Restaurant Début

After lots of preparation and teamwork, 9th Age students opened their French restaurants to fellow 9th Agers. Each pair of students created the name of their restaurant; made menus with French food, drinks, and prices in euros; brought in restaurant props from home; and took turns being the waiters, waitresses, and customers, all the while saying everything in French. Bon Appétit!

Joie de Jardin

7th Agers enjoyed a beautiful afternoon in one of Calvert's gardens searching high and low for nature items labeled in French. Students then drew pictures of what they found next to the French words on their paper.

What Do 9th Agers Know?

9th Agers know a lot of French! Here are the topics that we have worked on this year:

Clothing vocabulary
Describing people and things
Describing ourselves: what we look like, where we live, our likes and dislikes, our age, ...
School subjects
Poem: C'est l'Automne
French artist Georges Seurat
Transportation
Places in a town
New songs: C'est l'Halloween, A la Claire Fontaine
Food and drinks
French cuisine
Similarities and differences between French and American customs: eating, manners, meals,...
Restaurant vocabulary: how to read a menu, order, ask for the check, use euros, ...
Fun classroom projects: Ma Ville Imaginare, Mon Restaurant Francais

9th Agers also brought in a lot of French items from home to show their classmates: French perfume, soap, intructions to games and machines, clothing labels, candy, coffee, shopping bags, cheese, food boxes, chef hats and aprons, postcards, music, words in books... incroyable how much French is all around us if you know where to look!

It has been a lot of fun! Next year in 10th Age will be fantastique!

What do 7th Agers Know?

7th Agers have really been zipping along in French this year. This is what 7th Agers know:

Weather Expressions
How to count from 1 to 60
Days of the week
Months of the year
The four seasons
How to say the day's date
Classroom vocabulary
Songs: Le Facteur; Un, Deux, Trois, Allons Dans les Bois; C'est le Printemps
Poem: Chere Maman
Animals
I like, I don't like
Table setting vocabulary
Mardi Gras customs
Nature vocabulary
French artist Claude Monet and his garden

And, of course, 7th Agers continued to use what they learned in Pilot and 6th Age: greetings, colors, body parts, songs, ...

7th Agers have also been very excited to share their knowledge of French learned outside of the classroom by bringing in French books, dolls, postcards, berets, movies; telling stories about going to French restaurants and bakeries in town; hearing people speak French in town and while on vacation; telling about family members speaking French; traveling to French-speaking places; going to Baltimore museums and seeing French artists that we've talked about in class, ...
It's been fun to hear about all of the French that these students encounter outside of school.

I can't wait to see what you can do in the 8th Age next year!

What do Pilots Know?

This year, the Pilot classes have learned a lot!
Here is what they know:

Hello, good-bye, see you soon

I'm doing well, I'm doing so-so, I'm doing badly

How to count from 1 to 20

Colors

Body parts

Small and big

Weather expressions: It's sunny, It's cold, It's raining

Impressionist artists Vincent Van Gogh and Mary Cassatt

Songs: Frere Jacques; Tete, Epaules, Genoux, et Pieds; Les Marionettes; J'aime Maman

Pilots also listened to a lot of French stories.

Nice job, Pilots! I am looking forward to seeing you next year in the 6th Age!

Precious Pilots Perform

The Pilot classes sang two French songs, "Frere Jacques" and "J'aime Maman" to adoring mothers last Friday morning for Calvert's Mother's Day Tea. Felicitations on a job well done!

What's the Weather?

7th Agers have finished their French books about weather. As you can hear below from one of our 7th Age girls, students have learned how to read all of the pages outloud, including a special Mother's Day poem on the last page. Enjoy this special gift from your 7th Ager.

Marvelous Madeleines

Enthusiastic 9th Ager shares his homemade Madeleine cookies with fellow classmates in French class. Bon Appetit!

Bienvenue Baptiste

Three of the 9th age classes were visited last week by Baptiste, a French exchange student currently attending Park School. Baptiste is also working at Calvert as an intern for the Phys Ed department. Prompted by their questions, Baptiste told the students about where he lives in France (in the country, on a vineyard), when he started learning English (age 7), his favorite American food (hamburger), his favorite color (red), his typical breakfast in France (coffee, bread, and cereal), his usual dinner time (7:00), his best friend's name (Etienne), his girlfriend status (none at the moment), and differences between the States and France "the cars are smaller in France, the houses look different, the French take longer to enjoy their meals, ... American people are really nice. "

Quite the Queue

9th Age students enthusiastically wait in line each morning to sing a traditional French Canadian song called "A la Claire Fontaine" to Madame Cooke. What a great way to start the day! (Take a look at Mrs. William's and Mr. Howe's blog to see and hear our classy French singers.)