Ratatouille

French Club was treated to a showing of the movie Ratatouille, complete with lemonade, popcorn, and French cookies. This movie is full of French words and scenes of Paris. Next week, the students will find out if Anyone can cook! is really true when they become little chefs themselves and try their hand at cooking French crêpes.

What an Impression

10th Agers, as a continuation of last year's study of French Impressionists, have been taking an upclose look at Impressionist paintings. Recently, inspired students tried their best to recreate what they saw. Artists include Edgar Degas, Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, Henri Matisse, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Georges Seurat, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, and Edouard Manet. Impressive!

Salutations

10th Agers have busy in class creating French skits. Each skit must be a conversation between two people, with three or more lines per person. Students are using their knowledge of conversational French as well as some new vocabulary and expressions. For example, did you know that there are two ways to say hello in French? Bonjour and Salut. These skits will turn into this month's folder paper as well as provide new material for students to present in class.

                                                                                         

       

Le Petit Prince

8th Age boys enjoyed watching Le Petit Prince, a movie based on the well-known story written by Antoine de Saint Exupéry.This is a story with many levels, both for children and for adults. Here's an example of one of the many heart-felt lines in this endearing story:
If someone loves a flower of which just one example exists among all the millions and millions of stars, that's enough to make him happy when he looks at the stars. He tells hemself, "My flower's up there somewhere..." But if the sheep eats the flower, then for him it's as if, suddenly, all the stars went out. And isn't that important?

Conversation anyone?

8th Agers practiced reading and acting out French skits for their classmates. The skits involve two people who correspond with greetings and questions in French. The students did an excellent job reading and  pronouncing the French words (many of them new) and adding expression and gestures to the skit. Encore, encore!

Spinning Class

7th Agers continued to work on new vocabulary by making colorful spinning wheels in class. Students have gotten quite good at saying all of the color words in French. Ask a 7th Ager you know.

French Club Fun

This year's French Club met for the first time this week. Each student, inspired by an Impressionist painting, decorated a wooden Eiffel Tower. Next week, after finishing touches have been made, these creative projects will be on display in the Lower School. Quels artistes!

French Cousins

For the third year in a row, French cousins of a Calvert family visit one of our French classes. It is always such a treat to see them and, as usual, they brought des biscuits délicieux (some delicious cookies) for everyone. Students got to hear them speak French and some students asked them questions in French. The cousins have an American mother and a French father so they are truly bilingual. Hope to see you again cousins!

First Game of the Season

10th Agers are gearing up for a fierce competition of French vocabulary words. Using their memory skills, players recall and catagorize French words learned from past years. Catagories include: food, places, family members, colors, clothing, and body parts. Here's to a great season!

Couleurs

Students may have been seeing purple but they were also learning lots of color words. 7th Age students new to French this year eagerly practice writing: bleu, rouge, jaune, vert, brun, rose, violet, and orange.

Brring, brring

Quel est ton numéro de téléphone? (What's your phone number?) 8th Age students learn to write and recite their telephone numbers in French. A fun way to review numbers: zéro, un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, ...

A Dog at Calvert?!

Meet Pepé, Madame Cooke's French dog. And, yes, as a few clever 7th Age students have pointed out, he is a puppet! But not to worry - he is a real puppet. Pepé loves to meet new students. He is very shy and only knows French so the students must speak to him using their softest, sweetest French voices so that he will come out of his basket. Pepé loves to hear all about what the students are learning in class. Sometimes, though, he is très fatigué (very tired) from watching too much télévision!

Begin Your Day With French!

The new school year is off to a great start with 10th Age students eagerly lining up for Madame Cooke's weekly challenge. Each morning (except for Tuesdays) from 8:00 to 8:30, students are welcome to stop by the French classroom to try their best at the challenge of the week. If successful, they will receive a French sticker to add to their collection. Weekly challenges will include topics covered in class. This week: a refresher for summer brains ... numbers and letters.