Dear Parents/Chers Parents,
It’s hard to believe the end of the school year is HERE! It’s been a wonderful year with the SK children and I have savored these last days with them!
Since our temporary move to KBI after the Passover break, the children have been enjoying the following themes:
Les Fleurs du Printemps (Spring Flowers)
Over a couple of weeks, the children were introduced to a new flower everyday – la tulipe, la violette, le lilas, le muguet et le pissenlit. For each flower, the children learned the name in French, drew the actual flower, colored it and stamped the name of the flower beside their drawing. They also had a lot of fun going outside to gather bouquets of dandelions. For the tulip, we learned about Holland’s yearly gift of tulips to Ottawa and the children painted a beautiful field of tulips using a dot painting approach. We completed this unit by learning about les parties de la fleur (parts of the flower). Next spring, your children will be able to identify some of the spring flowers, en francais!
Here’s a song children singing a spring song about a little bird:
La Nourriture (Food)
For our food unit, the children learned about 4 main food groups (les groupes alimentaires). They did a lot of sorting using make-believe food and food images in order to become familiar with the food groups. Learning about the names of the food as well as the food groups in french was not easy, but they rose to the challenge. We also explored what constitutes a healthy meal. For a fun hands-on activity they made a delicious fruit salad.
In order to for them to make concrete connections with the language, we did an exercise where they had to say:
“Je mange une pomme”… and once they had said the sentence, I gave them a piece of an apple to enjoy!
Listen to these videos of a few children saying: Je mange une pomme
Here’s a song that we sang to go along with our food theme:
Les Lettres
We have continued to learn the sounds of the French alphabet through various activities. To help the children develop an ear for the sounds, I’d say a list of words, some that started with the target sound, some that did not. The children had to stand up when they heard a word that began with the sound, and stay seated when the word did begin with the sound we were working on.
Please keep an eye out for the children’s letter booklets that I am sending home today. Over the summer, I encourage you to read through these with your children.
Le Shabbat
Here are some pictures of an activity that the children did to become familiar with Shabbat terms in French. The children drew a picture of the Shabbat table, then labelled the items with the French terms. They shared their work with the other children in the class by presenting their drawings and naming the Shabbat items in French. Bravo, les amis!
I wish you and your children all a great summer! Thank you for all your support and for everything you do to ensure your children are ready to learn, play and grow at OJCS!
