"L'hiver" - collage art project

Ah, les beaux arts des élèves de la première année!  

la moufle

Mitten animals word strips (printable)
Puppets, sequencing, texture experiment (printable)
We Give Books online version of The Mitten (teacher must narrate in French)

La moufle

The Mitten by Jan Brett

We began a unit today based on Jan Brett's story "Nicki et les animaux de l'hiver"  (The Mitten).  After polling each child about which animals they had actually seen in real life (someone had held a hedgehog) we found that the most unknown animal was the badger.  Tomorrow I plan to ask, which animal do you think might be the most vicious (I am trying to engage my boy audience here)?  Once they make their choice we will watch this bit of a National Geographic video.  

I have had difficulty ordering Jan Brett's version of this story in French.  I recently discovered that there are other versions available.  Our journal sentence structure this month is "Qui, Quoi, Où".  We identified these elements in The Mitten and the story La Moufle.  We discussed the owner, the item, the animal and the catastrophe.

  

  

We discussed what item belongs in what kind of setting.  The mitten and the animals in the story belong in a winter setting.  A cowboy hat would belong on a farm, a seashell on a beach. We will revisit our ideas when we write our own stories based on the mitten.  It was helpful to hear from Jan  Brett and how she writes and illustrates a book.

We made puppets of the animals in the mitten.  We sequenced them according to the order they appear in the story and we categorized them based on their textures as we are learning about the sense of touch in our science unit.  

My son told me today that when his class retells the story with their puppets, when they get to the part where the bear sneezes, they get to throw all of their puppets up in the air!

Next week, we plan to stitch up our own mittens.  We practiced a whip stitch on the kindergarten lacing cards today.  There was some nostalgia among my students whom I taught in kindergarten.  Madame?  Do you remember we did this at centres in maternelle madame?!

Mapping - Understanding 2D and 3D

We built cities out of blocks and math manipulatives in small groups.  The students loved their cities (some asked for a white sheet underneath to design roads).  We had to take photos.

The next day it occurred to me to make a map of our 3D structures.  Then we added a legend.  We had already made a map of our classroom but the legend concept was tough for many.

This time everyone was able to identify and label three structures from their map in their legend!

Leveling Books in French

We have been planning a major purchase of "I can read" books for our grade 1 French Immersion classes.  We have been looking for a system to level the books we have and those we might acquire.  It is so much easier to find that "just right" book when the volumes are logically organized.  Thank you to a teacher in Kamloops who passed on this site.  Books are leveled across publishers and series using a common system.  The criteria for each level is clearly explained.  

www.atelier.on.ca

Our task may have suddenly become so much easier! 

Branché en immersion website

School District #61, Victoria, BC

Excellent list of Basic Essentials by grade for French Immersion (literacy very helpful)

Detailed leveling criteria for books (Under heading Criteria Sheets) as Atelier site seems limited and not working

qui? quoi? où?

"Où" visual dictionary (printable)
"Où" word strips (printable)
"Quoi" (les actions) visual dictionary) (printable)
"Quoi" (les actions) word strips (printable)
Personal dictionary (printable)

This month we are beginning with the sentence structure "Qui?  Quoi?  Où?"  We begin with an oral activity or game.  Three stacks of cards are presented, students turn over one of each cards and say what they see, "Papa danse à la plage."  The following week we will use this structure in our journal writing.


Move and live the action words before saying and writing them.  Play charades.  In later charade games students use the verb in a sentence rather than simply identifying it.

visit our Wiki for more resources

This wiki began as a way for a teaching partner and I to share resources.  Now it has become a public space where anyone can access ideas for French Immersion or FSL classes (or parents).  Initially, you will have to request access to the Wiki (which is completely free), please do so and we will be sure to update access regularly.  The 'request access' feature isn't ideal but because we have already uploaded so much to that space we have stuck with it.

We hope that the Wiki will become a space where other teachers might contribute, or start their own online collaborative collection of resources for French Immersion.  Collaboration is the only way to be sure this great job called teaching is still manageable enough to allow us to invest time in our own families and passions.  Thanks for visiting and bienvenue!

la nourriture

Snack food groups tracker (printable to 11x17)

"J'aime manger" collaborative book
Food poster (game) (printable to 11x17, piece together)

More resources to this unit can me found on my post here.

Cut up your favourite poster and turn it into a daily Five 'work with words' centre (or print this one off).  Distribute images to students, in turn we proclaim, 'J'aime les  ______' or 'Je n'aime pas les _______.'  Images are velcro-ed onto the poster.

 

While students eat their lunch and snack during this unit we tally who has items from each of the four food groups.  Students easily learn their snack vocabulary and the four food groups in a short time.

Sonorisation de l'album de littérature jeunesse de Claude Boujon

Home and School Connection

  

Allow me introduce you to Amélie and Jacques.  These two characters came home with my son on Friday.  They were accompanied by a notebook.  






The first page introduced them and said that they only spoke French.  The note went on to say that they would love to hear my son speak to them in French while they spent their séjour (about a week) in our home.


My son was to print his name in the book and add any pictures or words about his adventures avec les amis.  Upon their return, this coming Thursday, my son would give the class the run down of what they did together and pass Jacques et Amélie off to the next lucky recipient. 


I love it!  Encouraging students to speak French at home.  Bravo Madame!  Now I need to go out and get something to send home with my students . . .

Math Journals

This idea originated on the Kinder by Kim website (they are under jazzy journals).  I have made my own journals for both kindergarten and grade 1 (en français of course) based on her fabulous idea.  Here is the math journal cover I used.


In kindergarten the journals were most often used to show the best friends of 10.  What I liked most about these "journals" was that they gave me the opportunity to do a seasonal craft with my students that includes a legitimate curricular outcome.


In both kindergarten and grade 1 we use ten frames to teach counting, number sense, and addition.  You will notice that my math journals use the ten frames as well.  We make the journal page as the culmunation of a math unit or skill for example, what makes ten, representing numbers to 20, 40 and so on.


When possible I have begun to look for literature links to each journal activity and will include these as I find them.

SEPTEMBER - Grade 1
In September in grade one our theme is apples (how original, I know) and I sing the song "Five Green Apples" (I know, it's a subtraction song, I changed it for my purposes!) as we model a tree, apples and addition on the smart board.  I made up lyrics in French and one brave day will record an MP3 of it and post it here!

At Halloween I came across this delightful book.  The language is at just the right level for my students.

OCTOBER - Grade 1
The middle page spread of the story is very similar to our own journal page.

NOVEMBER - Grade 1
In November during our food unit in grade 1 we made math pizzas.  The song "Je suis un pizza" by Charlotte Diamond is an absolute favourite by our students in kindergarten.  By grade one they are delighted that they already know the song.  For this journal the cheese is added last and not included in the "math story" along the bottom of the page.

DECEMBER - Grade 1
Jan Brett's book Malicieux Pain d'Épice (Gingerbread Baby) is always a good choice in December.

Monthly Class Collaborative Books - Writing

Each month students draw and complete the sentence of what will be a page in a class book. The books are a cumulative record of a student's growth in writing (a sample every month) and become the favourite choices during "Read to Self" and "Read to Someone" during Les cinq au quotidien (Daily Five).  

The books may be based on a pattern book we have read and are always related to a monthly theme.  At the end of the year the books are taken apart and compiled for each student and stapled together.  Students take home a 10 page book they have created and can read.

Document holders are a handy way to compile the pages and keep them in good shape for the entire year.  These each have 10 clear pouches so that 2 sheets can go into each pouch back to back.  One student page becomes the cover.

Students then use these simple sentences in their journal.  They have a place to begin and can expand on the sentences and vocabulary they have used before.

(Note: As an update not all of the grade 1 books were posted here. They are now available on this post. Scroll past the social studies overview info to see each month and the downloads.)





"Les couleurs" class collaborative book (septembre - maternel)

"Me voici" class collaborative book (septembre 1ière année)

"Mon monstre" class collaborative book (octobre 1ière année)

"J'aime manger" class collaborative book (novembre 1ière année)

 kindergarten book pages (the link contains all sheets and a description of how we used them)

l'hiver

Winter visual dictionary (printable)
Winter word strips (printable)

This season's visual dictionary and word strips.  Printed onto card stock, laminated and stored in an easy to access, wall-mounted shelf the collection grows as the year progresses.  Many students don't care to use them by the spring, others appreciate having core vocabulary to write from and to generate ideas.

A black and white version is also in the file above and serves as working with words during Les cinq au quotidien (Daily Five) or bingo.

 

les loupes de lecture

Sounds magnifying glasses  (printable)
Laminate and leave film over loop, students find sound blends during "Read to self" and "Read to someone".  Helpful at the beginning of the year when students are able to read few books, the task of finding sounds gives reading a purpose.

  

christmas take home project

 Family Traditions and Customs Parent Letter

As an introduction to the social studies topic of traditions, customs and families large strips of construction paper are sent home with instructions for family members to trace their hand, decorate it, print their name, draw and if possible write a sentence (French or English with help from home) to describe their favourite holiday custom or tradition.  

Sending a sample with the e-mail and letter to parents helps parents to see what is expected.