French Poem writing about a day at the seaside

In my previous blog post  I shared with you how we can paint a picture of a Summers Day using an authentic poem. This is based on a poem abut a quiet Summer's Day . I also suggested that hopefully lots of children will have lively , loud, active Summer's Days perhaps by the seaside and that we could use the original poem about a quiet Summer's Day below to create our own alter-ego poems about a lively Summer's  day at the seaside.

So here we go!

L’été

Silence

silence

l’ été

se balance

où l’oiseau

se tait.

L’herbe

séchée

tremble

dans l’air

brûlé.

Silence

silence

l’ été

chante

dans

les blés.

(Anne Marie Chapouton)

Step One 
Revisit the poem that as a class you have analysed and used to paint a picture of a peaceful Summer's Day Ask the children to read the poem with you again and to perform the poem as described in the previous blog ...here is the activity again: 

Read the poem for the children again.

The class and yourself are now going to try and create a spoken picture of the poet's descriptions.

• Ask the children to help you put a backing track to the poem. All the children need to do is repeat over and over again in a whisper the first two lines of the poem "Silence,silence" like it was the breeze wafting through trees. 
• Read the poem for the class with the children's backing track (whispered quietly) accompanying you as you read aloud.
• Divide the class in to three. Each third of the class is responsible for the reading of one of the verses of the poem with you , whilst the rest of the class are the backing track.

Step Two 

Ask the class to help you to re-identify the key words in the text and remind yourselves of the pictures that have been painted by the words of the author.

Explain that the children are going to create the "alter-ego" poem to this original poem. Instead of a quiet Summer's day it's going to be a fun , lively ,loud day at the seaside

• Using bi-lingual dictionaries and working in pairs can the children come up with new verbs that they would like to use in their poem ..if the poem was about children playing at the beach on  a warm Summer's day/ the way the sea moves at the seaside/ the noise people make at the seaside  
• Ask each pair to share with a second pair the verbs they have found
• Ask the pairs as they share their verbs to give the English meaning too. 

Step Three 

Give each pair  a version of the table  below.

On the left is the original poem

on the right is the skeleton of their Summer's day at the beach poem.

Can the children working with a partner or in larger groups generate a poem picture of the day at the beach.

Ask them to add verbs to describe :

• what the  children are doing in the first verse
• how the sea moves/behaves in the second verse
• the sound/noise of Summer  at the beach

The children should use the template on the write of the chart to create their own three verse/sentences to describe a day at the beach.

Practise writing the correct verb forms(using verbs they have suggested) with the children so that they feel comfortable with third person singular and plural form of the present tense. You may want to create a temporary post it working wall so children can go to the wall locate the verb they want to use and if necessary take t back to their tables so they can refer to it .

L’été Silence silence l’ été se balance où l’oiseau se tait. L’herbe séchée tremble dans l’air brûlé. Silence silence l’ été chante dans les blés. (Anne Marie Chapouton)

L’ été Bruit bruit l’ été se reveille où les enfants …………………….. La mer bleue ………………… sur le sable d'or Bruit Bruit l’ été ……………………. au bord de  la mer.

Step Four 

Now the children can write up their new poems and either perform them for the class or create a picture background to their own  handwritten poems  about a Summer's day at the beach .

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