Chez Renée

Attention fellow teachers!  If you're a teacher of French & you've not yet investigated  adopt an escargot , I urge you to do so tout de suite!  Adopt an escargot is a brilliant idea invented by a retired teacher.  It involves students adopting a baby escargot (a shell!) & inventing the life of their child.  To have your students participate, you need to email Nancy (the creator of this wonderful program).  On the site, click on the image Pour le prof de français  and then you will see a link to contact Le Grand Escargot.  You can purchase everything necessary from her for about $25 per kit (which is enough for a whole class).  Each kit includes beautiful escargot shells (unique colors & shapes) and each shell comes with a unique profile.  The kit also includes other activities such as a game, a template for a baby book, official adoption certificates and the right for your students to email Le Grand Escargot (the big s...

I've begun the fabulous adopt-an-escargot  project in my third-year French class this week, and there is definitely excitement in the air!  I love how much this project awakens the interest of all of my students...even those in other levels of French.  Today, students in lower levels of French could be found gathered around  Escargotville in the corner of my classroom :).  It warms my heart to see this. Today I used the iPad2 in conjunction with this project.  Students were asked to write a haiku poem for their dear baby escargot.  After reviewing how to write haiku, students used the StoryKit app to create a page which contained a photo of their baby, the text to the haiku they wrote, and a recording of their own voice reading the haiku.  Students were able to send the link to me through email, and I was then able to project the pages onto the big screen so that everyon...

I mentioned in an earlier post how excited I am about finding ways to use my new iPad2 in the classroom!  I also mentioned my favorite app so far, called Face Jack.  Here's an example of how students could use the Face Jack app on their iPads in conjunction with the adopt an escargot  project which I currently use in my third year French class. If you're unfamiliar with adopt an escargot, it involves students "adopting" a snail shell and inventing the life of the snail.  My students love it!  I used one of the shells that came in my adopt an escargot kit in this video.  I also used one of the profiles that came in the kit to describe this particular snail.  I plan on asking my students to make a video about their adopted snails next year, and to use Face Jack in the video.  Obviously, students would be speaking French in their videos.  What do you think? 

Part of the adopt an escargot  project which I've spoken of in earlier posts involves students creating a dwelling for their baby snails.  Dwellings can be made of virtually anything the student desires to use!  So, the variety tends to be endless, which I greatly enjoy.  Here are some of the houses my students made. This baby, named Pickle, lives in an empty pickle jar. A closer view of baby Pickle in her cosy bed! Marcel the Shell lives here.  If you've seen the video of Marcel the Shell, you'll understand the significance of this house.  (See my earlier posts for the video!) This next snail is named Destiny's Child :). If you look closely, you can see the baby snail on the far right.  The student cut a hole where the face should be so the  snail could be inserted.  The head of the woman in the middle is a photo of the mother of this snail. This baby lives in a mailbox! We built the city of Escargotvill...

Another fun activity to use with students participating in the  adopt an escargot  project is escargot car racing.  I brought in a bucket of old matchbox cars and let my students choose one.  They strapped their babies to the cars with rubber bands, and then we went to our gymnasium and raced the cars to see which one would go the furthest. It's so nice to see everyone smiling & speaking French at the same time! (well, everyone except for the one monsieur there who likes to give me a hard time whenever I take photos :)  And the race begins! Final race between the two cars that went the furthest.  And the winner is...Manon Corbier...the dear baby escargot of the student pictured here!  Manon won a pink teddy bear as a prize.  This activity took about 10 minutes to complete.  You can see from the photos that the students were having a great time cheering their escargots on (in French, of course)....

A week or so after starting the fabulous adopt an escargot  project, I asked my students to write the names of their baby snails on a slip of paper and fold it up.  They dropped these papers into a hat, and then I passed the hat around the room for each student to draw a name.  I told them to keep it a secret.  Their homework assignment was to find out what that particular baby snail liked in a non-chalant way, and then think of a gift to bring to that baby on Friday.  Friday we had an Adoption Day Party for all the baby escargots.  Students had to present their gifts to the class in French (for a grade), explaining what the gift was and why they were giving it to that particular baby.  This one was my favorite.  An escargot jacuzzi!! (a jar filled with water) This young man is giving a map of Michigan to Jen, who LOST her poor baby (see previous post!), so that her baby will never get lost again! No party is complete without...

Almost every year at least one student loses their dear baby snail during the adopt an escargot project , and this year is no exception!  Jen came to see me after school last week to tell me the terrible news that she couldn't find her baby escargot.  So I told her she had to wear the "necklace of shame" (which is not unlike the Scarlet Letter, I explained), for the whole day at school, and that whenever anyone asked her about it, she had to tell them what happened.  The class found this very amusing.  In fact I'm now wondering if perhaps the snail might have been kidnapped. Jen wearing the necklace of shame.  The snail is crying, and it says "I lost my baby escargot!" I also required this student to make some fliers explaining that her baby was lost and I had her put them up in the hallways.  Here's what they look like: So far, Jen's baby has not been found...so the saga continues!  My students are getting more and more caught ...

We're snowed in here in Michigan today and school is closed!  What a great day to drink coffee, sit by the fire and catch up on blogging.  My colleague John tells me that he doesn't understand some of my posts because he doesn't speak French, so I'll try and explain more clearly for any of you who aren't language teachers :). Are you wondering what Adopt an Escargot is?  It's a project that French students can participate in and it involves adopting a baby snail, which is really an empty snail shell.  Shells come with unique personality profiles, baby books, games and more and are purchased from http://www.adoptanescargot.com/ .  Students write about the lives of their babies and share their stories with other students.  And of course, they do all of this in French.  My students adore this project.  This young lady wasn't able to take French III, but came to see me for a baby snail anyways! I try to get the rest o...

This week my French III students started an incredible project called adopt an escargot .  This project can be used in any level of French, and can go on for as long as one wants it to.  Adopt an Escargot was created by a former French teacher, and in my opinion, it is absolutely brilliant! If you've never heard of it, you really should check it out!   Students were asked to fill out "adoption papers" for homework, in preparation for the day the baby escargots would arrive and they would become parents.  I talked to my students about this project many times over the years, and they were already looking forward to it.  The day the "babies" arrived was an exciting one.  Here are some photos. Personalize your own slideshow design