravo, mes élèves!

Check out some new links under "videos" for our family unit (ma famille).

Grades 5/6 have been writing sentences about "Simon's Cat" using -er verbs (see previous posts to find "Simon's Cat") and will be starting a journal entry.  Grades 7/8 are using the future and past tenses in their journal entries.  

Our "Question of the Week" for grades 3-6 is "Est-ce que tu aimes...?"   Grade 7/8 will continue to use the past and future tense in their questions of the week: "Qu'est-ce que tu as fait le week-end passé?" and "Qu'est-ce que tu vas faire ce weekend?"

À bientôt,

Mme Christensen

How to build a snow sculpture

Yes, you guessed it...that wooden box on the school's front yard contains snow for a snow sculpture.  It measures 4'L X 4'W X 6'H, so it is much smaller than the average snow sculptures in Voyageur Park, which measure at least 8' X 8' X 8'.

We'll give the snow another week to settle and pack down.  When we remove the aspenite sheets, we should have a strong rectangular prism of snow, ready for the students and I to carve.  Stay tuned to see what it will become!

I am blessed to have a very artistic cousin, Ralph Tanchak, who is experienced in snow sculpting and who has in the past competed in the snow-sculpting competition at Festival du Voyageur.  He is a professional artist who does amazing commissioned works of art, art workshops and has a website at www.colour-splash.ca  . He kindly shared with me some tips and tricks of the trade:

www.colour-splash.ca

How to build a box to house the snow

  Fill your box with fresh snow and allow to settle 1-2 weeks.  Any size of box will do.

www.colour-splash.ca

Make a design on paper first, showing the overhead, front and side views of your design.  Then using grid lines, transfer your design onto your block of snow.  Scale: 1" square on paper = 1' square on your snow block.

www.colour-splash.ca

Artist Ralph Tanchak at work.  He recommends using anything that carves--spatulas, square garden spades, even hand saws.    

A Voyageur on a Harley?!?!

I hope to share more of Ralph's snow sculpture photos in another post.  Stay tuned.

A bientôt!

Mme Christensen

"Simon's Cat"

Lately the 5/6 and 7/8 classes have been getting acquainted with "Simon's Cat".  I pause this video intermittently for students to give a play-by-play commentary:

Some good oral communication using -er verbs (as well as other verbs) happens as a result, but who's noticing? It's fun talking about Simon's cat!

The Grade 7/8 class has the added twist of practicing the past tense (passé composé) and the future (futur proche) as their questions of the week have been:

• Qu'est-ce que tu vas faire ce weekend?
• Qu'est-ce que tu as fait le weekend passé?

In our 3/4 and 4/5 classes, we have been practicing our verbs, playing "Simon dit" (Simon says--completely unrelated to the video above.)  We've also been learning vocabulary related to family and our home.

Our question of the week for Grades 3-6 will be "Qui est-ce?"

A bientôt,

Mme Christensen

Imaginative, interactive French site

Check out poissonrouge, and have fun learning new French words!  It will also be listed under "French Games" on the right hand side of this blog.

Explore the rooms of a castle...as you hover over objects in each room, the name of the object will appear on the blackboard in the upper right hand corner and you will hear the name of the object when you click on it.  You will learn vocabulary based on these themes:

• les animaux (animals)
• les corps humain (the human body)
• l'atelier (the workshop)
• les jouets (toys)
• la cuisine (the kitchen)
• les transports (transportation)
• la salle de bains (the bathroom) 
• la musique (music)
• les chiffres (numbers and shapes)
• les vêtements

Various objects fly, swim or crawl across the page and if you are quick enough to click on them, you will learn their names too!  Click on the French alphabet to hear the name of the letter and the name of an object that starts with that letter.

À bientôt,

Mme Christensen

Qu'est-ce que c'est?

Bonne année! Welcome back!  I hope you all had a wonderful and memorable Christmas holiday.  2014  brings something new in the school front yard:

Qu'est-ce que c'est?  What is this strange brown wood cubicle near our flag pole? Why is it there and what will it be?  C'est un mystère.  Please stay tuned!

Our "Mot de la semaine" or "Word of the Week" has evolved into our question of the week, which is "Qu'est-ce que c'est?" for the 3/4, 4/5 and 5/6 classes.  

For our 7/8 class which is practicing the past tense, "Qu'est-ce que tu as fait ce weekend passé?" is the "Question of the Week".

Enjoy our warmer weather! À bientôt,
Mme Christensen