Ancient Egypt II

In Autumn 2 our spiral topic at Sudbury was "Back in time". Year 3 learnt about Ancient Egypt in class and we learnt about it in our French lessons too.

This year we learnt the names of some Egyptian Gods and also talked about hieroglyphs. The children introduced an Egyptian God writing his name in hieroglyphs. 

We also looked at the different types of buildings in Ancient Egypt and learn how to form the plural in French.

The Year 3 children were very brave to learn a history topic in French! They are amazing at decoding the language and understanding the French language in context! 

Les Amérindiens - Native Americans

Two years ago I found a beautiful book about a Native American in one of my travels to Lille.

I thought I could use it when Year 3s learn about the Americas and I couldn´t resist to buy it.

I hadn´t used the book yet, but last term, I finally planned some activities to teach a unit on Les Amérindiens.

We first located Les Amérindiens in the frise historique or time line, located them in the map and learnt about how they used to live.

We practised listening to the French words related to their way of life and customs while playing bingo.

We also learnt an authentic song about un petit indien called Nagawika. This is a song that French children learn at school!

un petit indien nagawika (officiel audio and... by dm_51a0a978942d1

Finally, we read Heyo and learnt some frequency verbs. The story has some repetition (Je suis Heyo, un Lakota; je suis un bon chasseur, je suis un bon cavalier; je suis un bon pisteur) so it works really well to introduce the form Je suis + adjective.

The children created beautiful minibooks about Heyo, we hope you like them!

Next year we will also learn the story of the Native American Pocahontas.

La seconde guerre mondiale

Last term the Year 4s were learning about WWII in class, so I decided to teach them about WWII in France.

We first looked at the countries of les forces de l'axe et les forces alliées and their leaders; we then practised Je m'appelle + name of leader, Je suis + nationality.

After that, we learnt about De Gaulle's speech in the BBC, the resistance and the main events of WWII in France.

Finally, we watched an episode of the French series Les grandes, grandes vacances to learn about the French evacuation l'exode and answered some comprehension questions about the cartoon.

Learning about the class topic in French makes our lessons meaningful and more interesting. The children were really engaged and they loved learning about WWII in France. Look at some of their feedback messages!

Game Les grandes, grandes vacances

Coloriages 

Exercise d'association

L'album de Rachel et Hannah

Educational videos and activities (recommended by Pippa Jacobs)

Ancient Egypt

Year 3 are learning about Ancient Egypt in class. We have linked our lessons to the topic and the children have learnt about the Egyptian Gods.

They learnt the names of the Gods, what they represent and their attributes practising some high frequency verbs in each of the different lessons. At the end of the unit, they created these fantastic posters introducing their favourite God. It is so much fun to learn French and History at the same time!
 

Update: Look at the pupils reading skills when they match the cards about the Egyptian Gods.

Roman buildings and directions

As part as our cross-curricular curriculum, Year 4 are learning about the Roman Empire in French.
They learnt that France was La Gaule under the Romans and they were thrilled looking at the pictures of the monuments in Nîmes and in Arles.

First, we learned the names of the buildings through flashcards games and actions.
In pairs, the children tested each other´s knowledge.

Then, we extended the language and write sentences using "Il y a / Il n'y a pas". 

We also learned how to ask and give directions in town. Click on the dots to hear some of our role plays and the children´s comments about Roman history.