Chez Renée

Bonjour tout le monde!  I hope you're all having a great school year!  Today is the first day of my spring break, and I'm really looking forward to some rest and relaxation, and some time to catch up on my blogging :).  And it looks like spring is finally arriving here in Michigan!  I feel invigorated already! I've been teaching for a number of years, but for some reason I've never included Le Poisson d'avril (the French equivalent of April Fool's) activities in my classes.  I tried it for the first time this week, and was happy with how it went.  I explained the French tradition of taping paper fish on the backs of others without their knowledge and then yelling "Poisson d'avril" when the prank has been discovered.  My classroom mannequin, Jacques, was decked out with fish in order to draw attention to the activity. The paper fish are traditionally taped on one's back, but I put them on the front here so that students could see them....

Enrich your classes and teach French culture at the same time by including some fun French Christmas activities!  I enjoy teaching students about the bûche de noël  (Yule Log cake) eaten in France in December.  I like to bring a cake in as a surprise and let students eat it after I've explained what it is.  My students really enjoy this and even remember it years later.    Some years, I've made the cake.  And sometimes I buy a cake when I can find one.  This year I found a beautiful bûche at Holiday Market  in Royal Oak.  Here's a photo: I always make sure to provide students with a recipe and encourage them to try and make one if they like to cook.  It seems like there are always a few students for whom this ignites an interest in French on a new level.  Because the cakes are expensive to buy & time-consuming to make, it's not practical for me to share this in every level of French th...

One way to keep your students interested and excited about learning a language is to celebrate various holidays important to that culture in your classroom.  Not only that, but students do learn important cultural information as a result of doing this.   I typically celebrate different holidays in different levels of French in order to spread it out and to give students something to look forward to in each level.  I usually celebrate Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) in French II.  This year I explained a little bit of the history behind the holiday, showed a video of some of the parades in New Orleans, had students complete a Mardi Gras Maze and gave away beads to the winner, decorated the classroom, and made a traditional King Cake.   Here are some photos. The King Cake takes a while to make and is not a simple process, but any doubt about whether or not it was worth the effort was removed when I saw this: Translation for non...

I've been meaning to write a new story for The Adventures of Jacques & Suzette, my classroom mannequins (see previous posts on How to Use a Mannequin in Your Classroom for further explanation).  In particular, I've intended to write a story about Valentine's Day, but have had difficulty finding the time to do so.  I was inspired anew on a recent trip to Rome, where I saw padlocks covered with the initials of lovers locked to chains and posts on the bridges crossing the Tiber River.  I learned that the tradition is for lovers to lock these padlocks to the bridge and throw the key into the river as a symbol of their love. This tradition also spread to France, where lovers lock padlocks to the Pont des Arts  (this is the name of a bridge, for those of you who may not speak French) in Paris.  How romantic!  So, I wrote a new adventure about Jacques planning the perfect Valentine's Day date for his girlfriend, Suzette.  They wen...

Today I brought in a delicious French Christmas treat that was so easy to make, and it was a big hit with my students.  It's called a Saucisson LU au Chocolat (rough translation: chocolate sausage), and it's made with French butter biscuits (LU brand preferred) and dark chocolate.  I couldn't find the LU brand at my local grocery store, so I used a German brand (below) instead.    First, you crush the butter biscuits.  I just crushed them with my hands, which I actually found to be quite therapeutic :).  Then you mix up a chocolate sauce and pour it over the crushed biscuits. After mixing well, you'll have a mixture that looks like this: Pour it onto foil, and roll it up into a "sausage" shape. Put the sausage in the refrigerator overnight.  When you take it out the next day, it looks like this: Slice with a knife and serve! As is typical of French desserts, the saucisson  is not...

January 6th is the day the French commemorate Epiphany with a special cake which has a small trinket hidden inside.  The lucky person who gets the piece with the trinket in it is crowned king or queen of the day!  I made a galette  for my French I students. They were soooooooo interested in where the trinket was that once I started to cut the cake, I noticed that most of them had crept forward out of their seats and they were closing in around me :).  I had to send them back to their seats, but found a few minutes later that they had all crept back once again!  I'm still smiling at the memory.  They all liked the cake, and I made sure to give them the recipe as it is very, very easy to make!  Here's the queen of the day with our classroom mannequin, Jacques! My students remember these special days when they were able to taste some French food for years to come!

The way to a teenager's heart is through his stomach!  Promote your program and teach your students about another culture at the same time by serving some food in class.  Each year I try to serve a Bûche de Noël  (yule log Christmas cake)   in French III.  Sometimes I make the cake, but this year I bought one at Whole Foods.  I'm never disappointed at the delight, interest and motivation that food evokes in my students!  I'm always glad that I expended the extra effort to include it in my lesson.  I provide students with the recipe as well, and some of them always try it at home. 

Not long ago, my friend Martine kindly sent me some French Christmas candy called papillotes to share with my students.  Basically, these are chocolate candies wrapped in fancy wrappers, and each candy has a slip of paper inside with a French saying on it.  The wrappers on these candies are so beautiful that I decided to use them to make a Christmas decoration for my classroom.  So, I glued wrappers to each side of some cardboard rectangles. Then I strung the rectangles together with fishing line, and hung them from a banner made of cardboard and glitter.  The banner says Merry Christmas on one side, and Happy New Year on the other.  Voilà, a very festive, very French Christmas decoration!