Newtown Middle School Students Trip to Montreal

On Friday, May 20, the seventh and eighth grade Newtown Middle School French students from Nancy Maxwell’s class traveled to Montreal, Canada for a three-day visit.

Students and chaperones spent a leisurely few hours browsing through Old Montreal and then dined at the Restaurant du Vieux Port amidst century old stone walls with hand hewn beams. The three-day visit included time spent at the Montreal Archaeological and History Museum, shopping in Montreal’s famous Underground City and touring Notre Dame de Montreal, a magnificent church in the center of the city.

Students also visited a 200 year old stone warehouse at the Fur Trade in Lachine, Quebec, designated a National Historic Site. During the interactive portion of the presentation the students themselves played explorers, learning to paddle birch bark canoes at the incredible speed of 40 to 60 paddling strokes per minute.

The students also drove out to the Quebecois countryside where they enjoyed an evening at an authentic 100 year old cabane a sucre, (sugar shack). They traveled through the woods in a horse drawn wagon to the building where they learned how maple syrup is drawn from trees each spring and boiled down to become syrup. The guide showed the students the huge outdoor stone oven in which 100 loaves of French bread can be baked at one time. After the tour the French students entered the sugar shack where they enjoyed an evening of dining, dancing, and traditional Quebecois music. At dinner they experienced the wonderful taste of hot brick oven baked bread.

The three day trip provided the  French students with a unique opportunity to experience French Canadian culture. They were able to practice their French language skills while ordering food in restaurants and while shopping. They enjoyed using another form of currency and learned how to exchange money at a Bureau de Change. They read signs in French and heard French spoken around them. They practiced useful French phrases such a “De rien,” (you’re welcome) and “Je suis perdu,” (I’m lost), with Mrs Maxwell. The students sang their favorite classroom song “Alouette,” on the bus ride home and were treated to a surprise stop at Ben and Jerry’s ice cream factory in Vermont.