Nuit d'hiver

Inspired by the quiet and poetic snowfalls of the winter nights, the K/1 class decorated the hallway with a wonderful display (a must see!!!).

First, we made the background together, with paint (dark blue and black) that we applied with a roller. We then projected white paint with a paintbrush.

Each child folded and cut paper to make two snowflakes. Clarisse hung them like mobiles in front of our background. The result is impressive!

We made the background in art class, but we had to read the directions in order to create the snowflakes.

We liked it so much that the 1^st graders did pieces of background again for the covers of their 3^rd ‘cahier du jour’.

We are very proud of the result!

Les GS/CP

Chinese New Year Celebration - The year of the Tiger

Chinese American Friendship Association of Maine's 20th Chinese New Year Celebration will take place on Saturday, February 6th at Catherine McAuley High School (631 Stevens Avenue, Portland) from 10:30am to 4pm.

Program includes:
-Chinese crafts and games for children
-Exciting Chinese music and folk dance at 11am
-Interactive workshop and demos
-Delicious Chinese food and merchandise

Admission:
Adults (ages 18+): $5 - Children (ages 2-17): $3 - Children under 2: FREE!

Questions? Call 207-797-4033
Check our website for the full event schedule: www.cafammaine.org

Cultural events

Please click on the title 'cultural events' to view the newsletter of the Consulate General of France in Boston presenting upcoming cultural events in New England, such as film festivals, conferences and exhibitions.

La poste

On Wednesday, the group of Moyennes Sections went to visit the post office. We were sending a letter to France to our "pen pals", the class who sent us pictures. Inside the envelope we included a presentation of each of us, drawings and a little movie sharing how we spend a day here at L'Ecole Française du Maine.

We were very excited to meet Angie, the Postmaster. She was so great with us. We were able to go in to the back of the post office, where customers can’t normally go. We weighed our letter and we found out the price. We also put stickers and stamps on it. We were very busy because at the same time we were taking care of the customers. We sold stamps and we also gave packages to a lady.

Finally, Angie offered us cookies and juice and a package that she prepared for each of us including a coloring book, crayons, pencils, bubble makers, candies, and more! We were very lucky!

We also tried to teach her some words in French.

We promised Angie we would come back to help her again. By the way, the petites sections will go visit Angie and help her next week. Angie informed the school that many parents were kind enough to call and thank her for this opportunity.

MERCI ANGIE!

Les Moyennes Sections

French at UMA

Bonjour tout le monde:

I hope you are enjoying our winter days! Please consider joining us for activities during the spring semester. We are holding our second annual French film festival in February and our conversation table will start up on Thursday, Feb.4th from 2:30-3:30 with a talk by Julia Schultz on African cinema. This is the same date as the start of the French film festival, so you can watch the ward-winning film THE CLASS afterwards from 4-6!

The conversation table meets the first Thursday of every month from 2:30-3:30 in the Honors Lounge of Randall Student Center for the following dates this semester: Feb.4th, March 4th, April 1st, May 6th.

I will also be starting up a new session of 'Fun in French for Kids' for children ages 3-10 in late February. It is a total immersion program that meets once a month on Saturday mornings on the UMA campus. The cost is $25 for the full five-session program, with siblings at $15. If you are interested, please feel free to email me for additional information. Space is limited, as this is a very popular program!

Please stay in touch and join us!

Best,
Chelsea Ray
(207) 621-3487
chelsea.d.ray@maine.edu

Meet Kari:

Bonjour!

My name is Kari Rivers and I am a senior at Colby College. I grew up in Sterling Heights, MI and I currently live in Somersworth, NH. During high school, I was most interested in math and science. I didn’t truly become interested in French until after I went to France between my sophomore and junior years with my French teacher and a group of other students. I also took up learning Spanish while in high school.

When I got to Colby, I knew I wanted to major in French and Spanish and have been taking classes in both ever since. I didn’t decide to add an education minor until sophomore year. I volunteered in a 3^rd grade class in Waterville and I loved it! I then studied abroad in Madrid and Paris my junior year where I was able to better my French and Spanish by living with host families and to get a better understanding of French and Spanish culture. I got my first taste of volunteering in a bilingual school while in Madrid where I helped out the English teacher in 1^st, 3^rd and 5^th grade classrooms.

As an education minor at Colby we are required to do a practicum for 120 hours. I discovered L’École Française Du Maine by accident while surfing the internet one day and thought it would be a great way for me to combine my love of French and working with kids. And here I am.

I am most interested in seeing how the students learn French from the time they are young and how the French and American educational systems are similar and different.

I am currently looking for a position for the coming school year and I am very excited to start my teaching career!

Kari

Adult Ed: French classes start next week!

L’Ecole Française du Maine offers private or group lessons for adults seeking to improve their speaking and writing skills, or simply trying to keep up with their children!

Group Classes (10 persons per group maximum)
A session of 15 weekly classes that will meet from 6pm to 7:30pm. The curriculum consists of oral and written comprehension, and oral and written expression. The French textbook “Campus” and workbook will be required and can be purchased through EFDM. Classwork will cover: grammatical points with explanations and application exercises, vocabulary, phonetics and repetition of different sounds, conversation and practice of dialogue between the students, and cultural experience. Group classes are offered at three different levels:

Beginner 1: begins Monday January 25, 2010
Beginner 2: begins Tuesday January 26, 2010
Intermediate: begins Monday January 25, 2010

Cost: $375 per person, or $700 a couple.

Private Classes
Personal curriculum to be created and taught according to the level and needs of the person. Cost: $40 per hour.

If you are interested, please call the school at (207) 865 3308.

Workshop in New York

On January 11, 12 and 13 Didier Carribou went to New York to take part in a workshop called ‘Le projet Education Physique et Sportive dans l´établissement’ (The Phys Ed project in the school).

He met 21 Phys Ed coordinators from different French schools in North America. He collected a lot of information on a topic already very important at L’Ecole Française Du Maine. Everyone shared his/her knowledge, which made this workshop very rewarding.

L’Ecole Française Du Maine will put all this information to good use by organizing a sports meet next May in Freeport where other French schools will be invited to participate.

To be continued…

A letter from France...

The class of CE1, CE2 and CM1 has been very excited to receive news from their pen pals from France.
They sent us some very interesting things. They had a project to study breakfast in each of the countries of the European Communities. They researched and did an exhibit on it. And they sent us a booklet they made on their research. We enjoyed reading about their discoveries.

In our first letter to them, we had asked them many questions on their school life in France. With their answers, we discovered it is pretty close to ours. They sent us sheets of answers to our questions. On top of this, they sent us the recipe for madeleines… miam miam ! We can’t wait to try it.

In our next letter to them, we will answer the questions they sent us among other surprises.

Merci

Les CE1, CE2, CM1

Cross country skiing in Pineland

Photos by Warren Miskell

Open dress rehearsal announced

The Portland Symphony Orchestra is partnering with Maine-based Kombit Sante Cap-Haitien Health Partnership to raise funds for disaster relief in Haiti.

They will open the Sunday, January 24 10:00 a.m. dress rehearsal to the public and donations will be collected at the door.

Donations will also be collected at the 2:30 p.m. concert. Donations will benefit Konbit Sante’s Earthquake Response Fund.

Konbit Sante is a Maine-based non-profit that has a partnership with the Haitian Ministry of Health to build capacity of the public health system in northern Haiti. For nine years, Konbit Sante staff and volunteers have been working with their Haitian colleagues on this mission. More information about Konbit Sante will be available in the lobby of Merrill Auditorium or at www.healthyhaiti.org.

Hope to see you there,

Yasmin

Concert at the Franco-American Heritage Center

Welcome Tara!

Tara Magaw, mother of Kale and Madison Magaw, is newly appointed as development coordinator and event planner for L’Ecole Française du Maine. Prior to moving to Maine, Tara and her husband Bill moved from Luxembourg (living there over 5 years), where she worked for Ambassor Peter Terpeluk, as an Event Planner and Special Assistant to the Ambassador, in the U.S. Embassy Luxembourg. She planned one of the most notable events, while working in Luxembourg, which was the coordination of the 65th Anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, a U.S.O. event for the Veterans of WWII.

Prior to working in Luxembourg, Tara worked for New York State, in Governor George Pataki's Administration for 7 years, working in the Promotions and Public Affairs Office.

Tara has B.A. in Communications / Journalism from Pace University in New York.

Tara is excited to start working with the school, the families, the French community, and to making a meaningful impact through her development efforts.

Please welcome Tara to the new position of Development Coordinator for L’Ecole Française du Maine.

Nathan Kolosko's New CD enso Now Available

Hello everyone!!

I am very excited to be releasing my new CD entitled enso, which was recorded in Tokyo this past summer.

The CD contains some very new ways of approaching the guitar with sounds that defy expectation.

Japanese Critic Ike Sato writes:

Utilizing elements of African, Japanese, Middle Eastern, Indonesian, and European musical traditions, Kolosko and Cosley have grappled with the incoherent void of chaos and the inorganic drudgery of mechanical reiteration. They do not mimic, but appreciate divergent cultures through aesthetic empathy. This is true world music and the results are striking in their individuality.

Please visit my website to purchase on-line

http://www.nathankolosko.com/audio.php

Thank you for your continued support.

Nathan Kolosko

www.nathankolosko.com

Le Défi Lecture

The children from CE1 through 7th grade have been meeting weekly for 30 minutes in order to read together. We have divided the children in 4 groups, each group with 3 levels of reading; CE1 and CE2 together, CM1, CM2 and 6th together and 7th grade.

The challenge was that each group, starting in October, would meet every week to read those 3 books (one for each reading level). They would make sure that they understood the plot, knew the characters… The challenge would end with a contest in the shape of a quiz with questions to be answered in a given time. The quiz took place last week. Everyone had a lot of fun and discovered the joys of solidarity and helping each other to succeed. Everyone got a little prize to reward him/her for his/ her great efforts.

During the 2^nd part of the year, we will start another reading challenge: this time, same concept will be used but with different teams and 2 books per reading group instead of 1. The novelty will be that the children will be the ones building and imagining the different games that will be used for the final quiz…

It is wonderful to witness that special time of the week, when on Thursday morning, children start to ask « Is it reading time yet? ».

Elodie LE NEZET-SOULE

Un cadeau de classe : 100 livres

The class of CE1, CE2 and CM1 started a reading challenge back in October. Our goal was to read 100 books or more before January 22nd in order to help children in need to obtain new books. This contest was organized by Scholastics, Canada.

The children have been very enthusiastic about this project, borrowing books from the school’s library and also the classroom’s library, taking a little extra time to make sure they would finish a book.

Congratulations to all of them for their success!

A surprise in preschool...

Monday, when we came back from vacation, we had the surprise to have a big letter from a class from France!
A class from Bertrange -East of France- sent us some of their work. Each of the children made a little presentation of him/herself and drew a picture for each of us. We were very happy and proud to receive our own picture.

They explained what Saint Nicolas is for them and made us a little book: ''un livre à compter'' (a counting book). We also learned how far they live from us.

Now we are going to work very hard to respond as quickly as possible.

La Petite et Moyenne Section

Le problème de la semaine! Problem of the week!

Here is the 7th grade problem of the week. Can you solve it?

LA CLASSE DE MATHILDE
Dans la classe de Mathilde, il y a deux groupes: les fans des Moutarde Girls et ceux des 3 C'est 4. Tout le monde appartient à l'un des deux groupes et personne n'appartient aux deux à la fois. Chacun des deux groupes compte un nombre impair de membres (entre 10 et 20), et l'un des deux surpasse l'autre de quatre unités. Par ailleurs, dans la classe de Mathilde, il y a deux fois plus de filles que de garçons.
Combien y a-t-il de filles, Mathilde comprise, dans cette classe?

MATHILDE’S CLASS

In Mathilde’s class, there are two groups: the Mustard Girls and the 3 is 4 fans. Everyone belongs to one of the groups and nobody belongs to both groups at the same time. Each of the two groups has an odd number of members (between 10 and 20), and one of the two overcomes the other by 4 units. Furthermore, in Mathilde’s class, there are two times more girls than boys.

How many girls are there in this class, Mathilde included?

Guitarists Nathan Kolosko & Dan Cosley release Tokyo Recording Project

CONTACT: Nathan Kolosko @ 207-780-1659, (Portland, ME) guitar@nathankolosko.com, www.nathankolosko.com

Critically acclaimed classical guitarists Nathan Kolosko & Dan Cosley have released a new CD entitled Enso. This collaborative project was recorded this past summer in Tokyo, Japan. The disc contains both original compositions and structured improvisations.

Intent on creating a truly eclectic and adventurous album, Kolosko and Cosley explore an immense variety of musical sounds and styles. The two original compositions, Yangisse Jarabi, and Enso, were recently published by the French Canadian music publisher Productions D'oz. The remainder of the disc contains five structured improvisations, several of which defy one's expectations of the classical guitar.

Japanese Critic Ike Sato writes:

Utilizing elements of African, Japanese, Middle Eastern, Indonesian, and European musical traditions, Kolosko and Cosley have grappled with the incoherent void of chaos and the inorganic drudgery of mechanical reiteration. They do not mimic, but appreciate divergent cultures through aesthetic empathy. This is true world music and the results are striking in their individuality.

Nathan Kolosko will perform a solo noonday concert in Portland, Maine on Thursday, January 14^th at First Parish Church, 425 Congress Street. Free admission.

Concerts in January: Chiharu Naruse and Ben Noyes

Chiharu Naruse and Ben Noyes will be presenting two concerts in January. Hope you can make it to any or all of them! Included are links with the appropriate information for your web browsing ease...

http://www.portlandconservatory.net/Nooondayschedule.pdf

Time, place: noon, Jan. 7th, First Parish Church, 425 Congress St. Portland, ME

Program: Bach Gamba Sonata no. 1 and the fantastical Prokofieff Sonata

Ticket price: just stop by

Another concert will be taking place on January 30th!! Follow the link for more info:

http://www.francoamericanheritage.org/public/index.cfm?fuseaction=articles.view&id=7778&publicationtype=Calendar


Time, place: 7:30, Jan. 30th Franco-American Heritage Center Lewiston, Me

Program: Janacek, Beethoven, Shostakovich, Schumann

Ticket price: $16 for adults over 21, under 21 free and senior citizen price: $14