Our Quintilian students have been reading, writing and telling stories this term in French with their teacher Monique.
Storytelling is an integral part of the culture of First Nations people in Australia. Today storytelling sustains communities, validates experiences, nurtures relationships and serves as an important cultural continuation for Indigenous peoples (Iseke, 2013).
In Year 3 the students looked at the book ‘La France en couleurs‘, which compares all the colours to France’s cultural and environmental aspects. The students then planned and wrote their own Mon livre de couleur (My Book of Colours), where they compared different colours to their environment.
Year 4 read La Chenille Qui fait des trous (The Very Hungry Caterpillar). Students then created their own stories, using their animals and foods. They used a similar structure to the story, describing what their animal ate on different days and what they ate to make themselves feel better.
In Year 5, Monique told the students the story of Mr Croissant (using her new Croissant plushy), who has an adventure at Quintilian doing weird and wonderful things around the school. The class planned, drafted and created their own stories using new verbs and descriptions. They created their own characters and made puppets, photographing and describing what they did around Quintilian. They are currently in the process of showing and telling each other their fantastic stories.
Stories are a fun and creative way to engage with a language, and our French classes have been excelling in both this term!
