YORKTON – St. Michael's School held a French Carnival on the afternoon of Feb. 10 to celebrate the conclusion of French-Second-Language Education Week in Sask.
"We are hosting our French Carnival for all of our French Immersion students from grades one to eight," said Nicki Hoffman, French Immersion teacher at St. Michael's School.
"Our grade sevens are running the stations while our grade eights are actually leading the students around and speaking with them in French – just trying to encourage a lot of French and participation for this afternoon," said Hoffman, adding, "it's a chance for the students to put into practice speaking in French."
Students were encouraged to speak in French for the duration of the carnival.
"We really want to encourage them to speak in French as much as possible because we're an English speaking community – so when we offer some of these activities this is such a great chance to just have those moments to speak in French and converse with others in French — it really helps your confidence and your speaking — it's a great opportunity," said Hoffman.
The school's carnival was what Principal Steven Boucher referred to as their own version of Carnaval de Québec, a popular festival held in Quebec City in February. The festival features multiple events ranging from outdoor sports to snow sculptures.
"We're trying to have some of those fun activities that you might see at different festivals and some of those traditions," said Hoffman.
French-Second-Language Education Week took place Feb. 6-10 and was participated in by FSL schools from across the province. The week featured virtual Keynote Addresses from JUNO-nominated musician Peter Katz and Stéphanie Morin-Robert a multi-award winning and multi-disciplinary artist. The virtual sessions were attended by thousands of FSL students, according to Hoffman.
"We're just lucky that we have supportive administrators that help us with this and promote it – a real opportunity to build that French community with out students."
