Les Crêpes françaises

One of my very favourite lessons of the year is a lesson on les crêpes françaises, where the students learn about the language rules around reading and writing recipes in French, play charades to learn the steps to make crêpes and finally have tons of fun in the classroom or kitchen making their very own crêpes. First I would introduce the class to a recipe for crêpes, like this one provided by Recettes du Québec. The students would learn the vocabulary words for cooking measurements, such as tasse and cuire a thé or cuire a soupe as well as the names of the ingredients. Next, I will have prepared index cards with each the instructions and a picture illustrating the action. The students would play charades to act out the steps to consolidate their learning. This would be a good time to introduce a project where students write out their own recipe for their favourite food. Finally, the students are ready to make their own crêpes! In the past, I have assigned ingredients as well as toppings (ice cream, jam, nutella, fruits etc.) and plates, napkins and cutlery to each student in the class. I brought a few extras of the main ingredients in case anyone forgot. The cooking lesson worked the best when I had the students work in the staffroom's kitchen, but if a stove is not available for you to use in the school you could take a hot plate to the classroom and make your crêpes there. It would be a good idea to prepare colouring sheets or a writing activity for students to compete as not everyone can make their own crêpe at the same time and there is some waiting time. Here are some links to activities you could have going on at the table or students' desks while making crêpes:

Crêpe Suzette colouring sheet provided by Frenchteacher.com

Crêpe Suzette cd to listen to some fun French music while cooking

A video on making crêpes provided by Crêpes de France

Quizzes on French culture found at Livebinders.com

Hope you get a chance to try making les crêpes françaises in your classroom this school year!

Bon appétit!

Joyeuse St-Valentin!

With Valentine's Day right around the corner, I thought I would add a few activities in French for that special day on February 14th. Here is a lovely video for a song called "Joyeux St. Valentin" by Toto Cutugno:

 

For older students, here is a list of the top 20 French love songs and you can download the whole collection from iTunes.

1. La vie en rose - Edith Piaf

2. C'est si bon - Yves Montaud 

3. Quand on a que l'amour - Jacques Brel

4. J'en déduis que je t'aime - Charles Aznavour

5. Parlez-moi d'amour - Lucienne Boyer

6. Les amoureux des bancs - Georges Brassens

7. T'aimer follement - Johnny Hallyday

8. Hymne à l'amour - Edith Piaf
9. Plus bleu que tes yeux- Charles Aznavour
10. Fleur bleue - Charles Trenet
11. C'est si facîle de vous aimer - Joséphine Baker
12. J'me suis fait tout petit - Georges Brassans
13. Je t'aime bien - André Bourvil & Bourvil

14. Comme un p'tit coquelicot - Marcel Mouloudji

15. J'aime les femmes c'est ma folie - Tino Rossi

16. Maladie d'amour - Henri Salvador

17. Le parapluie - Georges Brassens

18. Mon manège à moi - Edith Piaf

19. Oui j'ai - Johnny Hallyday

20. Ma main a besoin de ta main - Charles Aznavour

Another fun activity for your students would be to take a virtual tour of St-Valentin, Quebec. It is a small village in Quebec which has its sites set on becoming the capital of love. They would of course have Paris and St-Valentin, France to compete with!. The Globe and Mail provides pictures as well as an article about this unique, lovely village and its Valentine's traditions. Enjoy and Joyeuse St-Valentin!

Finding "The Element"

Recently, I have been looking into ways of incorporating personal development into my lessons. Personal development refers to the task of improving your attitude towards learning or working by diversifying your skill set or gaining a new perspective on life as a whole. It may involve reflecting on your past experiences, answering questions that you have of yourself, examining your life's path or seeking the advice of others to put you back on the path to enlightenment. Famous personal development authors could include Og Mandino, Norman Vincent Peale, Tony Robbins, or Sir Ken Robinson. What does this have to do with FSL or learning a subsequent language? Well, learning a new language involves learning about or experiencing a new culture. This can be an overwhelming experience for young learners as they are forced to think outside their schemas and incorporate new ways of thinking into their lives in order to truly be in the most ideal frame of mind for language learning, which is the immersion experience. This may cause students to start to examine their own culture and heritage with a more critical eye, especially if they encounter challenges in their learning. Personal development will help students to get over some roadblocks to learning so that learning a new language involves less culture shock and more enjoyment and cultural exploration. Examining ones own cultural bias will aid in the process of interacting with a new culture in a way in which you can learn from it and learn to enjoy it. Of particular interest to educators and parents alike is the book "The Element" by Sir Ken Robinson. It is all about discovering your passions and talents in life and working towards getting into a mindset where your talents are used to their full potential to achieve great works. These great works might be a brilliant math formula, a science experiment that leads to a discovery, a beautifully choreographed artistic dance, a musical score, winning a game of basketball or designing a thrilling new video game, just to name a few examples. When students find their element, they are also finding out the way they learn best. To sum it up, when students find the way in which they can produce great works and live up to their fullest potential, the sky is the limit as to what they can achieve. Allowing students the time and energy to go through the process of finding their element and learning to work within its perameters is what education should be all about. The following is a link to a discussion Sir Ken Robinson had at Penn State University. He is world renowned for his thoughts on creativity in education, and his book "The Element" can help you get to the place in your life where you can truly be great. Don't be afraid to take risks in your language learning and teaching, and take that first step in the process of finding your element today (if you haven't already)!

Ratatouille

Recently I showed the Disney film Ratatouille in class in French. I found that the movie was a good springboard for talking about French culture because it takes place in Paris and features some French cuisine. I created a Ratatouille package that has worksheets to preview the new vocabulary in the movie and make a web that connects all the characters. It also has comprehension questions for specific sections of the movie if you want to break it down into 15 minute chunks for viewing. The students enjoyed the movie, and next they will make a menu and media project to show what they know about French food and culture. At the Madame Giraffe Store you can find a Ratatouille worksheet featuring the Eiffel Tower to give to students during or after watching the film.You can also find an outline for the menu project as well as rubrics for assessment. Bon travail!

French Cafe

At school this week we have been busy planning our French Cafe. The French Cafe is an event that showcases our students French language abilities in a fun and creative way. Each French class gets to perform a 3-5 minute act in the show, whether it be a song, dance or short play. We also have all the classes watching at different times. The scheduling can get a little tricky, but the students love to both perform their act and then have the opportunity to watch other classes perform as well. While the students are watching the acts on stage, we will have our older classes act as servers for the cafe. Students can order croissants ahead of time, as well as apple juice. Another way to incorporate French culture into the French Cafe is through art work on the walls of the performing space and students' work being displayed on the cafe tables where students are sitting at to watch the show. This year we have decided on posters with French cultural symbols for the walls and some French restaurant menus to add to the tables. Students will have fun practicing for their cafe act, and they will learn some new French language skills and vocabulary at the same time. Also, parents love to come in to see their child perform so the French Cafe is a great way to get parents involved in the French language program.

La compassion dans la salle de classe

A few weeks ago I attended a conference for junior teachers (teachers who teach grades 4-6), and the theme was creating a caring, compassionate classroom. The ideas I got from the conference can certainly be applied to any FSL classroom. It is so important to create a caring, compassionate classroom atmosphere in a second language classroom because students need to feel comfortable enough to take risks and try to pronounce new vocabulary words. At the start of the year, it is a good idea to have the students share some of their own personal stories in the target language to help create a classroom community and to get to know each student. An activity that was introduced at the conference was to have students work in pairs and each pair is given a circle, a triangle and a square. The pair is then to arrange the three shapes in a particular design. After giving the students a couple of minutes to decide on the position of their shapes, the students are then told that each shape represents a person in a bullying scenario. One shape is the bully, another shape is the victim and the third shape is the bystander. The students would then discuss in their pairs which shape represents which person in that scenario and why. Addressing the bullying issue upfront and discussing it is a good way to set expectations for student behaviour in the classroom and set the stage for a compassionate second language classroom. Dr. Larry Swartz, a professor for the teacher education program at the University of Toronto, has focused a lot of his research on creating caring classrooms and addressing the bullying issue in schools.  Here is a link to a video of Larry Swartz talking about the importance of creating caring classroom environments. Two books that I recommend that promote a caring attitude are Le Vol du colibri by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas and L'homme qui plantait des arbres by Jean Giono. In the words of Dr. Seuss "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing's going to get better. It's not." (From the movie The Lorax).

La Tour Eiffel

 

Whenever possible, I try to incorporate French culture into my lessons. A fun way to do this is to focus on famous French monuments and cultural activities in France as part of daily language lessons. I have recently taught a mini-unit on the Eiffel Tower. I taught a grammar lesson on the past tense using scenarios related to the Eiffel Tower and traveling to France. I included a reading comprehension activity by ABCTeach.com which was great because it had reading comprehension questions to answer that went along with the article on the Eiffel Tower. I also did an art lesson where students were shown a picture of the Eiffel Tower and then sketched their own version in 3D. We outlined them in black marker and added sparkles to represent how the Eiffel Tower is lit up at night. There are some great books out there that feature the Eiffel Tower as well, including Un Jour avec la Tour Eiffel by Victor Simiane, Rendez-vous à la Tour Eiffel by Elzbieta and Le Grand voyage by Jean-Olivier Heron. The Eiffel Tower theme fits well for this time of the year because of March Break, and many students are going on vacation and traveling. After March Break, the students will be able to tell about what they did on their vacations using the past tense. Bon voyage!