French Celebration Week At Blossom Nursery 11 – 15 December 2011
Just before the winter holidays I had the great pleasure to talk about my country: France. Our aim for French week was to give the children a simple yet fun overview of what French culture is about. For more information you can visit www.euroclubschools.co.uk
After a more in-depth presentation of France by looking at a map and asking questions (where is France? How do we get to France? How long does it take to get there?), and by talking about different subject (the currency, the national costume, famous buildings and monuments, the flag, French National Anthem…) we finally finished with what characterizes France: “la gastronomie Francaise”: food, aromas and flavours…which was the main subject all over the week.
In accordance with our main subject, various activities were planned throughout the week like herbal craft. During the craft day, all classes produced a French craft which was a “Tree” made out of natural produce grown in France, i.e. “liege” (cork) and “herbes de provence” (French herbs originated from the south of France, used in cooking such as thyme, rosemary, bay leaves). Babies and toddler classes, as a group, decorated the “Welcome Tree” and Preschool classes made individual fridge-magnets to take home, either in the form of a heart or a miniature tree; they both used “liege”(cork) for the trunk and sprinkled “les herbes de provence” for the top part. They added “Pot Pourri” to add some colour and bay leaves for character and lavender essence for the smell. It gave all children the opportunity to see beauty in natural products, smell the herbs and flowers, feel the textures and make the “Tree” look real with natural products.
Children experimented with a variety of French products: camembert, vache qui rit…(cheese), tapenade (olives cream), cornichon (pickles), petit beurre, galette au beurre (biscuit) and took part of a French breakfast; each class got the chance to taste a typical French breakfast with fresh “baguette”, topped with “beurre” (butter) and “confiture” (jam) and also they practiced these words and their good manners with “s’il te plait” (please), “merci” (thank you), “non merci” (no thank you), commenting on the food with “c’est bon!” (It tastes good!), “j’aime! (I like it!). This was nicely finished off with a drink of “chocolat chaud” (hot chocolate).
At the end of the week, the preschool children shared their experiences about French by singing few favorite songs: “Bonjour Madame, Bonjour Monsieur…”, “Alouette”, “Promenonsnous dans les bois”, “Meunier tu dors”
I hope the children will keep very fond memories of this experience and share what they enjoyed with their families at home.
To a prosperous year ahead… “Bonne Annee 2012…”
Madame Nadege
French Teacher-Blossom Nursery