Mardi Gras

Last Tuesday was Mardi Gras! Since Mardi Gras is a French holiday, we learned a little bit about it in class.

In French, Gras means fat and Mardi is Tuesday, so Mardi Gras literally means “Fat Tuesday.”

Mardi Gras is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent. In the Christian church, Lent is the 40 days before Easter. In France and other countries, during Lent people are not supposed to eat butter or eggs or meat. So the day before Lent starts, on Mardi Gras, they eat lots of butter and eggs and meat and “get fat,” since they won’t be allowed to eat those things for forty days.

The tradition of dying and hiding Easter eggs is also Lenten in origin. During Lent, people are not supposed to eat eggs, but the hens don’t stop laying them! People started dying Easter eggs to use up the excess eggs they had during Lent.

During Mardi Gras festivities, people often wear elaborate masks like this one

Elaborate parties and parades like this one are often held for Mardi Gras -- in France, they're called "les carnavals"

Les couleurs

Last week we started our unit on colors (les couleurs)!  To help remember the colors we’ve learned, we have a small toy for each color:

• bleu (blue): a blue fish
• vert (green): an angry green army plane
• rouge (red): a fast red car
• jaune (yellow): a sleepy yellow face
• rose (pink): a pink rose
• violet (purple): a purple violet
• blanc (white): a blank piece of paper
• orange (orange): an orange!

We also learned a song to help us remember the names of the colors, which is to the tune of Glug, Glug Went the Little Green Frog.

Click here to listen!

Colors song 1

Bleu Bleu goes the little blue fish.

Rouge Rouge goes the fast red car.

Vert Vert goes the angry green airplane.

And Jaune Jaune goes the sleepy yellow face.

Rose Rose goes the pretty pink rose.

Orange goes the delicious orange.

Violet goes the violet plant.

and Blanc Blanc goes the blank white paper.

De Bons Amis

Last week, Pierre and Claire helped us learn a new song! Here are the words:

“De Bons Amis” (“Good Friends”) (To the tune of Three Blind Mice)
(Two friends sing this together while holding hands and turning in a circle.)

listen to the song here!

note: In French “un ami” is a male friend and “une amie” is a female friend. However, this doesn’t change the pronunciation.

First Friend:  Je m’appelle _____________________.  (2x)  (My name is ______________________.)
Second Friend: Je m’appelle ___________________. (2x)  (My name is ______________________.)
Together: Nous sommes de bons amis!  (2x)  (We are good friends!)
First Friend: Salut, mon ami(e).  (Hi, my friend.)
Second Friend: Salut, mon ami(e).   (Hi, my friend.)

Alouette

Last week in class, we learned Alouette, a traditional French folk song. Besides being fun to sing, the song is helping us review the body parts we’ve learned this month!

listen to Alouette here!

Alouette (traditional)

Alouette, gentille Alouette (Lark, nice Lark) [Make flying motion, then petting motion.]
Alouette, je te plumerai  (Lark, I pull your feathers out.) [Make flying motion, then motion of pulling feathers out.]
Alouette, gentille Alouette (Lark, nice Lark) [Make flying motion, then petting motion.]
Alouette, je te plumerai (Lark, I pull your feathers out.) [Make flying motion, then motion of pulling feathers out.]
Je te plumerai la tête (I pull the feathers out of your head.) [Pretend to pull feathers out of your head.]
Je te plumerai la tête (I pull the feathers out of your head.) [Pretend to pull feathers out of your head.]
Et la tête, et la tête (And your head, and your head.) [Pat head.]
Alouette, Alouette (Lark, Lark) [Make flying motion.]
O-o-o-oh (O-o-o-oh) [Arms make large “O” above head.]

Continue song, substituting the following body parts in place of la tete (head):  le bec (beak), le cou (neck), le dos (back), la queue (tail), as well as any other body parts the kids know and would like to add!a