Festival du Voyageur week

This past Wednesday we had our Festival du Voyageur dress-up day and enjoyed some voyageur music at chapel.  We also had a taste of pea soup, bannock and maple syrup!  As well, grade 3-8 students visited the Festival du Voyageur on Friday. This week we will feature our Wednesday photos; next week I will post the fieldtrip photos.

Thank you so much to all the parents who contributed bannock. Thank you to all volunteers who helped to serve our voyageur food; merci beaucoup! As well, huge thanks to all our parent and staff drivers who transported students to and from our fieldtrip on Friday; you are all amazing!

Here is the recipe for pea soup that we used:

Pea Soup

2 1/4 cups dried split peas

8 cups water

1 large onion

1 cup finely chopped celery

1/4 tsp pepper

1 smoked pork hock (try Miller's meats!) or 1 ham bone

3 medium carrots, chopped into small pieces

1-2 tablespoons summer savory

salt and maple syrup to taste

Heat peas and water to boiling in stock pot.  Boil uncovered 2 minutes; remove from heat and let stand one hour.

Stir in onion, celery and pepper.  Add pork hock/ham bone.  Heat to boiling; reduce heat and cover and simmer about 1 1/2 hours or until peas are tender.

Remove pork hock/ham bone; trim meat and cut into 1/2" pieces.  Stir ham and carrots into soup.  Heat to boiling.  Reduce heat; cover and simmer until carrots are tender and soup is of desired consistency, about 30 minutes. Add maple syrup and salt to taste.

Bon appétit!

Miam, miam!

Please stay posted for the field trip photos next week!

Bonne semaine!

Mme Christensen

Be a Voyageur! (Part 2)

Yes, this is how it's done...red tuque, beard, plaid shirt (red, especially!), voyageur sash, fire bag! This voyageur is ready for the Festival!

Today the Festival du Voyageur opens and the festivities will begin. This Wednesday, all students are invited to dress as a Voyageur or a pioneer, to hear some great fiddling and spoon-playing at chapel and to taste pea soup, bannock and maple syrup at lunch!

Thank you in advance to all the parents who have graciously volunteered to bring bannock!

Our Grade 3/4 class has been getting a head start on learning about the life of the voyageurs. Our Grade 7/8 class, below, has been working hard on their final draft of the description of their upcycled fashion creation.

Our Grade 5/6 class has finished all the adaptations of the "Quiet Game" and this work has been compiled into a booklet.  Today the first game adaptation was presented; we will continue with the rest of the presentations next week.

Joyeux fin de semaine "Louis Riel"!

Mme Christensen

Be a voyageur! Eat pea soup! And sing!

Our latest French bulletin board announces our upcoming school-wide Festival du Voyageur activities for Wednesday, Feb. 21! A taste of pea soup and maple syrup will be available for whoever would like to try some.

 A big thank you in advance goes to all the parents who will be supplying the bannock! Notes went home this week requesting some bannock as well as 3-4 parent volunteers to help serve food.  Please contact me if you would like to help! Merci beaucoup!

In addition to a taste of these foods, we will be dressing like voyageurs or pioneers and enjoying some special music at chapel on Feb. 21.

Our Grade 3-4 students read their family paragraphs this week and were evaluated for their reading.

All of the "Quiet Game" adaptations that our Grade 5/6 students created have been compiled into a booklet. We are working on some activities on the vocabulary that came out of these adaptations to prepare us for the presentations of the games.

The Grade 7/8 students are working on the drafts of writing which describe their upcycled fashions.  This will continue into next week.

Bonne fin de semaine!

Mme Christensen

Adapting the "Quiet Game"

As I mentioned in a previous post, the Grade 5/6 class loves playing "the quiet game" for a pax Granny Whacky prize.  This game involves students standing on chairs and tossing and catching a soft, larger ball. The object of the game is to not make a sound while throwing and catching the ball successfully with your classmates. If not, you are out and you need to get down from your chair. The last person standing wins (although we never really have played the game long enough to get to that point). 

As part of our games unit, students have been writing up their own versions of the quiet game in French. Soon we hope to be able to start presenting our games to our classmates, en français, of course!  Here we are, hard at work:

The Grade 7/8 class has been continuing to work on the written descriptions of their upcycled fashions plus practicing responding to the oral questions for this unit. The Grade 3/4 class has finished all their paragraphs describing their families this week; bravo! We will be practicing reading them aloud next week.

Bonne fin de semaine!
Mme Christensen

Les voyageurs de 5/6

We had a departure from our usual routine in the grade 5/6 French class at the end of Friday. Our floors are slated to be beautifully cleaned and polished over the weekend, so we worked hard to temporarily move the contents of the classroom to the gym.  Good things we had some strong voyageurs in class that are ready for anything...

How to portage a carpet

Earlier in the week however, this same class was continuing to work on their adaptations of the quiet game.

Speaking of voyageurs, this is a reminder to all gr. 3-8 students to bring in their signed permission slips next week for our upcoming Festival du Voyageur fieldtrip!

Our Grade 3/4 class has been working diligently on their descriptions of their families; these projects should be all done by early next week.  We will be reading this work aloud to one another next week.

Our 7/8 class will continue to work on the rough drafts of the descriptions of their upcycled fashion creations.

Bonne fin de semaine!

Mme Christensen

The ever-popular "quiet game"

In the Grade 5/6 class, one of our very favorite "Granny Whacky" pax prizes is the "quiet game".  So for our games unit in French, we learned how to describe and play this game in French.  We drew pictures to demonstrate the instructions of the game:

 Our task this past week as well as this coming week will be to work in groups to make some small adaptations to the game. Each group will present its new version of the quiet game to the class. It should be fun!

In Grade 3/4 we are working on descriptions of our families. Some lovely family pictures have come in that will be part of the good copy of our projects.

In Grade 7/8 we will be using the vocabulary and structures practiced in class to write about our upcycled fashions.

Bonne semaine!

Mme Christensen

A New Year, a fresh start!

Bonne année! I hope you all enjoyed a happy Christmas holiday and that your new year is off to a good start!
         
        Monday is the deadline for bringing projects to class for Grade 7 and 8 students. We have had a month to create a garment or accessory out of materials destined for the recycling bin or trash can. Each item will be a conversation-starter in French for sure, as well as a feature in our class fashion show. We will be asking and answering questions about our creations as well as writing a paragraph about them. We will be reading these aloud.

These jeans have enjoyed a very productive, long life in the work force! 

It's time for a change...a fresh start!

Voici une tunique fait de tissu recyclé! Fabric was salvaged and turned inside out and sewn in long strips. Denim from another pair of old black jeans was added and voilà!

God does far better than this--He makes us completely new in Christ.  "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." 2 Corinthians 5:17  God delights in taking us as we are and giving us new life! 

The Grade 3/4 class will be starting their family projects; please remember that all family photos are due Monday.

In the Grade 5/6 class we are learning vocabulary so that we can work in small groups to adapt a favorite classroom game (the quiet game). We will write about and explain the rules of our new game to the class in French and have a chance to play it. 

Bonne semaine, 
Mme Christensen