SUGGESTIONS FOR CELEBRATING CARNIVAL IN YOUR OWN CLASSROOM

Click here or on each craft activity for a list of required materials.

Click here for National Standards addressed by this unit.

1. Make a collage of important elements that are part of the carnival experience. Cut pictures from magazines, download images from the Internet and/or draw them if you can’t find them! (Consult the vocabulary list if you need some help!)

2. Make your own “Bonhomme Carnaval” by tracing the model included in this packet. You can use white paper and magic markers, crayons, colored pencils or felt tip marking pens to color your snowman.
   
   If you make red and white paper chains, you can decorate your classroom! Furthermore, the paper snowmen can be tied with a piece of string passed through a tiny hole made in the snowman’s hat and suspended from a link of the chain!
   
   Another possibility is to make a 3-D snowman! Cut two models out of white felt, put stuffing between the pieces, and sew the pieces together. To finish the snowman, cut eyes, nose, mouth and three buttons out of black felt, the hat and belt out of red felt, and glue them on the snowman using white glue.

3. Make a shoebox float to put your Bonhomme Carnaval snowman in! Decorate your float with colored paper, sequins, ribbon, pieces of yarn, glitter, etc. Use a lot of colors so that it brightens up this celebration held in the middle of winter!

4. Make Bonhomme’s “ice castle” out of foam board by cutting out four walls and attaching them with round toothpicks. Or use sugar cubes and glue to create a castle that looks like it was made out of blocks of snow! Decorate your ice castle with Canadian and québécois flags and with little snowmen that you have made!

5. Make a marionnette by tracing the pattern pieces included in this packet. Cut two body pieces out of white felt and sew them together. Use the pattern pieces for the hat, parts of the face, and the buttons and cut similar pieces using the appropriate color of felt for each item. Using the model, glue these onto the puppet’s body. Make a woven belt out of red, green and yellow yarn and attach this belt under the snowman’s arms.

6. Use the following Web sites to do your own Carnival research or to know more about Québec, its history and its culture.
   
   http://www.carnaval.qc.ca/  This French/English site will give you Carnival information. You will also find a link for souvenir items that you can use to decorate your classroom.
   
   http://www.bonjourquebec.com/  This French/ English site has information on the entire province of Québec.
   
   http://www.quebecregion.com/  This French/English site is the official site of the Tourist Bureau in Québec.

7. Using the site http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/  make your own word search or crossword puzzle with the vocabulary list included in this packet. Don’t forget that the accents are not necessary since they will not appear in the puzzle! Print out your puzzle and exchange it with a classmate!

8. Use the site http://www.girafetimbree.com  to send a Carnival postcard to your teacher and your friends!

List of supplementary activities

This unit has been developed by the AATF Commission on Middle Schools. It is posted here for your comments. Please send any suggestions or comments you may have to the Commission Chair Janel Lafond-Paquin.

Created: January 31, 2001
Last update: January 31, 2001