cursive writing using ropes

Study of sounds: phonemes and graphemes

The Kindergarten class has been studying the [L] consonant in French.
Like in English, the [L] consonant has several variations, depending if it is located before or after a vowel. Special words, like papillon, were explored, to dicuss the [L] consonant.

Students took the time to play with ropes to write in cursive, then they wrote their names making sure the letters were properly formed (correct hand movement) with a specific size. The letters were then "attached" to one another to make words. 
All this takes time and practice but the reward is enormous !
It is amazing to see the pride of a child writing his/her name in cursive for the very first time !
Bravo to the students and their teacher, Philomène !

En Grande Section, cette semaine, nous avons travaillé sur le son [L].

Nous cherchons des mots dans lesquels on entend le son [L], au début, au milieu ou à la fin.
Nous voyons que le son [L] s'écrit avec la lettre L. Nous avons aussi remarqué que parfois on voit la lettre L dans un mot, mais on n'entend pas le son [L], comme dans papillon!
Nous découvrons les différentes façons d'écrire ou de lire la lettre L: en capitale, en scripte et en cursive. Pour écrire cette lettre en cursive, il faut tracer une grande boucle qui monte.
Tout naturellement, les enfants ont donc utilisé des cordes pour faire des boucles: des petites, des grandes...

 

Puis sur de grandes feuilles, avec des feutres de toutes les couleurs, ils ont tracé des boucles dans tous les sens: qui montent, qui descendent, des petites, des grandes, des minuscules... Ce sont des gestes importants qui vont nous servir à écrire de nombreuses lettres en cursive!

Enfin, certains enfants commencent à écrire leur prénom en cursive. On prend le temps de tracer correctement chaque lettre, des respecter le sens du geste, la taille des lettres, la liaison entre les lettres: elles doivent toutes être "attachées".

Quelle concentration! Bravo!

Sleds are ready for recess !

With the recent snow storm and the delivery of hay bails, our sledding hill is now ready for recess fun ! Thanks to Willy, Colin and Thornton for preparing the sledding trail today!

How playing an instrument benefits your brain

How playing an instrument benefits your brain by Anita Collins

"Did you know that every time musicians pick up their instruments, there are fireworks going off all over their brain?"
That's the launching point for a fantastic little video made by educator Anita Collins and animator Sharon Colman Graham for TED-Ed. What they explain is that while listening to music is beneficial, playing music is "the brain's equivalent of a full-body workout."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0JKCYZ8hng#t=19

What's more: Neuroscientists have found that some of these aspects of mental work are different from any other activity studied, including playing sports or engaging in various creative pursuits.

Happy Thanksgiving to all !

At L'Ecole Française du Maine we are thankful for .... having electricity :-) 

Happy Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving basket food drive was a great success again this year, thanks to all of the families who contributed to this effort. Yesterday we delivered 13 baskets with all of the makings of a full Thanksgiving dinner to the Freeport Community Center. The sixth grade students made a great impression at the Community Center and are looking forward to more volunteer opportunities in the near future!

Sciences au CP : les empreintes digitales.

Après avoir écrit une auto-description, travaillé sur le portrait en arts, nous continuons en sciences à en apprendre plus sur nous même. On a discuté sur le plus grand organe de notre corps : la peau.
Est-ce que l'eau peut rentrer dans notre corps? Est-ce que l'eu peut en sortir? Est-ce ce que notre peau peut changer de couleur? Pourquoi y-a-t-il différentes couleurs de peau?
On s'est ensuite concentré sur nos empreintes digitales...

Pour mieux les observer et les comparer on a imprimé nos empreintes digitales dans notre cahier de sciences.

Alors, avons-nous tous tous les mêmes empreintes?

Emmanuelle Varo (MLF-North America)

Big thank you to Emmanuelle Varo (MLF-North America) for providing
inspiring professional development workshops for two days this November for our staff in preschool, kindergarten and first grade. Emmanuelle, from Dallas International School, is the Pedagogical Coordinator for La Mission Laïque Française in North America. She travels to the 22 MLF member schools to ensure common practices and to provide up to date training on various topics such as using art and movement to improve oral proficiency, and the use of Montessori, Freinet and Piaget pedagogical approaches in an immersion setting.
Emmanuelle will be back this Spring.

42nd annual World Hello Day!

Yesterday was the 42nd annual World Hello Day!

To celebrate this occasion, students of 5th and 6th grade researched greetings in many languages! 
That was so much fun!!
November 21, 2014 is the 42nd annual World Hello Day. 
Anyone can participate in World Hello Day simply by greeting ten people. 
This demonstrates the importance of personal communication for preserving peace.

People around the world use the occasion of World Hello Day as an opportunity to express their concern for world peace. Beginning with a simple greeting on World Hello Day, their activities send a message to leaders, encouraging them to use communication rather than force to settle conflicts.
http://www.worldhelloday.org/

AEFE Conference in Montreal for French Schools of North America

Willy and Elizabeth Beth LeBihan participated in a 3 day conference in Montreal for the 53 schools in North America accredited by the French Ministry of Education. Beth, Willy and all of the directors worked together to design and plan staff development for teachers in the 2015-2016 academic year. 

Workshops and discussions were lead by Mr. Philippe Zeller, Ambassador of France to Canada, Ms. Hélène Farnaud-Defromont, Director of the AEFE, (Agency for French Education Abroad) Jean-Christophe Deberre, General Director of the MLF (Mission Française Laïque), Mark Sherringham, Cultural Attaché, Alain Rossignol, AEFE Pedagogical Inspector for North America and Myriam Fournier-Dulac, Christine Paugam, Marie Lozano of the French Ministry of Education.

A particularly interesting conference on Technology in Education (the use of I-pads, Facebook, wikipedia etc..) was lead by Thierry Karsenty, Professor at University of Montréal. 

A great opportunity to collaborate with other Heads of Schools and Pedagogical Directors in our network!

Eric Thuau, Head of School, French American School of Puget Sound, Washington State; Willy LeBihan, Founder and Head of the French School of Maine

Emmanuelle Varo, Pedagogical Coordinator MLF America, Sophie Polin, Pedagogical director at MLF headquarters in Paris; Willy and Elizabeth LeBihan founders of L'Ecole Française du Maine.

Bon voyage Elodie !

Bon Voyage to Haiti Elodie !
We all miss you already

Thanksgiving 2014

On November 17, the school community gathered for a Thanksgiving meal, prepared and served by parent volunteers. In the Community Hall of the South Freeport Church, 156 students and parents sat together to enjoy the delicious turkey dinner, complete with all of the fixings, including stuffing, green bean casserole, carrots, turnip, and potatoes - brought directly from Northern Maine by a school parent with family up in "The County". Everyone enjoyed not only the wonderful food, but the opportunity to share in conversation with other members of the school family, including teachers, parents, grandparents and friends. This was a wonderful event, and the School is grateful to the volunteers who made it possible. Some parents cooked, set tables, and served, while others stayed afterwards to stack chairs, fold away tables and clean up. Many thanks to all who pitched in to help, and to those who took the time to join us.

Lunch to support Elodie's trip to Haiti: great food, great time, great cause!

Big Thanks to Tim O' Brien Chef/owner at Enoteca Athena, 97 Maine St. in Brunswick for holding the third annual fundraising event to raise funds for Elodie's trip to Haiti.

Parents, students, friends, school staff and Adult Education students shared a delicious Haitian inspired meal. The good ambiance was as contagious as Elodie's enthusiasm for Haiti.  

For the forth consecutive year Elodie Le Nezet, 3rd and 4th grade teacher, will travel to Haiti over the Thanksgiving holiday on a humanitarian trip.  In Haiti, Elodie will travel to the town of Terrier-Rouge where she will assist teachers and students and will bring educational supplies and solar powered lamps. Like most of Haiti, this area is impoverished and desperately in need of humanitarian support, especially with respect to ensuring access to education, which is not free for children. If you want to help or sponsor a child, please contact Elodie at L'Ecole Française du Maine to learn more!

Mid Fall News from L'Ecole Française du Maine

Mid Fall News from L'Ecole Française du Maine   With our first snow fall already upon us, the lovely Indian summer days seem a distant memory! We've had a busy fall so far with our first Grandparents and Special Friends Day in early October and our Halloween Parade closing out the month.  Both events were a tremendous success enjoyed by all. A Shared Moment on Our First Grandparents' Day As we head into November and the holiday season, we look forward to a flurry of events, kicking off with a fundraiser for Elodie's trip to Haiti this Sunday, November 9 at 1:00 at Trattoria Athena in Brunswick. All proceeds support Elodie's trip and students in need in Haiti.  We hope you can join us for this fun and worthy event! We are also gearing up for two other important  endeavours: the annual Parents' Association Thanksgiving Community meal, scheduled for Monday, November 17th at noon in the Community Hall and our Thanksgiving food drive for the Freeport Community Center (see more below). Finally, we have elections for our School Council on November 4.  Information on the School Council and those up for election is available at the office. As always, our door is open and we welcome your opinion and suggestions! Willy & Beth Elodie's Trip to Haiti  Elodie's Fourth Humanitarian Trip to Haiti For the forth consecutive year Elodie Le Nezet, 3rd and 4th grade teacher, will travel to Haiti over the Thanksgiving holiday on a humanitarian trip. In Haiti, Elodie will travel to the town of Terrier-Rouge in the Trou-du-Nord Arrondissement. She will assist teachers and students and bring educational supplies. Like most of Haiti, this area is impoverished and desperately in need of humanitarian support, especially with respect to ensuring access to education, which is not free for children. Elodie during her 2013 trip to Haiti  Elodie will bring solar-powered lamps to an area where electricity is scarce, making studying for children difficult, in addition to other school supplies and gifts as baggage limits allow.  Please join us this Sunday (tomorrow!), November 9 at 1pm at Trattoria Enoteca in Brunswick for a fundraiser to support this important trip.     Parents Association -  Volunteers Needed! Thanksgiving Community Meal   We are excited once more to bring the Thanksgiving Community meal to our school community!  With November upon us, we've got lots to do and we need your help to make the day a success! We hope you will sign up to volunteer - there is plenty to do leading up to and following the meal.  Please visit the sign up page and volunteer for one of the slots - Merci!  Parent Volunteers 2013 - Thanksgiving Community Meal - Fun Times!!  Décloisonnement Décloisonnement Décloisonnement means 'to take down walls'. In this section, each month we'll focus on a school project or element that does just that - takes away some of the more traditional boundaries that exist in education.   Experiential Education - Everywhere at EFDM  Experimental education is a term we often hear tossed about. Its premise, boiled down, is that for many students learning is doing.  While the theory of experiential education has many nuances, the gist is that students are more engaged in the process of learning by active, participatory experiences than by passively sitting behind a desk taking notes.  Though we're not an experiential learning school per se, being a small, independent school allows us the ability to infuse experience into every aspect of our learning. 1st Grade Students Learn about Engineering by Building a Self-Propelled Boat Encouraging our students to engage in the world of learning through activity compliments our traditional French curriculum and can be seen everyday at EFDM: at recess after a rain when children build dams and rivers (little engineers); on field trips where children collect mineral samples and create a scientific rock collection or travel to the Merrill Auditorium to listen to live classical music. Everyday there is learning through activity infused into our rigorous curriculum, providing experience and structure in equal measure.  In This Issue Call for Volunteers  Call for Volunteers  Décloisonnement Teacher Focus Get Social! Do you 'LIKE US'? Get our news more regularly, like us, watch us and read us!!   BLOG Upcoming Events! Sun., Nov. 9  Fundraiser for Elodie's trip to Haiti, Trattoria Athena, Brunswick Mon & Tues, Nov. 10 & 11 no school in observance of Veterans day Wed, Nov.12, 8:30 - 9:15   Cafe et Conversation with Elodie (3rd & 4th grade) Sat., Nov. 15 Open House  Mon., Nov. 17  Community Thanksgiving Meal 12pm    Tues., Nov. 18 Suzuki Concert, Part 1 from 2-3pm Mon. Nov. 24 Suzuki Concert, Part 2 from 2-3pm Wed., Nov. 26  Thanksgiving Break begins   Staff Focus Kelly Valdmanis English Language Arts Teacher    Given that we're a French immersion school, one of the most common questions we get during the admissions process is: "what about English, how will my child learn to read and write in English?"  Our answer: Kelly Valdmanis. In 2nd grade, all students begin an English program with Kelly, starting with 10% and ending, in 6th grade, with 50%, so that by graduation students are truly bi-lingual.  Her warm and approachable nature makes Kelly a hit with students and staff alike! Kelly has been an educator in public and private schools since 2004. She received her Master's Degree in Childhood Education from Hunter College in New York City, and later taught for several years in the city's top public elementary school. She moved to Senegal, Africa, in 2009 and taught at the International School of Dakar before returning to her home state of Maine in May 2013. Kelly is the mother of French speaking twin boys, with whom she enjoys spending most of her days. In Kelly's free time, when she is not making exploding clay volcanoes, space rocket costumes, or setting up marble runs, she can be found stand up paddle surfing, marathon training, tending her vegetable garden, or knitting the evening hours away.  L'Ecole du Française du Maine  | info@efdm.org |  Visit us Online Copyright © 2014. All Rights Reserved.