Happy Crepe Day!  February 2 is la Chandeleur in France.  Follow this fun tradition:  as your crepe is sizzling away, hold the pan in one hand and a coin in the other.  Flip that puppy up in the air!  Catch it in the pan, and your family will be prosperous for the year ahead!  Miss?  Well, clean up and try again.

Kids will enjoy these online activities about la Chandeleur from www.fete-enfants.com and from www.momes.net

Crepe recipes abound online.  Check out this one from www.allrecipes.com.  You don’t need a fancy pan, but be sure you get it nice and hot.  Personally, I love my crepe maker from VillaWare.  It’s easy to bring into the classroom to have a little immersion cooking fun!

And finally, here’s a FREE pdf French lesson about crepes that you can use in your French classes or at home.  It’s great for beginners of all ages.  Click to download:

Free French Crepe Lesson

Happy Crepe Day!

Image by clipart.com

Of course, our modern technology makes this little activity easier and more enjoyable than ever.  Here are my favorite iPad apps for recording speech and encouraging oral skills in any language.

1.  Talking Friends:  Pierre, Ben, Gina, Robo, and more.  Simply talk and the cartoon characters repeat what you say in their cute cartoony voices.  Funny, engaging, and very silly!  Check out the developer’s site (Outfit 7) to see the selection of Talking Friends.

2.  Puppet Pals:  Select your puppet actors, backdrops, and record away!  You can save the shows for future viewing.  The voices are your own.  Check it out here in the iTunes store.

3.  Sock Puppets:  This app is SO fun and my son’s favorite.  Choose your sock puppets, props, and scenery and create shows to save.  Great for two(-or-more)-person dialogues.  Kids love to hear their “cartoon” voices and major bonus . . . the mouths move.  Check it out here in the iTunes store.

4.  Toontastic:  Kids can create their own multi-scene cartoons, and can even draw their own scenes and characters.  Love the background music.  Hours of entertainment in this one!  Awesome, awesome, awesome.  What a way to encourage and develop foreign language skills. Learn more at LaunchPad Toys.

Have fun with speaking languages on your iPad.

Welcome book and language lovers!  I am giving away a beautiful Spanish children’s book and CD:  El Mundo, published by Barefoot Books.  It’s a “green” twist on “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.”  The illustrations are vibrant and engaging and the music is fantastic!  Here is the publisher’s description:

This book is perfect for Spanish speakers, learners, and teachers alike.  Want to enter to win?  Here’s how:

Mandatory:  Post a comment telling me why you’d like to win this book.  Do you speak Spanish?  Want to introduce the language to a child?

Bonus entry #1:  Follow us on Facebook, then leave a comment on this blog post letting me know.

Bonus entry #2:  Join our mailing list (right sidebar.)  You’ll receive free Spanish and French downloads each month and you can cancel at anytime.  Remember to return to this blog post and leave a separate comment letting me know you’re on the list.

This giveaway begins and ends with the Book Lover’s Holiday Giveaway Hop, December 2 – December 6.  It will close at midnight EST.  U.S. residents only please.   I will select a winner using random.org.

Now hop along to some other fantastic blogs and giveaways.  Buena suerte

Diane

On the eve of this special day, French children leave their shoes by the fireplace.  During the night, Saint Nicolas arrives and fills the shoes with sweets such as candy, chocolate or gingerbread.  He is often accompanied by his donkey and Père Fouettard.  (A scary guy who doles out whippings for naught children.  Yeeks!!)

Since Nicolas is the patron saint of school children, he often visits schools on the 6th.  Watch and listen as these French children enjoy a visit from Saint Nicolas:

Here are the words to the traditional song:

Ô grand Saint Nicolas,
Patron des écoliers,
Apporte-moi des pommes
Dans mon petit panier.
Je serai toujours sage
Comme une petite image.
J’apprendrai mes leçons
Pour avoir des bonbons.

Venez, venez, Saint Nicolas,
Venez, venez, Saint Nicolas,
Venez, venez, Saint Nicolas, et tra la la…

Introduce your children or students to the St. Nicholas Day tradition with these activities:

1.  Make and decorate a paper shoe.  It’s fun and easy to do, and more convenient that real shoes in a school setting.

2.  French teachers, use these downloads to teach your students about St. Nicolas Day customs.

Bonne Saint-Nicolas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Introduce children of all ages to world languages this Thanksgiving with a fun secret message printable.  This international activity is perfect for Thanksgiving. Decipher how to say “Thank you” in French, Spanish, English, Hebrew, Hawaiian, Italian, Japanese and Swahili. Grades 2-6. Answer key included.  Click the link to purchase.

Thanksgiving International Secret Code Worksheet:  Give Thanks in Many Languages

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here’s my pre-Thanksgiving French lesson 2011:

1.  Parlez-vous “turkey”?  I talked about how animals make different sounds in different languages.  French cows say “Meuh,” French pigs say “Gron, gron,” and French roosters say “Cocorico!”  American turkeys may say “Gobble, gobble,” but French turkeys say “Glou, glou, glou!”  I showed the following video clip and my students loved it as a fun way to set the Thanksgiving theme.

I found something similar in Spanish, too:

2.  Next, I introduced a Thanksgiving vocabulary PowerPoint that we made at ForeignLanguageHouse.com.  It’s available in French or Spanish.  It was effective to have the students guess the feminine forms of pilgrim and Native American before I revealed the word.  When it came to foods vocabulary, I asked students their preferences.  I usually draw various smily/frowny faces on the board to indicate J’adore – J’aime (bien, beaucoup) – Je n’aime pas (du tout) – Je déteste.  Students ask a partner about a preference, and then I ask several students.  Follow-up questions are extremely important to keep the conversations flowing.  My students like to use “sauf” (except) and “mais” (but) to go beyond a simple statement.

If your students are younger, or if the concept of expressing preferences is brand new, consider our “Expressing Preferences with Thanksgiving Foods” downloads in French or Spanish

We also have a Tic Tac Toe board of Thanksgiving foods that can be used in any language.  Students can make a statement about the food (preference, pass me please, etc.) before placing an X or an O on the space.  You can make copies for students to play in partners, or you can project it onto a screen for team play.

3.  The main thing my students like to talk about is themselves.  (Who doesn’t, right?)  So we spent a lot of time discussing our plans for Thanksgiving break.  Luckily, we had recently learned the immediate future tense, so it was fabulous practice.  Some verbs and expressions were new, but within the context of the conversation it was easy to introduce them for use in the lesson.  We have French and Spanish printables in which students ask each other if they are going to cook, watch football, travel, shop, eat turkey, etc.  They write, they interview partners, and they circulate around the room collecting signatures for affirmative responses.  Be sure to participate in this activity as well!

Here’s a fun follow-up to the circulating activity:  Human Bingo!  Read off the names of the students you found while walking around the room asking, “Are you going to . . . ?”  For example:  Chantal va voyager.  Jean va faire la cuisine.  Juliette va regarder un match de football américain.  Students give themselves one point for every name/activity that matches the teacher’s answer.  Candy is always appreciated for the winner!

I am always thankful for lessons such as this that get my students speaking!

p.s.  Looking for a quick, easy lesson for the day AFTER Thanksgiving break?  If your students know the past tense, the downloads from #3 above also include past tense versions of the printables.

 I just received the new Whistlefritz French Cha, Cha, Cha CD (review coming soon!)  I’ve already been having a ball incorporating the fun, catchy melodies into my lessons.  In fact, there’s one song I love so much I wanted to tell you about it right away!

Les Nombres is a fantastic way to practice counting up to 20 by 1′s, and up to 100 by 10′s.  It was a success in both my preschool and my middle school classes.  My little ones shook maracas with every Cha-cha-cha and my older students made up a little dance.

Click here to listen to a sample.  Les Nombres is Track 5.

Here’s a simple numbers PowerPoint I made to go along with the song.  Click to download:  Numbers PowerPoint.

It’s very quick and easy to reinforce numbers and counting vocabulary with music and movement.

Here’s what your students will learn in French:

1 – un

2 – deux

3 – trois

4 – quatre

5 – cinq

6 – six

7- sept

8 – huit

9 – neuf

10 – dix

20 – vingt

30 – trente

40 – quarante

50 – cinquante

60 – soixante

70 – soixante-dix

80 – quatre-vingts

90 – quatre-vingt-dix

100- cent

Enjoy singing and learning with Whistlefritz!

10 – dix

9 – neuf

8 – huit

7 – sept

6 – six

5 – cinq

4 – quatre

3 – trois

2 – deux

1 – un

Décollage!

Children can watch this video clip of the Ariane rocket launch.  Find French Guyana on the globe and show children le Centre Spatial Guyanais.  Culture can indeed be infused into even the most elementary of lessons!

For more information on the French space program, go to ArianeSpace.com