Winnipeg International Storytelling Festival and a Mystery Box

This week our Grade 6 class had the great privilege of attending a French story workshop and show at the University of Saint-Boniface, the venue for the Festival international du conte de Winnipeg.  The English part of this festival takes place in various parts of Winnipeg and is in its tenth year.  Nearly forty storytellers perform for around 8000 students each year.  The festival was begun by the Arthur V. Mauro Center for Peace and Justice of St. Paul's College, University of Manitoba.

Our story workshop introduced us to the themes in the story show, "La Guerre et la paix" ("War and Peace").

Our facilitator briefly discussed the five steps of the grieving process: nier (denial), se fâcher (anger), négocier (negotiation), être déprimé (depression) et accepter (acceptance).  We went on to participate in games and activities that helped us, in a light-hearted way, to understand the grieving process.

As a class we participated in a small war of our own in the form of the game, "Rock, paper, scissors". Students were divided into two groups and each group discussed whether they would be rock, paper or scissors for each round.  We kept score and when the game was over, we discussed our feelings about winning or losing.

Roche, papier ou ciseaux???  Students did a fine job participating in French to the best of their abilities!

Students were divided into two groups to practice the dialogue above as we passed around a squeaky rat stuffy and afterward, a cat stuffy.  We used expression in our voices to demonstrate denial, anger, negotiation, depression and acceptance.  We also practiced vocal expressions in a simple dialogue of "Oui" and "Non" which was a lot of fun!

We practiced short dialogues related to the theme of the story play. Students were grouped behind the student in green and one asked him a question, disguising his/her voice. The student in green had to answer in a full sentence and guess the name of the person questioning him.  If he guessed correctly, he stayed up at the front. If he did not guess correctly, he was replaced by the person who disguised his voice successfully. We had some great laughs!

Sample dialogue

Next, we watched the story show, "La Guerre et la Paix", which centered around two characters who were preparing to participate in a peace march and in the process suffered a major setback in their preparations!  We observed how they dealt with their own personal conflict and worked through the stages of grief in this very humorous presentation.

A huge thank you to the parents who helped to provide the necessary transportation for this event!

THE MYSTERY BOX

QU'EST-CE QUE C'EST?!?!?!?

This box arrived to the French classroom and will be with us for the next four weeks.  Well, I'll let you know what it is...it is a multi-media kit of materials on loan to us from the CPF, or Canadian Parents for French.  Any parents, students or staff are welcome to sign out books, CD's, DVD's or games.  Please come to the French classroom to borrow materials! On the right hand side of this blog there is a link to the CPF, a wonderful organization which promotes the learning of French.

Bonne fin de semaine et joyeuse fête de Mères! Happy Mother's Day!

Mme Christensen