Birthdays!

(picture was taken just this past Friday--the date on my camera is wrong!)

A welcome routine in our French class is the creation of birthday cards! A typical birthday card for Grades 6-8 has this information (without the English):

Joyeux anniversaire, ________________!           

Tu as __________ ans!                                       

Tu es ____ et _____!        

Je te donne _________________!

De ton ami(e), ____________   

(Happy birthday, _________!

You are ______ years old!

You are ________ and ___________!

I'm giving you _______________! (Students pretend to be giving a virtual gift.)

From your friend, ____________ )       

The creation of birthday cards is an authentic form of written communication that gives students the opportunity to practice in context the verbs 'être' and 'avoir' as well as the use of the masculine or feminine forms of adjectives. The 'virtual gift' sentence gives us an opportunity to explore additional vocabulary while discussing what the birthday girl or boy likes.  The student above obviously likes Minions!  Above all, birthday cards give us an opportunity to make someone feel special.    

Grades 4-6 are continuing to review sentences that help us describe ourselves in French. Grades 7-8 are beginning to write a short paragraph describing some events of their summer vacation using the passé composé (past tense).  At all levels, we've been playing the "voice change game" for fun repetition in our oral work.

    

A student in class will ask the student at the whiteboard a question on a purple card, changing their voice. The student at the whiteboard will answer in a full sentence, trying to guess who asked the question.

À lundi!

Mme Christensen

p.s. Our 'After School in French' zumba sessions begin Monday from 3:30-4:15.

Getting into our routines

We started our French Friday routine, with "O Canada", the Lord's Prayer and the reading of a weather announcement, all in French.  There is a link to the Lord's Prayer on the right side of this blog. 

"Bonjour! Aujourd’hui c’est vendredi le 18 septembre 2015.  Il fait 9 degrés et du soleil. Il fait beau, frais et le ciel est bleu. Merci Jésus pour une très belle journée! Bonne fin de semaine!"  Good morning! Today is Friday, September 18, 2015. It is 9 degrees and sunny.  It is nice out, cool and the sky is blue.  Thank you Jesus for a very beautiful day! Have a good weekend!

Reciting the Lord's Prayer

Another routine we are establishing is clock partners.  We used this sheet (below) to help us generate a variety of partners for conversations.  For instance, I will model a dialogue such as the one we did last week to introduce ourselves:  "Je m'appelle Mme Christensen et j'aime faire la cuisine" ("My name is Mme Christensen and I like to cook.") I would then pick a time on the clock and instruct students: "Find your 5:00 partner and have this conversation with them."  

 A short conversation in progress

Here is the written form of the short dialogue we practiced from last week, used in our title page work.

Bravo, mes élèves!  À lundi,

Mme Christensen

After School in French!

We are delighted to once again have the "After School in French" program running at our school for ten sessions on Mondays starting Sept. 28 from 3:30-4:15.  Zumba for ages 5-12 and combined sports (soccer, dodgeball and floor hockey) for ages 9-12 will be offered.

Stay tuned next week as registration forms will be arriving home.  Please return your registration form with payment to the school as soon as possible to ensure your child's spot in the program of his or her choice!

The past couple days we have been discussing the gift that culture is in our lives and our connections to culture, especially French culture.  Students were asked to write about the connections to French that they find in their everyday lives.  We placed our information on the "cadeau culturel" bulletin board in our French classroom.

Two classes have completed this activity; our Grade 4/5 class will add their thoughts next week. 

All students introduced themselves this week and used actions to describe what they like to do.  We all had to try to remember what each student said and did in order to describe them and copy their actions!  It was a good way for some of our new students to get to know their classmates as well as a good way for all of us to review some phrases.

The Grade 7/8 class saw a small slideshow of my family's trip to Vancouver this summer. Next week Gr. 7/8 students willl give a short description of their summer vacation activities using the past tense, the passé composé.  Students, please remember to bring at least one photo or one small souvenir from summer vacation. 

Bonne fin de semaine et à lundi!

Mme Christensen

Bienvenue! C'est la rentrée!

Welcome back, everyone!  I hope you are all feeling refreshed after these wonderful summer holidays.  Classes begin Wednesday and students are probably looking forward to seeing their friends, meeting their new teachers and receiving all their new school supplies when they arrive at school.  Check out these crazy backpacks full of school supplies!

Sac à dos by Gregg Lerock

I am looking forward to seeing you all and seeing how much you have grown over the summer. Stay tuned for some announcements about our After School in French program beginning Sept. 28!

À bientôt,

Mme Christensen