One Teacher's Adventures

Today, I'd like to share two new Beginner French resources with you. 1. Les Passe-Temps Unit This unit is all about hobbies!  It includes vocabulary lists, vocabulary puzzles and games, verb conjugation notes for pouvoir (to be able to) and vouloir (to want to), speaking and listening activities, reading and writing activities, and a section to talk about frequency (time)!  It's perfect for Grades 4-7!                     2. La Nourriture Unit This includes a huge vocabulary list with 50 basic food words! It is full of fruits, vegetables, meats, and other staple vocabulary terms.   The unit also includes vocabulary games and puzzles, presentations, a grocery flyer reading activity, verb notes for the verbs manger (to eat) and boire (to drink), an interview activity, and a survey!            ...

I've just finished my newest French unit for TpT.  This unit is designed for beginner students (Grades 4-7) and would be a great way to start off your year!   This complete unit includes reading, writing, speaking, and listening activities.   You'll get: -Vocabulary list -Create your own flash cards activity -Vocabulary crossword with answer key -Vocabulary quiz with answer key -Fill-in-the-blanks activity with answer key -5 pages of être activities (present tense, positive and negative formation, with answer keys) -Place prepositions vocabulary (dans, devant, derrière, près, etc.) -Preposition listening activity with variation ideas for differentiation -Reading activity (dans mon sac a dos, il y a...) -School dialogue activity Click here to download! If you don't need the whole unit, you can buy pieces of it separately.  Click on the pictures below for more information.

My Grade 8's are in the middle of a science unit on light and optics.  Last week, we were looking at the properties of shadows and why they are created.  It was a beautiful day, so I decided to bring my class outside to trace some shadows that they could find. I then challenged them to find an image in the shadow and fill in the details with lines and colour to create shadow art. The students saw animals, plants, objects, space, and underwater scenes.  I love the way they turned out and I really love that this was a simple activity that the kids enjoyed.  Plus, it can be done with any grade and with students at any level.  Here are some of their creations. Looking for more great tips and ideas for middle school? Subscribe to my email list and receive an exclusive FREE sub plans resource. It includes plans for math, ELA, science, social studies, and Core French. Click  here  to subscribe.

I've done this project now with two different classes, and I absolutely love how it turns out!   We began this art project during Earth Week this year.  We looked at images of Banyan trees and researched where they grow.  After the students had some background information, we set on creating our own.   I encouraged the students to pull their branches off the edge of the page, and fill in the background with bright colours to highlight the silhouette of the tree.  We talked about negative space and how we could bring the tree to life by colouring the backgrounds. My students used chalk and oil pastels for the colours, and tempera paint for the tree itself.  I suggest drawing out the shape of the tree first in pencil, filling in the background, and then painting as the last step.  This will prevent any smudging of the black paint. They are colourful and bright and add so much to our classroom d...

My Grade 4's are learning about weather in science.  To help them understand the water cycle better, we created foldable water cycles.   On each of the four flaps, we wrote the processes of the water cycle, and under the flaps, gave definitions of the process or information about that part of the water cycle.   My students enjoyed making the foldables, and now have a better understanding of the water cycle.  This activity was a great supplement to the weather pack I created.  The class is working through that pack, but when we came to the water cycle section, a significant group of them were still confused about the processes.  Instead of simply memorizing the water cycle, they were able to engage with it.  This activity was a good, interactive piece that helped to cement the ideas into their memories.  After they created the foldable, almost every student earned 100% on the water cycle quiz in the weather ...

My Grade 4's have been learning about perspective in our art lessons.  Last week, we completed a project looking at one-point perspective.  This is a project that I've done before, and the class next door was working on at the same time (coincidentally).  I think it stands up as an art lesson because it is simple, but effective.   Students start with a vanishing point in the middle of their page and draw straight lines out from that point to the 4 corners of the page.  As the images get closer to the middle of the page, they get smaller, creating the illusion that they are getting further away. I let my students decide which media to use.  Some used markers, others used paint, and some used pastels.  I think they turned out beautifully.

When I was in University, my reading professor gave us the idea of a one-page basic book report for young readers.  She called it the Bare Bones Book Report.  Basically, she folded a piece of paper into quarters and had us fill in each quarter with a different aspect of the book (character, plot, setting, and conflict).  She only wanted the bare bones of the book. I've used versions of this idea for so many assignments, with elementary, middle, and high school students.  Last year, I used it as a note-taking strategy in Grade 8 Social Studies.  As my students watched a film about the crisis in the Middle East, they took notes in the four section of the paper with these headings: Important People, Important Places, Vocabulary to Know, Questions I Have.  With a Grade 4/5 class, I used it when I was teaching connections in reading.  My students made notes about the connections they made in their free choice books. The ...