French Unit

                                          

French Unit

Chloe came to me one day asking for a unit on France. "I want to do fun French things"  and that is what we did. This is not a serious unit on France but more just a fun over-view of French things, life and history. We had a lot of fun with this one. As with all unit's there is so much we could have done. But I tailored to to our families interests. We mostly read good books and did lots of hand's on things.

I based my unit around a book called "Charlotte In Giverny" by Joan MacPhil Knight. It has an almost handmade look to it. So we had fun copying pages from it (below). I found it a easy way to learn the French language.

PS. we are girly girls here, so this is a pretty girly unit !!!! But I encourage you to use this as a stepping point for you family (or even if you do not have children, it would be fun) and tailor it to your needs and interests.

Clarice Fox-Hughes

Activities

                         

               Grenouille Plus is a wonderful blog full of vintage French  ephemera. Here are jumping jacks. There are others on her site.

                                          

Another fun activity for the girls to do, while I read is this fun face.(that really has nothing to do with France, except it is French and fun!! Which is good enough for me)

                                          

French Beaded Flowers

Here is a great site with lots of links to show how to make French beaded flowers. 

                                       

           Here is another site with a simple beaded flowerto make.

  We had fun making these flowers. We wired some onto safety pins and   made pins. Some we wired on to bobbie pins and other strung on string. They turned out cute but found out it is stressful working with little tiny beads. I now admire anyone who does !!

                                       

Eiffel Tower

A coloring page. I LOVE coloring pages

                                       You can create a Lego one!!

                                           

Or a paper one. I have one Aubern'e made me in my French bathroom. Thank you sweetie !!!

                                         And another paper one!!

                                                 French Crafts

Here is a fun site with lots to do.

I particularly love this "My house in provence"

French Post Card

Create a French Post card 

French Tea

We read parts of "French Tea" by Carole Manchester

While we had tea we pretended we were at some wonderful tea salon in the book !!

We ate

 

Gateau Moelleux au Chocolat

 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
11 tablespoons (5 ounces) butter
3 eggs
1 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup diced walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Melt butter and chocolate together.
Let butter and chocolate cool a few minutes and then add eggs, sugar and vanilla
In a bowl, put the flour and stir in little by little the chocolate mixture and the diced walnuts. Pour into a greased tube pan and bake for 30 minutes. Cool off 5 minutes and remove from pan.

THE FROSTING
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons sour cream

Melt butter and chocolate together. Take off the burner and add the sour cream. Pour on icing and top with walnuts

French Fan

Durning our tea we made the French ladies into fans, by cutting them out and gluing Popsicle sticks to the back. I am sorry I do not remember were I found this picture and can not give credit to the person. Enjoy.

Perfume

First we decoupage bottles we had. Then we made perfume. Which the girls found out is was not as easy blending fragrance as they thought. First batch was thrown out. Rose seemed to be the favorite.

Chloe's, on left, Auben'es middle and mine right (with the glitter of course) Here is a siteto show you how to make perfume.

And another 

Here is perfume time-line.

Here you can purchese Empress Eugeniepaper doll

List of books and Videos

We looked at and read a lot of books. I just used what I had and my mother had. There are so many books on this subject,  I could have gotten many more books. But since my mother and I have a large selection in the subject, I just used what we had.
I do want to say that a  lot of these books are old and out of print. If you see * that means we love the book.

* Both the book and video  Linnea in Monet's Garden by Christina Bjork & Lena Anderson

A Visit To Giverny by Gerald Van Der Kemp

Guide Naif de Paris (parise thought the eyes of the modern primitives) by Mathilde Hager

The Privet Realm Of Marie Antoinette by Marie-France Boyer

Provence (paintings) by Peter Mayle

*The World's Children Series "Jean and Fanchon by Virginia Olcott

(We love these books of different children in different countries. Got the ones form the 30's. The newer ones have been changed)

*Lily and Miss. Liberty by Carla Stevens

Here you can make a liberty starbox

Stories From France by Edward W. Dolch

Sara Midda's South Of France, A Sketchbook by Sara Midda

(A wonderful small book full of water colors, that we tried to copy)

* Paintbrush In Paris by Jill Butler

French Children by Mabel O'Donnell

* "The Orpheline series" by Natalie Savage Carlson

We LOVE these Orpheline books. Any book By Ms. Carlson would be good. Most of her books are set in France!!!

The Jeanne-Marie Books by Francoise

(they are picture books meant for young children but they are very sweet)

That Extraordinary Pig Of Paris by Roni Schotter

Lets Travel In France

* This is Paris by M. Sasek

(if you can get your hands on any books by Mr. Sasek, do it !!!!  )

Nursery Friends From France-My Travelship  by Olive Beaupre'

(for poems and I used the beautiful map on the front)

Charlotte In Giverny by Joan MacPhil Knight

Charlotte In Paris by Joan MacPhil Knight

Comments

[Jill]

Clarice,

You are such a loving mother. What creative ideas you shared with your girls. I am sure they will treasure these memories forever. What girly things, I absolutely love it! Thanks for sharing such interesting ideas.

[Clarice]

Hello Miss. Eagle,
This unit is just something I made up for my family. Thank you though. Clarice

[Clarice]

Ladies, Mary is one of my closet friends I have known since I was 20. Were both maid of honors at each others wedding, we knew each other before Dh and children. it is wonderful to know someone so well so long. Love Clarice

[Mary Thresher]

What can I say? Who knew when we met "??" years ago, no husbands and no kids and you taught me there really was such a thing as goat cheese that tasted good we would be where we are today! What a fun site you are creating!

I had such fun speaking with you yesterday and once again was reminded of our fun times together as I drove up to Leavenworth today in the rain. It is beautiful here with the misting showers and the fog over the mountains.

Keep up the sharing of your talents and creativity. You are a blessing to all who read your pages.

Love,
Mary

[Miss Eagle]

Clarice, this is wonderful and so inspiring. Could I ask - you describe this as a unit. Is this organised by an educational institution or a home school group or is it of your own devising? This seems to me to be a really enriching program.

[Joanne]

Clarice,
I can't tell you...wait, I think I can tell you that...
I think you are unbelievable....no wait, you are believable and amazing!
Well, now that I have been unable to successfully express myself, I just want to say that you are indeed an inspiration and you make me want to revisit France and do our unit study all over again with your embellishments, activities, books and all your ideas!
Love it!
Thanks for sharing with us!
Joanne, who will be on the hunt for some of your book recommendations soon!

[Debbie]

Clarice,
I have really enjoyed reading about your French unit. It sounds like soooo much fun--I wish I could have been one of your students! I have printed out the French Chocolate Cake recipe, directions for the simple beaded flower, and want to check out the French Tea book. I even had the urge to brush up on my French, which is very, very rusty. Thank you for sharing this,
Debbie

[Karla]

Clarice, I am on Brocante Home with you. Although I'm not a HS mom, I used to do fun little units like this with my daughters before they were in school.

As a former French major, I'm interested in all things French, of course. I am avid about tea and LOVE the French Tea book, I own it and savor it myself.

How wonderful that you are sharing the French girliness with your daughter! I love your unit. Thanks for sharing it with us!

[Wendy]

Clarice,
What wonderful ideas! You are full of inspiration and time! I love it that you all are embracing your feminity. You've taken me back to Paris with your photos, as there was one particular shop that I visited on the last day we were there that had many of the old fashioned paper dolls and was also filled with wallpapers and fixtures for making dollhouses!
I love your blog and have been visiting regularly since you posted the address. Keep up the creativity! I know it is just natural to you, some of the rest of us have to work at it.
Blessings,
Wendy

[Jody]

What a beautiful way to learn! I love your enthusiasm, Clarice. I'll have to try the cake soon!
~Jody

[carla]

Clarice, this is simply wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing!

(You're such a good mom!)
carla

[Gena]

Clarice your posts enthrall me! I love this one! I am surely going to try the beaded flowers and that cake!!! what can I say!I shall be dipping in and out of your site all day,just the thing for a sunday afternoon,Thank you so much!