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Chanson pour les enfants l'hiver
Contributor: Steven Fawkes
Language of text: French
Type of text: Poem
Author or source: Jacques Prévert
Intended age of students: Key Stage 2/3
Source reference: http://www.professeurphifix.net/poesie/chanson_pour_les_enfants_lhiver.htm
or
http://www.les-coccinelles.fr/lienpage1/poesies/chansonpourlesenfants1.pdf
With images and children's voices reading aloud.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZOL5hk6r0w
performed as a song with animation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFQjNUP2CJs
read aloud and with English translation :
http://www.frenchtoday.com/french-poetry-reading/chanson-pour-les-enfants-l-hiver-jacques-prevert-song-french-poem-video
Text :
Dans la nuit de l'hiver
Galope un grand homme blanc.
C'est un bonhomme de neige
Avec une pipe en bois,
Un grand bonhomme de neige
Poursuivi par le froid.
Il arrive au village.
Voyant de la lumière
Le voilà rassuré.
Dans une petite maison
Il entre sans frapper,
Et pour se réchauffer,
S'assoit sur le poêle rouge,
Et d'un coup disparaît
Ne laissant que sa pipe
Au milieu d'une flaque d'eau,
Ne laissant que sa pipe
Et puis son vieux chapeau.
Attached files:
There are further suggestions for exploiting this text in the ALL Connect Literature Module https://allconnectblog.wordpress.com/category/ks3-literature/
No files attached to this page.
Approaches:
Step 1 Explain that this is a famous poem for Chritmas time in French schools.
Sequence 1 : Students look at the final verse in pairs / groups :
Dans une petite maison
Il entre sans frapper,
Et pour se réchauffer,
S'assoit sur le poêle rouge,
Et d'un coup disparaît
Ne laissant que sa pipe
Au milieu d'une flaque d'eau,
Ne laissant que sa pipe
Et puis son vieux chapeau.
Read aloud and talk about what you understand.
What is the theme ?
Look if you can see words that rhyme.
Sequence 2
Cut the text up into sections of 3 lines.
Watch the animated version of the text with the sound off https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFQjNUP2CJs
In pairs students organise the lines into the order they think is right according to the images and what they observe about the grammar, rhyme scheme etc.
Compare with the original text and listen to the performed version.
Sequence 3
This translation is fairly sound:
In the winter night
A big white man is galloping
It is a snowman
With a wooden pipe
A big snowman
Pursued by the cold
He arrives at the village
Seeing some light
he is reassured
In a little house
He enters without knocking
And to warm himself up again
He sits down on the red stove
And straightaway he vanishes
leaving only his pipe
In the middle of a pool of water
leaving only his pipe
And then his old hat
However online there are other inaccurate translations such as this one:
In the winter night
A big white man is walking
It is a snowman
With a pipe in his mouth
A big snowman
To follow the cold
He arrives at the village
He is travelling to the light
And he is reassured there
In a little house
He enters without knocking
And to heat himself up again
He places himself in front of the red fire
He does not leash his pipe
In the middle of a bottle of water
He does not leash his pipe
And then his life was brilliant
This creates a different Reading activity for learners – looking for flagrant inaccuracies – and highlights the risks of taking online information too trustingly!
Rationale:
Exposure to a well-known poem
Outcomes:
Thinking about meaning
Grammatical thinking
Topics or themes:
Christmas theme
Grammar:
Verb forms
Strategies:
How much time required:
1 lesson