Friday, December 16, 2011

Bleu, vert, rouge et jaune!





This month we have been working on colors. We created four panels: red, blue, green and yellow.
After painting the background with ink, the children looked for and gathered all the objects in the classroom in these colors. Then they glued them to their panel!
Each group made it’s own panel (group work).

Scéance de graphisme dehors:





The preschool children practiced handwriting outside. 
We worked on vertical and horizontal lines, circles and our names in sand, with different sizes since we had a lot of room!

Spectacle de décembre:











Bravo to all our young artists and their teachers for the wonderful show of December 12! We had performances from the school band, la chorale des petits, la chorale des grands and every classroom. We enjoyed your skits, dances and songs.
Merci beaucoup to all the parents who helped setting up the room, taking photos and filming, and to Emilia for a delicious tea afterwards.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Cine-Club tonight!

Please join us tonight at L'Ecole Française du Maine for our monthly Ciné-club!
It's a wonderful opportunity to socialize in French and English and see a great French movie. All films are in French with English subtitles.

6:30 PM: Conversation, food and drinks - 7:00 PM: Start of the film


Un film de Radu Mihaileanu, 2009, drame, 1h57, avec Mélanie LAURENT, Aleksei GUSKOV, Miou-Miou…

Synopsis : Thirty years ago, Andrei Simoniovich Filipov, the renowned conductor of the Bolshoi orchestra, was fired for hiring Jewish musicians. Now ekeing out a living as a cleaner at the Bolshoi, he learns that the Châtelet Theater in Paris has invited the Bolshoi orchestra to play there. He decides to gather together his former musicians and to perform in Paris in the place of the current Bolshoi orchestra. Set to accompany his old Jewish and Gypsy musicians, Andrei wants Anne-Marie Jacquet, a young virtuoso violinist.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Equilibre, variation et modération – How to Eat Healthy






In science class, we are currently evaluating our eating habits. We learned about the different aspects of foods.  We learned that we can classify them into groups and realized how important it is to eat fruits and vegetables. 
We then tried to create a healthy lunch, wrote a shopping list and calculated the cost of the food. We were surprised to see how much money we spend on only one meal. 
We then cooked our own special lunch. We made homemade pasta, fruit salad, a low calorie Caesar salad dressing, tofu, chicken, asparagus and more. It was difficult to cook all to satisfy our demands in the short amount of time we had but we were all able to eat our own lunch on time… it was very tasty!

Un courrier d'Egypte

Don't forget to visit the K-1 class blog for more amazing articles! (http://gscpefdm.blogspot.com/)


Cette semaine, nous avons reçu un e-mail de nos amis égyptiens.
This week we received an email from our friends in Egypt.

Ils n'ont pas beaucoup d'école en ce moment parce qu'il se passe des choses dans leur pays: des gens ne sont pas contents, il y a des problèmes dans les rues alors les écoles sont parfois fermées.
Ils nous disent qu'ils ne comprennent pas tout mais qu'ils sont contents de se retrouver en classe!
They do not have a lot of school lately because there is a lot happening in their country: some people are upset, there are problems on the street, so schools are closed sometimes. They told us they do not understand everything but they are happy when they are in school!

Ils nous ont envoyé des photos et des dessins de pyramides, qui sont tout près de leur ville, Le Caire. Les pyramides sont des tombeaux des anciens rois d'Egypte.
They sent us photos and drawings of the pyramids which are very close to their city, Cairo. Pyramids are the tombs of the ancient kings of Egypt.

Les trois pyramides de Gizeh

La pyramide de Saqqara



Ils ont répondu à nos questions: au Caire, il n'y a pas de girafes, d'ours, d'éléphants ou de tigres, mais il y a beaucoup de chats!
They answered our questions: in Cairo, there is no giraffe, no bear, no elephant or tigers, but a lot of cats!

Chez eux, il n'y a pas de tempêtes de neige, mais des tempêtes de sable!
En ce moment, dans leur ville, il fait 20 degrés Celcius (68 degrés Farenheit) et ils trouvent qu'il fait froid!
They do not have snow storms but sand storms! It is currently 20°C (68F) in their city, and they think it is cold!
Ils nous disent aussi qu'ils parlent tous arabe et anglais, mais qu'ils apprennent le français à l'école, tout comme nous!
They told us they all speak Arabic and English, but they are learning French at school, just like us!
C'est très intéressant de correspondre avec cette classe, cela nous permet de découvrir un environnement très différent!
Nous allons très vite leur répondre et leur parler du Maine et de l'Amérique!
It is very interesting to correspond with this class, we are discovering a very different environment!
We are going to answer them very quickly and tell them about Maine and America!

Au menu cette semaine:

Tour de chant à la maison de retraite

Don't forget to visit the K-1 class blog for more amazing articles! (http://gscpefdm.blogspot.com/)

Aujourd'hui, nous avons offert un tour de chant à des personnes âgées. Ces personnes ont été ravies de recevoir des enfants!
Today we sang for elderly people. They were happy to receive children as visitors!


Nous avons chanté cinq chansons de la chorale, quelques élèves ont joué du violon et dit des poèmes.
We sang five songs of the chorale, and some students played the violin and said poems.




Ce fut aussi l'occasion pour nous de répéter notre spectacle devant un premier public. Nous essaierons de faire aussi bien devant les parents lundi prochain!
Parmi notre public, deux personnes étaient francophones et furent enchantées d'écouter leur langue natale!
It was also an opportunity for us to rehearse our show in front of a public audience. We will try to do as well for our parents next Monday! 
There were two people in the audience who speak French, and they were delighted to listen to their mother tongue!

Nous avons même chanté "Alouette", une chanson traditionnelle française, avec une dame qui la connaissait!
We sang "Alouette", a traditional French song, with a lady who knows it!

Merci à eux pour leur accueil et pour leurs encouragements!
Thank you for welcoming us and for your support!

La princesse à la gomme


After studying the book La Princesse à la gomme the second grade students created a card game with the characters of the story, such as Princess Galathée, the school director Turlututu, Mademoiselle Lagrignotte, the cat, the king and the queen, etc.
On one side of the cards, there is a drawing of the character. On the other side, there is the character's name and his/her characteristics. The children worked on vocabulary and drawing.
They also worked on their memory and oral language skills by remembering characters met in previous books during the year.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Au menu cette semaine:

Nathan Kolosko's Composition "Tonadilla" Performed by Marlène Lemay


Excerpt from the Gala Concert organized for the 25th anniversary  of Les Production d'Oz, November 2nd 2011 at the Henri-Gagnon Concert Hall, in Louis-Jacques-Casault Building in Quebec City at Laval University.

 
25 compositions  80 p., Level 3
(CD included)   Marlène Lemay, guitar
We are celebrating in 2011 the 25th anniversary of the publishing house Les Productions d'OZ.  In 2009, I invited 25 of our composers to write an original piece for this event. All of them accepted immediately, with great enthusiasm, and it was the beginning of a beautiful journey.  I entrusted my daughter, Marlène Lemay, to bring to life these compositions, both on this recording and on stage, knowing that she would display her wonderful talent. When she was born in 1990, I dedicated my guitar method to her with the citation: "To Marlène, for whom everything begins." Today, after more than 20 years, it is 25 composers from around the world who are dedicating their pieces to her.   What could be more gratifying and stimulating for a publisher than having such a wonderful project as this, with composers, a special performer, and dear friends involved in the creation of a book and recording!
- Sylvain Lemay

Jean-Marie Raymond - La cité d'Émeraude
Thierry Tisserand - Yamandou
Máximo Diego Pujol - Misterio
Adrian Andrei - Ronde transylvanienne
Nathan Kolosko - Tonadilla
Roland Dyens - The Wiz'
Daniel Boyer - Éclats de Ré
Claude Gagnon - Paysage roumain
Andrew Zohn - Marlène's Song
David Gaudreau - Sentiments oubliés
Denis Mortagne - Perpetuum mobile
Simone Iannarelli - Matteo
Jürg Kindle - Magma
Yvon Demillac - Nina
José-Luis Narváez - Alla cubana
Claudio Camisassa - Song for Marlène
Giuliano Belotti - Valsarab
Bernard Piris - La presque valse
Patrick Roux - Milonga del Mar
Mark Houghton - Marlène's Rag
Jim Ferguson - Requiem for a Fallen Artist
Francis Kleynjans - 25 printemps
Gilbert Clamens - Prélude et valse
Takashi Ogawa - Parapluie de Kyoto
Annette Kruisbrink - Tendresse 

Critically acclaimed guitarist/composer Nathan Kolosko has performed throughout the US, Europe and Asia.  As a musician, Nathan is compelled to expand the voice of the guitar through composition, improvisation, and collaborations with both musicians and visual artists.  He is currently collaborating with visual artist Ling-Wen Tsai on several inter-disciplinary projects, and performs regularly with flute player Carl Dimow.  Nathan has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including grants from the Allied Arts Foundation and D'Addario Strings. As a composer, Nathan has made numerous contributions to the repertoire for the guitar. His works are currently published by Doberman-Yppan & amp; Productions D'Oz.

In addition to being a performer and composer Nathan teaches guitar at l'Ecole Francaise du Maine.

 

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Thanksgiving lunch



Merci Emilia for the delicious Thanksgiving lunch you prepared for us before our Thanksgiving break!

Hopper's Maine - Part 2
















 

The second part of our activity on Edward Hopper is now available for viewing in the hallway!
The children selected a piece painted by Hopper that was part of the exhibit we had seen in October. They sketched it in every detail and then used watercolor to finish it. Some chose to stay very true to the colors used by the master while other students experimented a little with colors.
Their watercolors are absolutely beautiful. They have done a fantastic job so please come encourage our little artists!