Friday, January 6, 2017

K-2 French Update Q3 W2

Bonjour tout le monde!

First of all, I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you for all the thoughtful gifts I received from students. Thanks to you, there was no shortage of sweets or coffee over the holidays! I hope you all had a restful break and enjoyed the extra time with your little ones.

Kindergarten:

During the first session back, we reviewed material from before the break and started putting together our books on weather. This upcoming week, we will be working on the French alphabet as well as reviewing recurring material such as numbers, months, days, and colors.

Also, here is an index of free online games you can play with your child in order to encourage their French learning at home:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primarylanguages/french/


1st/2nd Grade:

During our first day back, we reviewed the poem "S'il te plaît" and started learning our new classroom verbs. We will continue working with these verbs for the next week and a half.

découper: to cut
dessiner: to draw
écrire: to write
gommer: to erase
tailler: to sharpen (as in sharpening a pencil)
peindre: to paint
coller: to glue
donner: to give

As we progress through this lesson we will also be learning numbers through 20 and the days of the week. If you would like to practice the new vocabulary with your child, the song "Mes Petites Mains" on the Loustics CD utilizes the vocabulary. If you do not have the CD, I have included a Youtube link to the song below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm0J92Xuy5g

I look forward to getting back in the swing of things with the students this week, and I wish you all a smooth transition back into the schooltime routine.

A bientôt!
Madame Ruchames

Sunday, December 11, 2016

K-2 French Update Quarter 2 Week 9

Bonjour tout le monde!

I hope this finds everybody enjoying the end-of-semester festivities and preparing to enjoy the holidays with family and friends.  This week we will be reviewing material to solidify it before the break.

Kindergarten:

This past week, we began a unit on weather to follow the unit on days of the week and months of the year.  We have been working through a brief book that they will eventually be putting together to take home.

Below, you will find the vocabulary we have been learning:

Il pleut.: It is raining.
Il fait froid.: It is cold outside.
Il neige.: It is snowing.
Il fait chaud.: It is hot outside.
Il fait beau.: It is nice outside.
Il y a du vent.: It is windy outside.
Il y a du soleil.: It is sunny outside.


1st/2nd Grade:

We will be wrapping up the lesson on some new verbs and classroom objects.  Below, I have have listed the poem we are learning in class, "S'il te plait," as well as some of our new vocabulary.

"S'il te plaît"

S'il te plaît, mon amie Alice
Prête-moi! Prête-moi!
Des ciseaux, un taille-crayon,
Une gomme et un crayon.
J'ai oublié ma trousse et mon cartable.
Merci, mon amie. Tu es formidable!

Un taille-crayon: A pencil sharpener
Un crayon: A pencil
Des crayons de couleur: Colored pencils
Ranger: to arrange, organize
Prendre: to take
Poser: to put down
Prêter: to lend

If you have any questions or would like to schedule a conference after the break, feel free to e-mail me at gruchames@archwaylincoln.org. Until then, joyeux fêtes et bonne année!

Sunday, December 4, 2016

K-2 French Update Week 8

Bonjour tout le monde!

The semester is wrapping up quickly, and it's wonderful to look back at the knowledge we have accumulated thus far during the year. As we close out the semester, we will be starting some new material while reviewing older concepts.

Kindergarten:

On Tuesday, we will wrap up the months and seasons unit and move on to weather.  I have been particularly impressed with the students' grasp on the names of the seasons, and I look forward to starting new material.

1st/2nd Grade:

This past week, we concluded the lesson on classroom objects and gendered objects, so we will be moving on to a unit that expands upon this classroom vocabulary with some new verbs, and a couple new objects as well.  While learning this material, we will also learn the poem "S'il te plaît," which I hope you will start hearing at home as the week goes on.

2nd Grade only:

I am still missing many signed tests.  If you have lost the original test or thrown it away by accident, please let me know.  However, returning the signed test to me does count as a grade, so please try and get them back to me as soon as possible.

Please don't hesitate to contact me at gruchames@archwaylincoln.org with any questions regarding the material.

Sunday, November 27, 2016

K-2 French Update Week 7

Bonjour tout le monde!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving break full of food, family, and great memories!  This week in French, we will be picking up right where we left off and looking to finish the semester strong.

Kindergarten:

This week, we will continue with the months and the seasons.  If you still have it, feel free to use the wheel your child colored to review the vocabulary.

1st Grade:

We will continue working with classroom objects and our gendered adjectives.  Last week, we learned that if a word's article is une, which makes it a feminine noun, the adjective modifying that word typically has an -e at the end (e.g. blanche, verte, noire, bleue).  If the article is un, which indicates a masculine noun, we use the color adjectives that we learned before.  For example, a green pencil case would be une trousse verte, but a green backpack would be un cartable vert.  We will continue working with this concept through the end of the week, and we will begin lesson two of our second unit next week.

2nd Grade:

We will be covering the same material as 1st Grade (see above) with a particular emphasis on learning the written forms of the words.  Whenever we do copy work in class, I often check it and allow students to take it home with them.  If you would like to help your student practice writing and spelling the vocabulary, redoing this copy work with the class copy as a guide could be helpful.  If you are unsure about anything, please feel free to get in touch with me.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving break, and I look forward to seeing your students again tomorrow!

A bientôt!
Mme Ruchames

Sunday, November 20, 2016

K-2 French Updater Week 6

Bonjour tout le monde!

This week we will mostly be reviewing our current material to solidify it before we go on Thanksgiving break.

Kindergarten:

We will be finishing up the months of the year, and we will practice with the vocabulary we have already learned on Tuesday.

1st/2nd:

We will continue reviewing the classroom objects from Unit 2, Lesson 1.  In addition, I will be introducing the concept of masculine and feminine adjectives.  The gender of the adjective depends on the noun it is modifying, and sometimes the feminine adjective is spelled differently from the masculine.  Below are the pairs with different forms, listed with the masculine first, followed by the feminine:

bleu, bleue: blue
violet, violette: purple
vert, verte: green
blanc, blanche: white
noir, noire: black

I hope everybody has a wonderful Thanksgiving, and enjoy the R&R weekend coming up!

A plus tard,
Mme. Ruchames

Sunday, November 13, 2016

K-2 French Update Week 5

Bonjour!

I hope this finds you at the end of an enjoyable weekend!  This past week of French, we have been getting into new material while reviewing the old, and having fun along the way.  

Kindergarten:

We just started learning the months of the year after finishing up the days of the week.  This upcoming week, we will be focusing on the seasons and the months that make them up.  If you would like to review the vocabulary with your student, he or she should have brought home a wheel that has all the months on it, as well as the seasons.  In addition, here is a link to a song we will be learning this week to reinforce the months:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoenOMxQZ60&list=PLzvm3N3P7TcqnRuGLuffXrchdLIfkoIcR&index=11

1st Grade:

Last week concluded our first unit of Les Loustics and began learning various classroom objects.  This week we will be building on that and learning a couple new colors as well.

2nd Grade:

Last week's test went well, and now we are moving on to our lesson on classroom objects.  Please note that your student must return his or her original test, signed by one parent, to me by Thursday, as well as any test corrections that have been done.

For 1st/2nd Grade:

Here is a link to a video that pronounces the vocabulary.  There are subtitles in French to follow along, and I'll include a list of the vocabulary below as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOzxcbNktIA

Une trousse: a pencil holder
Des ciseaux: scissors
Un stylo: a pen
Une gomme: an eraser
Une règle: a ruler
Une colle: glue stick
Un livre: a book
Un cartable: a bag/backpack

I hope you all have a lovely Sunday, and please feel free to reach out with any questions!

Toute la meilleure,
Mme. Ruchames


Sunday, November 6, 2016

K-2 French Update Week 4

Bonjour tout le monde!

I hope this post finds you at the end of a restful, enjoyable weekend!  This past week I have started to notice some students coming out of their shells and working harder to participate as they grow more comfortable in French class.  Hopefully, this trend continues as we move forward.

Kindergarten:

For the past couple of weeks, we were working with the days of the week, and this past Friday, we started learning the months of the year.  To start with, we only learned the first six, listed below, but this week we will learn the rest of the months as well:

Janvier: January
Fevrier: February
Mars: March
Avril: April
Mai: May
Juin: June

1st Grade:

This week we wrapped up the first unit of Les Loustics!  We will still be using and reviewing the actions we learned in the last lesson, but we will now be moving on to classroom and household objects.

2nd Grade:

The test this past week concluded both lesson 5 and the first unit of Les Loustics.  We will be moving on to classroom objects this week.  You should expect to see your student's test by Thursday at the latest.  It will need to be signed at the top of the first page to let me know that you have seen it.  I did not write in the correct answers for anything your student missed on the test, since corrections will be available once again.  If your student is doing corrections on his or her test, he or she must hand them back, along with the signed original, on the class period after receiving the test.

I hope this finds you all having a restful weekend, and I look forward to another great week in French class!

A plus tard,
Mme. Ruchames