During the holidays I happened to read a book about Monet and was taken by the fact that he painted Rouen cathedral 28 times between 1892 and 1893. He captured the cathedral in different lights and at different times of day.
Perfect link between Art and language learning here!
- Locate the cathedral on Google Maps. Go on a real time tour of the area and the cathedral with Google Maps.Explore pictures and photographs of the actual cathedral.
- Take a look at some of the different picture Monet painted of the cathedral. Share these on a screen and give the children limited time to write down colours in either English or the target language that they see in the pictures.
- Give the children time to compile a written target language list of all the colours and to check or look up colours in bilingual dictionaries.
- Take verbal feedback of the colours from the children and record these on the flip chart.
- Give children a blank piece of paper and ask the children to create a colour word cathedral of their own.Ask the children to build their own colour cathedrals using all the colours they noticed in Monet's pictures,from the bottom of the building up to the top, in an order they feel best fits the size and shape of the building.This activity will work best if they can use coloured pencils and pens to match the target language words.
- Ask the children when they have finished their colour wordbuildings to now add similes for each colour. Let the children look at Monet's paintings again to inspire these simple similies using the key word "comme" e.g. bleu comme le ciel etcetra.
- The children can then create a list of their similes and create their own similie word sculptures of the cathedral .
- Colour word cathedrals and simile word sculptures can then be used to create a class display
