Summer celebration messages based upon Bloemenwinkel tradition

Thanks to Carmel @OHaganCarmel !Carmel shared with us this blog post called Traveling with Kids Belgian seaside and a very special Belgian seaside tradition for children.If you have been following some of my recent blog posts you will see that I have been focusing on the beach and the seaside.It's a big part of our Summer SOW. The blog posts so far have been about:

• French poem writing at the seaside,
• creating a sandcastle building rhyme,
• designing fantastical sandcastles,
• seashell sounds and sand treasure hunts
• Pirates ahoy!,
• French,fishy and fun game,songs and rhymes

The tradition I love from the article about Belgian seaside is "Bloemenwinkel "

You can read about the tradition in the article linked to the picture to above  in the blog article I referred to at the top of this blog.I love the fact that children pay for the flowers with shells and also that these are made from tissue paper or crepe paper and are sold on the beach to the children who visit.
I think we can  make a wonderful final lesson for Year 3 and Year 4 just before Summer with this idea. 

We will firstly go shell counting.
Simply using shell shaped card templates with numbers on the reverse side and in lots of different colours we will hunt numbers.
Use eight different card colours and divide the cards into groups of eight (eight different colours and random ordered numbers written on the reverse side)

We need as many shell cards and numbers as there are children in the class and we need to use eight different colours of card each time.
We will play the game in groups of eight cards at a time in a random order or selection.
Can the children guess the shell number and if they can they win the shell and if they can't the shell is put back on the board.The children need to say the colour of the shell that they want the teacher to turn over  and guess the number.

 Bloemenwinkel 
Explain the Belgian seaside tradition to the children and share the pictures from the blog article with the children 
Locate the seaside resorts on the Belgian coast.Did the children realise that there was so much seaside in Belgium?Do they know where Belgium is and what languages are spoken there?
Can the children now help you to create your own Bloemenwinkel (flower corner shop)?

Creating the Bloemen

My "bloemen" will be like fortune cookies.There will be one each for every child with a celebration written message chosen and written by another classmate on the flower head,which is  made of a rolled coloured paper strip.

Each child needs a strip of coloured paper and a straw and some selotape.
Each child selects a strip of coloured card that is wide enough to write on and long enough to roll ,so it will fit on one end of a straw- just like miniature versions of the flowers you can see in the picture.
Provide the children with a range of phrases they can select from to write on their strips of coloured card in the target language.
For example:

Have a great holiday !

See you in September

Enjoy the school holidays

Have a good rest!

Enjoy playing in the park!

Enjoy playing with your friends!

Look forward to seeing you at school in September 

It's the school holidays ! Hurrah!

Summer is here!

No school in August 

Make sure your class can understand the phrases.You could practise them as "celebration sayings" with cheers and happy voices - celebrating the fact it's nearly the holidays 

Here are some Bloemenwinkel made by my colleague Joanne Hornby with her Year 4 class.They went outside and put them in a flower bed and drew lots to pick a flower from the bloemenwinkel.Joanne says that the children loved the whole activity and the fact they had something to take home at the end of the year 

Here are the phrases in French:

Passez de bonnes vacances !

Au mois de septembre!

Profitez bien des grandes vacances!

Reposez vous bien!

Amusez vous bien au parc!

Amusez vous bien avec vos amis!

J'ai hâte d'être en septembre!

C'est les grandes vacances! Youpi!

L'été est là !

Pas d'école au mois d'août!

And in German

Schöne Ferien!

 Bis September                      

Genießt die Sommerferien

Erholt euch gut!

Viel Spaß auf dem Spielplatz!

 Viel Spaß mit eueren Freunden!

Ich freue mich schon, wenn ich euch im September wieder sehe.

Es sind Sommerferien! Hurra!

Der Sommer ist da!

Keine Schule im August

And in Spanish

Que tengáis unas buenas vacaciones

Nos vemos en septiembre

disfruta de las vacaciones

que descanséis

disfruta jugando en el parque

disfruta jugando con tus amigos

nos vemos en el colegio en septiembre

son las vacaciones

 hurra el verano ya llegó

no hay colegio en agosto

Ask the children to select two messages and to write them on one side of the coloured paper strip.They need to write it clearly and carefully in the target language so another child can read the message clearly.

• Now they need to roll the coloured card strips and attach one end to one end of  straw.
• Collect in the flowers and attach one of the shell cards with the number showing to the base of each flower.
• Now hand round a bag which has numbered shell cards inside .
• Each child takes a shell and must say the number and then find the flower with that numbered shell card attached to it .This is his/her flower and s/he can unravel the coloured paper strip and see what his/her celebration saying written message is.