Lacrosse Inquiry Project

This lesson introduces masculine and feminine forms of words (colours). BC Core French Curriculum – Grade 5

(This project was my first attempt at an inquiry project. There is always room to grow as a teacher). 🙂

Resources

Lacrosse Videos and Images
Lacrosse Colouring Pages
French Lacrosse Vocabulary
Colours in French (Masculine and Feminine) Video
Colours in French (Masculine and Feminine) Example (Don’t forget to add BRUN and BRUNE).
Canadian Encyclopedia – Lacrosse

I wanted to introduce students to masculine and feminine French spelling of colours while exploring the sport of lacrosse.

The lesson began by the passing around a few different models of lacrosse sticks. Most students had not held a lacrosse stick beyond the model offered by our school.

After the general introductions, each student was given a few post-it notes. As they watch three lacrosse videos, they were to write one question per post-it note. There were 5 themes we were going to explore.

They were:

Indigenous History
Early History
Current History
Today
French

Once done, we stuck the post-it notes on to large sheets of paper.

After dividing the students into 5 groups, they had to answer three questions from each theme. I had printed 7 different webpages that were age appropriate. (If I would have handed out iPads, this step would had taken a lot longer to finish).

Each group presented the questions they explored and the answers. After they wrote their best two questions and answers on strips of paper.

The final step was including the French language to this culture inquiry project. We started by copying this chart of French colours in masculine and feminine form on a Colouring Page of a lacrosse stick and ball. (We also watched this video about French colour).

Then (while using an iPad) the students drew a lacrosse stick and ball. I told them they could colour the stick and ball only one colour and each had to be a different colour.

The students knew French colours only in the masculine form. Since “lacrosse stick” and “ball” are feminine in French, we wrote sentences such as “J’aime ma balle verte” and “J’aime ma crosse bleue” after being introduced to the feminine spelling.

This lesson took about 4 class to complete. It was connected to a sport unit I was also teaching at the same time.

Thoughts? Suggestions for next time?