Monthly Archives: November 2019

2nd grade FFL: La tête, les épaules, genoux et pieds …

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The 2nd graders in general-education classes have been learning a new song, which many of us actually recognized right away as the same melody as “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.”  We talked about how it’s been translated in many different languages, including French, and it’s a great way to practice some new words we’ve been learning to name parts of our face and parts of our body in French.

To practice some of these new words, you can use this new Quizlet set about the parts of the face, or this new Quizlet set about the parts of the body.

Here is a recording, video, and lyrics of the song “La tête, les épaules, genoux et pieds” from the group Whistlefritz.

 

 

La tête, les épaules, genoux et pieds, genoux et pieds

(bis)

 

Les yeux, les oreilles, la bouche, et le nez

 

La tête, les épaules, genoux et pieds

 

1 DLP: ¡Hola! ¡Buenos días!

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After a year focused mostly on the French language, 1st grade DLP students are now spending a few weeks exploring some basic greetings and vocabulary in Spanish.  First, we studied some flags and identified which language most people speak in that country.

At home, you might ask: What other flags have you seen?  What other countries do you know about?  What languages are spoken there?

We are also beginning to learn a new song in Spanish.  Here’s a YouTube video that helps you to review the meaning of the song.  The lyrics are found below.

 

Buenos días

By José-Luis Orozco

 

¡Buenos días, buenos días!

¿Cómo estás, cómo estás?

Muy bien, gracias.  

Muy bien, gracias.

¿Y usted, y usted?

 

Buenas tardes, buenas tardes … 

 

Buenas noches, buenas noches … 

 

2 DLP: Où habites-tu ? Quelles langues parles-tu ?

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2nd grade DLP students have been engaging in a Social Studies mini-unit in French to identify the type of area in which they live, what languages they speak, how to find their country and others on a map, and what languages may be spoken in certain places around the world.  Students also did a quick entretien (interview) between francophone and anglophone students to share some of this information about themselves.  I was so proud to see many of the anglophone students taking risks to speak in French during this activity, and I was touched to see the way many of the francophone students gently supported and encouraged their classmates in this activity.

Now that we have all worked together as homeroom classes for a few weeks, as we have done in the past two years, we will once again be starting a differentiated schedule of Language Workshop for francophones and anglophones.

A bientôt les francophones et les anglophones !

Pre-K Music: Carnival of the Animals

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This year, I’m thrilled to be working with all Pre-K students in Music about once a week.  We began the year discussing some musical terms: solfège (Do, re, mi, …), notes, chords, scales, etc.  We’ve also been exploring some early musical concepts (such as loud and soft, high and low, stillness and movement) by singing songs and playing games.  It’s been so much fun exploring music with these very enthusiastic young students!

Recently we started listening to a special piece of music: The Carnival of the Animals, written by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns.  It’s an orchestral suite made up of many short pieces that each evoke different animals.  We have listened carefully to a few selections so far, and without knowing the title of the piece, we thought about what clues the music gave us about what animal it was about.  Is the animal big or small?  Does the animal move quickly or slowly?  Does the animal walk, run, jump, swim, or fly?  It’s been so fun listening to the pieces together, and then moving our bodies with the music that way that the animals do, like the jumping kangaroos, or the very slow tortoises.

You can listen to The Carnival of the Animals at home on Spotify or by watching this YouTube video, which shows you the sheet music that the musicians would use to play the piece.  You can read the titles throughout — which are in both French and English! — or you can try to guess what animal the piece is about by just listening to the music.

There will be a special performance of The Carnival of the Animals with music and puppets on Saturday, December 21 on the Upper West Side in Manhattan.  I’ve heard from a family who attended this last year that it is a great event, and there are still tickets available, if you might want to go with your families!

K FFL: Comment t’appelles-tu ?

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FFL students in grade K have been learning a new song to practice saying their names in French, and asking the names of others.  It also teaches us a new word to say “hi” in French — do you know what that is?

Here is a recording and lyrics of the song “Bonjour je m’appelle Michel” from Catherine Bruzzone’s language-learning method French for Children, published by McGraw Hill.

 

Bonjour, je m’appelle Michel.

Comment t’appelles-tu ?

Bonjour, je m’appelle Michel.

Comment t’appelles-tu ?

Je m’appelle Michel,

Et, salut.

 

Bonjour, je m’appelle Rachel.

Comment t’appelles-tu ?

Bonjour, je m’appelle Rachel.

Comment t’appelles-tu ?

Je m’appelle Rachel,

Et, salut.

Salut !

 

2nd grade FFL & DLP: El día de los muertos

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The 2nd grade classes and I had a great time discussing the traditions of the holiday El día de los muertos, which is celebrated from about October 31 to November 2 in Mexico and other Hispanic cultures.  Many students already knew a bit about this holiday from watching the Pixar film Coco; if you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend it!  It’s an excellent way to hear some common Spanish words sprinkled into the dialogue, and it’s a beautiful story about family.

In our LW class, we watched this video to learn a little more about the traditions of the holiday and to hear some of the Spanish words that describe them:

Then we watched a video about how to make el papel picado, a tissue paper decoration that is often seen around this time.  And we started to make some of our own in class!  We didn’t all have time to finish, but this video can remind you how to do it, and you can try to make some at home.