Chez Madame Cafe Francais
It’s hard to pull off a really great surprise for students, however, French teacher Madame Carlstedt successfully managed to do this on Friday, June 2nd by transforming her classroom into a French café.
Unable to take the majority of her French students to a francophone country this year, thanks to expedited approval and funding through Arts in Education, this activity was the
NEXT BEST THING - une vraie experience francaise - an IN CLASS field trip!
Students were invited to Chez Madame (Room 139) where decorated tables accepted their ‘reservations´ for brunch. Seated in friend groups, students prepared to order from a menu, which included freshly baked items (plain and chocolate croissants, breakfast brioche, imported butter from Normandy, France and raspberry jelly, Quiche Lorraine, Baked Brie with blueberry compote, and traditional baguettes) and freshly squeezed orange juice, grapefruit juice, and cranberry juice from Our Daily Bread in Chatham, NY. Delicious macaron treats were provided by The Placid Baker in Troy.
The owner of Chez Madame only spoke French 🙂 so the students had to use their well earned French skills to communicate their meal preferences. Each student ordered individually in French and was able to try everything, take something to go, and leave class with their own whole French baguette.
It was a great experience after a challenging year of remote learning French.
Students are more likely to remember this wonderful experience!
Please enjoy the pictures of the surprised ‘customers’ which speak for themselves.
Special thanks to:
Ms. Koonz, Program Director for Arts in Education for expediting her request
(2 day turnaround!),
Mr. Rizzo, for understanding the intrinsic value of connection and relationship with students and valuing ‘outside the box’ thinking in extenuating circumstances 🙂.
Mr. and Mrs. Clinton, parents of French students John and Sam Clinton, for schlepping to Chatham, NY at 6:30 a.m. on Friday to do the pick-up and delivery to Tamarac (this could NOT have happened without them!)
Mrs. Perfetti, for lending her entertaining expertise and materials and loaning Madame platters and baskets, vases, flowers and candles, to create a more realistic restaurant experience for students.
Our Daily Bread (Gavi Cohen), Chatham, NY - Madame’s HEROS, who accepted a very large, special, extraordinary request on 1 day’s notice, trusted the educational payment process, bought in to the importance of the SURPRISE for her students and went above and beyond to facilitate the experience.
The Placid Baker (Tom/John), Troy, NY - for accepting an order for 110 delicious
macarons on short notice and allowing Madame to be the first in line to pick-up at 8:30 a.m.
Sophie Champagne and Lily Rodda - former French 5 students, who returned from college, to help decorate the day before and SERVE on Friday morning for Grade 8 and French 2 classes.
