Dear Parents,

• I realized that I forgot last week to post the documentation on the work done on the opposite.

Here are ythe documents.

Click here to download:

exercices_contraires.doc (29 KB)

(download)

Click here to download:

exercices_contraires.doc (29 KB)

• This coming Tuesday your child will come home with an invitation to attend our end of the year show. All students work hard on the project and we hope you will be able to join us to see the results !

It will take place on Thursday May 31st at 3.30 pm.

• The students will present 3 differents works in relation to animals, Paris and a tale of Charles Perrault. These projects make them practice their oral skills, their writing. They also have to research facts.

Some words about Charles Perrault:

Charles Perrault (12 January 1628 – 16 May 1703) was a French author and member of the Académie française.

In 1669 Perrault advised Louis XIV to include thirty-nine fountains each representing one of the fables of Aesop in the labyrinth of Versailles in the gardens of Versailles. The work was carried out between 1672 and 1677. Water jets spurting from the animals mouths were conceived to give the impression of speech between the creatures.

In 1695, when he was 67, he decided to dedicate himself to his children. In 1697 he published Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals (Histoires ou Contes du Temps passé) subtitled Tales of Mother Goose (Les Contes de ma Mère l’Oye. Its publication made him suddenly widely-known beyond his own circles and marked the beginnings of a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with many of the most well-known tales, such as Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood. He had actually published it under the name of his last son (born in 1678), Pierre (Perrault) Darmancourt ("Armancourt" being the name of a property he bought for him), probably fearful of criticism from the "Ancients". In the tales, he used images from around him, such as the Chateau Ussé for The Sleeping Beauty and in Puss in Boots, the Marquis of the Château d'Oiron.

• In the coming weeks, we will continue to put into practice a lot of what we studied this year in order to prepare this show. We will also carry on with Alex and Zoe and oral practice.

Enjoy your sunny weekend,

A bientot,

Catherine et Vannina

Dear Parents and Students,

These two last weeks of French class (with a week of spring break  in the middle), we worked on:

• conjugaison and pronouns.

I = Je

You = Tu

She = Elle

He = Il

We = Nous

You (plural) = Vous

They = Elles or Ils

• The students discovered that in French verbs are classified in 3 groups.When conjugated, it has a different ending depending on the pronoun used. We saw the conjugaison of the 1st group, the verbs ending with er, the most common group.

dessiner = to draw - marcher = to walk - chanter = to sing  jouer = to play  sauter = to jump

manger = to eat - regarder = to watch - aimer = to like

Click here to download:

present_verbe_dessiner.docx (10 KB)

(download)

Click here to download:

present_verbe_dessiner.docx (10 KB)

We built and wrote sentences using the different pronoun.

• The students also discovered two new games:

- one to review the vocabulary.

The students were given a table with words categories like fruits, vegetables, clothing, verbs, adjectives and they had to write 2 examples in each columns.

- the other game was meant to check oral understanding

I drew on the board various shapes in different colors and sizes. Then each student was requested to check a special location:

"Mets une croix a doite du carre rouge qui est dans le grand rectangle bleu".

"Check on the right side of  the red square that is in the big blue rectangle".

They did a great job !

• We are working on 3 projects for the end of the year show (end of May) but I can not tell you anything about it :-). 

• Maya and Zainab without planning a fashion show  arrived in class two weeks ago with a "french" outfit looking great !
• 

A bientot,

Catherine & Vannina

Dear Parents,

Joyeuses Paques ! Happy easter !

This week:

• we reviewed the vocabulary of the breakfast and the house 

le café, la tartine, le jus d'orange, la chaise, la table, le bol, le the, la confiture, le beurre, le croissant,les céréales, le lait, l’oeuf, la cuillère, le couteau, le pain grille, la chambre, le sucre, la salle de séjour, la salle de bains, la maison,la cuisine, les jouets...

• we talked about April 1st in France "Poisson d'avril", known as Fool's day in the USA

Click here to download:

POISSON_D’AVRIL.doc (41 KB)

(download)

Click here to download:

POISSON_D’AVRIL.doc (41 KB)

• we finished the Unit 11 of Alex and Zoe and do all the audio exercices. Your child can know review this unit with his/her CD.  Chez Basile Unite 2 Activity A-B-C-D

• we saw that by changing one letter in a word we found another one with a complete different meaning:

une poule / une boule

un sapin / un lapin

une pomme / une gomme

la terre / un verre

une page / une cage

• I read a short story in class, not so easy to pronounce so. Some volunteers accepted to read it on their own. Here are the results. Thank you Maya, Rocio, Daniel and Zainab you did a great job !
• 

  Click here to download:

  Daniel_lecture.xspf (0 Bytes)
  
   
  

  Click here to download:

  Rocio_Lecture.xspf (0 Bytes)
  
  

  Click here to download:

  Maya_lecture.xspf (0 Bytes)
  
  

  Click here to download:

  Zainab_lecture.xspf (0 Bytes)
  
  
  
• and we also went on with our secret "end of the year" project

Catherine & Vannina

Dear parents and children,

This week,

·         We played bingo. A new list of vocabulary was established by the students. The theme was the school.

We got a list of numerous words: le cahier – la gomme – le crayon – le classeur – le stylo – le livre – le tableau – la règle – le taille-crayon – le papier – le professeur – la table – la chaise.

·        We reviewed how to express some emotions and how to conjugate the verb to be = etre

This was also an opportunity to review that in French the adjective changes according to what or to who it describes.  Elle (a girl-feminin) est contente.   Il (a boy-masculin) est content.

Ils (Masculin - Plural) sont contents.  Elles (feminin and plural) sont contentes.

Je suis                  I am

Tu es                    You are

Il/elle est             He/she is

Nous sommes    We are

Vous êtes            You are

Ils/elles sont       They are

Click here to download:

emotions.pdf (555 KB)

(download)

Click here to download:

emotions.pdf (555 KB)

Click here to download:

emotions_suite.pdf (1.1 MB)

(download)

Click here to download:

emotions_suite.pdf (1.1 MB)

·        We built many sentences.

-        The students are given words: verb, adjectives, pronouns, nouns and they have to work in team to make a sentence. (outdoor game)

(download)

Click here to download:

phrases.MOV (4.11 MB)

-        They fished a verb and had to built a sentence (oral exercise)

·        We worked on Alex and Zoe Unit 11

·        We discovered that the sound [i] is written in French either with the letter i or the letter y.

You can see the letter i and hear the sound [i] as in le lit

You can see the letter y and her the sound [i] as in le pyjama

You can see the letter i but not hear the sound [i] as in le lapin

·        We started to work on our “end of the year project”. Please do not ask your child about it as it is a secret :-)

Catherine & Vannina

1.      Two weeks ago the group was a small one as some students from other schools were on vacation.

We took some time

·        to play “Guess Who” in two teams. Girls versus boys. The goal was to find a animal or a person. To achieve this goal, the students took turns to ask questions:

Est-ce que la personne porte un chapeau ?  Does the character wear a hat?

Est-ce que la personne a les cheveux blancs ? Does the character wear white hair?

Est-ce que la personne porte une barbe ? Does the character wear a beard?

The other team replied with a full sentence using the affirmative or the negative form.

Oui elle porte un chapeau. Yes he/she wears a hat.

Non elle n’a pas les cheveux blancs. No he/she does not have white hair.

Click here to download:

Guess_who.pdf (1.32 MB)

(download)

Click here to download:

Guess_who.pdf (1.32 MB)

·        To describe an image, we used sentences like

Ø    Je vois  - I see

Ø    Il y a – There is-are

Ø    The goal was to use as many adjectives and action verbs that the student knew to build oral sentences.

·        To write sentences on the individual boards. Daniel needed two of them as if was really inspired.

(download)

Click here to download:

bonjour-madame-la-tour-eiffel-week-of-march-6-and-13th-ojqFAjbmxoEEqgjafCIq.zip (434 KB)

1.      This week with all the students back, we finished our work on “Le petit Chaperon rouge”. The students answered some new questions and re-wrote the story building their own sentences.

Grand-mère est malade.

Le petit chaperon rouge va chez Grand-mère.

La petit Chaperon rouge parle au loup.

Le loup court vite chez  Grand-mère .

Le loup mange  Grand-mère .

Le petit chaperon rouge arrive chez la  Grand-mère .

Le loup porte les vêtements de la  Grand-mère .

Le loup mange le petit chaperon rouge.

Le chasseur ouvre le ventre du loup.

Le chasseur sort le petit chaperon rouge et la  Grand-mère  du ventre.

Le chasseur met les cailloux dans le ventre du loup.

2.      To review some vocabulary Vannina came up with a new exercise: the bingo game.

The children are given a subject like the clothing and are asked to write a list of words, as many words as they can remember. Then each student chose 9 words out of the list and writes them down on a bingo table. The words are randomly chosen and the first student to have 3 in a row is the winner.

3.      The 5 minutes brake is now used to make a game in French. Last week it was “Jack a dit”, French version of Simon says. With this game we reviewed the various body parts.

4.      All students finished unit 10 from Alex and Zoe book.

Dear Parents,

This semester we will try to have a strict policy regarding speaking English during  the GA class.

• The students learned a new sentence. If they need to express themselves in English during class,usually they are allowed just one sentence except for emergency, they have to say: "Permission de parler anglais" ( Permission to speak in English).

• At the begining of the French Class, each student says a sentence about what he/she did during the week, what he/she will do, what he likes....

           This week we learned that Anna went to a field trip with her class and saw many animals. Daniel remembered having done this field trip too. Alyssa likes skiing. Maya took a danse class...

• We listened to the audio exercices of Alex and Zoe Unit 10. These exercices are in your child book from page 44 to 47.As usual the story had a lot of success and each student acted at least two characters.

• 
  The students can now use their CD to review this unit.Chez Basile Unit 1 A-B-C-D

• We started the lecture of our first album "Le petit chaperon rouge". The students had to find the title, the author and the editor of the book. Then I read the book and at the end of the story we had a question-answer time for the oral part.

•  For the writing part, I gave them forms that are used for 1st graders in France. I was pleased to see they understood the content and answered the questions correctly. However, some students were a little disapointed as they all are in a higher grade themselves, But, of course these forms are meant for French students. 
• 

  Click here to download:

  Dossier_le_petit_chaperon_rouge.pdf (3.92 MB)
  

  (download)
  

  

  Click here to download:

  Dossier_le_petit_chaperon_rouge.pdf (3.92 MB)
  

·        Dear Parents and students,

·        This week:

• the hangman game was back to allow the students to revise opposite adjectives like

Propre (clean) - dirty (sale) maigre (skinny) – fat (gros)   froid (cold) – chaud (warm) - mouille (wet) sec (dry)

• A quiz was given to check on some verbs used a lot during class to give instructions to the students.   Soulignez (underline) – entourez (circle) – ecrivez (write) – dessinez (draw)....

• The students worked on their Alex et Zoe Book. We finished the written exercises of the Unit 10.

•   Using flash cards on the subject “Le petit dejeuner” – the breakfast, the students had to pick some of them to built sentences for the oral exercise. They had the choices between orange juice, eggs, milk, a glass, a fork, a plate, a pan, bread, jam....  

• We also discovered the 3 ways of writing the sound O in French:

EAU like in le chateau – AU like in   le landau (baby stroller)   - O like in le robot.

The students realized that they knew a lot of words using the sound 0 with different spelling but with always the same pronunciation.

During the second semester, we will work on stories. We will try to read and work on one every tree weeks. The first one that we will discover on Thursday is Little red riding hood – Le petit Chaperon rouge from Charles Perrault.

Last week was the last one for the First semester of French Classes.

• We learnt a new song talking about a naughty mouse hiding in clothes.
• We noticed that some time by changing one letter of a name, it's completely change the meaning.     LAPIN (rabbit)  becomes  SAPIN (Christmas tree) 
• We worked on the different ways we can write the sound é      le nez (the nose) - le panier(the basket) - manger (to eat) - le bébé (the baby) - le bonnet (the hat)
• We learnt some opposites: chaud - froid  (cold and warm) - maigre-gros  (skinny and fat) - sec-mouille (dry and wet) - propre et sale (clean and dirty) - dehors-dedans (inside and outside)
• In various sentences, the students had to find the adjectives that described things or people. Grammar: The adjective will change according to the gender of the word they describe: le petit garçon - la petite fille.   Les petits garçons - les petites filles 

See you back on Tuesday, February 28th!

Daniel and Liam tricked us by having an unusual way of memorizing a difficult word.....see the picture.

But it worked :-)

Dear Parents and Children,

This week we finished our work on the vocabulary of the clothing:

·        The students completed Unit 9 from the Alex and Zoe activity book and school book.

·        The students created an outfit to dress up a silhouette. They had at our disposal, catalogues with clothing, which they sorted out and chose between pants, dresses, shoes, hats, shorts...They then had to tell the class what their silhouette was wearing. Click on the picture to see the photo gallery.

(download)

Click here to download:

bonjour-madame-la-tour-eiffel-week-of-february-6th-qHbjaIiyacCieghloodw.zip (16.17 MB)

·        We read a French Book “Juliette s’habille toute seule” from our French Library. After the reading we asked the students questions to allow them to answer by building sentences.

La Chandeleur, also known in France under the name “La fete des Chandelles” – “Candles celebration” takes place in France on February 2^nd. We were a bit late to celebrate but remembered the gourmet side in French class and decided to have crepes.

·        The students had to find the ingredients to make the crepes. No it is not an already made dough in which you add water as someone asked.

They easily found the eggs (les oeufs), la farine (the flour), le sucre (the sugar), the butter (le beurre) or l'huile (the oil)

·        Then we spoke about how to mix all these ingredients and the proportions needed. Reading the recipe, the students had to understand it and find the matching pictures. They learned that in France we use grams and not oz or cups, litre and not gallons. They also added words and expressions to their vocabulary like “un saladier” a big bowl, verser – to pour, creuser – to dig, ajouter – to add, laisser reposer – to let rest and une poele = a pan

·        Each student tried to flip a crepe. The pan was quite heavy but by using both hands, they all managed to flip the crepe at least once!

Click on the picture to see the photo gallery.

(download)

Click here to download:

bonjour-madame-la-tour-eiffel-week-of-february-6th-pqIahHczgogFyftcmxJE.zip (704 KB)

Who let his/her crepe fall on the ground ? We won't tell :-) ?

·        After this physical exercice, it was time for the degustation.

• To review the unit, Use Alex and Zoe CD's at home  Chez Loulou - Unite 3   A-B-C-D

Next week will be the last week of French Class for the first semester. Vannina and I hope that your child enjoyed their time with us and we look forward to seeing all of them next semester.

 

Catherine & Vannina