tasty american things & au revoir

It's the last week of school! Ahhhhh.
It is sad because even though my kids make a ton of noise, never stop playing with their rulers, always forget to put their little glasses on & still make fun of my accent- they're cuties.


Since I see each class twice a week- I planned a two part end of the year extravaganza.


The first class of the week, we are playing games like tic tac toe (with flashcards of course) which they ADORE, higher/lower with numbers (my oldest kids can count to 100!), and pictionary.  If they are good, I give out little stickers with english on them.  It is incredible how good a kid is when you say stickers are involved.


The second class of the week, we are doing a little United States geographical/culinary discovery.  peanut butter & maple syrup.  yes sir.
I prepared a little ditty.  First, I show a big world map with France and the US highlighted.  I tell them how it takes 8 hours in a plane from Paris to the airport closest to my house,  "WOOOOOOAAH!".  Then we remark about what there is between our two countries, "la mer!" (the sea).
Next, I show a map of the USofA.  We talk about how many states there are and the two stragglers- (Alaska & Hawaii, no offense).
Then I show little old New Jersey that I colored in my favorite gold pen and label it "chez moi" (my home).  
After that we talk about peanut butter.  I show Missouri highlighted on the map because it was there in the 1890s that there was a doctor who needed a protein substitute for his patients who had bad teeth and could no longer chew meat.  I then show Georgia and Texas highlighted because they are the two biggest peanut producers.  I then proceed to share some fun facts about PB like how January 24th is National Peanut Butter Day, how the average American child has eaten 1500 pb&j sandwiches by the time he/she graduates high school, and how every year we eat 500 million pounds as a country, enough to cover the floor of the Grand Canyon.
Next is maple syrup.  I point out Vermont, New York, and Maine on the map in highlighter (three biggest producers).  Then, fun facts of course.  Like how a tree must be at least 30 years old before being tapped for the sap,  how it takes around 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup, and how instead of crepes- we do pancakes, and it's for breakfast- not dessert.

Then, I whip out my cut up baguettes that the nice bakery guy got ready for me and smear some pb on one slice and dribble some syrup on another for each kid.

I think I have heard a few "c'est dégueulasse!" (it's yucky!) 
But, overall, they are loving it.