Friday 6 June 2008

Odette at School

I took some photos at Odette's school the other day, when I drove her back after lunch.

Odette standing under her butterfly picture in the corridor

Odette's class has been studying butterflies (hence the butterfly picture above). They started with some caterpillars, which spun themselves cocoons and then, wow! Out came some butterflies! One day recently they went on a little excursion to release the butterflies into a nearby garden. Roger went along, as parents had been invited. They walked around and found flowers and bugs and looked at Nature alive in Spring. They each had a special container with a magnifying lid to catch bugs and look at them.

The classroom
Odette is in the class below what she would really be in, but it suited the school best for her to be in the four-year old group (les moyens), and the teacher has been to Australia and speaks some English.

All the slippers on the shelf above, and boots under the bench.

In school the children have to change their boots or shoes for slippers when they are in the classroom. We had to buy school slippers for the kids as soon as they started school. School bags and coats are hung on the wall to the left, just out of the picture in the photo above.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi - Odette, what a lovely lovely name! My first visit to your blog, not sure how I got here though. My husband and I are taking a 1 year sabbatical in France starting in October, we can't wait.

I think it's great that you are doing the same, especially with the kids. What an adventure and experience to last a lifetime.

Anonymous said...

Hi there Caro: Like you, when we arrived we put Sophie (our 6-year old at the time, now 7) into the class below her actual grade level. We did this for two reasons:
1. Her younger brother Sam, who is one grade level below her, could go to the same school as Sophie, so neither of them were ever afraid to go. It helped with their adjustment.
2. They are both in the grande section of maternelle, which is less serious schooling than is the first year of primaire. This enabled Sophie and Sam to focus on nothing but learning French and enjoying friends, rather than having to worry about homework and grades.

There are positives and negatives to most things, but the kids are all happy so for the moment at least it looks like it might have been the right decision.