The CHANTS ET CANTIQUES DE NOËL package that you have purchased is intended to be a user-friendly package. There are 20 Christmas songs/carols that may be used with Grades 4-8 in order to teach students popular French Christmas songs/carols. Each song/carol has a short and long version. Short versions may be used with younger students and contain a box for personal artwork related to the song. Students are encouraged to draw a scene from the song. Full versions may be used with older grades or French choirs for Christmas concerts. In order to avoid copyright issues, the lyrics for Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Little Drummer Boy are not printed in full. Teachers are encouraged to have students find the lyrics via the internet, and copy the lyrics for themselves. You may find the following internet sites useful for lyrics, historical data or to play the melodies for your students:

http://french.about.com/od/Christmascarols/French
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Christmas_carols
http://www.momes.net/comptines/comptines-noel.html
http://www.joyeuse-fete.com/joyeux-noel/chansons.html#go
http://www.mamalisa.com
http://www.carolsinging.com
http://pages.infinit.net/gagnema/noel/musical.html (***this site is actually a Christmas Karaoke site for French Carols!)

Here are some helpful instructions that will ensure success in your classrooms:

1. Decide whether you will learn the songs/carols for presentation in class, for caroling from class to class or for singing at your school's Christmas concert with a French choir.
2. Photocopy the appropriate song/carol sheet for your class. You may have your students draw and colour appropriate pictures on and around the page.
3. Explain your expectations of this exercise to your students. i.e. - Students must read through the lyrics completely and sing with good pronunciation, expression, compile their sheets in a Christmas songbook that will be handed in and evaluated, etc...
4. Explain your evaluation methods to your students. Each teacher is encouraged to create a rubric for different grade levels and/or targeting specific aspects of the activities.
5. Once your students have learned their song/carol, you may have them glue them into their notebooks or compile multiple songs in a duo-tang or Christmas folder. This will help students to keep their papers together and may be handed in for evaluation.
6. To reinforce reading and oral skills, students may pair up and practise their favourite carols together or in groups.
7. A blank copy sheet is provided in this package in the event that students would like to write out a favourite song/carol not included in this package.

And finally...

Have fun while your students learn Christmas songs, carols, and culture en français!

BONNE CHANCE!!!