Ms Valerie's French classes: Grade 2, unit 4

"My dream holiday!”

From the end of March 2017, the students begin a new unit: "My dream holiday!”

This unit aims to help the students to acquire the basics of the holidays and the hobbies through new vocabulary about the means of transport, hobbies, and destination.

Then, they learn some useful language structures to describe hobbies and preferences in general.

The main focal area for this unit is: "Bienvenue dans la Francophonie !" which means "Welcome in Francophonie!"

The student will have a chance to better know French spoken countries around the world (such as Canada, Algeria or Madagascar), some cultural, historic, landscape and original facts.

Here is a list of these countries: http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/countries_by_languages.htm

For sure, the contents and the organization will vary according to the student levels, their needs and interests. For example for the beginners,

the vocabulary ad easy sentences dealing with the main adjectives and actions such as traveling, going to… will be taught. By this way, my objective is encouraging them to interact in simple and rehearsed exchanges, using verbal and non-verbal language. Also, they might use basic phrases to communicate ideas, feelings and information on a variety of aspects of a trip description, such as I like this country, I prefer traveling by car …

We will be focused on writing during this unit so students will be able to know how to spell and write key words as well as recognizing the normal basic French sentence, which is usually made with the following components in this specific order: a subject, a conjugated verb and a complement.

For instance: I travel in Belgium.

Je voyage en Belgique.

The students will contribute to create a French book by being creative and knowledgeable, as well as balanced and thinkers. They will make research about subjects they like or other they do not know yet which deals with different countries inheritance, sport, music, animal... For sure we will celebrate the diversity and promote an open-minded atmosphere

Depending of their level and by the end of this unit, the students might be able to:

Create statements and questions based on familiar, often memorized material
Write a series of statements about a particular topic to express basic understanding

Apply learned material, though with non-alphabetic scripts/characters or newer structures, errors may occur
Recognize errors in basic constructions and characters/scripts with guidance
Show little evidence of structure in paragraph-level writing, where appropriate to the target language
Write short, simple communications, compositions, descriptions and creative pieces based on personal preferences, routines, common events and other topics
Add description and detail with guidance and feedback
Organize ideas in a logical sequence, but may have difficulty linking sentences
Use example texts to create personalized versions of nonfiction and fiction writing
Spell most simple and high-frequency words correctly
Write using complete sentences
Begins rephrasing and explaining known items to increase vocabulary and use new structures in order to participate more fully in language interactions
Express needs with increasingly longer structures consisting of multi-word and sentence-length constructions
Paraphrase oral information with guidance.
Respond to simple questions in phrases.
Express themselves with little or no guidance.
Pronounce more clearly

Here are some of the vocabulary taught during this unit (according to students levels):

- continents: http://www.languageguide.org/french/vocabulary/continents/

- Car travel: http://www.languageguide.org/french/vocabulary/car-travel/

- Travel: http://www.languageguide.org/french/vocabulary/travel/

- Games: http://www.languageguide.org/french/vocabulary/games/

- Amusement Park: http://www.languageguide.org/french/vocabulary/fair/

- City: http://www.languageguide.org/french/vocabulary/city/

- Landscapes: http://www.languageguide.org/french/vocabulary/landscapes/

- Weather: http://www.languageguide.org/french/vocabulary/weather/

- Pets: http://www.languageguide.org/french/vocabulary/pets/

We began our new unit. After brainstorming about the new unit topic,

students expressed what they want to do and to learn for the next weeks to explore what could be their dream holiday.

Most of them drawn their ideas and presented them

I introduced for 5 main parts of our unit. By the end of the unit, I will enable the students to understand, speak and write (in some extend) to 5 key questions:
1. Where?
The place where we can travel and we will learn about the continent.

2. When?

The students will learn how to write the months and they will be able to speak about the weather.

3. With who?

The students will be able to say with who do they want to travel with, such as their family, their friend...

4. How?

The students will learn how to write the means of transport.

5. What?

The students will learn about the activities that we can do during our holidays.

1. Where?
The students learned some places to visit and played games to differentiate feminine, masculine and plural continents and where they are located : "sud, nord, ouest, est".

The students choose a continent, did some research about it and illustrated it.

They finally watch some short documentaries about French regions and touristic attractions in French spoken countries.

2. When?

The students learn how to write the months and the seasons.

The students learn how to speak about the weather by creating flashcards and performances as wells commenting students presentation.

Students danced on a French song about the weather.

During the week of March 13 to March 17,

During the week of March 20 to March 24,

During the week of March 27 to March 31,

During the week of April 3 to April 7,

During the week of April 10 to April 14,

During the week of April 17 to April 21,

During the week of April 24 to April 28,

During the week of May 1 to May 5,

During the week of May 8 to May 12,

During the week of May 15 to May 19,

During the week of May 22 to May 26,

During the week of May 29 to June 2,

During the week of June 5 to June 9,

"My dream holidays!”

On March, 28, the Grade 2 students began a new unit: "My dream holidays!”

This unit aims to help the students to acquire the basics of the holidays and the hobbies through new vocabulary about the means of transport, hobbies, and destination.

Then, they might learn some useful language structures to describe hobbies and preferences in general.

The main focal area for this unit is: "Bienvenue en France !" which means "Welcome to France!"

The student will have a chance to better know France, some cultural, historic, landscape and original facts.

For sure, the contents and the organization will vary according to the student levels, their needs and interests. For example for the beginners,

For instance: I travel in France.

Je voyage en France

The students will contribute to a French book by being creative and knowledgeable, as well as open-minded and thinkers. They will make research about subjects they like or other they do not know yet which deals with French inheritance, sport, music, animal...

Depending of their level and by the end of this unit, the students might be able to:

Create statements and questions based on familiar, often memorized material
Write a series of statements about a particular topic to express basic understanding

Apply learned material, though with non-alphabetic scripts/characters or newer structures, errors may occur
Recognize errors in basic constructions and characters/scripts with guidance
Show little evidence of structure in paragraph-level writing, where appropriate to the target language
Write short, simple communications, compositions, descriptions and creative pieces based on personal preferences, routines, common events and other topics
Add description and detail with guidance and feedback
Organize ideas in a logical sequence, but may have difficulty linking sentences
Use example texts to create personalized versions of nonfiction and fiction writing
Spell most simple and high-frequency words correctly
Write using complete sentences
Begins rephrasing and explaining known items to increase vocabulary and use new structures in order to participate more fully in language interactions
Express needs with increasingly longer structures consisting of multi-word and sentence-length constructions
Paraphrase oral information with guidance.
Respond to simple questions in phrases.
Express themselves with little or no guidance.
Pronounce more clearly

Here are some of the vocabulary will be taught during this unit:

Means of transport (les moyens de transport): airplane (l’avion), train (le train), bus (le bus/l’autobus), car (la voiture), ship/boat (le bateau), bicycle (le vélo), taxi/cab (le taxi), motocycle (la moto), tuktuk (le tuktuk)

Nature and landscapte (la nature et les paysages): mountain (la montagne), river (la rivière), sea (la mer), ocean (l’océan)

Hobbies (les hobbies/les passe-temps): cycling (le vélo), swimming (la natation), camping (faire du camping/camper), climbing (escalader), fishing (pécher), sailing (faire du bateau), sports (les sports: le football, le basket etc…), music (la musique)

Actions: to swim (nager), to observe (observer), to make a fire (faire un feu)

to take pictures (photographier/prendre des photos, to travel (voyager), to take a flight (prendre un avion), to go to the restaurant (aller au restaurant), to go for a walk (faire une randonner), to visit (visiter)

Animal (les animaux): bird (l’oiseau), fish (le poisson), horse (le cheval), bear (l’ours)….

Weather (la météo): Hot (chaud), cold (froid), cloudy (nuageux),

Foggy (brumeux), rainy (pluvieux)

Seasons (les saisons): dry seson (la saison sèche), rainy season (la saison des pluies), winter (l’hiver), autum (l’automne), spring (le printemps), summer (l’été)

Cultural aspects (les aspects culturels): museum (le musée), exhibition (l’exposition), festival (le festival), theater (le théâtre), performance (la performance), monument (le monument)

During the week of April 4 to April 8, the students discovered our new unit and explain what does "dream holiday" means for them.

They began to learn new vocabulary dealing this the places: la montagne, la mer, le lac..., as well as means of transport by different learning activities such as playing relay games.

During the week of April 18 to April 22, the students learned some sportive activities in nature, such as skiing, fishing, climbing etc... and performed it by groups. They have been so creative!

In relation with the EARTH DAY, the children also discoverd why our French Frog ("grenouille français") was sick ("malade").

During the week of April 25 to April 29, the students learned the seasons and the weather... thanks to Madame la neige and Madame la pluie, our mascotes. And reviewed the main structures (je voyage, je vais...) and vocabulary.

Come on guys, follow the loud train, the fast motobike!

Finally, they learned how to write the key vocabulary.

During the weeks of May 2 to May 13, the students created a collaborative book to be displayed at the Knowledge Center until the end of the school year. They began by inventing a family who is traveling in France. Some of them did some research or presented their own experience in those countries. By group or alone they wrote scripts in English. Then, I helped them to translate in French the phrases they did not know. Some of them also used online dictionaries. After writing the story in French and illustrated by drawing it. They have been so creative!

During the week of May 16 to May 20, the students were focused on writing skills. My goal is to help them to be able to recognize some family sounds and reinforce their phonological awareness and memory.

During the week of May 23 to May 27, the students had a cooking session: so nice to cook French cakes (des pets de nonnes) together and introduce some new food vocabulary.