Week of February 25th - 29th

Welcome Back!

Congratulations to Marion Cotillard, the French actress from the movie La Vie en Rose about the French singer Edith Piaf who won the Oscar for Best Actress!

Last week, ALL Seventh and Eighth Grade French students received progress reports. This is the mid-way point for this marking period, so it was a great chance for students to see their success and brag about their progress at home (à la maison) or complete any missing work/assignments. We have been having homework in French class every Wednesday night. It has been a great opportunity for students to practice and master new skills and vocabulary.

This week, Seventh Graders will be working on new verbs. They SHOULD know the verb etre and the different forms already. We are moving to the next step using the same pronouns with regular -er verbs in our reading and writing.

Eighth Grade scholars are working on possessives (my, his, your...) remembering the different ending for masculine, feminine and plural objects. We will also be looking at a clip from the movie, La Vie en Rose, about Edith Piaf and analyzing the vocabulary and themes of several of her songs such as "Je ne regrette rien" and "La vie en rose". You can see clips of her singing these on http://www.youtube.com/ and search "Edith Piaf". What a great opportunity to hear her sing and learn a bit more about French culture!

Week of February 11th -15th

All Students -

Be sure to check out the new French-speaking Country-of-the-Month. Watch the bulletin board for more information! Can you tell which country it is? Can you locate it on a map? Bonne chance!

Seventh Graders are going places this week. They will be using their new prepositions (à, de, et, ou, avec, pour, mais) in their writing with the correct forms of être to describe various locations.
Students - Impress your parents with the sentences below. Can you read them correctly? Do you know what they mean?
Je suis en classe.
Tu es en vacances?
Il est au café.
Elle est à la maison.
Nous sommes en ville.
Vous êtes au cinéma.
Ils sont ici.
Elles ne sont pas ici.

Eighth Graders are looking at the difference between expression with jouer à and jouer de. Can you explain the difference? We are looking inside "un immeuble" to see and describe families and neighbors, occupations/hobbies, and the floor where they live. We are making "des comparaisons culturelles" as we examine how French and American people label or number floors in a building.

Week of February 4-8th

This week in French class, Seventh and Eighth Grade students will be learning about Canada, our francophone country of the month. As one of our LOTE Standards is Culture, students will learn about the culture of Canada with a powerpoint slide show that their peers researched and created. Students should have their Canada Graphic organizer in their notebooks (some scholars still need to bring their notebooks to class). Ask your child about the capital city of Canada, or about their government, about a famous Canadian, or about Canada Day.

Seventh and Eighth Grade scholars will also be learning about Mardi Gras this week through another powerpoint slide show. Ask your child about what "Mardi Gras" means, or the origins of the celebration, or the official Mardi Gras colors and their meanings. Again, this is a great opportunity to learn about the celebrations as part of culture in French-speaking countries. "Laissez les bon temps roller!"