Starting in first grade, our students can learn French in five 30-minute lessons per week. This allows the children to engage intensively with the language right from the start. Our focus is on enabling the children to interact with the target language in an authentic way. For this reason, we organize student exchanges starting in first grade. 

 

 

A Glimpse into Our French Classes


During the 2021–22 school year, Ms. Nottebrok led a book project with the P1 class as part of their French curriculum. 
The project was based on Claudia Bielinsky’s book *Drôle de valise*. 
The students created a suitcase book, for which they designed newspaper animals freely but using a specific folding technique. They then recorded audio for the book and held a reading as part of their learning assignment. The videos give you an idea of what the children can do in French after just a few months.

What better place than the Franco-German Garden on a beautiful late-summer day, especially since it’s within walking distance? That’s where our first- and second-graders studying French met for the first time on September 23, 2022.
After singing a song together and playing icebreaker games, the children explored the park in four binational groups through bilingual scavenger hunts. This was followed by a picnic and some free playtime on the playground. Finally, we played a few communication games, including one with a parachute. Et voilà! A great start to the German-French friendship.

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At the end of January 2023, our students studying French as a foreign language met online to celebrate Franco-German Day.
The theme of the virtual meeting was “peace.” In preparation, we worked on a French song about walking “main dans la main” (hand in hand) despite all our differences.
This allowed us to sing together in two languages on the day of the virtual meeting. A new element was the use of body language. Finally, one child from Germany and one child from France sat close to the camera at the same time. Their classmates tried to identify a commonality between the children—something you can’t see—by asking questions.
As the Little Prince so beautifully put it: “L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux” (Saint-Exupéry).

On October 17, 2023, our French partner school from Spicheren visited us.
After a musical welcome in the schoolyard by the P3DE class, we moved to our school’s multipurpose room. There, we began by singing bilingual songs together and playing communication games as a large group.
Afterward, the children worked in binational groups on the topic of “fruit.” The various stations were designed to bring the students from both schools into contact with one another and to specifically encourage communication.
At one station, the children worked on vocabulary using German-French tandem worksheets, taking turns being both the teacher and the student. They also had the chance to try out an XXL dice game. Additionally, I had prepared several sensory stations: there, the children could blindly draw, touch, taste, and smell fruits together. In a small shop, the children practiced buying fruit at the market, of course once in French and once in German.
Now we are looking forward to visiting our partner school soon.
(Ria Nottebrok, French teacher at the European School of Saarland)

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To mark Franco-German Day 2024, the third-grade students studying French as a first foreign language created a wall calendar for their partner class, which the partner class can use as authentic material throughout the year. In return, we also received a calendar from the students at the École de Spicheren, which we can use in class to learn about French traditions in French.


In addition to exploring their own and foreign traditions, the children acquired computer skills (searching on selected search engines, writing on a tablet, recording audio files). Furthermore, they were able to deepen their writing skills in their native language and their intercultural skills (adapting to the language level of a beginner, changing perspectives). Of course, they were also allowed to be creative. This resulted in short informative texts, stories, and recipes appropriate for each month, supplemented by pictures and crafts. A beautiful product has been created. A great achievement!

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