So confession- I meant to do the winter Olympics this week but I mistakenly thought they were in Paris (that’s the 2024 summer Olympics- woops!) but they’re in Bejing! Sooooo long story short I had a bunch of plans centering around France that I just fleshed out a bit (since we JUST did China last week) and we’ll continue on with the Winter Olympics next week! Good thing they continue for awhile! LoL Anyway, I studied French in high school, so this week I’ll be teaching my littles a few phrases, numbers and letters along with diving into the culture of France. Vive la France!
–Literacy:
-France mini book and “discovery page”: Many of my activities this week came from a file I purchased on Teachers Pay Teachers– usually I try to keep my lessons totally free for y’all but it was tricky finding things to do appropriate for preschool aged littles, so I just bought this pack- it was only $6.00 and came with 5 activities, so I figured it was worth it! This one was a mini book on France and a worksheet where your little can draw one thing they learned and write a sentence about it (I wrote my 3 year old’s sentence for him).
-French flag ABC ordering: This is another file I got from the link in the activity above- you can also cut the flags apart and have your little match uppercase, lowercase and the beginning sounds picture but I just had my littles put them in the correct order (I thought 78 pieces might be a bit overwhelming!)
-Rhyming words: I got this file from the Teachers Pay Teachers link above as well- it’s not really French themed, but it was great rhyming word/word family practice and it was on a map of France, so I guess it ties in! LoL Anyway, I just printed and laminated the base word cards and the smaller word cards, placed a big card in front of my little and had him sound it out. Then I reminded him that often, rhyming words are spelled the same at the end. I had him find and read all the rhyming words for the card, then we repeated the activity with the other 3 cards.
–French ABCs: Each morning we sing the ABCs for calendar time- but this week we sang them in French! Here’s a video if you don’t know your French alphabet!
-French writing prompt: I had my little imagine he was going on a trip to France- for the beginning he wrote how we got there (we looked at a map of where we live in comparison to France to see how we could get there), then he wrote about what we saw and did for the middle. The end was how we got home.
-French book list:
–Math:
-French flag number matching: I got this activity from the purchased bundle too! It’s all the numbers 1-20 on a French flag with the number in digits, dice, and unifix cubes/blocks. I gave my 3 year old 1-10 and my 5 year old 11-20 and had them match them up!
-Bake a baguette with fractions: I had my littles help me make a French baguette by having them find the correct measuring cups and spoons required for the recipe. Cooking is fun and also really helps kids learn what common fractions like 1/2 and 3/4 look like at an early age! Plus it’s delicious! Bon appetite!
-French number tracing: We reviewed the French numbers 1-10, then I had my little carefully trace them while saying each letter on these French number cards from Teachers Pay Teachers.
-Eiffel Tower connect the dots: I printed this Eiffel Tower connect the dot page and had my littles do it- my 5 year old counted as he connected the numbers and my 3 year old just followed my finger as I traced the numbers.
–French numbers: Each morning for calendar time we count to 100 on our 100’s chart, but this week we also counted to ten in French!
–Science/Social Studies:
-Make France out of playdough: The pack I purchased came with this outline map of France- I had my littles build the shape of France out of playdough by placing it on the map.
-Make the French flag: I gave my littles a full sheet of white cardstock and a strip of red and blue construction paper. Then we looked at a French flag and I had them glue down the stripes in the correct place to make their own. I got this idea from Heart and Gratitude.
-STEM build the Eiffel tower: I gave my littles toothpicks and playdough and challenged them to build a structure similar to the Eiffel tower.
-Make Crepes: Crepes are SO good and are one of my favorite French foods (along with escargot!) so we made them for lunch one day! I got the recipe from my trusty Better Homes and Gardens cookbook with the plaid cover, then tweaked it to make it healthier. I mixed 2 beaten eggs with 1 1/2 cups of milk, 1 cup of whole wheat flour, 1 tbsp olive oil, and 1/4 tsp salt. Then I sprayed some olive oil in a pan on medium heat, placed a ladle of batter in the center and tilted the pan in each direction to spread it out (if the batter is too thick, add in a bit of milk or orange juice). You can also spread the batter by gently swirling the ladle around from the center out if that makes sense. They cook fast so keep an eye on it- when the top looks done, flip it and cook the other side for 30 seconds or so. Once they’re cooked you can make a Croque Monsieur crepe by melting gruyere or swiss cheese on top of it after you flip it over, then add some warmed ham (I just seared mine in the same pan) and roll it up OR fold it in half, then in half again. You can also do a sweet crepe- Nutella and banana is popular! We did blueberry yogurt, diced green apple and a sprinkle of cinnamon!
-Learn French phrases: One of the books we read had a “learn French phrases” section that we did together since I know how to pronounce the words correctly…I will say it’s been 20+ years so my accent isn’t perfect, so that’s why I didn’t make my own videos- instead you can check out this set of videos on YouTube called Learn French with Alexa! She’s great and has videos on basic French by category!
–Art:
-Lavender field pompom painting: I showed my littles some pictures of French lavender fields, then gave my them pompoms clipped in clothespins to paint with. We used light purple, dark purple, and green to paint fields of lavender.
-Notre Dame stained glass window: These came out SO PRETTY Y’ALL! So first you need to make the cut out part- just follow the instructions in this video. Then stick the cutout to some contact paper or vinyl transfer paper. Next give your littles some small 1 inch squares of tissue paper and have them stick them to the spaces in the cutout. When they’re done, flip it over and VOILA! A gorgeous stained glass window! We also looked at real pictures of Notre Dame and its windows on my phone. I got this idea from Pack More Into Life.
-Button Eiffel Tower: I printed an outline of the Eiffel Tower, then had my littles fill it in with buttons. I got this idea from Pinterest.
-The Starry Night painting: We talked about the French artist Claude Monet and I showed the littles his painting The Starry Night. Then we made our own starry night paintings using Q-tips to swirl blues and purples on sheets of tin foil. I got this idea from Pack More Into Life.
-Red, white and blue streamer craft and dancing: Since the colors of the French flag are blue, white and red, you can make a streamer in those colors by taping crepe paper to a pencil, then ask Alexa to play French music and dance, dance, dance! (We listened to the music, but our crepe paper didn’t arrive on time, so we never got to make the craft.)
–Extras:
-Letter of the week: Ss, each day we do a different activity focused on our letter- introduction/have your little practice it on the chalkboard (or white board), think of words that start with the letter and make a list, workbook letter writing practice, workbook word writing practice.
-Word of the week: way, each day we do a different activity focused on our word- introduction/sound the word out/have your little practice writing it on the chalkboard or whiteboard, word family list- think of other words that rhyme with your word of the week, use the word in a sentence (have your little come up with the sentence and write it for them) then have your little illustrate the sentence, and workpage practice.
-Bible verse: This month’s Bible verse is “But now these three remain; faith, hope and love- but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13 I write each word in the verse on a post-it, stick them to the wall then have my little point to each word and read it each day all month.
-Character trait of the month: love…this word is reviewed and posted at the start of the month then each time one of my littles freely demonstrates generosity I use the word to specifically praise what they’re doing and encourage the trait in them. (ie. “That was so loving when you shared some of your cookie with your brother!”)
–Supply/shopping list:
- French bread/baguette ingredients
- crepe ingredients
- toothpicks
- playdough
- buttons
- red, white and blue streamers or ribbon
- pencil
- tinfoil
- Q-tips
- pompoms
- clothes pins
- tissue paper
- contact paper/transfer paper
littlelovesandlearning.com 
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