Emilie Jolie Performance

On March 8, 2013 the school presented a performance of the French children's musical from 1980:     "Emilie Jolie..

The musical tells the story of a young girl who is alone in her bedroom with a big book. Each time she turns the page, she encounters a new character who is facing a difficulty. For example, the hedgehog is wishing for a friend to caress him, and the witch is longing for someone to love her. The team of "Blue Rabbits" are always only a phone call away and are ready to help. These rabbits were portrayed by the preschoolers and led by a third grade student who played the Lead Rabbit. Emily meets up with "Birds of Paradise" and dreams of flying away with them. There are raccoons who are all white on one side and black on the other, and dream of having color- like the blue of Emilie's eyes. She meets a rock and roller wolf and a dancing grannie, whales made of umbrellas, and a little stone who is looking for a friend. The stone finds a friend in Emily who takes her into her pocket where she will be safe. With each encounter, Emilie finds a way to help resolve the character's problem. The  fairy tale has a happy ending when the witch turns into a princess and meets Prince Charming, thanks to Emilie.

The entire school worked on preparing the  musical since the beginning of the school  year. All grades were involved from preschool  through grade 5, learning the songs and solos, practicing to perfection, and creating the scenery and costumes. The performance took place at the Franco American Heritage Center, a beautiful facility with seating for over 400 people. 

The auditorium was full and the audience was enchanted!
















  
      Families and friends of the school and the Franco-American community were delighted by the performance and completely impressed by the quality of the singing and acting on the part of the students.

Artistic Director, ElodieLeNezet, was instrumental in the success of the performance. Her creativity and leadership and her rapport with the students made the show a huge success. All of the teachers worked with their classes to prepare for the show and all deserve thanks! Special thanks go to Dasha Betts whose artistic talents led the creation of the props, SandrineMoser for her organization and willingness to help in every aspect imaginable, to Stephanie Bowden, a parent who coordinated the volunteers, and to the many parent volunteers who helped in countless ways, such as: making costumes, putting on 
face paint, running errands, donating for supplies, just to name a few!!!
Thank you all for helping us put this show together, it was an amazing opportunity for the students and they were all marvelous!!!!

Finale Emilie Jolie {Music - Lyrics by Philippe Chatel}
Steinway Grand  Piano:   Scott Vaillancourt

C'est un peu la fin de notre histoire
Mais surtout ne sors pas ton mouchoir
Dors petite fille dans ton grand lit
Nom Jolie et prénom Emilie
Dors, petite amie dans ton grand lit
Puisqu'il faut bien vivre sa vie
Nous on reviendra si tu le veux
On est là pour rendre les gens heureux
Même si on existe pas vraiment
Tu peux compter sur nous tout le temps
Dors petite amie dans ton grand lit
Puisqu'il faut bien vivre sa vie...

Faites que le rêve dévore votre vie,
Afin que la vie ne dévore pas votre rêve...
Emilie Jolie 2013 from L'Ecole Francaise du Maine on Vimeo.

Initiation au Pointillisme chez les CM1 et CM2

The students have researched through books and paintings the techniques of Pointillisme.


We started our project by choosing famous pointillists works;                                        the children chose one and after sketching, they painted the Pointilliste way.


They enjoyed mixing colors to make their paintings more vivid and full of light.

The second step of our project will be for the children to choose a subject that they will draw and then paint the Pointilliste way; some have already chosen landscapes, and others objets or   characters. 

 


You can admire their work in the hallway.

GS à la découverte de l'eau..

The GS class have studied water with all its forms: liquid, solid and gas.

L'eau liquide: ça coule, ça éclabousse, ça n'a pas de forme...

 Les GS ont découvert l'eau sous toutes ses formes: liquide, solide, gazeuse. 

They did some experiments and drew some schemas like real scientists.

Liquid water: it runs, it splashes, it does not have a shape..

Dancing away with Celine

Friday, March 15th, was the first dance class for the 2nd and  rd graders with Celine, our new teacher.

While the music was playing, we had to walk on the rug without going off limit. Once the music stopped, we had to stand in an easy or more difficult position with our body. While dancing away, Celine used a lots of verbs we are studying in class: walk, turn, going forward, backward.
We also had to move sideways, using different techniques listening to the music.
At last, Celine divided the class into 2 groups: one was watching the other group dancing and  then we switched. At the end, she told us a story using words we studied in science : neck, head, forehead, cheeks, chin, toes. It was fun to use dance as a way to reinforce learning and to explore new ideas!

Visit to the Portland Museum of Art

It was the 2 and 3rd graders ' turn to go visit the Portland Museum of Art and eat at the Merry Table:

We were welcomed by guides speaking French and English. We saw some paintings of Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and many more. The guides told us about expressionism, cubism and pointillism during the art history.
We also saw paintings from Maine artists. The guides gaves us some  "magical frames" that had a little square cut in the middle. We looked at the paintings through the hole moving our arms back and forth.

At the end of our tour, we went to visit a very beautiful and big house that used to belong to a very wealthy family in Portland.

We ended the morning, by walking to the "Merry Table" to eat a very good meal: salad, ham and cheese crepes and sugar crepes!! un regal!!! Delicious!
Ensuite nous sommes allés à pied au restaurant crêperie « Merry table » pour déguster un bon repas : une salade de mesclun, une crêpe jambon-fromage et une crêpe sucrée. Un régal !

The musician cat by the 4th graders

The last book the 4^th graders studied was Le Cochon à l’Oreille Coupée that tells the stories of twin pig brothers; one of them discovers painting and it is a revelation that will change his life forever.

At the end of the study of the book, the students had to write a story inspired by that plot: tell the story of a cat who becomes a musician.

Not only did they have to imagine how the cat would discover music in the first place but also tell the evolution of that discovery and the impact of the cat’s life.

It was a very successful project that ended by students reading their stories in front of their peers.

Les CM2 dans la course aux nombres

For the first time this year, 5^th Graders are participating in an international Mental Math Competition.

The students have 7 minutes to answer 30 questions. For the last months we have practiced regularly and this week one student was selected to represent the school in the competition. We are so proud of her- well done!

The results will now be sent to “AEFE” where they are compared our results of other French schools.

We are excited to find out if EFDM will make it into the next round.

Les bonhommes de neige des maternelles

To end our project on winter, we made salted dough and used it to create "French" snowmen, with only 2 parts for the head and the body. We also added funny eyes and pipe cleaners to make the arms of our snowmen. Then, we waited several days for the dough to dry and we painted our snowmen white. We loved using salted dough because it was a bit sticky!

Oil painting with Paul Cézanne

We were introduced to oil paint and Paul Cézanne,  a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavor to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century. Cézanne can be said to form the bridge between late 19th-century Impressionism and the early 20th century's new line of artistic enquiry, Cubism. Both Matisse and Picasso are said to have remarked that Cézanne "is the father of us all."

Cézanne's often repetitive, exploratory brushstrokes are highly characteristic and clearly recognizable. He used planes of color and small brushstrokes that build up to form complex fields. The paintings convey Cézanne's intense study of his subjects.

We had to reproduce a display of fruits and one cup the same way Cézanne painted "Nature Morte au Compotier, verres et pommes"in 1879.

We learned that you can not use water to clean the brushes. They have to be wiped with a paper tissue. and it takes a whole week to dry.

Sugarloaf: another fabuous skiing exprience

 This is our third time on the slopes this winter!!
We all made progress thanks to all the friendly ski instructors and were able to go to the top of the mountain.

 We also dragged our teachers/coaches to the very bumpy " Broccoli Garden". That was really fun, especially if you are small with small skis..for the others, it was on the knees.

We skied Moose Alley 10 times at least!

It was the 2 and 3rd graders ' turn to go visit the Portland Museum of Art and eat at the Merry Table:

We were welcomed by guides speaking french and english. We saw some pictures of Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque and many more. The guides told us about  the expressionism, cubism and pointillism during the art history.
We also saw paintings from Maine's artists. The guides gaves us some" magical frames" that had a little square cut in the middle. We looked at the paintings through the hole moving our arms back and forth.

At the end of our tour, we went to visit a very beautiful and big house that used to belong to a very rich family in Portland.

We ended the morning, by walking to the " Merry Table" to eat a very good meal: salad, ham and cheese crepe and sugar crepe!! un regal!!