- Monday, September 01, 2025
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September is fast approaching but I'm excited to share that the 2025-2026 French Digital Calendar is now live on Teachers Pay Teachers. There is a Google Slides version as well as a PowerPoint version. For those who are hesitant about allowing TPT access to your Google Drive, consider the PowerPoint version and, after downloading it to your computer, you can upload it to Google Drive and it will automatically convert to a Google Slides document. Here is what both versions include:
- a weather board with images and word cards with additional weather descriptions Il y a du brouillard and C'est partiellement nuageux as per user feedback.
- a pre-populated monthly calendar with weeks beginning on Sunday from September 2025 through to August 2026
- a pre-populated monthly calendar with weeks beginning on Monday from September 2025 through to August 2026
- a Comment ça va? board featuring Ananas with interchangeable eyes, mouths, and word cards
- a "Quelle est la date aujourd'hui?" board with all the word and number cards needed to formulate a complete response.
- NEW! The tally chart slide can be used to count the days by simply moving the vertical and diagonal lines to create les marques de pointage. (There are enough to count to 200.) It now features number tiles and a place value chart!
Please note that this is not a perpetual calendar. This is a 1-year calendar for the current school year, which includes September 2025 to August 2026.
Head on over to Teachers Pay Teachers if you would like to purchase a copy of the updated French Digital Calendar in either Google Slides or PowerPoint format.
- Wednesday, August 20, 2025
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Oh là là! C'est presque septembre. But have no fear, Mme Reid is here with her inaugural Core French Connection Summit! From Thursday, August 21 to Friday, August 22, you can attend this virtual summit and watch nearly two dozen presentations for FREE. Also included is a keynote address by Denis Cousineau, an interactive bingo game and a chance to win prizes, such as a $250 gift card for Reitmans, a $175 gift card for StickerYou, and a copy of my French Digital Calendar for the 2025-2026 school year. Session topics range from how to run centres as well as structured literacy in the Core French classroom to healthy habits for busy educators and how to create interactive activities using Google Slides (presented by moi).
Don't have time during the two days of the virtual summit? An all-access pass is available for $70 which will give you a year to stream the sessions any time you like and it includes extra perks:
My session will be available on Thursday, August 21 so I hope to see you there. All attendees can also connect with one another, as well as the summit speakers and presenters, via a CoLab Education professional community created for this summit, so feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or connect with me on my social channels, such as Instagram, Facebook or the app formerly known as Twitter.
Disclosure: This blog participates in affiliate marketing.
- Tuesday, August 19, 2025
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Today I am sharing a quick little activity I threw together for my grade 2 students who are working on La poule Maboule. I drew the outline of the characters' heads so that students can illustrate their faces and provide a brief description by filling in the blanks and indicating comment ça va. The students really loved working on this activity and many teachers have been asking for a copy. So, here it is! Click on the thumbnails below to download your free copy.
- Monday, January 27, 2025
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For Remembrance Day, I wanted to introduce my younger students to some thematic vocabulary and decided to put something togething using Book Creator. I love that you can easily create a book with beautiful images and customizable elements such as page borders and fonts, but you can also upload media such as audio files, as well as embed videos. Here is my book on "Le jour du Souvenir" that includes the Last Post (Dernier Appel) and a video reciting Au champ d'honneur that includes subtitles.
- Sunday, November 10, 2024
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Everyone who knows me can attest to how much I love being a Core French teacher. I knew as young as 10 years old that I would become a French teacher and I still recall the thank you card I wrote to one of my elementary French teachers who inspired me to pursue my passion. A few years ago, I took a break from the classroom and joined the SIS Project to become a teacher-trainer. Once the term of my position ended, I ended up taking a position where I taught Core French for half of the day and French Specialty (French Immersion) for the other half, since there weren't any full-time Core French positions available in my area. Visual Arts was one of the French Immersion subjects I taught to grade 5, 6 and 8 students.
As much as I love art, I struggled to find ideas that worked within my schedule given the time constraints, especially seeing as I had to travel from class to class. Luckily, I knew of a number of digital art activities that I had come across over the years. One such activity was the use of Google Drawings to recreate portraits, which I had learned about at a 2016 Google Summit workshop with media specialist George Barcenas (check out slide 4 for an animated gif demo). He demonstrated how you can insert a photo onto one side of the Drawing canvas and trace over parts of the head and face using the curve line. The trick is clicking multiple times as you draw the line until you reach the starting point to close the shape. You can then right-click on the shape to edit any of the points (or double-click on it), format the colour of the line and shape fill/gradient, and even add a drop shadow.
Then move it to the other side of your canvas. Thinking in terms of layers, it is recommended that you begin with the head and hair since they will be the lowermost layers, and then draw the facial features, since every time you add a shape, it becomes the topmost layer. Or, you can simply right-click on the shape and click on Order to change the layer.
As you can see in the photo above, there are many different layers to the eyes and mouth but a tip I shared with my students was to choose a face that was somewhat symmetrical since, once they make one eye, they can duplicate it, right-click on it and select Rotate to flip it horizontally. This avoids having to start from scratch and they can always edit the points if need be. It's the same technique I used for the teeth. I created one tooth, duplicated it and adjusted the points. I used this activity in my grade 8 class and was truly impressed by their work!
Additional Tips:
- Use the eye dropper tool to create custom colours that match the original photo.
- Use a basic circle shape for the iris and pupil, layering them underneath the eyelids.
- Click on a shape to activate the Format Options menu (or right click on a shape) to add a drop shadow, which helps create a sense of depth, rotate a shape using precise degrees or to lock aspect ratio.
- Saturday, October 19, 2024
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It's that time of year again! Many of you have been asking for 2024-2025 French Digital Calendar and I'm happy to report that it is now live on Teachers Pay Teachers. There is a Google Slides version as well as a PowerPoint version. For those who are hesitant about allowing TPT access to your Google Drive, consider the PowerPoint version and, after downloading it to your computer, you can upload it to Google Drive and it will convert to a Google Slides document. Here is what both versions include:
- a weather board with images and word cards with additional weather descriptions Il y a du brouillard and C'est partiellement nuageux as per user feedback.
- a pre-populated monthly calendar with weeks beginning on Sunday from September 2024 through to August 2025
- a pre-populated monthly calendar with weeks beginning on Monday from September 2024 through to August 2025
- a Comment ça va? board featuring Ananas with interchangeable eyes, mouths, and word cards
- a "Quelle est la date aujourd'hui?" board with all the word and number cards needed to formulate a complete response.
- NEW! A tally board to keep track of the number of school days. There are enough tally marks to count to 200.
Please note that this is not a perpetual calendar. This is a 1-year calendar for the current school year, which includes September 2024 to August 2025.
Head on over to Teachers Pay Teachers if you would like to purchase a copy of the updated French Digital Calendar in either Google Slides or PowerPoint format.
If you use Google Slides, watch the video below to learn how to maximize your screen while still in edit mode, where you can manipulate the images and word cards in full screen mode:
Thank you to all those who have shown such wonderful support of my calendar over the years! I truly appreciate it, especially your reviews. If you ever have any feedback or requests for additional slide ideas, please leave a comment below or reach out on TPT. Merci et bonne rentrée!
- Wednesday, August 21, 2024
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This year, our school had our own festivities in honour of the Carnaval de Québec, thanks to our student council volunteers and teacher leads. We had theme days, such as tuque day and red and white day, as well as school-wide bingo over the PA system. We also had a different staff member wear la ceinture fléchée on each of the five days and students had to write down their names on a ballot for a chance to win a prize. On the last day, we had a volunteer dress in a Bonhomme costume and take pictures in front of a Carnaval themed background I had designed.
In my grade 5 class, I showed them a YouTube video of les meilleurs moments du Carnaval 2022 and then we read a little paragraph about the Carnaval. I turned it into a texte qui disparaît activity, which I had first learned about from Richard Smith, a retired AIM French teacher. It's so much fun! The text is repeated on multiple slides but each slide has more and more words removed, with only the first letter remaining. The students really seem to enjoy the challenge of trying to recall the missing words. I then showed them the video of one of my favourite Carnaval songs - Salut, Bonhomme! Then I take out des cuillères and teach them a simple folkloric rhythm that they can use with their hands or to test out when I hand out my wooden spoons. TIP: I added both videos to the Google slidedeck to avoid any ads. Click here if you'd like a copy of the slidedeck above.
And if you own a Cricut machine, check out my Design Space page by clicking the image above. I have created three Carnaval themed projects using basic shapes and free images, which means you can make them without a subscription:
- Joyeux Carnaval 2024 Pennant Banner
- Palais de glace sign
- Palais de glace - Extra Large (This is a modular design that fits on letter-size cardstock.)
For those who do not have a Cricut machine, I have created a PDF of the Joyeux Carnaval banner, which can be printed directly on to cardstock or regular printer paper and cut out by hand.
Of course, you have to visit the official Carnaval de Québec website, which has links to their social channels for those who like to follow along from afar, including the carnavaldequebec YouTube channel where you will find a variety of video montages and highlights from over the years. The site also has a teacher's corner where you can download free levelled educational kits containing worksheets. In addition, you can order old effigies, which make great prizes.
As always, feel free to share ideas on how you celebrate at your school by leaving a comment below.
Joyeux Carnaval!
- Saturday, February 03, 2024
- 1 Comments
How is it already August? I know I haven't been out of the classroom for that long but I kind of forget what I need to do to prep for Back to School. Working on the SIS Project was a welcome change, that's for sure. I loved learning all about Aspen and training and supporting staff boardwide but I sure did miss teaching French. This year, I will be teaching junior and intermediate Core French as well as some French Immersion subjects such as Phys. Ed. and Visual Arts. Can't wait to move back into my old office! In the meantime, I have been working on giving my French Digital Calendar a refresh for the 2023-2024. Here is what it includes:
- a weather board with images and word cards - NEW! I have added Il y a du brouillard. and C'est partiellement nuageux. as per user feedback.
- a calendar with weeks beginning on Sunday from September through to August
- a calendar with weeks beginning on Monday from September through to August
- an updated Comment ça va? board featuring Ananas with interchangeable eyes, mouths, and word cards
- NEW! A "Quelle est la date aujourd'hui?" board with all the word and number cards needed to formulate a complete response.
Please note that this not a perpetual calendar. This is only for the current school year of September 2023 to August 2024.
Head on over to Teachers Pay Teachers if you would like to purchase a copy of the updated French Digital Calendar in either Google Slides or PowerPoint format.
If you use Google Slides, watch the video below to learn how to maximize your screen while still in edit mode, where you can still manipulate the images and word cards:
TIP: If you want to use the calendar in Google Slides but do not wish to grant TPT access to your Google Drive, you can purchase the PowerPoint version instead and upload that file to your Drive. It will convert it to a Google Slides document.
- Friday, August 25, 2023
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UPDATE: Click here if you are looking for the 2024-2025 French calendar.
Another summer is almost over, which means many of my teacher friends are preparing for a new school year. I, on the other hand, have been busy working all summer on the SIS training team for my school board, a temporary role which will end in June. Last week, I finally managed to find some time to update my French Digital Calendar for the upcoming 2022-2023 school and added a few extra touches. Here is what it includes:
- weather board (with images and word cards)
- calendar with weeks beginning on Sunday (now from September through to August!)
- calendar with weeks beginning on Monday
- manipulative cards for l'année, c'est...
- NEW! A Comment ça va? board featuring my latest drawing of the beloved Ananas (with interchangeable eyes and mouths, and word cards)
Head on over to Teachers Pay Teachers if you would like to purchase a copy of the updated French Digital Calendar in either Google Slides or PowerPoint format.
- Sunday, August 28, 2022
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