Part C: Preparing your own show

Planning your lessons

In this part, your class can prepare to turn a routine PE lesson into an enjoyable ‘French circus’ event. Use the films and play more “Jacques a dit...” as part of your build-up - and if you can get an audience for your show (parents, a school assembly or other classes) that would be great.

Bring in the “Talking point” about the French circus so that children know why the modern circus has such strong links with France.

Activities

Warm up

Talk in French with the children and the class puppet about spoken instructions children can say in French, e.g. in “Jacques a dit” from section .3.2. Remind yourselves of any common pattern in the way French instructions sound.

Watch film C1: human centipede

❑ In film C1, the circus school teacher shows children how to make themselves into a “human centipede”; then the boys race against the girls.

GISTING/ get used to the sounds

n Gisting - how much can you understand? Children can recognise the words for parts of the body in what the circus school teacher says, “Alors, sur les pieds et les mains, avec les jambes tendues...”

From the children’s response, they also may be able to work out what they are told to do.

Respond with understanding

❑ Try acrobatics in a PE lesson

Take the advice of a PE specialist before attempting the ”human centipede” activity. Unless you are confident that you can help children to do it safely, substitute another ‘boys v. girls’ race, e.g. hopping (see film C2).

Watch film C2: “Jacques a dit...”

❑ Films C2 and C3 introduce more simple instuctions in French, that will be useful in PE lessons and in your own “circus show”

- see “How French works 4: giving spoken instructions”.

C1: NEW WORDS

Human centipede

Ils font... (le mille-pattes) They do... (the centipede)

Les filles contre les garçons Boys against girls

une course depêchez-vous! - a race - hurry up!

Les garçons ont gagné! The boys have won!

In film C2, we see more of Madame Antit playing “Simon says...” with her class in an open-air PE lesson (part of this was previously seen in section 3.2, “Les parties du corps”)

This sequence re-visits parts of the body and introduces a new focus on instructions, using a few new verbs - see “C2-C3: New Words”.

Get used to the sounds

n Gisting - how much can you understand?

Again children can recognise the words for parts of the body in the teacher’s instructions. From the children’s response, they may be able to work out what action they are told to do.

Respond with understanding

❑ Play ‘Simon Says...’ (‘Jacques a dit’)

The class know this familiar game, not least from section 3.2, “Les parties du corps”. Now you can both re-visit parts of the body and introduce a new focus on instructions, using a few new verbs - see “C2-C3: New Words”

Key Sounds

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

as in... tournez, sautez, etc. heard before in nez, ajouter, salé as in... lancez, échauffement heard before in fatigant, jambe as in.. pas, c’est, fatigant seen before in fait, ils font

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

The class stands up.

If you say, e.g. “Jacques a dit touchez... les pieds”, each now touches their feet.

If you just say “Touchez les pieds”, those children who do so sit down and are out.

Last one left standing wins!

Watch film C3: warm-up

❑ Film C3 shows a circus school warm-up session, where children follow the teacher’s instructions to prepare their muscles.

4 asseyez-vous! - sit (down)!

HOW FRENCH WORKS: Giving spoken instructions

Children may be used to responding to your spoken instructions in French, e.g levez la main! - put up your hand! écoutez! - listen! prenez tous un crayon! - everyone take a pencil! (these orders are to the class rather than one child*)

You can use imperative orders in this form to give instructions in a PE lesson.

* NOTE: if you are a non-expert linguist, you could use this form even when addressing one child - you would be speaking politely rather than familiarly!

Ch.3.1 “Bonne santé” showed how French recipes are often written using an infinitive (“to add flour”) rather than an imperative order (“add flour!”).

C2 and C3: NEW WORDS

Instructions: Simon says, warm-up l’échauffement (m) tournez...(la tête) courez.. sautez... lancez...(la balle)

(le ballon) attrapez...

- the warm-up

- turn (your head)

- run

- jump

- throw..(the ball1)

1 = a small ball e.g. tennis

- (the ball2)

2 = football or rugby ball

- catch

Examples of instructions

mains...(sur la tête) (en l’air) (sur les côtés) sautez...(sur place)

(à cloche-pied)

Before you do something similar in your PE lesson, practise in the classroom the French instructions you intend to use.

Respond with understanding

accroupez debout stop!

- hands...(on head)

- (in the air)

- (by your sides)

- jump (on the spot)

- hop on one leg

- squat

- stand up

- stop!

❑

Play ‘Warm up’ in PE

In your PE lesson, use the new instructions that you have practised in class. Vary both the verb and the parts of the body referred to, e.g.

“Tournez le pied”, “Touchez la tête”

Arranging the class

Mettez-vous... (en circle)

Put yourselves into... (a circle)

All these French instructions can be used to play more games of “Jacques a dit...”, which is a good PE activity.

Watch film C4: balancing and rolling

❑ Film C4 shows younger children at the Circus School as they rehearse balancing acts and somersaults before putting on their own “circus show”.

C4: NEW WORDS

- show un spectacle

Balancing instructions in PE

Mettez-vous en équilibre sur... Balance (yourselves) on....

...les balles

...la tête

...une jambe

...le banc l’équilibre

- ...the balls

- ...your head

- ...one leg

- ...the bench

- balance

Somersaults les roulades la roulade avant la roulade arrière

Film C4: “la roulade avant” - a forward somersault. The audience of family and friends arrives to see acts the children have mastered during their week’s course in the school holidays. Watch this for ideas for your own show.

Film C4: Two teachers help children make a human pyramid.

CROSS-CURRICULAR

❑ PE/ performance

Activities

In your PE sessions, prepare the children to give a “circus performance” in French. Invite an audience (parents, the rest of the school or another class).

Decide what acts you are going to show: simple PE activities like somersaults are fine for the purpose (see “EXTRA” boxes).

If children want to announce other PE activities, they can look up the words in a bilingual dictionary, and work out how to pronounce them correctly using their knowledge of phonemes.

- somersaults

- forward roll - backward roll

EXTRA: instructions for PE un petit sac

- a little bag (bean-bag)

Posez le petit sac en équilibre sur la tête Balance a bean-bag on your head

Faîtes une roulade avant Do a forward roll

EXTRA: Presenting the show

Monsieur Loyal

Voici Monsieur Loyal!

- ringmaster

- Here is the ringmaster!

Voici (Romain)! Il fait... (du trapèze)!

This is (Romain)! He’s doing trapeze!

Voici (Tristan et Victor)!

Ils font... (du diabolo)!

This is...! They’re doing diabolo!

Voici (Maille et Mariel)!

Elles font... (du rola bola)!

This is...! They’re doing rola bola!

EXTRA: Interviews in the show

Qu’est-ce que tu fais dans le spectacle?

What are you doing in the show? (to 1 CHILD)

Qu’est-ce que vous faîtes dans le spectacle?

What are you doing in the show? (to CHILDREN)

À l’école, qu’est-ce que tu fais en sport?

At school, what do you do in PE? (to 1 CHILD)

Rehearse the children so they can introduce each other in French and say what each performer is doing.

Film C4: “Mettez-vous en équilibre sur les balles”.

The ringmaster in French circuses is called “Monsieur Loyal” (see “Talking point 1”). As teacher, you could be “Monsieur Loyal” and introduce each act, e.g.

“Voici Tristan et Victor! Ils font du diabolo!” You could also interview the performers, e.g. “Tristan et Victor, qu’est-ce que vous faîtes dans le spectacle?”

You could also ask them; - how old they are, - where they live, - what they like doing and why - and so on. You could ask more confident children to introduce the next act, e.g.”Voici Maille et Mariel! Elles font du rola bola!”

Talking point 1

EVERYDAY LIFE IN FRANCE

The circus in France

The Circus School in the films is the Centre Régional des arts du Cirque in Lomme, which is a suburb of the city of Lille.

Training and exams

In France, training to be a circus performer is taken as seriously as training to be an electrician or an accountant: there are courses and exams, as well as specialised places that offer training. The circus school in Lomme is one of a network of regional training centres all over France (the Fédération Française des Écoles de Cirque ), each preparing students to pass a series of exams and sending the best students when older to the National Centre near Paris.

Specialisms

Students at the Circus School can choose to specialise in one of four disciplines: n juggling (la jonglerie) of balls, plates, diabolo, etc; n balancing ( les équilibres) e.g. on a unicycle, large ball or rola bola; or up in the air on a trapeze, wire or a pole; n acrobatics (l’acrobacie) e.g. human centipede, handstands, cartwheels, somersaults - generally without equipment; n clowns (l’expression clownesque et le jeu d’acteur) - not shown in the films. They also study other art forms which contribute to the making of a show: la danse, le théâtre, la musique et les arts plastiques (visual arts)

Circus venues

We tend to think of circuses as always being in a “big top” tent, but in the heyday of 19th century circuses, many had permanent buildings, often circular in shape, like the Cirque d’hiver (winter circus) in Paris

Many parts of the traditional circus were established at this time, like the role of the clown and the ringmaster - in France, he is always called “ Monsieur Loyal” after a famous ringmaster in Paris, who acted as “master of ceremonies” as well as whipping the horses into action in the equestrian acts (see painting by Georges Seurat).