Ratatouille

Have you watched the movie Ratatouille with your FSL or FI class? It is a great way to introduce the cultural component for the new French curriculum in Ontario. I have created Ratatouille : As-tu déjà? for you to introduce the vocabulary in the movie before watching it.You could print out one copy of it and show it up on the board and answer the questions as a whole class. This will help to preview the vocabulary in the film. You could also print a copy for everyone in the class and have them discuss their responses in partners or small groups. There is also a Ratatouille Graphic Organizer for getting to know the main characters. I think you will be able to fully engage intermediate and senior level students with these Ratatouille questions and ideas for assignments.   I also have a Ratatouille Paris themed colouring sheet to go with it if you are working with a younger crowd.  Ratatouille is such a fun movie to watch with your French class! Enjoy!

Grade Five Canadian Government Unit

I have created a unit for teaching the Grade Five Social Studies Canadian Government unit. It is an integrated unit which includes social studies, language arts and visual arts. I have taught this unit in an English-language Grade Five class, as well as in an Extended French Grade Five class. It has gone over really well in both years in which I taught it. If you have any questions about the unit feel free to comment. Here is some artwork produced by my Grade Five students:

End of the Year Projects

May and June are sometimes the busiest months of the entire school year. To help you with your end of the year planning, I have several projects available at my Teachers Pay Teachers online store. The first project I would like to share with you is a French Menu project. For this project students create their own menu for a restaurant and then they will apply their learning by presenting their menu as part of a script. The next project I would like to share with you is a pilot episode for a tv show. In this project students are creating a script and then presenting it. I have done this project with a group of grade 10 students and some of the students chose to record their pilot episode and they show their video to the class. Other students decided to present their script as a play in front of the class. Both projects include rubrics for assessment and evaluation.

In terms of what is coming up next for Madame Giraffe, I have plans in the works to create new food units for Core or Immersion French classes. I have been teaching in several schools lately where students have participated in a French cafe where students order food in French. Another idea I have is for students to learn to cook different recipes such as crepes, pizza or cookies and apply their language learning skills.

Claude Monet

Sometimes there is a heavy emphasis on oral communication and writing skills in a French class. Don't forget about the reading part! I have come up with a new idea for a reading task in French. It is a Claude Monet reading comprehension activity. With this activity students are able to read instructions in French and make a drawing based on what they have read. Their understanding of what they are reading will come through in what they have drawn. The work of art being described just so happens to be a famous work of art by Claude Monet. Can you guess which one it is? Give this lesson a try! Students who have completed this assignment in my class in the past have really enjoyed it. We used it as part of our French artwork display in the gym. At the end of the lesson I showed the work of art by Claude Monet and the students were so happy that their works of art looked similar to his famous work of art. Have fun with this art project!

Here is a video lesson on Claude Monet: