Grade 4 French Immersion: how to help at home
What your child learns in Grade 4 french immersion in the New Brunswick Curriculum, and simple things to try at home.
The Big Ideas this year
- Speaking and Listening: Oral Comprehension. Understand different oral texts on a variety of familiar/known topics, topics studied and personal interests.
- Speaking and Listening: Oral Production and Interaction. Communicate about familiar/known topics, topics studied and personal interests using specific language.
- Reading and Viewing: Phonics. Use knowledge of written sounds (graphemes) to read words in text accurately.
- Reading and Viewing: Vocabulary. Use knowledge of the vocabulary acquired to facilitate your reading.
- Reading and Viewing: Fluency and Accuracy. Read a variety of increasingly complex texts accurately and fluently.
- Reading and Viewing: Comprehension. Read while understanding a variety of increasingly complex texts.
- Writing and Representing: Written Production and the Writing Process. Write different types of texts about familiar/familiar topics, topics studied and personal interests following the writing process.
- Writing and Representing: Writing Traits. Enrich your writing with different types of texts by applying writing traits.
Easy ways to practise french immersion at home
- Read a short French book or comic together a few times a week, and talk about it in either language.
- Ask your child to teach you one new French word or grammar rule a day.
- Watch a French show with the French subtitles on, then retell the story.
- Keep a short French journal: one or two sentences a day.
What each unit covers
Tu ou vous?
Choosing between “tu” and “vous” depending on who is being spoken to, an important courtesy in French.
Poser des questions
Question words (qui, où, quand, pourquoi, comment, combien) and questions formed by inverting the subject and verb.
Synonymes et contraires
Building vocabulary with synonyms (similar meaning) and antonyms (opposite meaning).
Les adverbes en -ment
Forming adverbs from the feminine form of an adjective plus -ment.
Comparer
Comparing with plus… que, moins… que and aussi… que, with adjectives and adverbs.
Le passé composé
The passé composé of first-group (-er) verbs, formed with avoir and the past participle.
L'imparfait
The imparfait, the tense used to describe and to set the scene in stories and tales.
Comprendre un texte
Reading a short text, finding the main idea and making inferences from clues.
La structure du récit
The five parts of a narrative: initial situation, inciting incident, rising action, resolution and final situation.
What the report card levels look like at home
- Working below
- Just getting started with this idea. Short, regular practice with lots of support helps most.
- Approaching
- Understands parts of it and is building confidence. Keep practising the tricky parts.
- Meeting
- Has it! Mixed review now and then keeps it strong.
- Excelling
- Applies it confidently, even in new or harder situations. Try challenge mode and real-life problems.
Your child’s teacher decides the level on the report card. Read the New Brunswick report card guide.
Common questions
Read a short French book or comic together a few times a week, and talk about it in either language. Ask your child to teach you one new French word or grammar rule a day. Keep sessions short, about 10 to 15 minutes, and stop on a success.
The New Brunswick Curriculum Grade 4 french immersion units include tu ou vous?, poser des questions, synonymes et contraires, les adverbes en -ment, comparer, le passé composé.
Free printable Grade 4 french immersion practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.