Grade 2, unit 1

This unit aims is to help the students to talk about themselves through new vocabulary. They will be able to speak about their family, their ages, their pets, their preferences and the places to live as well as qualities.

The contents and the curriculum will vary according to the student levels, their needs and interests.  For example, for the beginners, the description of the vocabulary and easy sentences dealing with their food, pets or color preferences… will be taught. By this way, my objective is to encourage them to interact in simple and rehearsed exchanges, using verbal and non-verbal language. Also, they will use basic phrases to communicate ideas, feelings and information on a variety of aspects of everyday topics.

Whereas the intermediate level students will be more focused on grammar to be able to respond in detail and appropriately to simple short phrases and basic information in spoken, written and visual text. Then, they should interact confidently in basic structured exchanges and use phrases effectively to communicate ideas, feelings and information in a variety of familiar situations; ideas are relevant, detailed and include examples. Finally, they should communicate with an excellent sense of audience.

Resources:

- the greetings: http://www.languageguide.org/french/greetings/ 

- the alphabet: http://www.languageguide.org/french/alphabet/ 

- the numbers: http://www.languageguide.org/french/numbers/ 

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

- the family members: http://www.languageguide.org/french/vocabulary/family/ 

- the age: http://www.languageguide.org/french/vocabulary/age/ 

During the week of August 2 to August 5, Grade 2 students and me get to know each other. I have been very surprised to hear about their own motivation to learning French language. Some of them want to travel to France, some think that French is easy (as similar to English), some other want to have a chance to continue their learning in their home countries, some other want to please their parents... 

Then, they shared their own point of view and perception about French language. How interesting is it! 

Well, we have a creative activity to show what the Scool Vision Statement "Learning together, growing together, each one making a difference"("apprendre ensemble, grandir ensemble, chacun faisant une difference") means for them.

The students contributed to create to common agreements (or class rules) and finally, they learned some French greetings, having fun while using funny accessories.

    

To conclude, many thanks to FRAYA for being the teacher assistant the all week long.

During the week of August 8 to August 12, the students have learned some new greeting and some key structure to introduce themself. They play different games such as " the greeting race" to develop their abilities to understand them. They have been so active and engaged!
  
    



Then, they discovered some new vocabulary using the first letter of the Alphabet: A and drawn the new words they learned. 
   

Thanks to Tekoa for helping us and teaching his mate while being my teacher assistant.

During the week of August 22 to August 26, the students reviewed the greeting and how to introduce themselves by telling their name.
Then, they learned the numbers from 1-10 in French.

  



To conclude, many thanks to ANTON for being the teacher assistant the all week long. 

During the week of August 29 to September 2,  the students practice all they learned by creating a play by groups.

During the weeks of September 5 to September 16,the students acquired some new learning, vocabulary, and key patterns, about the family members and the pets. Now they can present their own family. As a consequence, they have been able to be focused on understanding skills. 
They also completed their first formative assessment and most of them have done a very good work.



They also created a mind map to remember when to use the verb " TO HAVE" in French and used it to speak about: their age, their family and pets.

During the week of September 19 to September 23, they reviewed the main structures and vocabulary as well as learn to speak about their preferences. We played games to build up and use them in some different context.
 
  

  

    

  

We received a guest speaker: a great chance for the students to use their French! 

  

Finally, they completed their last summative assessment. They really did their very best and I am proud of them! 

  

During the week of September 26 to September 30, we are on holidays!

During the week of October 3 to October 7, the students learned the second part of their own presentation: how to speak about their gender, their nationality, and their own description by using the verb " to be".

  

  

     

Finally, the students played phonetics games to stimulate the development of the phonemic awareness.

  

     

During the week of October 10 to October 14, the students learned half of the alphabet and played games to practice their new learning.

  

 

 We also read the book Je suis le plus grand written by Stephanie Blake and the students drew who they want to be, based on the book. 

During the first week, grade 2 students learn the main rules in the French class, and expressed what the school vision,  “learning together, growing together, each making a difference” (Apprendre ensemble, grandir ensemble, chacun faisant une différence) means for them.

Children while drawing themselves and explaining the school vision and mission. 

After we played different French games, such as “Bonjour cousin, cousine” and “colin mallard” to use some new grammar structures and be ready to begin our unit. 

Children played at "Colin mallard": “ Qui c’ est?... c’ est….”

The children played“ Bonjour madame, bonjour monsieur, bonjour mon amie” with costumes!

Here is the information about our first unit:

Unit title: Who We Are – All About Me

Period: August 18th – October 9th 2015

The central Idea discuss is: Being aware of who we are helps us to understand our own and other people’s uniqueness.

The key concepts we investigate are: Form, Reflection
The lines of our inquiry are:

• Being aware of who we are (Form)
• Understanding our own and other people’s uniqueness (Reflection)

The main vocabulary and grammar structures are:

English sentences	French sentences	Recordings
·My name is…	Je m’ appelle… Mon nom est…
·I come from..	Je viens de ….
·I am … years old	J’ ai… ans
·I live in...	J' habite au….
· My mom is…	Ma maman est…
·My dad is...	Mon papa est…
·My hair is…	Mes cheveux sont…
·My eyes are…	Mes yeux sont…
- My mouth is…	Ma bouche est…
· I am small, tall etc..	Je suis petit, grand etc…
- I am creative, sportive etc...	Je suis créatif(ve), sportif(ve)
· I am unique because…	Je suis unique parce que…

During the week of August 24 to 28, the children learned numbers from 1 to 10 and how to tell their age by playing games and singing songs.

Students practiced the French numbers: " un", " deux"," trois", " quatre", "cinq"...

Students played " le Béret", a French game to become familiar with the numbers. 

"Le béret" is also a traditional hat and a French icon! 

During the week of August 31 to September 4, the children learned a song with a strong beat: " Quel âge as-tu? Quel âge as-tu? J' ai 8 ans, j' ai 8 ans"...a fun way to become comfortable with these patterns in the sounds, intonation, rhythm, grammar and meaning.

On Friday, we reviewed what we learned over the last week, especially the greetings the the own presentation, while doing plays with a partner. For sure, we will continue next week! 

During the week of September 7 to September 11, the children learnt some body parts when singing the song " une patate". Click here to see the song on Youtube. It was very fun! Then, the children discovered the letter A in French with some new words beginning with the letter A. They created posters to present the new words they know. 

During the week of September 14 to September 18, we worked on the body parts and their own description. The children reviewed the body parts by playing at " le mirroir". 

We read a funny story, Grrr! and some children performed some parts.

  Thanks Oliver, Joshua and the others: it was nice to hear you saying: " je suis la petite chèvre" or " je suis le petit cochon" and imitate the cry of the animals as well. 

During the week of September 21 to September 24, the students learned the colors and we associated the colors with the body parts, such as: I have blue eyes: " j' ai les yeux bleus".

Kids drawing people's face following French instructions.

Thanks Oliver for presenting your character in French! 

 The students discovered how to write some key words and recognize easy sentences. They could match their own drawing of themselves with the sentences they drawn. Then, we did an exercise to prepare them to the formative assessment and help them to feel confident. 

During the week of September 28 to October 2, the student have done some revisions and a formative assessment: answering questions based on the testimony of 3 French spoken people dealing with their own background and their face description. Then, we corrected it all together and I gave to each one of them a specific feedback. The kids have done such a good job! 

Finally, we began to learn the family members and the kids played Mia's game we adapted to be used with a part of the French alphabet, and especially the letters 
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H! Thanks to you Mia for his great idea! 

During the week of October 6 to October 10, we reviewed the  family members and the student did their first unit summative assessment.  All the students did their best to succeed it. I have been very proud of their hard work and efforts to understand 2 videos of French spoken people speaking about themselves and their family background and description.  

Then, we song a French song which one the kids liked: " si tu as de la joie dans ton coeur, frappe tes mains.." A nice way to end our first unit!