Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Parlons français!



My students have been learning how to make simple one and two verb sentences in the present tense all revolving around the vocabulary topics of food, drinks, sports, activities, and school subjects.  After working on this for about a month and a half they are now putting their expertise to work!  Each student has a "sondage" in their hands and they are circulating around the room to complete the survey.  In French of course! :)  Before beginning the survey they needed to complete some of the questions on the "sondage" as some were "fill in the blanks" so that they students could personalize the survey to their preferences. The sondage is a full page in length and so this activity took at least 15 minutes of "speech" time to go through the list of questions.  It could certainly be divided in half in order to do 2 mini surveys.  If you are interested in this "sondage" it can be found in my teacher store at Teachers pay Teachers.  Here's the link:  http://bit.ly/P1yKPv 

:)  Lorraine  

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Belgium learning stations!

Belgium - Site matching activity - pictures are stapled into a file folder for easier use

Here are two of four Belgium stations used in my classroom last week to reinforce our Belgium Unit. This product is available at TpT:  http://bit.ly/UtWBJN

Inside/Outside Circle

Inside/outside circle is the perfect way to have all of your students speak to each other at the same time while practising their French!! Today, after teaching how to make inversion questions I had the students create 2 questions revolving around the topic of Belgium which we have been studying over the past few weeks.  Next, I numbered each student either "one" or "two" and had all of the 'ones' sit in a circle facing outwards.  The 'twos' then chose a partner and sat their chairs facing a number one partner.  With all of the chatter in the room I use a "bell" to initiate a change in partner while the students are participating in the oral activity.  The 'inside' circle students asked their 'outside' circle partner a question in the inversion form about the country of Belgium.  The outside circle students then answered the questions to the best of their abilities.  After each student asked their questions I rang the bell and the outside circle students moved 'one space' to the left.  Their new partner once again asked their 2 questions and the outside circle students answered once again.  Since each student is speaking at the same time, they are getting MUCH practice and with a variety of students.  The inside circle students do not move.  This allows for different partners each time the outside circle students move to the left.  To add variety, after a few 'moves to the left' I have the outside circle students then be the ones to ask the questions and the inside circle students answer the questions. This activity can EASILY go on for 15 minutes!  Great speech practice for everyone! 

Thursday, October 11, 2012

On parle comme un robot!

That's what we did today in class! :)  We've been working on "l'impératif" for a bit now  but I wanted to further reinforce the concept.  After reviewing the "hows and whys" of using imperative I asked the students to pretend that they were robots.  They were to write about 5 imperatives as if they were going to give directions to another robot.  I told them to have fun with it and to think about fun things they could ask their classmates to do.  - en français, bien sûr! After spending some time creating imperatives I wandered around and helped make any corrections or clarified the directions where necessary.  They were definitely getting CREATIVE!  When ready, we all wandered around the room and gave "commands, orders, or advice" to do things within the classroom.  Students were touching their noses, ears, eyes, jumping on one foot, "running" around the room, singing "O Canada" and turning around in circles.  It was so much fun!  Lots of laughter and lots of learning!  :)  I'm confident that when they submit their worksheets next week that they will be done very well!   Need a worksheet on "impératif" to reinforce your lessons? If so, check out my store! (French - Impératif - worksheet and answer key) http://bit.ly/QUSsea 

Friday, October 5, 2012

Interesting article

I thought this was an interesting article regarding French spoken around the world.  :)

http://bit.ly/StOkSW

Happy World Teacher Day!

Happy World Teacher Day everyone!   We were treated today to coffee, tea and treats by our administrative team at our school.  :)  It was very much appreciated!  

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

French inventors and inventions

What would our world be without "pens" or "eyeglasses" or  "photos"?  We often hear about the high tech scientific inventions but what about the inventions that just make our life a little easier?  - sitting in a chair instead of on the floor, eating our meals with knives and forks instead of with our hands .....   Who are these people and where have they come from?  Many of them are French inventors from France, Belgium, Switzerland and even Canada.  I recently had my students do an internet research project about inventors with French backgrounds.  They each researched an inventor, wrote 3 paragraphs - one about the life of the inventor, the second about the invention itself and thirdly a paragraph about how the invention has left its mark on our daily lives.  Some of the inventions included:  margarine, aspirin, Braille, sewing machine, saxophone, pencil, cellophane, Velcro and even the bikini!  These were obviously the ones that at first glance would make doing research the most exciting but I didn't want any of my students to know anything about what invention they would learn about until they had "chosen the name"!  With pieces of paper hidden in an envelope each of my students pulled a name one by one to their mystery inventor.  - Blaise Pascal, Louis Réard, Jacques Cousteau, Louis Braille, Nicolas Conté, Rudolf Diesel, just to name a few.   Away they went - to the internet to discover just a little bit more about our history and the people who have helped make our present the way it is.  I have since marked these projects and I must say that I am more than thrilled with the information that they learned.  Last class we sat around tables and shared what was learned.  Their next step is to become the "inventor" themselves!  What will they invent?  - an automatic pooper scooper? a machine to clear the table for us after dinner? - The list is really only within the limits of their imaginations!  I can't wait to see their new discoveries!   If you're interested in doing this project with your students please check out my store. - 

http://bit.ly/P54KOU     French Inventors Project
http://bit.ly/Phhx0R        French - A new invention

Enjoy!  Happy creations!  :) 

Monday, October 1, 2012

Café Culturel - learning with a twist!

In order to promote multiculturalism in our French/Spanish subject area my colleagues and I decided to create a "café culturel".  Once a month during the school year we have planned special mini-events in our area to enhance the learning of Spanish and French culture.  During the past week in our classes we told our students that Café Culturel would be starting this week.  Our focus today was to bring students in and promote a relaxed atmosphere while playing French and Spanish café type music in the background.  We stocked up on "chocolat chaud" and provided the kettles to go along with it. Our students came in with their own coffee mugs, French books, and smiles to enjoy our café atmosphere.  Along with the chocolat chaud?  Some French work too.   :)  = Learning with a twist!