FSL Mania!

I see I will have to up my game

2011-04-16T20:58:00.000-07:00

So, the other day, I decided to wear my giant hamster-shaped mittens for the afternoon just to see if anybody would notice. And? Not a word. Apparently, they are so used to my crazy little antics now that the teacher walking in to the classroom wearing giant fury animals on her hands is just not enough to catch their attention anymore. Finally, halfway into my Grade 2 lesson, I had to take them off because I needed my hands to give out the work to them. And I was like 'doesn't anybody want to ask me about these?' and they were like 'nope, we're good...'

Why I Love Teaching Kindergarten

2011-01-18T20:44:00.000-08:00

I got the sweetest little invitation yesterday. A little JK child came up to me on the playground and said "you know, you could come over to my house if you wanted to, and look at my stuffed animals with me." After a moment's thought, she added "you know, I even have an elephant..."

Ah, I see. If I wasn't convinced before that this was just a splendid thing to do, the elephant was the cherry on top that would totally convince me, right?

A fun idea for those who enjoy props

2010-09-30T12:07:00.001-07:00

Several of my students have been giving my puppet, M. le Bec, their spare Silly Bandz---for those who have not seen this fad, it's plastic elastic band-like bracelets which look like a bracelet while you are wearing it, but take on a shape when you take them off. The kids collect and trade them.

At first it was just a funny joke in my Grade 2 class, but to my surprise it has actually evolved into a real curriculum moment. He has too many to wear now, so he has been keeping them inside his hat. Every day we take five minutes and lay them out, and he gets to choose one to wear for the day. So we go through them all: tu veux le chat? tu veux le chien? etc.

The kids (even the JK kids!) are at the point, after a week, where if I don't say the word right away, they jump in with the correct word themselves. They are learning a ton of vocabulary for things that might not come up in another context. And the collection is ever-changing---my niece is into the Silly Bandz thing too and has volunteered some of her collection for the cause, and kids are still offering them to me because they get a kick out of seeing him in the bracelets.

Three Storybooks for Kindergarten

2010-06-16T07:17:00.000-07:00

I have been doing storybooks this year with my SK classes. I found they were ready for more than colouring books, but not quite ready for a full AIM play so these stories use AIM vocabulary (and we use the gestures and seulement en francais etc.) but are a bit simpler and more repetitive. The kids have really enjoyed them!

The first story is about our principal's dog, so they all know the real dog and find the story very entertaining. I also used the names of teachers in the school. If you want to use this story with your own classes, you can of course change the names of the dog and other characters.

Daisy La Chienne: Story and Cahier

The second story was written with consultation from the children. The girls wanted a story about a princess and the boys wanted one about a dragon, so I included both! They really enjoyed this one---the humour of what the prince brings the dragon, and then the happy ending really appealed to them

Penelope n'aime pas les Princes: Story and Cahier

The third story is based on a doll house that my Grade 2 class made for M. le Bec, my puppet. All the children helped make accessories for the house and the children love playing with it. It has been a very popular prop. The kids wanted a scarier ending, so I changed it to make it seem like the maison really is haunted---if you want it to be!

M. le Bec at la Maison Hantee: Story and Cahier

Enjoy!

Article: Teaching with the iPad

2010-06-16T07:12:00.000-07:00

Article on my first few days teaching with the iPad. I talk about using it for reading with kids, in one on one tutoring, using the iTunes lyrics feature to enhance my music teaching and using game apps as story starters and to review basic skills. Read and enjoy!

More About Music Friday

2010-06-09T06:38:00.001-07:00

I have gotten several emails asking me more about the music I do with my students. I finally had the time to sit down and put together some playlists! I have each class every day and reserve one day for the music. I introduce a new song every 2-3 weeks and then we practice the songs we already know. I also show a short video at the end, usually something off YouTube like Pigloo or a French Disney. They love it! Even the littlest students know how to say 'ordinateur' when they see it coming!

Here are the songs I do with each grade:

JK

Alouette and Alouette Comique (Jacquot)
BINGO (Kidzup)
Bonhomme (Gregg LeRock)
Fais Dodo (from a library CD, not sure by whom)
Je suis un Pizza (Charlotte Diamond)
Je t'aime Beaucoup (Jacquot)
La Belle Pieuvre (Charlotte Diamond)
Mouton Noir (Kidzup)
Napoleon (Jacquot)
Pomme de Reinette (Kidzup)
Qu'il y ait Toujours le Soleil (Charlotte Diamond)
Frere Jacques/Rock and Roll Frere Jacques (Matt Maxwell)
Une Poule sur un Mur (from a library CD, not sure by whom)

SK

Au Bord de la Baie (Jacquot)
Au Clair de la Lune (Kidzup)
Comment ca va (Jacquot)
Embrasse 4 Fois (Charlotte Diamond)
Kumbaya (Matt Maxwell)
Loudi Lou (Jacquot)
Les Clowns (Jacquot)
Meunier tu dors (Kidzup)
Nageons (Jacquot)
Savez Vous Planter Les Choux (Matt Maxwell)
Si tu Aimes la Musique (Jacquot)
Tout le Monde Aimes les Bananes (Charlotte Diamond)
21 Amis (Jacquot)

Grade 1

Sur le Pont D'Avignon (from a library CD, not sure by whom)
Y'a un Chat (Charlotte Diamond)
Les Crocodiles (from a library CD, not sure by whom)
Fille Brune (Jacquot)
Cinq Bebites (Jacquot)
Mon Merle (Jacquot)
Jouez au Hockey (Jacquot)
Il a Tout L'Univers (Jacquot)
Bonhomme, Bonhomme (Kidzup)
Lundi Matin (Kidzup)
Dans Mon Pays D'Espagne (Marie Martine)
Day-O (Matt Maxwell)
Ma Tante a Perdu un Poulet (Matt Maxwell)
O Canana (from a library CD, not sure by whom)

Grade 2

Remainder of Charlotte Diamond and Gregg LeRock. They are not quite as into it by this point. My 2s won't touch anything without a rock and roll feel. I get into (certainly by second term) other stuff like using Powerpoint shows to work on the actual lyrics more and getting them to do some re-writes.

The big favourites this year were 'Tout le Monde Aimes les Bananes' and Gregg's 'Bonhomme.' 'Je Suis une Pizza' and 'La Belle Pieuvre' are perennial winners.

Out of the mouths of babes

2010-03-25T21:11:00.000-07:00

On the playground today...

Student: (makes funny faces at me)
Me: You're so silly!
Student: No. You are!
Me: Me?
Student: Well, you're friends with a stuffed animal...

*gasp* You mean M. le Bec isn't real?????

ADMIN: About Comments

2009-12-09T06:43:00.000-08:00

I welcome comments from anyone reading this blog. Lately, however, I have been getting spammed with comments in Chinese. I ran some through Google Translator, and they appeared to be Viagra ads and such. I am getting approximately two of these per day.

To whomever is sending them, please stop. The blog comments are moderated and I will not approve them. You are wasting your time, and mine.

I know not everyone out there in Internetland speaks English, but with tools like Google Translator, it is easy enough to get your legitimate, non-spam comments across in one of the three languages I do speak. So, new blog policy:

Comments will only be approved if they are not spam and if they are posted in English, French or Spanish.

Any comment posted in a language other than these three will be rejected, unread. If you have something legitimate to say, use the internet and get it translated. Otherwise, don't waste your time as I won't post them :)

LESSON: Les Cartes (JK)

2009-12-04T08:29:00.000-08:00

I have had people ask me how to do a French-only lesson with kids as young as JK. What I have found works best is to do activities that are very action-based where you can say the French and it is obvious what it means based on what's happening. For example, I play a lot of games with cards and my current card set for the JK class is squares of different colours. We did a few lesson-type stuff to learn the colours, and now we are reviewing using the cards. Here was my script for day 1 with the cards:

Me: Oh, regarde! Ja'i une surprise [they already know the word surprise from other things]
[I show the cards, they ooh and ahh]

Me: C'est une carte. C'est une carte orange [show it] C'est une carte. C'est une carte bleue. [show it]. Carte. Tout le monde dit: carte. [they say it]

Me: [show orange card] Carte bleu? [they respond 'non' and some shout 'orange' already. Others will wait for next prompt] Non, pas une carte bleue. C'est une carte orange. [point to orange part] Orange. Orange. [they repeat. Now they understand that orange refers to the colour and carte refers to the card that it's on]

Me: [repeat with a few other colours]

Me: Maintenant, j'ai un jeu [they know the world 'jeu' already] Regarde la carte. C'est une carte rouge? Oui or non? [one child at least will answer, usually more than one] Oui, c'est une carte rouge. [hold up another card] C'est une carte jaune? [again, answers from them]

Me: [hold up a card and say nothing but look at them expectantly. A child or two will inevitably shout out the colour.]

Me: Oh! Bravo! Fantastique [etc.] [Give card to child with large, emphatic motion] Carte pour toi.

Me: [repeat until they get one wrong or do not guess. Place card ina second pile away from the kids.] Oh! Carte pour moi!

Continue until all the cards are gone. Then pick up one of the piles, and start counting them. By 'deux' they will be joining in on the counting. If you win (unlikely; I never play the game with them until they are ready to win it) then say 'je gagne!' with large, exaggerated happiness. If they win, say 'la classe [or tout le monde] gagne' with same. And then make a sad face, point to yourself and say 'je ne gagne pas!'

I have started introducing some variations, a few weeks into the game. When I do not win, I say 'Je ne gagne pas, je pleure' and pretend to cry. They think this is hilarious. I also have my puppet scootch over to sit with them before we start playing. He prefers to be on their team because I never win :) Sometimes, he will waver and go back and forth, pondering who he wants to be with. The children will prompt him with 'avec moi!' or 'avec la classe!' with great excitement. Madame not winning the jeu is the most hilarious thing ever. The other day, I forgot to cry, and they prompted me with 'pleure, maintenant!' All in French, JK or not :)

MISC: French Week '09

2009-11-25T06:17:00.000-08:00

I blogged last year about French Week, an annual event at our school. This year, it's happening early (aka now) and I thought I would share the schedule for this year's events. There are some repeats here: Chef Suzanne is back for more French cooking fun, and we're having another gym day since that was such a hit as well. But I am trying some new things, including (gulp) a craft. I am terrible at crafts, so I really hope our bonhomme comes out nicely tomorrow. So, French Week:

General: Announcements and O Canada in French; posters throughout school
Monday: Chef a L'Ecole visit
Tuesday: French computer games
Wednesday: French gym games
Thursday: Bonhomme craft
Friday: French stories for house games

It was a challenge to build excitement without the carrot of an assembly to look forward to. I thinkt eh kids are getting very into the activities and having a great time!

Teaching in context

2009-10-13T21:07:00.000-07:00

I had a great teachable moment today in the vein of 'rolling with what they give you' and teaching in context. One of my Grade 2 students had a birthday, and offered me one of the extra cupcakes. We've done some food-related talk before (mostly relating to their classroom teacher's prodigious junk food stash and her generous sharing of same) so they were all up on the gateau du chocolat stuff. But here was the kicker---the mound of creamy white frosting was topped by a gummy bear.

What luck! One of my two main puppets is a bear (M. le Ours) and I knew I could make a fun story out of this. So I immediately picked the gummy bear off the top of the cupcake and ate it. Then I made a big show out of telling the kids oh no, what will M. le Ours think about this! We'd better not tell him that JOANNA MANGE UN OURS!

So, of course, as soon as he poked his widdle chapeau out from inside my bag, the children all started shouting at him:

'Joanna mange un ours! Joanna mange un ours!'

And, off his look of abject horror:

'Je mange un ours aussi! Tout le monde mange les ours!'

And then, the hastily proferred reassurances:

'C'est un bonbon ours'
'C'est un ours du gateau'
'C'est un ours pour manger'

And my favourite, when M. le Ours reminded them that HE is an ours (and he has a chapeau):

'Oh! Je ne mange pas les ours avec chapeaux!'

Thus assured of his safety, M. le Ours spent the rest of the lesson eyeing the remainder of my cupcake and sulking when I didn't give him some. Finally, we decided he was acting like a bébé about it and made him go back in sac.

The children though this whole thing was hilarious. I am sure I will be hearing about bonbon ours for the rest of the week.

Planning for Pre-K

2009-10-08T06:07:00.000-07:00

We have a Pre-K class this year, and I have been finding it a challenge to plan for them. They are 2.5-3 years old, and I see them twice a week (on consecutive days) for 15 minutes. 15 minutes is hardly any time! What to do?

I finally have hit upon a method that is working for me. I'm doing a three-part lesson: review, content-based activity and short, active game. I've planned one good lesson a month, and I'll do the same lesson for every class for the duration.

Here are my September and October lessons:

SEPTEMBER

Review: once I introduced bonjour and au revoir, this was my 'review' component. but I spent most of the first three weeks teaching them my name.

Content-based activity: I introduced the 'balle' to them, along with the words for throw and roll. They all got to say the words and practice doing the actions in a game.

Short, active game: Simon Says, but without the tricking them. They just had to copy me and touch the body part I touched.

OCTOBER

Review: Bonjour, au revoir. I also introduced 'sac' and demonstrated taking out and putting back my puppets.

Content-based activity: I introduced a few ner words with the balle, including 'boite' to throw it into. Sometimes, the puppet would refuse to throw it into the boite (introducing 'non') and sometimes he would throw it somewhere else instead (for example on somebody's tete!)

Short, active game: Simon Says, evolving into the head, shoulders, knees and toes song.

Did you know...

2009-09-21T19:40:00.000-07:00

JK child comes up to me on the playground today: "Hey, did you know that Bonjour means hello in French?"

Noooooo, I didn't know. Thanks for explaining :)

ARTICLE: The Sony Reader, a Teacher's Pet

2009-09-16T20:13:00.000-07:00

I have written an article for Teleread about using my Sony Reader to store unit plans. I love how detailed the teaching guides for my curriculum program are, but they are so big and bulky. It's hard for teachers without a dedicated classroom to have them handy at all times, and it's a little obtrusive to have it out in front of the students. I also found that a lot of the information, while useful to have available during my planning, was not necessarily something I needed in the moment, in the classroom. So I was able to condense the unit guide substantially for the cheat sheets I was taking into class with me for stuff like the kinesthetic review word lists.

I finally had the brainstorm to type these up and put them on my Sony Reader. Now, I don't need to worry about photocopying multiple copies for my two Grade 1 classes so I can keep track of who is where---the Reader picks up each guide just where I left off. The Reader is small so it's easier and less obtrusive to have in class with me. And the children are so used to seeing me with gadgets (I use a lot of tech when I teach) that they don't even notice. Best of all, I can have all my planning stuff with me both at home and at school.

Check out the article!

First week back!

2009-09-01T17:29:00.000-07:00

I have been plotting my first-week-back shenanigans with the puppets. M. Le Bec will surely have some news about his vacation to share with the children when classes resume. This will be a good time to teach my returning students some new words. I am thinking I will have M. Le Bec be very sad, and when we ask him why he is triste, he will answer that he misses the plage. But wait a minute, M. Le Bec, you were not AT the plage! You were at camp, with me! I'll have some other places He Has Not Been that he will try and say he has, and the children will learn some new vocabulary. Finally, I'll tell my errant little oiseau that if he can't behave himself, he won't be able to stay. I'm sure he'll straighten up and fly right at that!

RESOURCE: 100+ Links to Use with Kids

2009-06-14T15:56:00.000-07:00

I love using the internet and computers with my students, and earlier this tear, blogged about some websites I created to use with my classes. I had long been desiring a more on-the-go and dynamic way to keep these valuable links up to date and to add to them on the fly, and the news that Geocities will soon be closing has prompted me to migrate the links over to my profile at Delicious. I can add to these links using any web browser (rather than waiting until I at home with a webpage editor), and I can easily remove broken links. I can also filter which links the students see by sending them directly to the link for a tagged set. For example:

When I let my students use resources like this, we have a standard rule that they are only allowed to click on links that I provide for them. So if a link sends them to YouTube, they can watch that clip, and that clip only. If they click on anything else, they lose computer privileges. If you plan to use these links with your students, I encourage you to surf safely and to teach THEM how to do so with a rule like this one. Our school IT person had a fit when I told him I wanted to send students to YouTube, but once I showed him that these were quality links and that the students were being taught to surf them safely (which is an important computer skill to teach them!) he unblocked YouTube for me and let me use it with the kids, who greatly enjoyed the experience and never even thought about clicking away from the safe links I provided them.

How could you teach with these? The possibilities are endless! My students particularly enjoyed the various types of music videos. A favourite activity of mine was to let them pick their favourite and have them keep a list while they watched of every word they know which they heard during the video. You could have each student keep their own list and then have a contest to see who can get the most words!

Feel free to post to the comments if you have other ideas for using these links!

UNIT PLAN: Daisy La Chienne

2009-06-12T06:27:00.000-07:00

I wrote this story as a year-ender for my SK classes. They had been doing colouring book-based work for most of the year and acquired a good working vocabulary. I am trying to get them ready to start proper plays next year. The story involves Daisy, our principal's dog (you could of course edit the file to use the names of dogs your students might know) coming to school to look for her friend. I made a little cahier of activities as well. They had a little trouble with the word search, but enjoyed everything else. Don't under-estimate SK kids---they can handle real work:

INFO: Music Friday 101

2009-06-04T21:16:00.000-07:00

I do music with my Jk and up classes every Friday and thought I would post some info on how that works. Later, I will do a follow-up post where I list the songs I covered this year and how each of them went over.

The cds I used were mostly Kidzup, Jacquot, Charotte Diamond and Kidzup with a smattering of Matt for the older classes. If I were teaching more older students, I would use Matt more, but the vast majority of my students are JK/SK and, next year there will be a pre-K class too.

Anyway...

1) If I never hear 'La Belle Pieuvre' again, it will be too soon It's a great song, don't get me wrong. The kids LOOOOOVE it. They love it a little too much. I had classified this as a junior song, but the senior kids would not give it up and asked for it every week. So on music days, I was doing it with SEVEN classes. Every. Single. Week. Perhaps after a summer off, I will be ready to try again

2) Songs with repetition are great. Je Suis Une Pizza is a perennial hit, and there is a song I found at the library called 'Dans Mon Pays D'Espagne' by Marie Martine that my senior kids enjoyed. Other good ones for repetition are B-I-N-G-O (Kidzup), Kumbaya (Matt), Jouez au Hockey and Nageons (Jacquot) and Y'a Un Chat (Charlotte Diamond).

3) I found a great Kidzup cd on Amazon.com that has many little kid songs they already know in English. With a few exceptions, these were the only songs I did with the JK kids. I started with Mouton Noir (Baa Baa Black Sheep) and it's a fairly long song with many verses. By Christmas, they knew ALL the words and could do it perfectly. Don't under-estimate the little ones! It'll take a few tries, but they'll learn it.

4) They love the powerpoints. I was teaching three computer classes a week in addition to the French and had little time to make new ones. That is one of my regrets about this year; I know when I did have them, it made such a difference. What I do is rip the cds onto my mini-laptop and then I can run the whole class, Powerpoints and all, off the one machine like a glorified jukebox.

5) As far as structuring the classes goes, I typically will spend the first ten minutes introducing a new song. I will always play it once through with no Powerpoints, no explanations, just straight up, and have them listen for words they know. Then we'll go back with a Powerpoint or whatever props, and go over the words, have them repeat etc. We'll practice once or twice. Then it will be request time, and they can request previous songs we have done.

6) The last five minutes, I reserve for a video. This will typically be a short Disney clip in French, usually the part from the movie with a song. I like using stuff they know in English so I don't have to deal with comprehension issues. The goal of this portion of the lesson is not for them to sing along, but rather for them to be exposed to French media and for them to begin to listen for words they know and to develop the comprehension that they DO know a lot of words and are great little French speakers! Second term, I mixed it up a little and brought in YouTube finds which did not originate in English. Bebe Lilly and Pigoo were runaway hits!

7) With my older students who know songs already from JK/SK, they asked for the music Fridays right away. With my younger kids, I began by just teaching a few songs here and there (not on a Friday) so they had one or two to work on, then introduced the formal 'music Friday' in late October (C'est L'Halloween is a good first song to introduce this type of program). This way, they had a repertoire already of a few little songs we could practice.

8) I use my music manager software to help me run things. I have all the songs loaded onto my mini-laptop, and what I did was assign each one a genre of either 'junior' or 'senior.' Then I rate the songs---unrated songs have not yet been taught, 1 star is a junior song which has been taught, 2 stars is a senior song which has been taught and 3 stars is one the whole school enjoys. I have smart playlists set up which automatically add songs to the list based on these stars. For example, my 'junior untaught' playlists has all songs with the genre 'junior.' My junior teaching playlist has all songs which are either 1 or 3 stars (i.e. the taught junior songs and the taught whole school songs). When I am prepping for the class I go through the two untaught playlists, pick the song I want and click on the appropriate star to add it to my teaching playlist.

Put in my place by the Four-Year-Olds

2009-05-22T03:50:00.000-07:00

We were talking about food, because that's the JK book right now. As usual, I had come to class with an example. "I am going to a fete," I told them. "And I need to bring something to mange. What should I bring?"

We went through their whole little book in search of suggestions. I got to the cookie page. "Ph, biscuits! Maybe I should buy some biscuits and take them!"

"Noooooo," say the kids. "You don't BUY biscuits! You MAKE them! At your maison!"

"I am not a very good chef," I tell them. "Maybe I need to bring all of you to my maison to come and help me."

The children share a look between them. Then:

"Oh, come on. It's not THAT hard!"

Put in my place by the four-year-olds. The life of a kindergarten teacher...

Writing with the senior kids

2009-04-29T13:20:00.000-07:00

Today's writing topic was 'dans mon sac, il y a...'

One of the kids calls me over to tell me that she has lots of things in her sac. Great, I say. You'll have lots to write about.

Withering glare. And then:

"Well! If I had known we were going to have to write about it, I would have brought a different sac!"

Teaching JK kids the word for present

2009-04-14T20:30:00.000-07:00

I was trying to teach my JK kids the word for present, and I used a little example of me needing to buy one and not being sure what to buy. After eleventy-million repetitions of the word cadeaux, we got to the good stuff: suggestions. Every boy suggested a different transformer toy. Every girl suggested Something Princess: princess sunglasses, princess shoes, princess dress, princess wand etc.

So I stopped them for a second and asked them what I should do if the recipient did not like princesses.

Dead silence.

Then one little girl puts up her hand and says 'Um, you could try mermaids?'

Cause that's totally different, right?

MISC: Schedule for French Week

2009-03-05T04:12:00.001-08:00

It was French Week at our school last week, and all eyes were on me as I prepared a full week of special events and activities for my students. Here's what we did:

Monday: Made decorations for Thursday's assembly. I had animal drawings for the students to colour in (all of the songs for the assembly were about animals) and some of the classes needed costumes for their performance.

Tuesday: Chef Suzanne from Chef a L'Ecole came to school! She did a workshop with all of my students from SK and up, and it was a huge success. Several teachers said it was the best French Week program we have ever had, and most of the children were so into it that they did not even notice until after the fact that Chef Suzanne did not use any English when speaking with them!

Wednesday: Gym Day en francais. I played a variety of games with the children in the gym. The older students were away on a field trip the previous time I had done this; it was a new experience for them, and they had an amazing time.

Thursday: French assembly! Every class performed a song or skit. The high points were my Grade 2 class performing an adapted version of this song complete with penguin costumes and a dance, and my Grade 3/4 students performing Monty Python's Dead Parrot Sketch in French, complete with a stuffed parrot to poke and throw :)

Friday: It was 'free dress day and pizza lunch' day, as it always is following an assembly. We relaxed with an entertaining video exploring Montreal.

RESOURCE: Bats ta Pate Powerpoint

2009-02-18T05:22:00.000-08:00

I have made a powerpoint for the song 'Bates ta Pate' By Charlotte Diamond. Enjoy!

Lesson Plan: Gym en Francais

2009-01-26T08:42:00.000-08:00

The senior kids (plus both gym teachers) are all away on a field trip today, and the kindergarten teachers were fretting about their kids missing gym. I thought this might be a fun chance for me to do something different with my little ones, and reinforce/expand some of the more action-oriented gesture vocabulary. After all, the kids were already in gym clothes and everything, and it is not often that this big, open space is free for me :) So here is what we did:

1) Warm-up. This is a game we do in class, where I call out certain commands (leve toi, assieds-toi, tourne, saute, touche les pieds etc) and they comply. In class, I sometimes let the children lead it, but I did it myself for this to save time

2) Game 1. I wanted to introduce balle, lance and attrape. So I threw the ball and had them all 'court' after it. First child to reach it would throw it again. This was basically just an excuse to run around the gym, but I had to keep up with them to mediate any disputes about who got the 'balle' first.

3) Game 2. Introduces 'roule.' I had them sitting on the line and it was like a relay, you couldn't go until the person before you came back. They had to scootch along the floor rolling the ball to the other line, then back to the starting line. If they wanted to cheer on their friends, I suggested 'vite!'

4) Game 3. Introduces 'donne un coup de pied' for kick. Same game, but they have to kick the ball to the line instead of rolling it. If you have some over-enthusiastic kickers, as I did, you may want to try the gentler 'roule avec les pieds' instead of actual kicking.

5) Game 4. Rest from the running, and review for lance/attrape vocabulary. They stand in a line and throw the ball down the line, making sure it does not land on the 'plancher'. If they get all the way up the 'ligne' without dropping it, they get a point.

5) Game 5. A combo relay game. They went to the ligne rouge in the middle, jumped over it, ran to the ligne noir at the wall, bounced the ball three times, then ran back and gave the balle to the next person.

6) Cool down. We did a few simple stretches. I managed to get in quite a variety just with basic instructions like 'met les main comme ca' or 'les pieds comme ca' or 'les mains en haut.'

What fun! I have two more K classes this afternoon. We'll see how it goes! I keep a t-shirt here for the occasional lunchtime video and I am thinking of changing into the workout stuff. I got some real exercise here!

And the kids did amazing. We actually had the whole class in 100% French and they used the new vocabulary quite easily. I'll have to see if I can get the gym more often.
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WEBSITE: French Teaching Resources, Part 2

2009-01-26T06:03:00.000-08:00

I blogged previously about a website I set up to use with my students while teaching. For Term 2, I have created a sequel. Enjoy!

At last, the light dawns...

2009-01-10T10:44:00.000-08:00

From one of my SK children after yesterday's class:

Child: Joanna, I figured something out today

Me: Oui?

Child: When you go like this with your hands [mimes counting out with fingers] and you're talking, you say the same words every time you do that. It's almost like you are saying numbers. Like counting!

Me: Oui!

Child: So un is one, and deux is two, and trois is three...

At last, the light dawns :) In AIM methodology, you aren't supposed to explain things to them in English---you're supposed to let them figure it out based on the context. So, even if it takes them awhile, you're supposed to let it take awhile :) This child may have taken four months to realize what was going on with this particular context, but she won't forget the numbers now!

UNIT PLAN: Marie au Marche

2008-12-02T05:17:00.000-08:00

Here is a play I've been using with my Grade 2 class this term. I wanted to have the option of a song (although we have not used it much as it turns out) so I based this play on Jacquot's version of "Ma Mere M'Envoie t'au Marche." There is a workbook to accompany it...

I wrote the play specifically to review some vocabulary they already know from their first two AIM units. In retrospect, it was maybe a tiny bit too hard for Grade 2 kids (although they have enjoyed it and responded positively), but I bet older kids would love this one!

UPDATE: Isn't it nice when they 'get' it?

2008-11-06T08:51:00.001-08:00

OVERHEARD IN GRADE 1 FRENCH TODAY

(we are playing the song which accompanies the play we're reading)

Child A: Hey! If you listen to the song? It's like the *song* is about the same thing as the *story* is!

(we are colouring puppets of the characters in the play)

Child B: You know, these puppets are about farm animals, and the story is about farm animals.

Me: Oui

Child B: So we could, like, *use* the puppets to, you know, act out the story! Like a play!

At last, the light dawns :)

Conversations with a JK child

2008-09-13T17:04:00.000-07:00

I taught SK-5 last year and this year am additionally teaching JK. It's a little different. You can definitely see difference even with them being only a year younger than the SK kids, and they say some really random things (for example, my ball broke and one of them said 'oh, it's too bad I am not a fairy princess, if I was, I would fix it for you.') I have done a lot of action-based games with them (Simon says has been a big hit because they can understand all the French just by copying my actions). The big push the first week though was 'je m'appelle...' primarily because I wanted them to learn *my* name! So, on Friday, I had this conversation after school with a JK child:

Me: So I would say 'Je m'appelle Joanna, right?
Child: Oh, yes. Um hm.
Me: But that's not what YOU would say, is it?
Child: Oh, no. No, no, no
Me: How come?
Child: Because my name's not Joanna
Me: It's Sara
Child: Right
Me: So what would you say instead of 'Je m'appelle Joanna'?
Child: Je m'appelle Sara
Me: And other people, they could do it too, couldn't they? With their names?
Child: Oh, yes
Me: So, you've got a mommy, haven't you?
Child: Uh huh
Me: And what's her name?
Child: Hana
Me: So, she would not say 'Je m'appelle Joanna, would she?
Child: Oh, no
Me: And she would not say 'Je m'appelle Sara' either, would she?
Child: No. No, no, no
Me: Well, what would she say?
Child: Je m'appelle Mommy!

Oh! So close!

WEBSITE: French Teaching Activities

2008-09-02T11:24:00.000-07:00

I created this website as part of an assignment for the additional qualification course Computers in the Classroom. I intend to use it with my 3/4/5 split class this year---I want some one-on-one time with the older half/younger half, so I thought I could give them lab time once a week where I work with one half and the other half can do self-directed learning with the computers. They have a choice of the following items:

Read something
Watch a music video
Watch a movie
Listen to a Podcast
Play a game

Under each category, there are pre-selected links for them. I do use YouTube as a teaching tool, so be aware that if you plan to use something like this with your class, you'll need to have a conversation with them first about 'safe surfing' i.e. you click on the links your teacher gives you, and nothing more. My students know from last year that I consider activities like this to be special, and we don't *have to* do them. If I get any hassles, I turn it off and that's the end. So I am not anticipating any funny business! And I also will be teaching computers as well as French this year, so we will have plenty of time to talk about how to behave on-line.

Enjoy!

RESOURCE: Pocket Chart on the Cheap

2008-08-27T19:36:00.000-07:00

I love playing games with vocabulary cards, and have long been coveting one of these pocket charts. Pocket charts are hanging charts with clear pockets on them in which you can place cards as you work with them. They are fabulous things, great fun, but at almost $40 beyond what I cared to spend. Then I found one of these at a hardware store. It's a hanging jewelry organizer---basically, a big square with lots of clear plastic pockets on them. For about a third the price :) Yes, it's a little smaller than the 'official' pocket chart, but as I am a classroom-less French teacher who must carry everything around with me anyway, I am okay with something I can roll up and stuff in my tote. And it's two-sided, so I can keep cards for two different classes in it at the same time. It will make my card games so much fun! So, now that I have my pocket chart on the cheap, what do I plan to do with them? Here are some games you can play with vocabulary-based word cards.

1) Copy some key vocabulary words onto cards and place in pockets in random order
2) Begin lesson by pointing to cards in order and reading each word with class
3) Then choose one of the activities below. Every time you point to a word, students must...

Find it in their story as quickly as possible
Use it in a sentence
Say the English translation
Say the word's opposite
Say another in the same category (e.g. if a colour, then another colour, etc.)

Some other games you can play with the cards:

Students must sort the words into categories of their own choosing
Make a Bingo card, play game of Bingo placing the words up on the chart as they are called
Place words to make a sentence on the chart. Students must put the words in order
Make picture cards. Students must say the word for the picture
Make sentence cards. Cover up one word at a time and students must fill it in

INFO: Good Ol' M. Le Bec

2008-08-08T11:01:00.000-07:00

At long last, the famous M. Le Bec has deigned to be photographed :) I have spoken before about my puppet, and how I use him with the children. Here is a little more detail.

The main purpose of M. Le Bec is to encourage oral communication from the children. He can be used to reinforce concepts which are being taught. For example, during our unit on food, it came out that M. Le Bec really likes les bananes, because they are jaune, and he has a bec jaune. So every time I would take out the plastic banana, I would make a big show of starting to say something about it, only to have M. Le Bec interrupt me excitedly and start whispering in my ear. I would roll my eyes, feign impatience and report to the children that M. Le Bec says he really likes the bananas. By the third or fourth day, they were able to complete my sentence: "parce que les bananes sont jaunes, et M. Le Bec a un bec jaune!" His daily interruption became an event they would wait for, and they would happily play their part in this little script. They all know the words for bec and banane and jaune very well!

He can also be used to illustrate more concrete concepts. For example, during my Sk circus unit, I had him do a little act on the funambule (tightrope). The children would watch with breathless anticipation to see whether he would make it all the way across before falling. After several VERY close calls, he would inevitably fall (children: "OOOOh! Il tombe! Il tombe!") Finally, on the very last day of the unit, he made it across---to the loud and enthusiastic delight of all the kiddies.

I have also found that M. Le Bec is helpful with the discipline. He doesn't always behave himself perfectly, for example. He lets other people distract him when he is on the carpet, and does not always choose a sensible place to sit. This provides me with openings to discuss such matters with the children, without actually discussing it with them. No child need feel ashamed or rebuked because it is not about them, after all :) And more importantly, M. Le Bec often gets the answer wrong, and responds very nicely to the gentle correction of the children. A wrong answer is not a crisis in my class, and I really believe that the model of M. Le Bec encourages them to try just the same.

I love teaching with my little buddy :) I know the children do too. One of the highlights of the year or me was the parent who came up to me and told me that her child came home one night and asked "Mommy, do you think Joanna knows that M. Le Bec isn't real?" Awww. That's what happens when the writer grows up to be a teacher. Joanna knows, sweetie. She just likes the whole story of him, you know?

LESSON PLAN: Y'a Un Chat

2008-07-30T05:57:00.001-07:00

For my summer AQ course 'Computers in the Classroom' I had to prepare a curriculum-based lesson plan. I chose to do an extension lesson on a popular song I teach to my older classes: Y'a un Chat' by Charlotte Diamond. The kids enjoy this song a lot and I have a Powerpoint that accompanies it, showing the lyrics, karaoke-style, as the song plays.

For my extension lesson, I used one of the pre-fab 'color me' backgrounds in Kid Pix: a cat. The lesson walks the students through labeling the parts of the cat and colouring it in. The lesson reviews body part words (as well as teaching some new ones) and is a great opportunity to review colours ("de quelle couleur sont les oreilles de ton chat?") and numbers ("le chat a combien des dents?") As far as computer skills go, it will review and/or teach students to use the text tool and paint bucket tool in Kid Pix.

Download the lesson and try it out!

GAME: Vrai ou Faux?

2008-06-16T09:52:00.000-07:00

I often have down-time with my classes where we have already packed up, but their classroom teachers are late coming to get them. Here is a fun game I play with them. Basically, they understand a lot more French than what they can produce on their own, so I am always trying to get them to use complete sentences when they answer me. So I started a 'Vrai ou Faux' game with them where I give them a sentence, and they have to do a thumbs up if it is vrai and a thumbs down if it is faux. For example:

[name] porte une jupe
[name] mange une pizza maintenant
[name] a un chien
[name] a deux soeurs

etc.

We played it for a good week or so before I had the brainstorm to ask if anyone wanted to 'be the leader.' Magic! Somehow, if I ask 'does anyone want to make a sentence' it would be nooooo, too scary. But does anyone want to be the leader, they all want that, and they ALL (even my more shy students) capably gave me FULL sentences they thought up themselves. Some examples :

Pas de la glace ici
Joanna porte un bijou
C'est mon fete aujourd'hui
J'aime la pizza
M. Le Bec est acrobate
Logan n'est pas elephant
John porte les pantalons

These came from my SK kids. Five year olds! I am so proud of them. I am amazed that I can speak to them only in French in proper sentences, and they understand everything. And now they are starting to get confidence saying sentences on their own instead of just one word answers. Go kids!

UNIT PLAN: Le Cirque

2008-06-05T11:30:00.000-07:00

I use a lot of booklets from Enchanted Learning with my SK classes. They are little thematic collections with great pictures for the kids to colour in. I find that my SK kids really need independent seatwork time; they can't sit on the carpet for thirty minutes straight. Colouring is great for kids this age because they can do it independently, and it's not so complex that it throws them if I come around and chat with them while they work (which is really where the important learning happens!) To get an idea of how I use these books, here's what I did for Le Cirque, our last unit of the year, which we completed today.

Intro Lesson: With my puppet, M. Le Bec, I told them we would be learning about the cirque. They already knew many of the animal words (le tigre, le lion etc.) from our animal unit, but the people (acrobate and funambule) were new to them, so I had M. Le Bec demonstrate using a metre stick as his platform. He proved a fairly capable acrobate (the kids all ooh'd and aah'd as he balanced on his bec and his ailes in various dramatic poses) but not so good a funambule. I used his many mishaps to reinforce 'il tombe!' which they had learned earlier in the year.

Secondly, I went through the book with them page by page, giving them a second to look at the picture and jump in if they knew the word, then saying it for them clearly and prompting them to repeat. When the book was done, I gave them the first page (the cover page) to colour.

Subsequent Lessons: Our carpet time always begins with some general comment ca va, le jour, le mois for 2-3 minutes. Then I spend a few minutes doing some sort of mini-lesson with them. For Le Cirque, this was generally M. Le Bec practicing his little circus acts while the kids all watched and chimed in with 'funambule!' or 'il tombe' or various other related phrases. I had predetermined that M. Le Bec would not be successful at the funambule until the very last lesson!

I generally give them the books one page at a time (or else you have impatient ones who scribble on all of them and then have nothing to do for the rest of the week!) so for every class, I would copy one more page for them. Before sending them to their tables with it, I take a minute and go through my model book again, showing them each page and letting them say the word. After 3-4 days, they can generally do this unprompted; I flip the page, they say the word, and we go through it in less than a minute. Sometimes, if we've gotten through the rest too quickly and have some extra time, I'll stop and ask questions about certain pictures, for example "le tigre, il est grand ou petit?" or "de quelle couleur est le lion?"

When we hit the 15-minute mark (or thereabouts) I'll send them to their tables with the page of the day. While they are colouring, I'll go around and chat with them about what they are working on. It's a great chance to review classroom words with them ("est-ce que tu colorie avec un marqueur or avec un crayon?") and to reinforce the unit vocabulary in a fun way ("oh! M. Le Bec fait l'acrobate sur ton oreille!") The children are also allowed to talk to each other, but my rule is that they must use the French words they know. I allow the occasional English word with kids this young, but I do remind them if I hear them say in English a word they know in French (or if I hear whole conversations in English!) They can also get extra tickets (which can be traded for prizes when they have enough of them) for things like saying a whole sentence by themselves, or using a word in an appropriate context and not just for the sake of using it. They are highly motivated to get the tickets, so it encourages them to try and push themselves, using as much French as they can.

Sometimes, the colouring goes quickly and if many seem finished, I'll stop a few minutes early and we'll play a game. The two favourites right now are Beep (which reviews numbers) and Vrai ou Faux (which reviews a lot of things!) I'll post more about these another time.

Last Few Classes: They generally take at least two classes to assemble the books. The pages tend to get a little tattered as they collect them, so I'll give them some class time to glue each onto construction paper. When they have all their pages glued, I staple it together and they can take them home.

I did a special activity for the end of the circus unit, because it was our last book of the year. I staged a circus for them in class. Some of the kids brought costumes; I let them get themselves organized with those, then got them on the carpet and brought our M. Le Bec, who has been practicing his funambule. Hourra, he finally got it. They all cheered from excitement. Then I had various stations set up around the room:

Jongleur: They had to juggle a ball between their two hands
Funambule: Tightrope walk across two metre sticks
Clowns: Some little bristol block men they could link together
Acrobate: Hula hoops

They went in groups of four to each station in rotation and played each game. Then I gave them some Barbe a Papa (cotton candy) as a special treat.

It was amazing. I combined two of my classes for the afternoon, and both of them wound up staying to watch the fun. I took pictures for their class scrapbooks. My one regret was forgetting to bring music. And, I wish we had more time, but that it always a concern for most teachers. I talked it up for a few days before it happened, so the kids were all quite excited, but they behaved beautifully and took turns with all the equipment. The principal came in to visit and was impressed that they knew the French words for everything!

Le Cirque was an excellent unit and went exactly as I planned it to. It was a wonderful way to end my SK year.

Welcome!

2008-05-30T08:47:00.001-07:00

I created this blog to have a central spot for collecting, sharing and creating resources I use in my FSL (French as a Second Language) classroom. I've found a ton of websites out there for other kinds of teachers; not as many for those teaching French. I've done websites before, but a blog is a little easier to add to on the fly, and there are some cool ways to search it now that tags are pretty much a standard feature. So I hope other French teachers out there find this helpful. I welcome comments and feedback, as well as pointers to cool things I haven't yet found.

As to my teaching philosophy, I believe that as a primary/junior teacher, my job is not to much to drill sergeant the kids into a perfection they won't achieve at this young age, but to keep French fun and get them interested. I use a lot of different techniques such as drama and gesture (I am trained in the A.I.M. method), music, multimedia and games. For the younger students, I have a puppet called M. Le Bec who is our class mascot. I'll post more about him in a separate post!

Anyway, the best way to keep up with new additions to this blog is to add it to a blogreader or subscribe to an RSS feed. I'll try and post at least once a week, even in the summer. Let's all share our best resources and get ourselves ready for next year!

(by the way, I am still looking for a permanent contract; if you are in the Toronto area and like what you see on this blog, feel free to drop me an email!)