Le Carnaval de Nice

Posted at 9:09 am on 30th March, 2022

Year 8 and 9 Study French Festivals

In March, Year 8 and 9 students embarked on a French Festivals scheme of work in Modern Foreign Languages (MFL).

They learnt about the origins of the Nice Carnival or ‘Le Carnaval de Nice’, which is one of the world’s major carnival events held annually in February and sometimes early March in Nice on the French Riviera.

As part of their work they also learnt about how Mardi Gras (‘Fat Tuesday!’ Or Shrove Tuesday) is celebrated in other places, with particular focus on the Nice carnival. 

Mardi Gras refers to events of the Carnival celebration, beginning on or after the Christian feasts of the Epiphany and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday.

Students read opinions in French about the event and watched videos of recent parades.  They also used their French vocabulary to respond to the question "Veux tu célébrer le carnaval?" (Do you want to celebrate carnival?) and giving their opinion about the aspects of the festival that most appeal to them. 

As an independent learning task, Miss Bailey and Mrs Horridge asked students to create a carnival mask they would wear to Le Carnaval de Nice, inspired by the parades that they had watched.

Miss Bailey, Leader of MFL, said:

“Students responded brilliantly and really wowed the MFL team with their creativity and artistic talent!  We had so many fabulous entries, students had clearly researched their designs.”

Well done to our winning masks: Ryan, Matthew, Zakaria, Ethan, Theo, Ben, Aidan and Bradley (Year 8.)