Samedi 11 novembre 2023

This week in French Club, we talked about why learning a second language is beneficial. The children had some time to think about this individually and then to share with each other. After a little brainstorming, this is what they came up with.

I was impressed with how open-minded our children are at Mere School. They came up with so many good reasons to learn a language. We then talked about which reason was the most important to them. And although at first they all seemed to be fixated on ordering food in a different country, they all agreed on 'you can meet new people'. 

Next time, we will develop our ICT skills and learn to create a PowerPoint about the benefits of learning a language. Hopefully, the French Club will be able to present their PowerPoint and inspire other children and adults.  

Vendredi 3 novembre 2023

This week, the French club have made their own French postbox!

After some online research, we noticed that in France, postboxes are not red but yellow! And so are La Poste’s vans.

We were also wondering what the logo represented and found out that it represents a bird, which is a symbol of a messenger.

Our postbox is now on the French room door and children from all classes can ‘post’ their optional homework that I give out every week.

On the sign, you can read:

Levée du lundi au vendredi 15 h 00

Samedi pas de levée

Which translates to:

Collection from Monday to Friday at 15.00

Saturday no collection

Doing these extra activities at home consolidates what we do in class. I have noticed that the children who regularly complete these activities retain information learned in the classroom and participate more in the following lesson. Continuez comme ça les enfants !  

Vendredi 10 novembre 2023

UPDATE:

Ça marche ! (It works!) 

I have had lots of 'posts' this week! Bien joué les enfants et merci au club de français pour leur aide !

Vendredi 20 octobre 2023

This half term in French club, we have been talking about ‘La Francophonie’ (the French speaking world). We found out that French and English are the only languages spoken as a native language on 5 continents!

We printed a list of countries in which French was the official language and we looked them up one by one on Google maps. Then, we found them on our globe and on the big map in the French room. We dotted every country on the map, took a few steps back… and that was when we realised that most French speaking countries are in Africa! The children made some suppositions as to why this might be the case. We then talked about colonialism and explored the history of the French language a bit more.

We looked at TV5mondeplus website : www.tv5mondeplus.fr which is a free on demand video platform in French but not only ‘French from France’. On this website, you can find videos in French for all ages, sometimes with subtitles and you can learn lots about the African, Canadian or Belgian culture!