Le Centenaire de La Première Guerre Mondiale

When I was asked by one of my schools to do a cross-curricular lesson linked to the centenary of the end of WW1, I began a search for resources and links. I couldn’t find very much at all on French websites aimed at children so asked on the LiPS (Languages in Primary Schools) Facebook page where Marie-Odile responded with a few links – thank you.

We started off with a list of relevant vocabulary, and armed with prior knowledge and context, the children then looked for cognates before using their dictionary skills. We then went on to learn some facts about the war and ‘les poilus’, before comparing how remembrance is commemorated in the UK and France.

My 'bleuet' prototype.

The internet was not at all forthcoming with a ‘bleuet’ craft but armed with an image of a Bleuet de France, a clever daughter – thank you F - used her IT knowledge to isolate the shapes which I then used as a template for our remembrance flowers.

Here’s a link to the template for anyone who wants to have a go. I printed on two different shades of blue and then asked the children to write words of their choice on the smaller petal template. The centre of the flower was a white circle and I asked the children to colour the centre of it in black, leaving white at the edges. We then made some cuts from the outside toward the centre, and pushed the thin strips up slightly to make the stamens. To assemble, we put a small dab of glue onto the centre of the large petal shape and stuck the smaller petal shape on top of that. One more spot of glue on top of this and then we added the black and white circle. Et voilà, un bleuet!

(NB As there are lots of edges, there is a lot of cutting and some children will need help from you or the early-finishers.)

And here are some of the finished products.