Book Buddies in French

Today some of our Grade 3 students thoroughly enjoyed being paired up with Grade 7 and 8 students who read them stories in French.

Public libraries are a wonderful source for reading material in French.  The books today came from the Saint Boniface Public Library on the corner of Provencher and Tache.  This library has an abundance of books in French including a very good selection of high-interest, low-vocabulary readers for those beginning to learn French.  I encourage families to visit a public library to take advantage of these great books and the learning opportunities they provide!

Our Grade 3-5 students have had fun this week acting out various animals as well as some adjectives.  We have had a good time playing some guessing games!

Hmm...what animal will I be???

Students would ask questions like this:

"Tu es un éléphant?"  (You're an elephant?)
"Non, je ne suis pas un éléphant." (No, I'm not an elephant.)

"Tu es un chat?" (You're a cat?)
"No, je ne suis pas un chat." (No, I'm not a cat.)

"Tu es un dauphin?" (You're a dolphin?)
"Oui, je suis un dauphin!  (Yes, I'm a dolphin!)

We also learned this week that we can use "Est-ce que..." at the beginning of questions and we practiced that as well.  For example:

"Est-ce que tu es un éléphant/chat/dauphin? (Are you an elephant/cat/dolphin?)

We will be using these sentence structures to work with our new adjectives next week as well.

Grades 6-8 have been making use of the new vocabulary and structures they have been learning in our new unit, "Les aventures en plein air".  We are starting to listen to and read a dialogue between two people who discuss camping adventures in one of Canada's national parks, Parc Kejimkujik.  It is a fascinating park and like all national parks, its website is in both our official languages. We had a look at the website this week:

Parc national Kejimkujik

All Grade 6-8 students will need to choose one of Canada's national parks as part of their project for this unit.

Bonne fin de semaine tout le monde!

Mme Christensen

Drumroll....and the winner is...

...une randonnée à vélo!

All students in Grades 6, 7 and 8 carried out surveys on various outdoor activities and one activity that seemed to be most popular was cycling! 

After some reflection, students determined the logic behind the use of the words 'en' and 'à' when speaking about different excursions.  A few examples are:

• en canot (canoe)
• en kayak (kayak)
• en radeau (raft)
• à vélo (bike)
• à pied (foot)
• à cheval (horse)

Students determined that if you are actually seated inside something (like a canoe), we use 'en'.  Otherwise, we use 'à' to mean we are on it, like a bike..  Great thinking, students!

This week students will have a listening and reading test on this vocabulary.as well as on the use of 'en' and 'à'.  We will go on to explore other vocabulary and structures that will lead to our unit's final projects!

Grades 3-5 will be having a listening and reading test on the animal vocabulary we have been learning in our new unit "Les animaux et nous".

Bonne semaine!

Mme Christensen

Outdoor adventures and pets

Some of our students in Grades Six through Eight were measured in centimeters.  We made statements of comparison using "plus...que" with the added bonus of reviewing larger numbers!

This led to more statements of comparison as we began our new unit on outdoor activities called "Aventures en plein air".  Grade Sixes compared various forms of shelter.
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C'est une tente.  

C'est un caravan. 

 Some students said: "Un caravan est plus confortable qu'une tente" (A trailer is more comfortable than a tente." Another student disagreed: "Dans mon opinion, rester dans une tente est plus interessante et naturelle qu'un caravan." ( In my opinion, staying in a tent is more interesting and natural than a trailer.")

C'est une cabane.

C'est une auberge.

Grade Seven and Eight have been exploring the topic of excursions which we will also be comparing this coming week.  Here are just a few:

J'aime faire une randonnée à pied.

J'aime faire une randonnée à cheval.

J'aime faire une randonnée en kayak.

We love our pets and most animals! Our Grade Three to Five students have started a unit called "Les Animaux et nous".  We have been learning different names of animals and have been describing them. Here's an example below of the kinds of conversations we are having about a few animals: 

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C'est mon chien.  Elle s'appelle Lady.  Elle a environ trois ans.  Elle est grise, brune et blanche. Elle est serviable et adorable. (This is my dog.  She is named Lady.  She is around three years old.  She is grey, brown and white.  She is helpful and adorable.)

C'est une chauve-souris.  Elle est serviable parce qu'elle mange des moustiques. (This is a bat.  He is helpful because he eats mosquitos.)

C'est un chat. Il est gris et blanc. Il est serviable parce qu'il mange les souris. (This is a cat.  He is grey and white.  He is helpful because he eats mice.)

Enjoy our lovely warm weekend and I hope you have some "aventures en plein air"!  Bonne fin de semaine!  

Mme Christensen