Student Teachers from France

Laura en classe de GS/CP

Emile en classe de CM1/CM2/6ème

 

Eloïse en classe de PS/MS

Pierrick en classe de CE1/CE2

Eloïse et Pierrick sont arrivés dans notre école le 19 mars. Ils vont rester un mois avec nous. Laura et Emile sont arrivés le 2 avril et vont rester deux semaines. Ils viennent de France où ils apprennent à devenir maîtresse et maître. Ils vont nous aider à travailler, et Eloïse va aussi apprendre aux maternelles à faire des courses d’orientation! 

Eloïse and Pierrick have arrived in our school on March 19. They will be staying with us for a month. Laura and Emile have arrived on April 2 and they will be staying for two weeks. They come from France, where they are studying to become teachers. They are going to help us in our work, and Eloïse is going to teach preschool children about orienteering!

Eloïse and Pierrick are both studying Education at the University of Dijon, France.  During their second year of Masters, their study is comprised of several four week internships, one of them at L'Ecole Française du Maine!  Laura and Emile are both studying Education at the University of Paris-Creteil.  They are all living with host families, the school is very grateful to these families for generously offering their homes for our interns.

Bienvenue Eloïse et Pierrick, Laura et Emile!

Animations CM1 - CM2 - 6ème

 

In Technology Class, we have been working on a short Claymation production. 

After writing the storyboard, we created characters from modeling clay. We also had to construct a background. Then, we took pictures of our characters, changing the scene minutely each time in order to create the impression of movement. We have edited the movie and we have added music (from the chorus of L'Ecole Française du Maine, bien sur!). We are very proud to show you our finished products - click play on the videos above to watch them.

CM1/CM2/6EME (Grades 4/5/6)

Franco Day at State House in Augusta

Once again, we made our annual trip to the State House in Augusta to participate in the Franco Day activities. The field trip included a visit to the Maine State Museum. The school chorus, "La Chorale", put on an amazing performance in the Hall of Flags, singing for a record amount of time to the great pleasure of their audience. Among the spectators were the Vice Council of France from Boston and the Consul General of Canada. Our thanks to Elodie, Scott and the students for an amazing show. Bravo à tous!!

Visit of New England Association of Schools and Colleges

As a final step towards full accreditation through the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), last week we welcomed a visitation committee comprised of school leaders from Maine, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Their visit began with a welcoming reception held at Provisions where the school community greeted the committee and informally introduced the school, its mission and programs. During the following days, the committee interviewed, reviewed and evaluated the school and all of its programs. The entire experience was extremely rewarding and informative, and the School has benefited greatly throughout the process. Upon their departure, the children sang songs to bid the committee farewell, and this gesture was deeply appreciated. We are grateful to the visitation committee for volunteering their time and experience to provide L'Ecole Française du Maine with valuable insight. In the coming months, we will receive their feedback and we will keep you posted as to the progress. We offer sincere thanks the entire school community for your help and participation and as we undertook the ambitious self study process. Your input was invaluable. Merci!

Student performance at the Franco American Heritage Center

To finish off an already busy week, the students performed for a full house as the opening act for a performance, Roulez Roulottes, given by a singing group "Faits Divers" from the French Alps.

The chorus of L'Ecole Française du Maine sang a collection of songs. They began with Les Comédiens, followed by the K-1 class accompanying Le Lion est mort ce soir on their tam-tams, which they fabricated themselves. Next, the preschool children delighted the audience with a singing and dancing act: "Mon corps est à moi". Finally, to close the performance, the chorus sang "Nagawika".

After their own performance, the children were treated to front row seats for the Faits Divers performance, which was enjoyed by all. Thanks to the Franco American Heritage Center for including us in this wonderful opportunity and to all of the families who attended and assisted with transportation since we could not all fit in the bus. Merci!

Les mercredi ciné:

A big thank you to all of you, friends and neighbors, who join us for our Wednesday evening movies. It is always a pleasure to welcome you at school and to share a French movie (with English subtitles).

If you have never joined us, here is the program for the rest of this school year:
6:30 PM: Conversation, food and drinks         7:00 PM: Start of the film
After the Film: Discussion and exchange of feelings and thoughts
Admission is free, donations are appreciated.

April 25: Oss 117 de Michel HAZANAVICIUS
May 16: Les Petits Mouchoirs de Guillaume CANET
June 20: Potiche de François OZON

We hope to see you then!

"L'Arbre de vie" - Klimt

Les élèves de CE1 CE2 ont étudié le tableau "L'Arbre de vie" du peintre Gustave Klimt.

Ils ont ensuite réalisé chacun leur arbre en 3 dimensions avec des matériaux variés. Cette activité est liée avec le programme de sciences et l'étude des végétaux ainsi qu'avec le changement de saison, car l'arrivée du printemps nous donne l'occasion d'observer les changements de la nature.

Vous pouvez voir la forêt exposée dans le hall de l'école pendant quelques jours.

Children in grades 2 and 3 studied Gustave Klimt’s painting « Tree of Life ». Then they created their own three dimensional trees with a variety of materials. This activity is linked to the science curriculum and the study of plants and the changes in seasons. The arrival of spring is a good opportunity to observe the changes in nature.
You are invited to see the forest set up in the hallway for a few days.

Menu March 26 to March 30, 2012

Monday

American Chop Suey 

Salad 

Fruit & yogurt

Tuesday

Spiral Ham

Scalloped Potatoes

Mixed Vegetables 

Cookie

Wednesday

Beef Stew

Biscuits

Brownies

Thursday

Pulled Pork Sliders 

Corn 

Cole Slaw

Fruit

Friday

Chicken Skewers

Rice

Vegetables

Cake

All meals are served with milk and water.

Les bêtes de la mer - Matisse

Les classes de CE1 et CE2 ont produit des collages inspirés par l’œuvre d’Henri Matisse «Les bêtes de la mer». En utilisant les couleurs vives et les formes simples ils ont du représenter dans leurs travaux l’idée de printemps, de la nature qui se remet à vivre.

CE1 and CE2 made collages inspired by the painting of Henri Matisse « The Beasts of the Sea ». Using bright colors and simple forms, they had to represent in their artwork the idea of spring, of nature coming back to life.

Des objets qui viennent du monde entier!

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

Régulièrement, des élèves présentent de petits objets à leurs camarades. Ces moments de langage sont particulièrement motivants pour les enfants heureux de présenter des objets venant de chez eux, et pour les autres qui posent de nombreuses questions.
Nous avons beaucoup de chance: de nombreux parents en profitent pour participer à notre projet sur la découverte du monde en permettant à leurs enfants de présenter des objets provenant du monde entier.
Children regularly present small objects to their friends. These moments of language are particularly motivating for the children, who are happy to present objects coming from their homes, and the others ask a lot of questions.
We are very lucky: many parents take advantage of this opportunity to take part in our world discovery activities by letting their children present objects from all over the world.

Récemment, nous avons pu observer des masques venus d'Afrique et d'Amérique du Sud:
We have recently been able to observe masks coming from Africa and South America:

Mais aussi une poupée et des photos ramenés d'un voyage aux Antilles:
And also dolls and photos coming from a trip in the West Indies:

Des poupées égyptiennes représentant un pharaon et son épouse:
Dolls from Egypt representing a pharaoh and his wife:

Des instruments provenant de Baya, au Brésil: Instruments from Baya in Brasil:

Nous avons eu le plaisir de recevoir notre camarade de CE1 qui nous a présenté une petite broderie et un mini totem d'Amérique du Nord: We have had the pleasure to see our friend from second grade who presented a small embroidery and a miniature totem from North America:

Et grâce à la maman d'une élève de MS, des tas d'objets venant d'Egypte: papyrus, objets décoratifs, hiéroglyphes, beaux livres... And thanks to the mom of one of our friends in Preschool, many objects coming from Egypt: papyrus, decorative objects, hieroglyphs, beautiful books...

Observation de papyrus / Papyrus observation

Nous avons à cette occasion réfléchi sur les méthodes utilisées pour construire les pyramides... cela reste un mystère, personne ne le sait encore! We took this opportunity to think about the methods used to build pyramids... it is still a mystery, and no one knows yet!

Merci à tous! Thank you everyone!
Si d'autres parents souhaitent participer à la vie de la classe d'une manière ou d'une autre, n'hésitez pas à m'en parler! If other parents wish to participate to the life of the classroom one way or another, don't hesitate to let me know!

Une fresque sur les paysages d'Afrique

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

Nous avons appris que l'Afrique est un immense continent, avec des paysages très différents d'un endroit à l'autre.
We have learned that Africa is an immense continent, with very different landscapes from one place to the other.

Il y a le désert, avec des grandes étendues de sable, quelques oasis, des chameaux, parfois des pyramides ou des bédouins qui vivent dans des tentes, et des crocodiles dans les rivières!
There are deserts, with large areas of sand, a few oasis, camels, sometimes pyramids or Bedouins living in tents, and crocodiles in the rivers!

  

Il y a la savane, comme dans notre livre "Boubam et le tam-tam": beaucoup d'animaux sauvages comme les lions, les zèbres ou les girafes, des rivières où vivent les hippopotames, des villages avec des gens qui aiment parler autour des baobabs.
There is the savanna, like in the book "Boubam and the tam-tam": many wild animals such as lions, zebras or giraffes, and rivers where hippopotamuses live, villages with people talking around baobabs. 

 Il y a aussi la jungle, comme dans l'album "Kirikou et la sorcière": de grandes forêts, beaucoup d'eau et de fleurs, des animaux qui se cachent, comme les singes ou les léopards...

There is also jungle, like in the book "Kirikou": great forests,  a lot of water and flowers, animals hiding, such as monkeys and leopards...

Enfin, il y a aussi de grandes villes, avec de grands immeubles et beaucoup de voitures partout, comme au Caire, où vivent nos correspondants égyptiens. Ils ont de la chance, car le désert et les pyramides ne sont pas loin non plus!
Finally, there are also big cities, with big buildings and a lot of cars everywhere, like in Cairo, where our Egyptian friends are living. They are very lucky because the desert and the pyramids are not very far either!

A partir de ces découvertes, nous avons peint et collé les éléments d'une fresque sur ces différents paysages.
We used these discoveries to paint and glue elements onto a fresque we created to represent those different landscapes.