Christmas Activities!

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 that I teach.  Usually, I reserve the cake for one particular level.  My friend & fellow French teacher Mary has come up with a great way to share this tradition with her students.  I'm sharing her wonderful idea here with her permission.  She gives her students Little Debbie Swiss roll cakes and allows them to decorate them with frosting and other decorations so that they look like mini bûches.  Here are the results:
Aren't they lovely?  What a simple, easy, cheap and fun way to engage all of your students in this activity!
Sharing the bûche de noël with students is a great way to keep students interested and to bolster your program.  For me, it also meets a state standard for World Languages (Standard 2:  Gains knowledge and understanding of other Cultures). 
Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année à tous!   

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