Joyeuses Pâques!

Last week the Grade 7/8 class made preparations for our class fashion show which will be held the first week of April when we are all back from Spring Break.  Here's a quick preview of our items made from repurposed materials.  Handbags or backpacks were a popular item!

A beach cover-up

An apron

A pair of pants...given a new lease on life with lovely embroidery

A flashy pair of earrings!

Last week, the Grade 3/4 class reviewed as well as learned more classroom vocabulary. We practiced listening for the masculine and feminine articles un and une.  The Grade 5/6 class practiced verbs and reviewed how to use them in sentences.

This week as a school we are off to an adventure in learning...to the beautiful country of India! It is "Country Week" and most afternoons are spent in workshops with our teachers learning about different aspects of India and its culture.  

Have a blessed Easter remembering the death of our Lord Jesus Christ and celebrating His resurrection!  See you in April!

Joyeuses Pâques!
Mme Christensen

Great links

         Communication in full sentences is one of the main goals in our class, and this means using verbs!  This week in grades 5/6 and 7/8 we have been taking some time to review verbs and verb tenses that have been studied so far this year.  In Grade 7/8 we've found that songs have helped us remember some key verbs! Check these out:

Verbe aller by Etienne

Some of our Gr. 8 students from last year, now in Grade 9 French, have commented that they still remember and use the song about the verb avoir that we sang last year to the tune "The Ants go Marching". They have even shared it with their Grade 9 peers this year. However, here is another tune (which is a little bit more lively) to help us remember the verb avoir:

Verbe avoir

 Here is a song about the verb être that we may check out this week:

Verbe être by Alain le lait

Our Grade 3/4 students have been making birthday cards this past week using the verbs être, avoir and donner. We have also been reviewing and expanding upon the classroom vocabulary learned earlier this year; we enjoyed this song:

Dans ma salle de classe by Alexandre

This week we will be preparing for student-led conferences on Tuesday and Wednesday.  I look forward to seeing students sharing their French work with their parents!

Bonne semaine,

Mme Christensen

Festival du Voyageur week part 2

We have so many Festival du Voyageur photos to share, so as promised, these photos are being shared in two parts. Last week we saw photos from our activities at school; this week we will see our Gr. 7/8 fieldtrip photos.

As it was a chilly morning, our first stop was the warm-up tent! We had some hands-on experience with different types of furs...

...and we learned which animals they came from.

Our first workshop was "People at the Forks". We represented the First Nations indigenous peoples and our job was to trade with two other groups, the Europeans and the Métis who were represented by other groups of students.  

It was amazing to think how people managed without the use of money; we had to carefully discuss and evaluate what we needed and what we thought these items were worth in relation to the items we had for trade.

Our fearless leader, who negotiated our trades!

Hoopdancing by Shanley Spence was a breath-taking experience. She explained the symbolism of the hoop and its colours. Some students even had a chance to try hoop dancing for themselves.

Such beauty, skill and artistry!

Our last stop was Fort Gilbraltar (workshop A). Here we are at the "store" where European goods were traded for furs.

A traditional outdoor cooking pit

A variety of common foods of the Red River area, circa 1800, were explained in fascinating detail. The aroma of fresh bannock emanated from the outdoor oven!

Dried saskatoon berries and beans

Dried strips of bison meat was pounded into a powdery form and combined with fat to create balls of pemmican.

We learned that blacksmiths' work was a highly dangerous occupation.

Finally, a visit to the carpenter's shop where we saw a variety of unusual and clever tools of the 1800's.

This year the cold kept the snow sculptures in excellent form!

Next year will be the 50th year of Festival du Voyageur! To mark the occasion, each school participating this year was commissioned to create a quilt square, and one of our Gr. 7/8 students created this beautifully embroidered square.  She has represented our school--and Jesus--wonderfully well! Merci beaucoup!

Bonne semaine!
Mme Christensen