Observing National French Week - 2006 - in Minnesota
MnAATFNet E-Mail Reports from Minnesota Chapter French Profs
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The FIRST National French Week in Minnesota Report for
2006...
Hill-Murray School - Maplewood, MN
From: Amy Lemme [mailto:alemme@hill-murray.org]
Sent: Tue 11/7/2006 11:23 AM
To:
MN-Am Assoc Teachers of French [mnaatf@stthomas.edu]
Subject: La Semaine Nationale du Francais
Bonjour!
We are celebrating National French Week a little
differently this year by
focusing on Tahiti.
Monday:
Learning about Tahiti - its location, culture, customs,
language,
etc...
Tuesday: Learning about artist Paul Gauguin, who lived
in Tahiti in the
later years of his life. Through a lecture and powerpoint, students learned
about Gauguin and compared him to the Impressionists,
whom we studied last
year during French Week.
Wednesday: Art Day - Students will be able to create artwork in the style
of Gauguin using Cray-Pas (oil pastels).
Thursday:
Mangez! Students have
volunteered to bring a variety of tropical
fruits and snacks to eat, as we listen to typical
Tahitian and French music.
Friday:
French students serve faculty/staff "petit déjeuner" -- pains au
chocolat, cafe, chocolat chaud, etc... In the evening, we have French Film
Night, where we order pizza and show a French film to
any interested
students.
As we do every year, we had a locker poster contest, and
the winning entries
were displayed on French students' lockers and teachers' rooms (who have
studied French or traveled to a French-speaking
place). We also had a
middle school French trivia contest. Each morning, we read French Week
announcements on the PA, including the school prayer and
Lord's Prayer in
French.
Finally, during passing times on Friday, French music will be
played over the PA school-wide.
Bonne fete de la
Semaine Nationale du Francais!
Amy Lemme
Liz Marin
Hill-Murray School
Maplewood, MN
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2nd French Week in MN 2006 report:
From: Sarah Buchanan [mailto:buchansb@morris.umn.edu]
Sent: Thu 11/9/2006 3:53 PM
To:
MN-Am Assoc Teachers of French [mnaatf@stthomas.edu]
Subject: Mn Report -La Semaine Nationale du Francais
Here's what we are doing at the
University of Minnesota, Morris:
MONDAY: Our French Club, Entre Nous, had a table in our
student center and
gave out stickers with French sayings on them. The table
with stickers has
stayed up all week, although students didn't
"table" it after Monday. It has
been great to see people sporting stickers saying,
"Je suis aime(e)" or
"J'adore le francais", etc.
TUESDAY: We took the day off, as the Entre Nous officers
were involved in
helping with the election. We did, however, leave
several stickers on our
table saying, "Votez!" or "J'ai
vote".
WEDNESDAY: M. Aboubakary Moussa Moumouni,
Humphrey Fellow, came to
UMM and gave a talk entitled, "Benin: Splendeurs et
Miseres" to a very full room!
THURSDAY: Entre Nous is hosting a "Tour de
Morris" tricycle race, which is
our version of the "Tour de France" bike race.
We have borrowed tricycles
that support adult weights, and we have two relay teams
that will race
around our circle drive!
FRIDAY/SATURDAY: Entre Nous has written up a
quiz on cultural facts about
the history of French in Minnesota that will be printed
in the campus and
community newspapers.
Sarah B. Buchanan, PhD
Associate Professor of French
University of Minnesota, Morris
104 Humanities Bldg.
600 E. 4th Street
Morris, MN 56267 USA
(320) 589-6292
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3rd French Week in MN 2006 report:
St. Paul, MN
Public Schools - l'Etoile du Nord
French Immersion School
Sent: Mon 11/20/2006 4:10 PM
To: mnaatf@stthomas.edu
Subject: FW: National French
Week Report
l'Etoile du Nord
French Immersion School
Celebrates National French Week
November 2-8, 2006
l'Etoile du Nord French
Immersion School was proud to celebrate National
French Week from November 2-8,
2006.
Each classroom in our school chose a Francophone country to
study for the week.
Represented countries included la
Reunion, le Maroc, la Tunisie, le Madagascar,
le Gabon,
l'Algerie, and le Mali. Thanks to the funds we
received from an AATF
small grant, we were able to purchase
French books on many of these countries
at grade appropriate reading
levels.
As students learned about the
Francophone country that their class was studying,
they demonstrated their knowledge
by decorating a large poster on their classroom
door. Many posters included the name of the country, a map marked
with the
country's location, a
country flag, cultural
information, and a variety of artifacts
specific to that country.
At the end of National French
Week, our Francophone interns recognized
each door poster with an
award, in categories like "Le
plus informatif",
"Le plus creatif",
"Le meilleur choix de materiels utilises" et "La meilleure
participation de toute la
classe".
As we studied Francophone
countries, teachers also taught several lessons on
world hunger from the website http://www.feedingminds.org, which
provides lesson
plans and materials in French. Classes discussed how hunger issues impact the
Francophone countries they were
studying. We gave all our
Francophone countries
(classrooms) a chance to work
together to stamp out hunger by starting locally with
a food drive for a Minnesota food
shelf.
At the end of the week, our sixth grade students delivered 917 food items
to
Second Harvest, where they took
a tour of the facilities and shared about our
National French Week activities.
The participation and response
to our National French Week celebration was
overwhelmingly positive. National French Week and our food drive
were promoted
through colorful posters hung
around the school. One of our
teachers designed
these posters and another
created a thermometer-type scale for our school
entryway to track our food
collection progress. Students
checked the food bins
everyday to see what had been
contributed and cheered when it was announced
that we
surpassed our goal of 800 items. Some family and community members
shared traditional food,
clothing, and stories in classrooms.
One teacher wrote,
"My class loved studying
Madagascar. They're really proud of their door, and I
think they'll be drawing lemurs
for the rest of the year.
Elizabeth Stevens
English Language Arts, grades
3-6
l'Etoile du Nord French
Immersion School
[ A brief article extracted from the above press release appeared in
a Twin Cities newspaper's schools column in mid-November. ]
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Created 22 Nov. 2006
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URL: www.mnaatf.org/MnNFW06.htm