Fourth graders created 1st to 3rd person "sketches," or skits, about a celebrity. They did such an amazing job that we had a music and dance day to celebrate, with these two videos that reinforced what we learned about the verb "être," to be. Students are working hard on recognizing an infinitive when they see it, and knowing why and when to conjugate a verb. Parents and kids, watch the videos we enjoyed so much on your fourth or fifth grade page!
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What a wonderful beginning-- Quel bon début!!
It's been a fantastic start to the year in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade French. We have all made good progress: the children getting used to being with a "new" teacher, and in the "old Spanish room," and my getting used to switching languages! We've had quite a lot of laughs and made some strides in language learning. Third graders felt like they took a step back in time by taking a good look at the French alphabet. We needed to start here, so as to make headway with pronunciation. Those vowels are tough! The children were amused by the little stories I shared about several of those difficult letters to name or pronounce. You'll have to ask a third grader about the reason the letter "Y" is considered a vowel, and from where it has its roots! And how about that "j" v. "g" and "i" v. "e?" We topped that off with a competitive game of beanbag tossing, through all 26 letters! Naturally we were able to apply our letter-naming skills to the days of the week, as we developed our class calendar. Spelling each day out allowed for noticings such as "-di" at the end of the word referring to the same as our English "-day." Putting Monday, or "lundi" at the beginning of the week gave a few children pause, but with some tricks up Madame Fonseca's sleeve, they will never forget it! Don't you just wonder what that is...? Fourth graders knew from the first day that I really wanted to get to know them. I kept asking them questions! Tossing our beach ball kept the conversation going, and you never knew which question you would get: "Do you have a pet? Brothers or sisters? What is your favorite color?" And answer in French?! This was all to assess students' recall from last year, and see how to proceed with review. The result? Well, they like talking about themselves, which fit in perfectly with the plan: Tout sur moi, "all about me" piece. Students needed to consider what they know about the parts of speech to then isolate adjectives. These adjectives, specifically used for people's attributes and virtues, are soon to be put into play in a cute new project! You'll see it on Parent Night! Fifth graders also got the beach ball treatment. Oh, oui!!! They also used what they know of attributes and virtues to create a personal description. Fifth graders were encouraged to be more specific, and use "un peu" or "très" or "pas très." The use of "the negative" was helpful to simply say what one is not, which is just as valuable in personal description Parents, be ready to hear an earful from your fifth graders about Madame Fonseca's video with Señora Garcia: it's a total winner!! Phrases de la semaine: C'est génial! OMD! MDR! and my fave: DMCV! |