Joyeux Noël, Bonne Année et Bonnes Vacances!

All our advent candles are 'lit'  this week; Christmas is near!  We look forward to celebrating the birth of our Saviour, Jesus.

We hope you enjoyed the short skit in French performed by three of our Grade Five students in our school's Christmas concert this past week.  

We have been busy! Our Gr. 7 and 8 French club helped to decorate a bûche de Noël, which is a very traditional French Christmas dessert similar to a jelly roll.  It is shaped and decorated to look like a Yule Log. ( 'Bûche' means 'log'.)

Due to the short amount of time that we have during the noon hour, the cake portion had to be prepared in advance. The link to the recipe is at the end of this post.

Prepping the whipped cream!

We melted semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave and let them cool to the perfect temperature for making yummy chocolate curls.

Raspberries were washed and ready, perfect to pair with chocolate!

The chocolate roll was filled with whipped cream...

and garnished with whipped cream as well!

The results were spectacular!

 Here is a link to the recipe from our Dec. 2013 posting:

Recipe: Bûche de Noël

Grade Six students also savored some of this traditional French Christmas dessert.

Grades Three to Five made a craft this week to hang on their Christmas trees at home.

C'est le renne Rodolphe!

Be sure to check out the French Christmas links on the right  side of this blog.  I wish all families a warm and memorable Christmas holiday.  Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année!

À 2015!

Mme Christensen

Expressing opinions!

The past two weeks we have been using these phrases (posted next to our whiteboard for reference) to help us express our opinions on a variety of topics.  The weather is one such topic of great interest (and sometimes debate) here in Winnipeg! 

Dans mon opinion,... (In my opinion,...)

Selon moi,...(According to me,...)

Je pense que...(I think that...)

Je suis d'accord avec...(I agree with...)

Je ne suis pas d'accord avec...(I don't agree with...)

Our Grade Six class has also been using these phrases in their animals unit to discuss briefly which animals are more popular than others and why.

Bonne journée et à bientôt!

Mme Christensen

Preparing for a Birthday!

It was our school secretary's birthday this past week, so some of our French students dropped in to sing "Bonne Fête" and present her with a card!

We've also been preparing birthday cards for students whose birthdays we are celebrating in December.  Each student creates a small card on construction paper for the birthday boy or girl.  Birthday cards for the Gr. 4/5 class (pictured above and below) have four sentences/phrases:

Bonne fête,_______! (Name of recipient)

Tu es (adjective) et (adjective)!

Voici (name of gift) pour toi! (Draw a picture of a gift you wish for the recipient. We discuss this vocabulary before creating the card.)

De ton ami(e), _____. (Name of student giving the card.)

Receiving birthday cards helps to make each student feel special on their birthday.  There is  thought and caring that goes into each card.

As well, it is a very authentic form of communication.  We have the opportunity to practice using the verb "être" as well as a number of adjectives and new vocabulary in context.

Students enjoy adding creative flair and a personal touch to their cards.

Speaking of birthdays, we are looking ahead at the calendar (below) and preparing for the most important one of all, the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.

We are learning a thematic vocabulary word each day and our French bulletin board (below) displays our Advent "candles".

Three of our students in Gr. 5 recorded a short skit in French that will be shown at our Christmas Concert.  Stay tuned in the next few weeks as I hope to post the skit once our concert is over.  The action takes place at "L'hôtel Bethléem".

Bonne journée et à bientôt!

Mme Christensen