Overall this week I did quite a bit of singing again. I taught a few of the younger classes (kids aged 5-7) farm animals and the sounds they make. The kids enjoyed this lesson a lot because some french animals speak differently than english ones apparently, haha. Then, we sang, “Old MacDonald had a Farm” to review animals and their sounds. The kids thought that this song was pretty funny.
I taught the older kids (8-11) different things this week depending on the school. At one school, I introduced rooms and furniture in a house. With another class, we read a little book called, “From Head to Toe,” which is a story about animals and the actions that they can do (gorillas can thump their chests, donkeys can kick, etc.) and then we sang, “If You’re Happy and You Know it” and I had them do all of the motions from the story. We got up to 12 different actions and at the end, they had to remember all of them, (clap your hands, raise your shoulders, turn your head, kick your foot, etc). It went really well and it even turned out to be pretty good exercise! The teacher was entertained by the activity, and I think she even got some pictures and videos of it. I really want to try to get that footage! With another class, we played Guess Who. It was actually quite a challenge for the kids. The entire class was not ready for this game, but some kids rose to the challenge. I explained everything to them and wrote the questions and answers on the board that they could use while playing the game. They played in partners, and I walked around listening and helping each pair. I listened to two little boys who really seemed to have it down, so I had them play in front of the class. They did a great job! So, I remembered that I had some stickers from the US in my bag, so I gave them some after they presented and they got really excited! I made the other kids kind of jealous, but now they have motivation to try harder next week!
On Tuesday evening, I had my adult class, which went pretty well! The same eight people showed up, and I wonder if the other 4 on my rooster will ever show up… We did a grammar sheet together as a class. Then, I described the show Friends to them. I myself am not that familiar with this show, so I had to do a little research about it. I explained the relationships and background of the show, and then I showed them an 8 minute clip from the Thanksgiving episode where Brad Pitt guest starred. After showing them the clip, we talked about it a little to make sure that they were sure of who was who. Then, I passed out a little bit of the script with words missing and they had to fill in missing words as they listened to the clip. This took a lot longer than I expected because I had to constantly rewind and replay the scenes. After they tried to fill in the words, I had them take turns and each read a line from the scene. It took a while, but I am glad that I over-planned instead of under-planned! I think that was good for the adults because it exposed them to how fast people talk and different expressions that are commonly used, such as, “give a hand” and “how to handle it.”
On Tuesday, I had lunch at the high school! This time it was a beef with sauce, pasta, veggies, and cake!
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| yummmm |
On Wednesday, Kate, Jack, Melissa, and I met up for tea/coffee at a cafe. It had a cool atmosphere and it made me miss London!
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| Bit of London in Roanne |
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| I think I love raspberry anything! |
Also, Wednesday evening, Kate’s friend Matthew came to visit and he stayed until Friday. He was so nice and I am glad I got to meet him! Also, Kim’s friend Esther left on Friday, and Kate’s brother arrived Friday! It’s been a busy week at our little Roanne apartment.
Friday evening, too many things were going on! There was a party in St. Etienne, my host family had invited me over, and I was invited to a teacher’s birthday dinner. Originally, I was going to go to my host family, but they messaged me saying that their daughter was sick, so it wasn’t the best time for me to come. One of my teachers really wanted me to come to her birthday dinner, so I ended up going to that. She told me to come around 7 30pm, so I got there about 15 minutes late, and I was still the first one to arrive at her house…lol. She just showed me some family photos, and I met her daughter. After maybe 15 minutes, two of her friends arrived, and their daughter (who is good friend’s with the teacher’s daughter). The girls prepared the dinner and they told the teacher not to even enter the kitchen because they wanted to prepare everything for her! It was so sweet! First we had drinks and snacks (chips). Then, for dinner we had a Raclette, which I have tried before with my host family. So you get potatoes and deli meats and you melt cheese over them. It’s really tasty and filling! Then, we had a brownie cake with English cream, which was tasty. We had some good conversations at the table and my teacher’s friends even invited me to come see their farm! The daughter and her friend were so nice too! We talked a lot together and they had selected nice music which played in the background. Overall, it was nice to chat with everyone and at the end of the night, I realized that this meal lasted about 4 hours! I had a good time though, and I am glad that I went!
So lucky to have met such nice people here in Roanne,
Magdalena
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