Friday, November 16, 2012

"My Favorite Pumpkin"

Back in Nancy! This past week I worked with the CE1 (second grade) class again. The teacher introduced the story of Jack and the Beanstalk (Jack et le Haricot magique) to the students this week. I found this version of the folktale (retold by an educational company) very strange because at the end of the story Jack buys back his cow after defeating the giant and the cow transforms into a princess when Jack kisses it. Perhaps the company who developed this version wanted to draw parallels with other common folktales, and so they decided to have the cow turn into a princess. I guess folktales are always open to interpretation.

The main event that the school was preparing for this week was today- the Halloween celebration! There was a costume parade around the school courtyard. I was very proud that some of the students were wearing the orange paper-plate masques (masks) that I helped paint during the week. The first and second graders got to sing "My Favorite Pumpkin" to their parents, a song that they had been rehearsing all week. For anyone teaching English Language Learners, I highly recommend this song because it is very repetitive and reviews numbers, names for parts of the face, and simple commands. The older students sang "What are you for Halloween?". I also recommend this song to review simple Halloween vocabulary with students.

Joyeux Halloween! (Encore)

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