Sept couleurs magiques

I have been looking for a French poem about Summer for a while. a poem we can use at KS2 to celebrate the end of the school year and the start of adventures outside of school. Well here it is ,thanks to mes petits bonheurs poesie comptines chansons.

Here are some calm ,summery activities that you may like to try with your KS2 children who are learning French.

I like this poem because it's about  colours, luxurious and exotic items and takes us on a global journey!It celebrates the colours of the rainbow!

Sept couleurs magiques

(Mymi Doinet)

Rouge comme un fruit du Mexique

Orange comme le sable d’Afrique

Jaune comme les girafes chics

Vert  comme unsorbet  Jamaïque

Bleu comme les vagues de Pacifique

Indigo comme un papillon de tropiques

Violet comme les volcans de Martinique

Qui donc est aussi fantastique?

Est-ce un rêve ou est-ce véridique?

C’est dans le ciel magnifique

L’arc aux sept couleurs magique

My sequence of activities is as follows:

Map work

Take a look at a map of the world in the target language....

• Share with the class a child-friendly map of the World .I like the map here carte du monde. Why ?Well the map contains images that share wit the children objects, animals , items associated with the different countries around the World.
• Take time to look at some of the items and to  ask the children to help you place some key target language nouns next to the correct items. Can they use their "language detective skills" to do this? (Cognates, semi-cognates, elimination,sounds like ....)

Now investigate and find the areas mentioned in the poem are on the map. You may need to refer to your class atlases (Mexique/Afrique/Jamaïque/Pacifique/tropiques/Martinique).

Reading and investigating the poem

Introduce the children to the poem . Ask them to read it with you and try to decide what the poem is about.

• Can the children help you to read in the target language the poem
• Can they spot the rhymes?
• Can they spot the colours?
• Can they spot the number?
• Can they decide what the objects are that are written in the first seven lines of the poem?
• Can they create an action for each item (un fruit/le sable/les girafes/un sorbet/les vagues/un papillion/les volcans)

Read the poem for the children a second time and ask them to try and remember which item is linked with which colour as you read the poem.

• Call a colour and can the children show you the action for the item they associate with that colour in the poem.
• Say an item and perform the action and can the children say the colour they associate with the item.

What's the poem about?

Have the children been able to work out that the poem is about a rainbow? 

Ask the children to look for the word clues in the poem that are the proof of this (couleurs/sept/rouge/orange/jaune/ vert/bleu/indigo/violet).

Pictorial portrayal of the poem

Can the children generate their own pictorial version of the first seven lines of the poem? 

They will need to re-read the poem on their own and make sure their colours and the objects they draw are accurate and match the lines of the poem.

Calligram poem
And look what I found thanks to www.ac-nancy-metz.fr , a child's handwritten rainbow calligram poem based on the poem above! So now perhaps we can also have a go at your own rainbow calligram poems!