Friday, March 31, 2017

Davis Art Center-Intermediate French Mardi Gras!

Bonjour!
Dani and I decided to combine the beginner and intermediate classes to do a cultural day to celebrate Mardi Gras!  Forgive me for blogging so late, I know Mardi Gras was at the beginning of the month, but it deserves a post nonetheless!

I love Mardi Gras, we always celebrated in my French classes and I really wanted to make it traditional for the kids but educational too. We explained where Mardi Gras is celebrated around the world (including Carnival in Brazil and of course New Orleans), and while the kids made masks we had jazz music playing.


We discussed what the colors signify:    
le violet (purple)=la justice (justice)
le vert (green)= la foi (faith)
l'or (gold)=la puissance (power)

And we went over some new vocabulary that they would need to know for the day:
le défilé- parade    

le char- float

les masques-masks

la Nouvelle-Orléans

la Louisianne- Louisiana

Laissez les bons temps rouler!-Let the good times roll! (A very popular phrase you would hear all around New Orleans on Mardi Gras)

les galettes des rois- King's cake



I also made a King Cake for the occasion. A traditional cake decorated with Green, Gold, and Purple, frosting covered in beads- a real treat!  What makes the cake special is the tradition of placing a plastic baby inside one of the pieces, then the youngest in the group gets to designate who gets what piece without knowing where the baby is hidden.  Whoever gets the plastic baby is King or Queen for the day!




It was a great time and everyone had a blast!

À la prochaine,
Rebecca and Dani

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