French Games

Good Morning Room 3 

I can imagine you all did your best at the Sports carnival this term and tried your best at weekly practice.

I thought I would share some of the popular French games that children like to play outside and inside. 

Sport

The main sport they play in France is soccer, but here they call it football. Most kids can kick, dribble (run and kick the ball) and head a ball like it is their second nature. They like to play small versions with their friends and set up goals. Many cities have their own soccer teams and they complete against each other. Lots of kids like to go and watch their favourite teams, like you would go and watch the Eagles or the Dockers play in Perth. Aaron's favourite team is Bordeaux. Rugby is also popular here. Children will go and watch games with their family. They do not play cricket and most French kids have never heard of AFL.

Soccer player for Bordeaux

Card Games

A popular card game here is Dobble. Toby,  I can imagine that you would be really good at this game! You have cards that are in a circle shape and on each card is a different combination of pictures. There are many different games you can play with these cards but the most basic game is you deal out the card evenly and then place one card in the middle.
 Everyone has to look at their cards and find a matching picture to any on the card in the middle. When you have found the matching picture you say it out loud, for example you would shout out 'Candle' and then place the card on top if the pile.
You have to call out the name of the picture before placing it down. The player who gets rid of all their cards cards first is the winner. You can get different variaritions of the game, letters, numbers etc but the picture one is the funniest. Read more here: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobble or see how to play the variations here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TfDH0Rnpyc

Board Games

Another popular game here is Mastermind. I think I have seen this played in Australia before too but not as popular. It is usually played with 2 players. Player 1 selects a colour patter and player 2 has to guess it by placing predictions. Player 1 tells player 2 if they are correct or not with small coloured pegs. It is really clever to see how fast kids can figure out what the other player's pattern is. Abigail and Jonalee I could see you two going head to head with this game! Learn more about mastermind here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastermind_(board_game)

Computer games

The computer games in France are almost completely the same as Australia! Kids here love playing XBox, Playstation and Wii. Most of them have either a PSP or a DS with similar games to Australia. The only difference being - the language is in French! 

Outdoor Games

French children are very passionate about the rules of games and don't like cheaters. If they have a problem with someone not playing fairly they will tell them straight away they are not playing fairly and it isn't making the game enjoyable. Most French children like to sort out their problems with each other and rarely go to the teacher because they know if they talk to the other person they can sort it out. French kids do not give up easily - especially if they think they can win.
Another very interesting thing I saw was they don't mind if it rains when they are playing outside. It rains more often in France than Australia so when it rains none of the children go inside or undercover, and they defiinitely don't go back to their classroom, they just continue playing in the rain!

We are very lucky to have so much space to play outdoor games at Camboon, especially on the green grass and amongst the trees!

What game are you going to play at lunch today? What games will you play when you get home? Remember to enjoy yourself and play fairly, but most of all be a good loser!

Au revoir

Miss Stinson 

French Music

Good Morning Room 3 

This post is all about French Music. You all know how much I love to put on music and have a dance so I thought I would share some of my favourite French music with you and yes, of course, you can dance to it!

To start with a lot of the popular music in France is the same music as in Australia. We get a lot of our music from other parts of the world like USA  and England and so does France. Remember a lot of French people can speak some English so they understand most of the lyrics in the songs. Yes, One Direction and Justin Bieber are popular in France too, but here are some musicians that are popular in France.

Traditional French Style Music

This is the type of music that you would hear on television programs and films that are about France. The main instrument is an accordion. The music sounds very romantic. This music isn't played on the radio in France but I have heard many buskers in the streets playing it for the tourists.

Have a listen here, you may have heard it before.

This song is from the popular french movie Amelie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sAn0Q04VUE 

Modern Music - KYO

These guys have a very popular song at the moment called Le Graal. It is all in French so I only understand parts of this song but the tune has become a favourite, not really one to dance to but a funky tune.

You can listen to this song here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWXYnW2Um68

Dance Music - Logobitombo 

French kids love the song Logobitombo by Moussier Tombola. They go absolutely nuts, I have never seen it before. There is a dance that goes with this song which is super fun. Again this is all in French. This song is about which type of dance you like to do. It is very funny and the actions don't really make much sense, which is why I think kids like it. We are definitely doing this dance when I get back next term.

You can check out the film clip here and see if you can learn some of the dance before I get back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWXYnW2Um68

Fun Music - Magic in the Air

This song, Magic in the Air by Magic System, is a good one because the chorus is mostly in English and then the verses are in French. The song was inspired by the World Cup and you can see that inspiration in the film clip. Unfortunately this song doesn't come with a dance so we are going to have to make up one together. I think it might have to have some soccer type moves in it. When I hear this song it just makes me want to start jumping and cheering. This song is full of life and fun.
Listen to this fun song here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAkqJT_sMKQ

There are also many artists that are French but sing in English. Daft Punk are French and sing in English, and David Guetta is French too.

What is your favourite song at the moment? Have you had a dance to it lately? Maybe you can ask you parents or Miss Bettella to play it for you!

I hope you have all had a wonderful Term 3 and are looking forward to your holidays.

I have left France and have been to England, Wales, Ireland and I am now in Scotland. 

Not long until I am back in Australia! 

Au revoir

Miss Stinson

Castles: Part 5 - Château de Joudes

Good Morning Room 3

I always like to save the best for last so this is the last post in the castle series.

Castles: Part 5 - Chateau de Joudes. 

This is a castle very dear to me. I stayed at Chateau de Joudes for a month. I think that makes me a princess now, you must all call me Princess Stinson and only address me as your majesty. Only joking! 

This castle is in the French countryside in a very small town of Joudes which is near St Amour with the closest well known city being Lyon. 

Château de Joudes

This is the view from the steps of the chateau facing the backyard.

Two lovely French people own the chateau, Gerard and Martine. Martine is known as Mumma Chef because she prepares every meal at the chateau. You eat 3 meals each day and each meal has 3 courses. That means a small entree, main and, the best part, dessert! For every meal, breakfast, lunch and dinner. That's a lot of food! 

The large old dinner bell.

But how do you know when it is meal time, it is such a large chateau? They have a meals bell. When the bell rings you have to go to the eating hall. If you are really lucky you get to ring the bell. The bell is so large when it is rung the whole chateau can hear it, which is a good thing because you wouldn't want to miss out on a meal!

I am ringing the dinner bell. You can see me to the left of the mini van beside the stairs. I make the chateau seem huge!

One of the old heavy iron locks on the doors.

The chateau is really old so all the doors are so heavy to push open. They are have large iron locks on them that bang and clatter. There is no lift in the chateau so to get to the top you have to walk up the stairs. My room was on the top floor so I had to walk 6 flights of stairs everyday to get either up or down. 

View from my bedroom window down to the kids doing a dance lesson.

But what were you doing in chateau? Good question. Which language to they speak in France? That's right , French! Just like you go to Mrs Ienco to learn Italian. French kids can go to Chateau de Joudes to learn English. I was teaching the French kids English. Only instead of going every week to a class like you do at school these kids came for 1 week to live and stay and only speak English. And they were only a little bit older than you! 9 and 10 years old. Could you imagine if Mrs Ienco took you to a camp from Monday - Friday and you got to sleep and eat in a chateau BUT you were only allowed to speak Italian! I know some of you are saying 'yeah!' And I bet others are saying 'no thanks'. 

The classes were in the chateau and the kids got long, long recess and lunch breaks. Lunch in France usual goes for 1 1/2 - 2 hours. 

Beautiful daisies growing throughout the garden.

Chateau - view from the garden

At the end of the day they played games and had fun before going to bed at 9.30 or 10pm at night. Hang on a second, 10pm for 9 year olds! Yep, believe it! The sun doesn't go down until about 9.30 in the summer here so many children don't go to bed until later.

At the end of the week the students graduate with an English certificate. 

The chateau was so beautiful I could have stayed there forever! Maybe one day you can come to the chateau and learn French.

I hope you have been doing your best work!

Au Revior 

Miss Stinson

Castles: Part 1 - Chateaux

Good Morning Room 3

France is a very old country, much older than Australia. Way, way, way, way back there used to be Kings, Queens, Princesses and Princes that would travel around the country. They would travel to the various parts of the country that they ruled. So where do Kings and Queens live? That's right, in castles! The french word for a castle is a Chateau (you add an x to make it a plural instead of an s - Chateaux). It is pronounce shat-toe (like the toe on your foot).

There are so many different and wonderful things about each chateau. This is part 1 of a series of posts about the various chateaus that I have been lucky enough to visit. Each chateau has it's own special thing about it.  I can just imagine little princes running about the halls and causing all sorts of trouble - just like little Vinsons and Dylans.

Here are some of the Chateaus I have visited so far and some information that is unique to each. Most of the castles are named after the towns that they are in but there are some exceptions.

Quick french lesson: ch is pronounce sh in French. A good example of this is a french word that we use in our everyday language - chef. We would pronounce that shef not chef. 

Okay, on with the castles.

Château de Chambord

Chambord is best known for its size. This is a big castle with a lot of space. There is a large double staircase at the centre of the castle, which they believe Da Vinci designed, although there is not clear evidence. The rooms are enormous and when I say enormous I mean the size of your whole house!

Château de Chambord

Double helix staircase

Miss Stinson on the top balcony of Chambord

View from inside the staircase

On top of Chambord

Chambord was so impressive because it was so big! I wanted to visit a castle that was beautiful that's when we headed to Cheverny.

Château de Cheverny

Cheverny is a fairy tale castle. As soon as you enter it feels like you are a princess. There are actors roaming the grounds dressed like they have just attended a royal ball and classical music playing throughout the grounds. The actors will dance and prance about and ask you questions (in french) and they create a very magical atmosphere. This castle is also well known for being the home of Tin Tin. Cheverny is popular because there are no empty large spaces like Chambord, the whole castle is filled with furniture, clothing, artworks and the house is set out as if there are still kings and queens living there. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take photos on the inside of the castle but if you visit the website it has some photos there.

Some of the actors in the gardens

Some of the actors in the castle. Their costumes were so lavish.

A photo of Cheverny from the gardens

They keep hounds on the grounds that are still used for hunting

Some of the hounds were so tired they were taking micro naps on the others' backs.

One of the pictures inside the house on website

A basic map of the Cheverny grounds from the website

When we arrived it was a bit overcast and we couldn't get the real fairy tale photo but...

...just before we left the sun came out and we got this beautiful photo.

Cheverny was my favourite castle, we had seen about 5 castles but then I we visisted Chenonceau.

Château de Chenonceau

This castle was by far my favourite of all the castles. This castle is known for its feminine touch. That means lots of ladies (most of which were queens) either designed the house or had a big say in the structure and interior of the house. This was a beautiful castle. The most outstanding feature was the river ran right underneath where the queens used to hold grand balls. There is a tall tower at the front of the castle and it reminded me so much of rapunzel.

I felt like I was in a fairy tale at each castle. My question for you this week is to choose a favourite castle, it can be one in this post or any others in the world and use the internet with your parents to find out some more information about it. Remember you can post comments and questions at the bottom of each of my posts.

Au revoir 

Miss Stinson

Money Money Money

Good Morning Room 3

Welcome back to Term 3! I know you have all been learning about Australian money in class so I thought I would do a post about the money used in France. French people used to use francs until 2002 when the francs were replaced with euros. Euros are used in many countries in Europe, which is how the currency got it's name. Currency is a grown up word for money.

Use this map of Europe to find out which countries use the Euro as their currency.

The symbol for Australian dollars is $. The symbol for euros is €. It kind of looks like a curly E with two lines in the middle instead of one. You would use the word euro instead of dollars so you could say something like "Mum can I pppplllleeeaaassee get that lollie, it's only 2€?" Unlike the $ symbol that goes before the number the euro goes after.

The euro coins are very similar to Australian coins. The euro coins are 5c, 10c, 20c, 50c, 1€ and 2€ but unlike Australia they also have 1c and 2c. The cents are said as 'euro cents'.

All the Euro coins, front and back.

The notes are similar too. There are 5€, 10€, 20€, 50€ and 100€ notes but wait... this is the cool part... there are also 200€ and 500€ notes! Awesome!

The coins and notes are really beautifully designed, just like Australian currency because they are both modern. 

I did go to a museum where they had some of the first coins ever used because as we all know money was original invented as a way of controlling trade and paying wages. 

I hope you have learnt some cool things about euros. Maybe you have seen a real euro before from your parents or grandparents travels? Do you know any other currencies from other countries? Ask someone in you family which different money they have seen or used and what it was called.

I hope you are saving your money wisely and didn't spend it all these winter holidays.

Au revoir

Miss Stinson

Castles: Part 4 - Gardens

Good Morning Room 3

Welcome to Castles: Part 4 - Gardens!

This is a short post about the gardens that surround most of the chateaus around France. The word garden is pronounce similar but spelt jardin. These gardens are often lavish and blooming with colour.

Beautiful garden. Notice the design, so organised. This garden is huge, see the tiny people walking around it.

Bird's Eye view of the gardens at Chateau Chenonceau.

They are often arranged in a repetitive or organised pattern. These gardens are, like all other things at the chateaus, huge! You can walk among them for hours.

A view of the chateau from the garden.

Garden at Chateau de Chambord.

You can just imagine the royals walking, no no, strolling throughout the gardens. Dane you would adore all these gardens. Lots of different trees, plants and flowers to admire.

Even when it is a bit rainy it is still beautiful.

You are very lucky to have trees and gardens to play amongst at school. 

I hope you are all enjoying the first days of the school holidays!

Au revoir

Miss Stinson

Castles: Part 3 - Medieval Fortress

Good Morning Room 3

Bienvenue (Welcome) to Part 3 of the Castles posts. Part 3 is about Medieval fortresses! Boys ready your swords and girls grab you bow and arrows because it is time to protect the castle.

I have been lucky enough to visit two medieval fortresses in France and they were both amazing!

These are a special type of castle because within the huge castle walls is also the town. Many of these are now named 'old cities'.

Aigues-Mortes 

Aigues-Mortes is just outside the large city of Montpellier. The huge walls of this fortress have been well preserved. Inside the city walls is a town, this town is like any other with restaurants, shops and people. 

View of Aigues-Mortes from above. You can see the walls and towers surrounding the city.

We went up the towers and walked around the whole outside (perimeter) of the city's walls. It was really fun to imagine when these walls would have protect the castle and the people that lived in the townships. Along the walls there are small slits where guards would have keep watch with their weapons.

One of the famous towers of Aigues Mortes. The french word for tower is tours. This is Tours Constance.

At the top of the tower it can get a little windy.

Gates protecting the entry.

These were made from iron - they would have been very heavy the lift.

One of the canon balls

One of the specially designed holes that they would drop the canon balls into.

If they were under attack they would use these weapons to defend their land for their king. One of the interesting weapons were huge canon balls. They drop these huge balls, some weight more than 50kg over the walls. Sometimes they would drop them down specially made holes in the castles that were before the gates.   

I really enjoyed learning all the medieval history of this huge fortress. 

Carcassonne

Carcassonne is another medieval city that has been well preserved and it is huge!

View from above of Cite de Carcassonne

Carcassonne had huge walls protecting it's city and castle. You could walk on top of these walls too.

Miss Stinson in front of Carcassonne. It is 9.30pm. The sun is just starting to set.

 The towers to go into the castle are huge! They used to have a draw bridge that would be lowered and raised for people to enter and exit the castle. Now they have built a bridge so people can get in and out easily.

This is the basic design of a drawbridge on a medieval castle. It helped stop the enemy from entering the castle.

I am standing where the old drawbridge would have been. It has now been replaced by a permanent bridge.

 Inside this castle it had many facts about medieval times. One thing that I found fascinating at Carcassonne was there was a real mile stone. Back in the medieval times they didn't have road signs like we do now telling us how far to the next city or town. They used mile stones on the side of the road. Nowadays we use the term mile stone for when someone reaches an important time in their lives. For example, losing your first tooth, riding a two wheel bike with no training wheels, or your birthdays are all mile stones.

This is a real mile stone!

One last thing about this city that was really cool was everything was set out like an old medieval style city. All the cafes and restaurants had medieval style names, you could buy wooden swords and shields and you could ride around in a horse and cart. One of the coolest things was the lolly shop. All the lollies were in big barrels! 

Barrels upon barrels of lollies

More barrels! 

Aigues-Mortes and Carcassonne were both very cool medieval cities. Could you imagine if Camboon Primary had to turn into a medieval fortress? The office would become the castle and we would have to fight to protect it! We could build up and protect the walls!

I hope you are all enjoying the last couple of weeks of Term 2 - holidays soon!

Au revoir

Miss Stinson