Chez Renée

 Bonjour! Here is a fun, concrete activity to help students practice description and the use of adjectives.  First, gather random objects from around your classroom. They don't necessarily need to be items that your students can name. Use anything interesting or unusual! This gets them interested before your lesson even begins. Line the objects up on a table and use labels with letters on them to identify each object. I chose to use: A) a pumpkin decoration, B) a metal box with a block of post-it notes inside, C) a small container of yellow play dough, D) an empty Perrier bottle, E) a giant paper weight in the shape of a diamond, and F) a green feather. We were working on describing objects with a specific list of adjectives which describe the shape & texture, size, weight, consistency, general state of the object and the material the object is made of.    Next, ask students to number from 1-6 (adjust the number according to the number of objects you've chos...

Bonjour fellow teachers!  It's the end of April...a time of year when most of us feel tired and are wondering if we can make it to the end of the school year.  It's the time of year when we feel like we're just limping or maybe even crawling to the finish line.  Creativity wanes.  We find ourselves just trying to survive.  And our students probably feel the same way.  Believe me, I know...and I feel your pain. I want to offer you some encouragement.  It is for all of these reasons that something new & exciting is just what is needed in our classrooms.  For our own sake, and also for the sake of our students.  We can not hope to pass along enthusiasm for learning to them if we're not excited about what we're teaching ourselves!  I get excited when I try something new and it turns out to be successful, and that's exactly what happened last week.  I had an idea about a new story I could write about my classroom mannequins, Jacques...

Hello fellow teachers!  I'm so excited to share this new idea with you!!  I tried it for the first time in my French II class last week, and it was an amazing success on so many levels.  I imagine that many of you ask your students to make videos for an assignment as I do.  This activity was done right after my students turned in a major video project which was due right around the time of the Oscar Awards.  In the past, I have asked the class to vote on the best video & I awarded a prize to the winner.  I liked doing this because it inspired students to produce something they were really proud of, rather than just making sure they met the requirements to get a decent grade.  I also discovered that my students often surprised me.  Sometimes students who didn't shine in other areas showed amazing creativity & ingenuity that I hadn't seen before.  But this year, I took this idea to the next level.  I held a mock Oscar Awards cerem...

I imagine that many of you out there in the blogosphere enjoy reading Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry with your upper level French students like I do.  I've collected many ideas over the years for activities to use while teaching this wonderful book.  I think these ideas  were passed on to me by my friend Mary, and I believe she found them on the FL Teach ListServ .  I use these at the end of our study of the book after students understand the book well.  I usually give students the choice of one of the following:  Write, create and illustrate 4 postcards written by the Little Prince to his flower from some of the planets he visited in the book. Create a board game or a card game that uses questions based on Le Petit Prince.   Illustrate the game and write original questions and answers to be used in the game. Design and create a planet that the Little Prince might have visited, maintaini...

I tried a new project with my 4th year students this year, and I was very pleased with the results.  Students cut individual words out of French magazines.  After we had a large assortment, I spread the words out on cookie sheets so it was easier to see the words.  I gave one cookie sheet to each student.  Students used the words to write a whimsical poem.  After arranging their words into a poem, they checked their poem with me.  Then they glued the words to construction paper.  This project also had a simple art component to it.  Each student was given an coffee filter on which they drew a design with water-based markers.  They laid the coffee filters on their construction paper and used paintbrushes to moisten the filters with water.  This process transferred the designs to their construction paper.  The result looked a lot like water color.  Here are some examples: Translation:  My Boutique I have a little b...

My first year students were learning to name methods of transportation, which inspired me to write a story about Jacques, the classroom mannequin.  In the story, Jacques is trying desperately to get to his girlfriend's house to pick her up for a date.  He tries various methods of transportation, but each one fails for one reason or another.  In the end, he has fallen off a bike and broken his leg, so he walks the rest of the way, dragging his broken leg behind him. When he arrives (late, obviously), his girlfriend's dad opens the door and says, "I'm sorry, but Suzette isn't here..." Students were asked to write a 5 line ending to the story.  They worked in groups of 2, and were instructed to write out their lines on paper.  Then they had to act out their endings for the class.  Here are some photos of their endings. These students borrowed some crutches for Jacques (left).  Suzette's father is on the right.  Notice the smile...

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 ...

Students in 3rd year French participated in the wedding of our classroom mannequins, Jacques & Suzette!  Everyone had a part to play.  Students acted out the ceremony at the town hall with the mayor and then the church ceremony, so they learned about French culture as well.  Here are some photos. The mayor presides as Jacques & Suzette sign the marriage license. The mayor gives Jacques & Suzette their livret de famille. At the church, the flower girl scatters rose petals. Jacques & Suzette exchange rings. Suzette is wearing my grandmother's wedding dress from 1933. And of course, there was a little goofing around as well! Later, students read a description of the wedding and practiced choosing the correct verb tenses for describing a past event in French.  It was a day to remember!