A Grade 11 French class at Vincent Massey invited some Grade 8 students from Waverly Park to visit last Tuesday and take part in a mini Mardi Gras festival in the classroom.

French teacher David Bebbington said his class began the year learning about Mardi Gras traditions and watching a French video accompanied by comprehension questions and other language activities.

“It was a logical step from studying Mardi Gras to celebrating one of our own,” he said.

The invitation to the Grade 8 class from Waverly Park, under the tutelage of teacher Ari Sarbit, came as a result of Bebbington realizing that their philosophies for teaching as second language were similar. “We both agree that students need the opportunities, the motivation and appropriate instruction if they are to continue taking French,” said Bebbington.

The 34 Waverly Park students walked to massey and were greeted by two students wearing Mardi Gras masks. They were then given Mardi Gras beads and Bebbington told the Grade 8 students that the beads would be used as a scoring system for prizes. Students received beads by answering brief French vocabulary questions, by being dressed in the group colour and by winning games in the activity centres.

Several Waverly students brought Mardi Gras shoebox floats and the Grade 11 students awarded three trophies for the best floats.

One of the games the students played was Blindfold Pictionary, Laissez les bons temps rouler, a bingo-type game, and Gestactions, a French verb game.

The students with the most beads after the three contests had first choice of the prizes and the “King of Mardi Gras” was determined by whoever found the chocolate coin inside one of the celebratory doughnuts. The “king” was towed back to Waverly on a toboggan in addition to other special privileges.

One of Bebbington’s students baked a “galette des roi,” a traditional Mardi Gras cake.

Delphine Holian, the Brandon School division’s new French consultant, paid a visit t the event.

Bebbington said he hopes that the three high schools can combine their efforts next year and stage a bigger and better Mardi Gras celebration.