French 2.04 myschool v8

Early Start French Pack 2

4. A l’école At school

In this section pupils learn the names for different rooms in school. They can now use their knowledge of simple directions to show any French visitors to places around the school, or to find their way around a school in a French-speaking country.

Pupils will see what a French school is like, and can compare it with their own school.

The “talking point” explores school layout, with a look at lunch in the school canteen.

The opening sequence introduces the names for each of the different rooms in school.

The classroom: - la salle de classe.

We see an empty classroom.

The class: - la classe.

Children from Monsieur Charles’ class at the École Léon Jouhaux enter the room.

Monsieur Charles says: “Bonjour à tous.

Asseyez-vous”. (Good morning everyone. Sit down).

The technology room: - la salle de technologie. Children are working in the technology room.

The library: - la bibliothèque.

We see pupils reading in their school library.

The canteen: - la cantine.

It is lunchtime; pupils are eating in the canteen.

The playground: - la cour de récréation.

Children are shown outside at playtime.

The nursery school: - la maternelle.

The children in the nursery school take part in a variety of activities.

The toilets: - les toilettes.

First we see the toilets used by the children in the nursery school; then the older children’s

VIDEO NEW WORDS AND PHRASES

la salle de classe - classroom la classe - class (i.e. pupils) la salle de - computer technologie room la bibliothèque - library la cantine - canteen la cour de récréation - playground la maternelle - nursery school les toilettes - toilets REMINDER

Voici ...

This is ...

CD Track 16

Scene from video section 4: “Voici les toilettes”.

toilets. Boys and girls use the same toilets in most French schools.

The next sequence shows children presenting each of the rooms in their school to the viewers

Scene from video section 4: “la salle de technologie”.

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2.4 A l’école as if taking them on a guided tour:

“Voici ma salle de classe”.

“Voici ma classe.”

(We see the children answering the register).

“Voici la salle de technologie.”

“... et voici la bibliothèque.”

“Voici la cantine.”

1. Warm up

Play a game from Ch2.2 to remind children of the structures “Où est ...” and “Voici ...”.

Ask pupils what they remember about French schools they have seen previously in the videos.

2. Watch the video

❑ Watch video section 4: “A l’école”, which introduces new words for places in a school.

KEY SOUNDS

Listen and enjoy copying these typical sounds: where have you heard them before?

3. Get used to the sounds

“ ” as in cantine

Heard before in:

❑ Echoing: Make flashcards from the pictures on the activity sheet or copy them for the whiteboard/OHP. Name each in turn as you show the pictures.

Identify “la salle de classe” as the room, and “la classe” as the children in the room.

Pupils echo the words.

en France blanc

“ ” as in technologie

Heard before in:

jaune plage

(Listen to the native speakers try to copy their typically French sounds.)

4. Respond with understanding

❑ Flashcards: make several enlarged copies of the activity sheet and cut out the pictures of the different rooms in the French school.

Give one picture to each child.

Call out the name of a room, e.g. “la cantine”; pupils with a picture of the canteen hold it up.

Vary the pace at which you call out the rooms and repeat the same ones several times in a row to try and catch pupils out.

Ask them to swap pictures every so often.

NOTE: phonetic symbols are for teachers ONLY! See “Introduction” for how to use symbols)

CD Track 16

“Voici la maternelle.”

“Voici la cour de récréation.”

“Voici les toilettes.”

Planning your lessons

Once pupils are familiar with the French names of different rooms and places in the school, you can start using the words in phrases and structures learnt previously: asking where places are, giving directions.

You can label school rooms in French, and compare your school lunch arrangements.

❑ Play “true or false” Hold up the pictures one by one (or display on the whiteboard/OHP); say the name of each room as you show it, eg“Voici la bibliothèque”.

If you say the correct name, pupils echo the words; if it is a “mistake”, pupils remain silent.

Activities

HOW FRENCH WORKS: Accents and capital letters

❑ Play “which room’s where?”

Mark out a rough representation of a school corridor on the board or OHP. Attach the pictures of the different rooms on either side of the corridor and at the end. Add the pictures of the playground and the nursery to the plan of the school.

NOTE for teachers: pupils may notice accents over letters in some French words.

These are generally* NOT written over capitals, eg “à l’école” but “A L’ECOLE”. (*unless needed to avoid ambiguity). ⇠

Early Start French Pack 2 Indicate that you are at the start of the corridor.

Ask pupils to show you where different places are: eg “Où est la cantine? ..,à gauche? ...à droite? ...tout droit?”

Pupils look at the plan and tell you where the canteen is, eg “à gauche”.

NOTE: When asking “where are the toilets?”, you say “où sont les toilettes”.

As described in Ch.2.2: “En ville”, attach the picture cards to the wall. Make text cards to go with each, and set them out on a table.

Point to a picture, ask a pupil to select the right word card, and attach it to the picture. ❑ Play “word-picture match” 2 Give some pupils word flashcards and others the pictures of rooms. When you call out a room, pupils run to find their partner.

5. Working in pairs

CROSS-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

❑ Play “snap” Pupils can use multiple sets of the picture-cards to play “snap”, adding cards from Ch.2.2. They name each card in French as they turn it over.

❑ ICT/Art and design: “label the school” Pupils can word-process labels in French to place on the doors of different rooms around their own school.

They can design pictogram signs to complement the word-processed text labels.

❑ Play “two of a kind” Pupils work in pairs with a minimum of two sets of shuffled picture cards arranged at random and face down on a flat surface. (They could also include pictures of places in the town).

Player 1 turns over a picture and says the name of the room or place that is revealed. S/he then turns over another picture.

If this is a different room/place, s/he says the word and turns both pictures face down again.

Player 2 now has a go.

If a player turns up two identical pictures and names them correctly, s/he keeps the cards and has another go.

The aim is to remember where particular pictures are positioned and to name them correctly.

❑ ICT: “Our class” photo project: Pupils can use digital camera(s) to take a photo of every child in “la classe de Madame Smith”, word-

process everyone’s name, and swap with your French partner school. Make a photo-montage if a big “team photo” is difficult.

6. Watch the video again

❑ Show video section 4: “A l’école” again for reinforcement.

❑ ICT: “A video-guide to our school” Pupils could take photographs or prepare a video for their exchange school which shows what their school is like. They could follow the example of the French children who present their school in video section 4: “A l’école”.

7. Look again at sounds

❑ Play either “listen to the sounds” (described in Ch.2.2: “En ville”) or “find the sound” (described in Ch.2.3: “Toutes directions”).

❑ Art and design/geography/maths: “A plan of your school” The class could draw pictures and prepare a plan showing the layout of the rooms in their school to make a display (labelled in French) to send to your French partner school.

Pupils can use the plan of the school to practise asking for and giving directions.

Introducing the written word

When pupils are familiar with hearing and saying the new words, show the final sequence of video section 4: “A l’école”. It repeats each of the key words and phrases with on-screen text. ❑ Play “word-picture match” 1 ⇠

2.4 A l’école ❑ Drama: “School guided tour” Ask children to imagine a situation where they need to show someone around their school: ... a new pupil comes to school who is French? ... your class receives a group of French visitors? Alternatively, set the scene in a French school.

Pupils can improvise greetings; asking visitors’ names, ages, where they live. They can present different parts of the school, and give directions.

Town Hall, where their meals are served at the tables.

The Menu In most schools, pupils can see a printed menu for the week ahead. The catering company has to offer children a healthy balanced diet.

There are always three courses to the meal: ◆ the first course (l’entrée) is often a salad, soup, melon or fruit juice. ◆ the main course (le plat principal) will usually be meat, fish or an omelette, with vegetables. ◆ dessert (le dessert) is usually fresh fruit, yoghurt, mousse, and sometimes a cake or ice cream. Normally cheese is on offer as well.

Talking point

EVERYDAY LIFE IN FRANCE Primary school buildings in France

■ If children are curious, show them the Roubaix school’s Menu on the next page. Compare with your school meals. NOTE: You will cover language for food in later sections.

A primary school class in France is likely to have most lessons in their own classroom, taught by their class teacher. They do not have a whole-school religious assembly (see Ch.2.14), so there is no big hall. PE and sport are in la cour de récréation, except in bad weather.

Younger children Under-sixes from the maternelle eat the same three courses - but they are served at the table.

A self-service canteen shared by primary schools in Roubaix.

School lunch in Roubaix: this main course is omelette.

The village of Sars-Poteries used to have separate primary schools for boys and girls. Now classes are mixed, with the older classes in the boys’ school; the younger ones in the old girls’ building a few minutes walk away.

Because of falling rolls, the school has two spare rooms: one is used as a computer room; the other for art. The school uses the community sports hall for indoor games and PE.

EXTRA WORDS AND PHRASES

Où sont les toilettes?

Where are the toilets?

Est-ce que je peux aller aux toilettes?

May I go to the toilet?

la salle de sport la salle des profs le hall la direction le directeur la directrice

Serving lunch in the school canteen

French children either eat in the canteen or go home for lunch; they rarely bring packed lunches. The video shows a self-service canteen in Roubaix, shared by two nearby schools.

Children in Sars-Poteries walk to the small

- sports hall - staffroom - hall - head’s office - headmaster - headmistress

Hear these extra phrases on the audio CD. CD Track 16

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Menu lundi

Entrée: 1/2 pamplemousse et sucre Half grapefruit with sugar Maternelle: jus de pamplemousse (Nursery: grapefruit juice) Plat principal: Blanquette de dinde (turkey in a white sauce) petits pois (peas) V: Lasagnes végétariennes aux épinards (vegetarian lasagne made with spinach) Dessert: Flan vanille/ Flan chocolat (a chocolate or vanilla flavour baked custard) Fruit de saison (fresh fruit of the season)

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mardi

Entrée: Salade de tomates (tomato salade) Plat principal: Boeuf braisé sauce brune (beef braised in a brown sauce) Purée de brocolis (puréed broccoli) V: Rizotto printanier aux légumes et gruyère (risotto rice with vegetables and gruyère cheese) Dessert: Petit pot de glace (a little tub of ice cream) Fruit de saison (fresh fruit of the season) Gouda/ Mimolette/ Edam

(a choice of cheeses: Gouda and Edam are Dutch cheeses, well-known world-wide; Mimolette is a regional cheese from northern France).

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mercredi

Entrée: Melon/Pastèque

(a choice of either melon or watermelon) Plat principal: Escalope de poulet sauce estragon (chicken cooked in a tarragon sauce) Flageolets et navets (flageolet beans and turnip)

V: Crêpe champignons (mushroom pancake)

mercredi continued:

Dessert: Fromage blanc: nature sucré/ aromatisé (soft white cheese also known as fromage frais.

A choice is offered between natural sweetened with sugar, or flavoured.)

Fruit de saison (fresh fruit of the season)

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jeudi

Entrée: Jus de pommes/ jus d’orange/ jus de raisin (apple-, orange- or grape-juice) Plat principal: Jambon, mayonnaise, et frites (ham, mayonnaise, and chips) V: Spaghettis aux 2 fromages et champignons a( spaghetti dish made with two kinds of cheese and mushrooms) Dessert: Yaourt nature sucré/ Yaourt aux fruits (natural yoghurt with sugar or fruit yoghurt) Fruit de saison (fresh fruit of the season) Camembert (Camembert cheese)

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vendredi

Entrée: Pizza (pizza) Plat principal: Omelette (omelette) Epinards et pommes de terre (spinach and potatoes) Same for vegetarians.

Dessert: Eclair au chocolat (chocolate éclair) Fruit de saison (fresh fruit of the season) Vache qui rit* / Brie (choice of cheeses) * La vache qui rit is a well-known brand of processed cheese for spreading on bread or biscuits - The Laughing Cow. You see its famous red cow logo in video section 2 - on the cheese stall in the market scene. You can buy this cheese in most British supermarkets.

A l’école

Je m’appelle ...........................

This page may be photocopied for classroom use

© 2004 Early Start Lan-

A l’école

Je m’appelle ...........................

This page may be photocopied for classroom use

© 2004 Early Start Lan-