Halloween Coloring Activity

I found an awesome new website: http://dessinemoiunehistoire.net/category/halloween/  Bookmark it!!!

And I am especially excited about the coloring activity for Halloween to go with my color lesson next week.  Download it on the link above.  Enjoy!!

Teaching Time with The Grouchy Ladybug - En Français

Used by Kindergarten and Elementary teachers around (I actually got the idea from a First Grade teacher), Eric Carl's The Grouchy Ladybug is a great resource to build literacy skills and teach time.  I have adapted many of their ideas to work for a High School French One Class.  This lesson idea is a great application for telling time and expressing the time in French, and building some reading comprehension skills in the Novice Level.  All of my resources I found FREE online from other primary teachers and I have explained how I adapted them to work in our High School setting.

• Establish prior knowledge of telling time in French and review the construction.
• Introduce the project of "Creating a Comic Strip" about La Coccinelle Mal Lunée and partner the students up with a "comic" partner.  Each group will submit one finished comic.
• Introduce a word wall with the animals from the book.   

• Read the digital version of the French text....or use a hardback version.  The hardback is now available from Teacher's Discovery: http://www.teachersdiscovery.com/search-results/?q=1B4027V
• Provide the same digital version to them through Google class, Weebly, or other classroom manager.
• Allow them 20 minutes to interpret the story into a comic strip where every box must contain: The time written in a complete sentence, a picture of the animal and its vocabulary, and the two phrases that the Ladybug repeats "Tu veux te battre?"  "Tu n'es pas assez gros pour moi."

 

Resources:

• Digital Version of Book in French  http://materalbum.free.fr/coccinellemallunee/coxalbum.pdf
• I copied my Comic Strip Template and got pictures for my word wall from: http://www.homeschoolshare.com/grouchy_ladybug.php

Chanson de la coccinelle… 

(Air de frère jacques) 

Coccinelle, coccinelle 

Bats des ailes, bats des ailes 

Pour rejoindre le ciel, pour rejoindre 

le ciel 

Tout là-haut, tout là-haut!

Haitian Days of the Week Song, "Ma Mère S'Appelle La Semaine"

This is a song I learned this summer while teaching in Cap Haitien, Haiti.  Caution, Sunday is described in the song as the day saved for prayer.  You can approach this from a cultural perspective and teach that 70-80% of Haiti is practicing Christian (Protestant and Catholic) and only 20-30% practice Voodoo.  You can also use as a discussion about the difference in laws of separation of church and state that The US and France both have and Haiti does not.  Then, decide per your demographics and administration if it will be a one-day song/cultural lesson, or if you can incorporate this into learning the Days of the Week.

"Ma mère s'appelle la semaine

elle a 7 jolis enfants.

Ma Mere s'appelle la semaine

elle a 7 jolis enfants.

Lundi, mardi, mercredi, jeudi, vendredi, samedi,

dimanche est le plus tranquille,

il a vit for la prier."

Recording of La mere s'appelle la semain

Number Flash Card Game

I love this Number Flash Card Game and I have used it for years.  I come back to this game in all levels to teach numbers or to review.  Students use their listening comprehension skills to identify the numbers while also collaborating with a peer and working on a team.

1.     Divide the class into two teams.

2.    Each team will be given two sets of cards 0-9.  Two members from each team will go to the front of the class and each will be given a set of number flash cards.  One student will be responsible for holding up the "tens" spot and the other will be responsible for holding up the "ones" spot.

3.    The teacher calls out a number 1-99 in the target language and the first pair of students to hold up the correct number wins the point for their team.

4.    Two new students go to the front from each team.

*To keep the challenge level high without teams helping the two students at the front, I make the pair of students stand on the opposite side from their team.  In other words they stand closest to the opposing team.  In this way, if a team wants to "help" their teammates by yelling out a number, the opposing team is more likely to hear them talk than their own members.

* You can use the numbers below to act as BINGO chips to help randomize the numbers.

Download for free here:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Number-Flash-Card-Game-for-Language-Learning-2058434

Haitian Number Song: Cueillit Des Cerises

Un, Deux, Trois nous irons au bois

Quatre, cinq, six cueillit des cerises

Sept, Huit, Neuf dans un panier neuf

Dix, Onze, Douze elles seront tout rouge.

Recording

The First Day Of School

"You only have 30 seconds to make a first impression.  But it takes approximately 20 additional encounters to undo or change a bad first impression!" Abraham Maslow, Hierarchy of Human Needs

     Welcome back to school!  If that quote doesn't stress you out about planning the first day, I'm not sure what will.  If the first day of school goes wrong or isn't planned to its maximum, you are four weeks into your semester before you can recapture that student!  Yikes!  And for us in block schedule, that is 1/4  of the course gone.  Let's get it right from the beginning.  

     Ideas?

• Greet the students at the door
• Share your passion and experiences
• Play getting to know you games
• Create a safe and secure environment
• Read "My First Three Days" in Teach Like A Pirate by Dave Burgess and WOW the students in your own similar fashion.
• I play a Fun French Facts Jeopardy Game to help break the ice; available for $1.15 on my store.

I also love some of Dave Burgess's Ideas:

"Welcome to the World Famous Learning Extravaganza"

"This is a No-Meanness Zone"

"I offer a prize to any student who can tell be the name of every student in class at the end of the activity."

"You don't want to miss tomorrow."

Have Fun  -  Show Compassion  -  Build Rapport

What Does Back To School Mean for Teachers?

   Every August 1st, teachers across the country scream, "Say it's not so!" as their relaxing, rejuvenating, recovering summer winds to an end.  I myself am one of those having had an amazing summer.  I have taught French to Haitian kindergartners, trained their faculty in best practices, and taught a 12 year-old how to play Tic-Tac-Toe who was formally the most popular male prostitute on the streets of Cap Haitien.  I have "flipped" over Capturing Kids Hearts and I have become a trained "gamer" of learning goals.  I have also had to put my dog and best friend of 13 years down.  On August 1st, the reality of Back To School (a.k.a. Back To Work) begins to set in and the stress of all the changes start to haunt nightly sleeps.  It is true; no two years in education have ever been the same.  Conversations over new team members, new standards, new administrations, new state laws, new equipment, new workshops, new plans, new hours, new personal lives, new positions, new goals, or new inspirations have always guided August through a mix of stress, anticipation, and excitement. 

     

     August 1st, also paints another image we can't escape. Whether through our own lives or through the eyes of social media, Back To School means a new layout for the front entry of Walmart, sales at Kohl’s, Belk’s, and Sears, commercials with school bus images in the background, and PICTURES.  Yes - the pictures! Get ready Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.... because its about to be the First Day of Kindergarten for someone.  Cue the new outfit, the new book bag, the new lunch box, and the chalkboard sign standing by the front door saying "First Day of Kindergarten” or first grade, or second grade, or senior year.  For every student across the nation it will be their only ever First Day of High School (at least that's the intention, insert educator roll of the eyes - LOL). 

     

     As professional educators we easily loose sight of the milestone of the First Day of School because we are wrapped in the conversations of what to change, how to adapt, and what will improve scores this year.  It is definitely important to acknowledge changes and improving this year's results - but not on the first day.  Allow the first day to live up to the mysticism that it has in every child's mind.  While we educators were off traveling, attending workshops, redesigning curriculum for the whole year they have thought about this one single day all summer.  Fill the first day with the passion they are expecting by inspiring a love for the learning process and modeling a love for their classmates with complements.  You have been loosing sleep over strategizing how you are going to get that new standard in before testing and they have been loosing sleep wondering whether or not you'll like them.  Answer that concern and drop their anxiety on the best and most remembered day (and photographed day) of their life, The First Day of School.  Let's all take a moment to relish the distinct honor that we will play in that family's photo album.  Looking at their collage of "First Day Pictures" they will one day be able to recall - "Oh that's the year I had Mrs. Covington, she was my favorite. The next year I had Mrs. Lambert, I still love her."  Or you are part of the memories when the student is standing by their car and the caption reads on Facebook "First Day of Senior Year" while all mom and dad can think about is "Who will keep my baby safe now?"  Regardless of the year, each and every student walking through our doors will be somebody's baby experiencing their First Day EVER of _______ and their ONLY First Day of __________. 

    

     So whether you are getting ready for your 1st First Day of School, your 10th, or your last remember to have the conversation that over 20,000 Rowan-Salisbury School children are going to experience their First Day of __________ for the first and only time with YOU on August 24th.  YOU are part of the outfits, the lunch boxes, the book bags, and the chalkboard signs that will flood the Internet.  YOU have that privilege!  I wish I could give every single one of them and every single one of you a giant hug and say like every mother will do to their baby this month - "Be Brave, Good Luck, and I love you!"