Dear Parents/Carers,
This year at Coleham School, we are hosting a Francophone Day on Tuesday 17th January. Francophone means ‘French Speaking’ and so we will be looking at countries around the world that speak French. This is in place of our usual International Day as we would like to raise awareness of the fact that French is not just spoken in France.
There are 29 official French-speaking countries and you can see their flags below. Madame Jones will be teaching the KS2 children about HAÏTI in her usual French teaching slot.
Map
Activities
Each year group has been assigned a Francophone continent/countries for them to research in class (see below)
Le Monde Francophonie – The French-speaking World
Reception – la France
Year 1 – America: le Canada – Quebec
Year 2 – Europe: la Belgique; la Suisse (Switzerland); Luxembourg
Year 3 – Asia: le Viêtnam; Laos
Year 4 – Northern Africa: le Maroc, Algérie
Year 5 – Africa/Indian Ocean: la Madagascar OR Caribbean: Martinique
Year 6 –Africa: le Sénégal, le Cameroun, le Mali, la Côte d’Ivoire, le Burkina Faso
This will be a day during which pupils of all year groups will take part in activities which celebrate international cultures as well as diversity within our school community. Your child will do some or all of the following:
- Listening to music from the country
- Learning to speak some words from the language
- Doing some art work linked with that country
- Doing some map work linked to the geography of that country
- Learning a bit about the history of that country
- Looking at the day in the life of a child from that country
Menu
There will be a special French Theme Menu for lunch on this day.
Non-Uniform Day
As usual, children are invited to dress in their own clothes with reference to any international country. You do not need to go to any extra cost for this, some simple ideas are below:
- Dress in colours of a country’s flag or for example, if your child wants to represent Switzerland (la Suisse), he/she should wear any red or white clothes.
- Safety pin a flag to the front of a coloured T-shirt or wrap one around your shoulders.
- Use face paints to decorate your face with a flag
- Use sports clothes you have at home that represent a country (For example Football, Rugby or Cycling shirts)
- Please wear any cultural dress you may have at home.
Parent Visitors
We love to have visitors come into school to share their experiences. If you would like to visit your child’s class to talk about a country you are connected with or have visited as a keen traveller then we would love to see you and the Class Teacher will support you. (You might like to bring photos, props, cultural dress, or share some of the language) Please contact the school office to book in.
We hope you agree that it will be a fun and enriching experience for all involved and many thanks in advance for your support with costumes.
Yours sincerely,
Chloë Jones
Foreign Languages Coordinator