Bonhomme d'avril

Every month, Early Childhood students practice drawing the human body. The « bonhomme » drawings are kept in a notebook to see the child's progress throughout the year.

First, they draw a "Mister Potato" like body.  Then students add a head separate from the body, hands, fingers, feet, and hair.

Make sure you check out these adorable works of art in their drawing notebooks!

Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris

While we all watched the shocking fire at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris Monday, television stations around the US sought out French schools to attempt to provide context for this tragedy.  Willy LeBihan, Head of School, was interviewed by WGME CBS 13.

Several organizations, sponsored by the French Embassy, are accepting donations:

https://www.notredamedeparis.fr/friends/history/

A Tick Talk

Huge Thanks to Adina Zelener, Founder of LymeTV.org for the wonderful classroom presentations for our students. These age-appropriate presentations had the children very engaged and taught them how to stay safe when playing out-of-doors. Adina used stories, a tick stuffed animal and interactive Q&A to stress to the children the importance of checking for ticks, wearing tick safe clothing and bug-spray, and what to do if they do find a tick on their bodies. 

We are so proud of the children who were a wonderful audience and who asked such pertinent questions! The children were also given a fun activity book to remind them of all they learned. To follow up, Adina provided the makings for a fun art project- the children will decorate tick tubes that will soon be placed strategically in the playground to keep us all safe! Merci, Adina!

April showers...

...bring May flowers! April weather won't stop us from having fun at recess!

From Seed to Table...

The snow this week certainly didn't stop our Early Childhood students from thinking about spring! This week students showed off their 'green thumbs' and got their hands dirty.

Radishes, beans, carrots, and other vegetables were started from seed this week. Students will care for the seedlings and make observations about their growth.  

We hope to enjoy a bountiful harvest very soon!

La Peinture Aborigène

We couldn't resist sharing some of the beautiful Aboriginal inspired projects on display at EFDM. These projects were all created using mixed media and various brushes and materials.

Optical Illusions

Things have been spinning in the GS/CP classroom, but thankfully not out of control!  Students have been deeply engaged in a unit on the five senses. Recently they have focused on sight. 

These optical illusion spinners have us all wondering if we are seeing straight!

To bead or not to bead...

We choose beading!  Our Early Childhood students love Perler beads, which develop fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, as well as help foster creativity.

Sensory Circuit

Our Kindergarten and Grade 1 students had a blast creating a 'Sensory Circuit' for our Early Childhood students.  The older students carefully lead the younger students through the circuit where they experienced hard, soft, squishy, and various other types of objects throughout the course.

Pizza anyone?

Our 3rd Grade Read-a-thon champions enjoyed a very special pizza luncheon at Pat's Pizza with all the fixings including lemonade, nachos, pizza, and of course, ICE CREAM! 

Pat's Pizza was extremely impressed with the amount of pizza our students consumed! 

Apparently our readers were hungry! 

Of course, after the luncheon, students had another treat of extra recess.  What more could we ask for?  

Welcome Back Jérôme Train!

You may have seen a familiar face around EFDM this week. We welcomed Jérôme Train, Pedagogical Advisor from Dallas International School, back to L'Ecole Française du Maine for a 2nd visit this year. Again, he observed teachers, classes, and held afternoon professional development workshops. During this visit, Jérôme continued his training on creative writing and he emphasized practical applications and the benefits of teaching in a multi-age classroom. Jérôme offers teacher training sessions to more than 17 French Schools on the east coast of the United States for the Mission Laïque Française (MLF - America), of which EFDM is a member. We are extremely grateful for his visit and expertise.  Merci Jérôme!

Teachers got hooked! - Poisson d'avril !

In the United States, students get excited about April Fools' Day for the pranks. Here at EFDM, like in France, our students have other ideas in mind on April 1st.

The day typically begins with students discreetly drawing various types of fish on paper.  Some fish are colorful, some are plain, some have words on them, some are big and some are small. The fish are then cut out and a piece of tape is put onto each fish. This is when the excitement begins...Students plot, scheme, and patiently wait for their opportunity to stick the fish onto the backs of teachers without them knowing.  Our teachers lovingly ignore it, pretend they don't know what happened, and spend the entire day with the fish hanging on their backs, like Sophie pictured above. 

And speaking of fish, don't forget to check out these beautiful fish paintings from our Early Childhood students that were inspired by the work of Elois Renouf.  Perfect timing with Poisson d'avril, as well as the upcoming fishing season here in Maine!

Here come the capitals!

Pictured above, our 2nd graders master the upper case letters.

Despite being a lost art here in the U.S., cursive writing at EFDM is an important part of the curriculum. At EFDM, cursive writing begins in Kindergarten, with preparation for writing beginning in Early Childhood classes through activities and various art projects. Cursive writing not only develops fine motor skills but also helps develop brain synapses and connections.  The numerous advantages of this lost art include more efficient speed with writing to get ideas on the paper, prevents reversals and confusion of letters, develops muscle memory that helps enhance spelling ability, provides constant spacing from letters and spaces between words, and also helps left handed children with writing. 

Looking for a good book?

Make sure to visit our upper grade classroom where plenty of book recommendation posters are on display. Students in Grades 3 & 4 have been reading books and making recommendations to the class on a weekly basis since September.  

And although some say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, we think you should!  Check out this gorgeous poster that 3rd Grade student Amelia made!

Les Peintures de Sable des Amérindiens Navajos

During traditional Navajo ceremonies, images are painted in colored sand on the floor of the hogan (Navajo home) by a skilled artisan.  Once the ritual is complete, the painting is swept away. Thankfully, these Navajo inspired pieces from our GS/CP students will not be swept away and are now on display next to the upper grade classroom! Enjoy!

Introducing Loulou

If you have a GS/CP (k-1) student at EFDM, you have probably heard about Loulou, the "class stuffie".  We thought it was time to introduce the world's traveling wolf to the rest of our community.

Throughout the year, Loulou has taken a sabbatical from his usual wolf activities, and has decided to travel around the world, first class of course!  He has been visiting a few countries from all of the seven continents.  During his visits, he sends a detailed letter to the GS/CP class about the country he is visiting, and he LOVES to share selfies from his trip!  His letter to the class includes information about cuisine, money, language, landscape, architecture, places of interest, and much more.  After that, students record information about the country also include sketches and glue images into their travel notebooks.

Loulou's trip began in Maine and then headed to Canada, Brazil, Antartica, and recently, Australia.

Next stop: Asia!

Make sure to take a peek at the book that Elodie and Victorien have compiled in class documenting his journey. Bon voyage Loulou! Asia here we come!