Bonne fête à toi!

A regular occurrence in our French classroom is the creation of birthday cards.  Each student creates a birthday card for the birthday boy/girl:

In our cards, we include sentences that use the verbs être, avoir and donner to convey a heartfelt message to the recipient.

Here is an example of what we write in a card:

Joyeux anniversaire, Marie!/Bonne fête, Marie! 

Tu as dix ans!

Tu es super et sportive.

Je te donne des chocolats!

De ton ami(e), ____________

In the example above, we wish our friend a happy birthday, stating their age and giving a short description of him/her, using adjectives we choose from a vocabulary list.  In the fourth sentence we give a virtual gift and draw an illustration of it in the card. We have given our friends everything from pretend chocolates to a farm full of horses or even a trip around the world!

The grade 5/6 class created and presented cards today to our birthday girl!

May these birthday cards become cherished keepsakes from classmates!

Bonne fête!

Students from Grades 4-6 continue their projects on a sports hero or celebrity.  Grade 7 and 8 students will continue to work on the rough copies of their avatar projects.

On Monday we look forward to our classroom parties for Hallowe'en!

And we must not forget...

 Où est le drapeau français?

Voici l'indice pour la semaine prochaine:

Students who read this blog will truly have an edge over their classmates next week!

Bonne fin de semaine,

Mme Christensen

Avatars and Celebrities: Coming to a French class near you

In our 7/8 class we have been using the passé composé to speak about past events, such as our summer holidays, our weekends and even what we have already eaten this morning! We are now creating avatars and next week we will begin writing about their past accomplishments in their imaginary worlds!  This French website, on the "Avatars" link below, helps us create avatars while building our vocabulary; give it a try! 

Avatars

Creation of avatars in our computer lab

In our grade 4-6 classes, we have been discussing sports and sports heroes using the verbs être and avoir as well as some -er verbs such as aimer, jouer and gagner.  We have finished our reading evaluations and now we are in the process of choosing a sports celebrity (or any other kind of celebrity) to write about.  Here are some photos that have come in to class for our projects: 

We also have more to talk about regarding our own accomplishments in the world of sport:

"Je gagne trois trophées de hockey et deux médailles de la voile (sailing). J'admire beaucoup Wayne Gretzky!"

The big reveal.....drumroll please.....

This t-shirt blows our cover and gives away the secret of our true success and joy--
Jesus!

Bonne fin de semaine,

Mme Christensen

P.S. Here is the hint (l'indice) for la grande question de lundi! Où est le drapeau français? (for more background on this activity, please see earlier posts!)

Le "mini-prof"

We have talked about the daily calendar a fair amount in Grades 4-6 since the beginning of September, discussing the date, weather and season.  We also discussed whether or not we agree with the opinions expressed about the temperature!

Here are a couple "mini-profs" who led the discussion on one occasion this week.

As well, in our sports unit, we have been having some reading evaluations.  We have also continued our discussion about some wonderful accomplishments:

"Je gagne une médaille et une trophée de danse."

"Je gagne une médaille et une trophée de hockey."

"Je gagne une trophée de hockey."

"Je gagne des médailles de softball et de tir à l'arc." (archery)

In Gr. 7/8 French we have been learning how to ask as well as write questions about past events to get the details: who, what, where, when, why and how.  On Friday, I hid these strips of paper around the classroom:

The yellow strips had questions that corresponded to the green strips that had the answers to the questions.  We had about ten minutes to find all the strips and put the questions and answers together.  In the hustle and bustle, I forgot to take photos of this activity : )

Hiding things around the classroom brings us to la grande question:

 "Où est le drapeau français?"

Voici une indice (a hint below!)  Those who have been reading the blog will have an advantage Monday afternoon!

À lundi!

Mme Christensen

Winners...and sneaky hiding places!

In our Gr. 4-6 sports unit, we have been talking about some individuals or teams that have won awards.  In the Grade 5/6 class, we have also been talking about our own accomplishments in sport! We have been practicing the verb "gagner" (to win) in the process.

Je gagne beaucoup de trophées de football!

Je gagne une trophée de ringuette et beaucoup de médailles!

Students in Grades 4-6 (and occasionally in 7/8) have had the daily challenge to find the French flag.  This game has helped us practice locations in the classroom, classroom objects as well as the prepositions sur, sous, dans, devant, derrière and là-bas.

Here are some examples of classroom vocabulary that we have learned:

 teacher's desk

cupboard

the Bible

wall

shelf

floor

ceiling

A sneaky hiding place! Le drapeau français est sous le placard!

Le drapeau français est sur le bureau de Mme Christensen!

Where will the drapeau be on Tuesday??? We'll find out after we ask la grande question: Où est le drapeau français??? (Or maybe I will post a hint here later...stay tuned !)

This Thanksgiving may we all remember to be thankful to our Lord Jesus Christ for all the blessings He has given us...blessings of food, shelter, health and most of all, the free gift of eternal life and a relationship with Him.

Joyeuse Action de Grâce!

Mme Christensen

ps.  Voici l'indice pour le drapeau français:

hmmm....

Sun VS clouds

In the 4/5 and 5/6 class we discuss the date, daily weather and season.  It seems that we've been having a bit of a competition between the sunny days and cloudy days since school began.  The sun won out:

En septembre, il y a 20 jours de soleil et 16 jours nuageux!

Il y a seulement 4 jours de pluie.

Our final group of 7/8 students had their excursion to Le Croissant. 

Before & after!

Early this year, a student surprised me with a French flag that he made. From time to time I've been hiding this French flag in the classroom and at the beginning of class students try to find where I've hidden it.  We use the prepositions sur, sous, dans, devant, derrière and à côté de to reveal where the flag is.  Those students who read this blog before class on Monday will have an advantage : )

Bonne semaine!

Mme Christensen