TDF day in school

[Gwylan]

I’m planning a Bastille Day French afternoon for my school and was planning one activity to be a TDF themed activity!

I’m thinking maps, jerseys, profiles of the riders etc! What else can I do?

Cycling profanities. Could liven up the oral side of the language.
Looking at stages, geography. Distance, height gained lost and so on. Making section drawings of the routes.
Diets, food and fluids, lots of vocabulary.
How the teams are organised. The lead outs, the star, the domestique, mountain men, time trial specialist and so on.

I was once in a Belgian hospital, after a sailing accident, for the duration of the TDF.
My Belgian room mate was very keen. So we watched it on TV and he explained what was going on. The team and cyclist tactics. The "they're just going out for a ride today" and so on.

 

[Gwylan]

I’m planning a Bastille Day French afternoon for my school and was planning one activity to be a TDF themed activity!

I’m thinking maps, jerseys, profiles of the riders etc! What else can I do?

Great, well done, go for it. More language and different sports. Great.

 

[Gwylan]

Get the teachers out the staff room and sweat! not just when Ofsted comes round!!

That's a bit of a generalisation. We have some very fit staff.

 

[Gwylan]

Just picked up on the age range.
Maybe my suggestions were a bit older.

Design a kit, hot cold wet dry, team colours.
Pictures of the weird things they do alongside the route. Piles of bales, country dancing. What would your school do of the TdF went past their playground?

 

[Cathryn]

Whilst all the activities you can arrange are going on, have ITV4's coverage on a big screen telly so the kids can see the bits of the stage in action.

I have a giant screen and I use it every afternoon in July when the kids have gone home!!

 

[BrumJim]

Get them to make a sign saying "Allez Opi Omi!", and then try to knock over as many cyclists with it as possible. See if they can beak the record?

 

[mjr]

some French words ie Chute, Peloton, Echelons, and what they are for,

Echelon and more famously domestique came to English decades ago and aren't much used in modern French coverage. What we call an echelon, with two diagonal lines of riders rotating through, is a tourniquet belge or simply tourniquet, and a domestique is a co-equipier (teammate). Calling a rider basically a servant of another dates from the earliest days when riders did literally hire others to serve them and now would be almost insulting in many cases.

The two words aren't quite "false friends" but maybe not the best French to teach without warning.

 

[Gwylan]

Echelon and more famously domestique came to English decades ago and aren't much used in modern French coverage. What we call an echelon, with two diagonal lines of riders rotating through, is a tourniquet belge or simply tourniquet, and a domestique is a co-equipier (teammate). Calling a rider basically a servant of another dates from the earliest days when riders did literally hire others to serve them and now would be almost insulting in many cases.

The two words aren't quite "false friends" but maybe not the best French to teach without warning.

Thank you

 

[Jameshow]

I have a giant screen and I use it every afternoon in July when the kids have gone home!!

Get the kids to watch the stage work in some maths, English, French obvs, geography, history too. Job done....
Baguette and cheese for lunch!!

 

[Cathryn]

[QUOTE="mjr, post: 7009040, member: 34410"a domestique is a co-equipier (teammate). Calling a rider basically a servant of another dates from the earliest days when riders did literally hire others to serve them and now would be almost insulting in many cases.
[/QUOTE]

I knew the French don’t use the term Domestique but hadn’t thought of the underlying reasons!

 

[LarryDuff]

The French don't call it Bastille Day, officially it celebrates 14 July 1790 (not storming the Bastille in 1789) and many celebrations are on the evening of the 13th, with the holiday of the 14th used to recover. Not that any of that affects le Tour!

What happened 14th July 1790?

 

[Hebe]

Talk about what and how riders eat duri g the race and drink and what they do if they need a wee? Can you do something about the women's tour too?

 

[Mike_P]

Talk about what and how riders eat duri g the race and drink and what they do if they need a wee? Can you do something about the women's tour too?

Some of that could lead to potential awkward questions although it was the Giro not TdF when Tom Dumoulin had the need for a no.2

 

[mjr]

What happened 14th July 1790?

The first Fête de la Federation. 😉

 

[Hebe]

Some of that could lead to potential awkward questions although it was the Giro not TdF when Tom Dumoulin had the need for a no.2

That is true. I think primary school age kids are going to ask anyway though, or maybe that’s just my nephews…