The seasons

Year 1 have done different activities around the seasons in French.

We learnt the names of the seasons by acting and singing Les saisons from the CD "J'aime chanter" 
We read some beautiful lift-flap stories where the children had to guess what was the surprise under the tabs.            

                                                 

 Les saisons avec Emilie

                                                     Mimi et les saisons

 

Our French buddy Toto also wanted to teach us the seasons, so he put on different clothes according to a season and asked us Quelle est la saison? It was a lot of fun guessing the seasons with him!                     

Seasons worksheets (La trousse de Sobelle)

Seasons poems

Les quatre saisons par Vivaldi

Months and birthdays

We have been learning the months in French in Year 2.

We sang Les mois song from the "Français, français" CD and learnt the names of the months with actions. Then, we classified them into the seasons they belong to and did a worksheet.

We wanted to know when Toto's birthday is, so we had to ask him in French!

We also did a survey around the class to know everyone's birthday.

Birthdays and months last year

Epiphany - La fête des rois

Et voilà! Les festivités sont passées. Et les vacances sont terminées...
C'est le temps de la reprise et de la galette!

We have started the year learning about the French celebration of Epiphany. KS1 learnt a song, read some stories about La Galette des rois and found the surprise in this game.

From all the stories, our favourite was the one of Trotro. At the beginning of the book there are two pages dedicated to the ingredients of the cake and at the end the whole recipe in French. Also, the story tells the children how the queen or king is chosen and who decides to whom give each slide of the cake! 

Year 3 watched "Petit Ours Brun et la galette des rois". They learnt some vocabulary around the tradition and created some beautiful crowns.

Year 5 did some dictionary work and learnt a comptine.

Y5 epiphanie from NoeliaRG

Year 6 designed and described their own crowns. They learnt the names of some shapes to put in their crowns and used their knowledge of adjectival agreement to write their descriptions.

We hope that you have learnt how the tradition is celebrated! Here there are some activities for you to try:

Le Noël de Trotro

Year 2 love reading the stories of the donky Trotro.

Yesterday, we read "Joyeux Noël, Trotro". As in the other books of Trotro, the language is very simple, the illustrations are fantastic and the story is very cute.

 After reading the story, the children did a worksheet from Le livre-jeux de Trotro. 

On top of all that, we watched "Trotro et le sapin de Noël" and had some giggles, this episode is so much fun!

Other episodes that you could watch in Christmas / winter time are: 

Trotro aime la neige

Trotro et le bonhomme de neige

Sapins de Noël

Every year we have a Christmas concert at Sudbury. We sing beautiful songs in English and in French.
This year we have chosen two songs about Christmas trees, les sapins de Noël.
Years 4, 5 and 6 will sing "Si tous les sapins" by Versini.

                      

Si tous les sapins de NoeliaRG

We learnt about la liaison in French and practice reading the examples of liaison in the song.

We also put the lyrics in order and played charades to act out and guess the sentences from the song.

Years 1, 2 and 3 will sing "Voici un petit sapin". They have learnt the song with actions too and they will hold a foam Christmas tree decorated by themselves while they sing the song.  

                                  

 

Christmas songs from last year

Christmas songs by Versini

Christmas lights in Paris

Christmas lights in Paris different locations and market

Animals and Onomatopeics

Year 1 have been learning about animals last term.

They learnt their names through flashcard games and actions, then, they learnt the noise each animal make. It was so fun to see that onomatopeics are different in each language!

The children also listened to the story Ours brun, dis-moi and joined in with actions and repetition.

Finally, they created their own fabulous mini-books with the names of the animals and the colours.

Easter activities

KS1 have been learning about Easter in France. We looked at what is celebrated in a similar way and what is different in the French tradition: the church bells fly to Rome on Good Friday and fly back on Easter Sunday to scatter Easter eggs to the children. 

We also learnt an Easter finger rhyme. Click on the white spot to listen to the Year 2 children saying the poem.

Finally we read a story of our favourite French character, Trotro and his friend Nana, going on an egg hunt. 

Mimi La Souris

Mimi La Souris is the French version of Maisy The Mouse and we use her stories to learn about

simple vocabulary in Year 1: days, seasons, numbers. The children love reading the lift-flap books and holding the doudou!
 

In the website minimat.net you will find amazing resources featuring Mimi: calendars, worksheets, school routine labels, comptines, etc.

You can also watch the videos of the cartoon in class. They are colourful, child-friendly and the language is simple.

Activities 

Comptines

Vie de la classe

Les émotions de Mimi 

Mimi la Souris et le panda (episode)

Mimi aime les animaux (episode)

Mimi la Souris et le train (episode)

Quelle est la date de ton anniversaire?

Year 2 have been learning the names of the months and how to write the date in French.

We love singing  "Quelle est la date de ton anniversaire?"  ; The children shout Oui! when we mention the month of their birthday and the class wish them Joyeux anniversaire!

We also read a story of our favourite French character, Trotro. He has a massive birthday cake and an amazing present!

Finally, we have written and illustrated these minions posters created by my friend Sylvie Bartlett Rawlings.



Months games 1

Months games 2

Games: write the date in French

Listening activity

Our French buddy, Toto

Mrs. Rivas was invited to talk about Toto, our French puppet at the last conference of the Asociation for Language Learning ALL.

Using puppets in MFL from NoeliaRG

The puppet represents the stereotype of a French person, so we talk about stereotypes in class and we know that obviously not everybody in France wear striped t-shirts, berets and have a moustache. But having him in class is lovely and speaking in the target language is less daunting when the children talk to Toto!

Toto is also opening the pupils's eyes to French culture. Whenever he travels to France with Mrs. Rivas he shows the landmarks and specialities of the region in a video. Sometimes, we have a post-holiday show-and-tell with artifacts and food!

We love the whole Toto theme in our lessons, so we even have flashcards with Toto, stickers and certificates.

Resources featuring Toto from NoeliaRG

Toto voyage à Lille

Les repas de Toto

Toto voyage à Paris

La journée de Toto

Toto en Provence

Certificate A4

Certificate A5

Toto voyage à Lille

Our French buddy has been to Lille this half term. He has loved the town center, the vibrant streets, book shops and museums. Toto has also tasted some of the specialities of the region! like les gaufres fourrés (stuffed wafles), la carbonade (beef stew), le maroilles (cheese from the region) et le flemiche aux maroilles. Miam, miam!

Lille is the largest city in the North of France. It is Charles de Gaulle`s birthplace and it is very near the border with Belgium.

Would you like to see how Lille looks like?

La rentrée

We had a restful Summer and we are now ready for the new school year!

In Year 2 we have been working on class routines and we have learnt the song "Mains en l'air". We love singing it when we finish our tasks and start tidying up.

We have also read two French stories about la rentrée, one with l'âne Trotro and the other one with Loupi le loup.

L'âne Trotro

One of our favourite French characters is l'âne Trotro. Children in KS1 and even lower KS2 love his story books and episodes.

I have used Trotro to teach about la chandeleur, Easter, mother's day, father's day, birthdays, summer and winter holidays, Christmas, la rentré, friends, toys, etc...
The language in the story books is really simple, each page has usually a short sentence and the children love the pictures, they are so sweet!

I have created some worksheets on the topic of plants, but I recently bought two activity books and I am planning to use some of the activities about clothing, colours and shapes.

Fiches (Machouteam)

Fiches (Cercle Gallimard de l'Enseignement)

Trotro s'habille

Trotro petit jardinier

Trotro arrose

Trotro part en vacances

Trotro et le sapin de Noël

Trotro et les cadeaux de Noël

Toto en Provence

Last year in Easter Toto went to sunny Provence, in the South of France. He visited Marseille and Aix-en-Provence.

Did you know that Marseille is the second largest city in Paris? The typical food in Marseille is la boullabaisse, a yummy seafood soup. You can also find handmade soap, Mrs. Rivas favourite is the lavender one :) and eat les navettes (sweet pastry with orange flower flavour).

In Aix-en-Provence, Toto visited a factory of calissons (delicious sweets made of almond), the house of the famous painter Paul Cézanne and the mountain that Cézanne painted 87 times!

 

Les repas de Toto

Qu'est-ce qu'on mange en France?  Qu'est-ce qu'on boit en France?

Our French Buddy Toto is going to show you his favourite food and drinks.

Year 1 are learning about Europe as part of the topic "Countries project". They have created these amazing buntings with the monuments and some of the French food on them.

Toto voyage à Paris

Our French buddy Toto traveled to his home town in half term.

Can you name some of the landmarks in Paris?

Which one is your favourite?

                                                               Buntings by Year 1

Interactive map ofParis with short videos 

Les arrondisements de Paris 

Little Paris

Paper city Paris

Eiffel Tower craft