Hallowe’en ramblings…

Hallowe’en is fast approaching, and in Castelnaudary I have noticed the shops gearing up for the occasion. I have written about Hallowe’en in France previously, and how it has become more widely celebrated over the years.

I’ve also been improving my ‘About’ page, and reflecting on my love of the French language. It’s difficult to articulate, but when I speak French, I become a different person! As a teacher, I wanted my students to enjoy their French learning. I tried to make my lessons as fun and entertaining as possible; more of a challenge when the end result was to pass an exam!

Before becoming a teacher trainer, I was employed by a languages college to teach French across four primary schools. I loved this experience! Although Hallowe’en was never part of the curriculum, I was able to use it as a theme for enjoyable teaching and learning.

One idea was to take the French version of the book, A Dark, Dark Tale, written by Ruth Brown. ‘Une histoire sombre, très sombre’. This lends itself well to reading out loud, at the same time practising pronunciation and prepositions!

Unfortunately, I was unable to insert a French version video of this tale, instead, I have the English original to give an idea of the story.

Another of my favourite Hallowe’en-themed lessons was based on ‘Hubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble’, from the three witches’ spell in Macbeth. My students, depending on their ages and level, would compose their own potion or ‘Soupe Magique’. This gave them an opportunity to use animal and body parts vocabulary, plus interesting adjectives!

Of course, both these activities took significant preparation; sometimes I would make a template to help my students. I do remember that the results were fabulous!

How do you feel about Hallowe’en?

I will be linking up with #PoCoLo to share this post.