What a playful, creative, and impressive show put on by our Maternelle students and their teachers last Friday! This was a great opportunity for parents to see the progress their children have made this year at FASP and to celebrate together. Bravo!
There are a lot of new and exciting things about Grade 1 – a different classroom environment, homework(!), more emphasis on reading skills, and more. To help get our Kindergarten students ready and excited for this new adventure, they recently visited the Grade 1 class to see what it’s like. They met one of the characters in the French books, met the teacher, and talked about how things will be different. They’ll be all set to start in September!
Our Maternelle students recently went to the NJ State Theater to see a fun show of the Rainbow Fish. They love getting to take a school bus, some for the first time! The show was a creative light show retelling the favorite kids book.
Our Maternelle students are getting to be quite good at this! Every month, our maternelle students and teachers prepare a meal to share together. This month, our Preschool students made Hungry Caterpillar carrot cupcakes, PreK made asparagus soup, and Kindergarten made tabouleh.
Spring is starting to bloom on campus, and our Maternelle students are preparing their garden for the growing season. Stay tuned to see what they’re going to plant in all this fresh dirt!
Poisson d’avril! The April Fools’ Day custom in France is to secretly stick a fish on you friend’s back, and our students had fun continuing the tradition at school this month!
Every month, a few of our middle school students visit the Maternelle for story time. This time they chose spring-themed stories and enjoyed the young students’ reactions and questions to the stories.
This month, our maternelle students learned how to make lasagna, salad, and crêpes for their baking and shared meal project. Students learn new cooking skills, how to work together, and to enjoy new tastes by preparing healthy meals.
Our Maternelle (Preschool, PreK, and Kindergarten) classes recently put on a presentation all about spring for their parents and friends. Songs, poetry, and dance performances about spring and new growth were accompanied by bright and beautiful art projects. The Spring Celebration is a great opportunity for families to witness their children’s progress in two languages and connect with one another. Our students and teachers really enjoy bringing parents in to what they’ve been up to, too.
FASP has extensive collections of French and English books in the Maternelle and Elementary/Middle School libraries. Students enjoy visiting once a week, where they can browse and borrow books to take home and enjoy. Maternelle students often read a story together, and older students share books they’ve enjoyed with the “coups de coeur.” Reading, and learning to love it, is important for building vocabulary, expanding the imagination, improving memory, and encouraging concentration.
At FASP, students learn the foundations of handwriting starting in Preschool. Once in Kindergarten, they begin working specifically on handwriting skills through a workbook and activities. Our Kindergarten students have been developing these fine-motor skills with word-building puzzles, white boards, and lessons in their workbooks.
Learn more here:
It was a red theme this month for the Maternelle shared lunch: vegetable soup, red cabbage quiche, and strawberry milkshakes! Students prepare and share a meal once a month to learn new skills and healthy eating habits.
Continuing all year, our middle school students take turns visiting the Maternelle classrooms to read stories in French and English. Here are the books that students enjoyed reading and listening to this time:
Books read in Preschool:
Books read in Pre-K:
White Rabbit’s Color Book La brouille
Books read in Kindergarten:
The Mitten Tree Les contes du château
A common French tradition in January is the galette des rois, or kings cake. At FASP, we continue this tradition with our students every year. Our maternelle and middle school students baked their own cakes this year, and many elementary school parents also generously volunteered to make cakes. As always, it was a fun (and delicious!) moment to share together!
Our Maternelle parents enjoyed a festive holiday show by our Preschool, PreK, and Kindergarten students. Students danced and sang in French and English about snowballs, sleigh rides, penguins and seals, and more to really get us in the holiday mood. Everyone enjoyed treats together in the classrooms afterwards. Thank you to all our students and their teachers for a wonderful show!
