top of page

The circus - an educational outing. . .

Introduction :

The circus arouses great fascination in children.

It arouses different feelings: 

  • cheerfulness in the music, the light, the costumes

  • the tenderness and friendship between trainers and animals

  • the feeling of flying with trapeze artists or skill with jugglers 

  • wonder at the magician's tricks

  • laughter with the clowns, their quarrels and their pranks 

Under the marquee whose circle evokes conviviality, children can dream and marvel thanks to the remarkable work of the artists

Before leaving:

This educational outing will be prepared in advance => impregnation on the theme 

(readings-slides-films-posters-vocabulary-space/time

The exit :

Where is the circus set up? identify different elements:

  • the big top for the show 

  • the trucks to transport the equipment 

  • the caravans

  • animals

  • the artists

  • the staff who work there 

  • the ticket office, the queue

The circus acts, the program

After leaving:

Output exploitation:

  • written production (dictated to the adult) - captioned drawing

  • acrosport - body expression

  • Plastic arts - music 

  • etc...

The circus - school and cinema: Charlie Chaplin

travaux d'enfants sur le cirque de chaplin

Before the screening

 

  • Discover the 1970 poster

  • Know the cultural referents

      _cc781905- 5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     _cc781905-5cde- 3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     _cc781905-5cde-3194- bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b- 136bad5cf58d_ _cc781905-5c de-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     _cc781905-5cde- 3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     _cc781905-5cde-3194- bb3b-136bad5cf58d_      l'arche de Noé

      _cc781905- 5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     _cc781905-5cde- 3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     _cc781905-5cde-3194- bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b- 136bad5cf58d_ _cc781905-5c de-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     _cc781905-5cde- 3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     _cc781905-5cde-3194- bb3b-136bad5cf58d_      Guillaume Tell

  • Watch a clip from the film - defining burlesque

  • Circus professions

  • The circus in Art (Seurat, Chagall...)

  • Le cirque dans la littérature de jeunesse        _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b- 136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905-5cde- 3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_                     _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3 b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905- 5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_         _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b -136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905-5cde -3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_         _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b- 136bad5cf58d_       _cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_         _cc781905-5cde-3194- bb3b-136bad5cf58d_          

  • La musique          _cc781905-5cde- 3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_                     _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     _cc781905-5cde- 3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_                     _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_         _cc781905-5cde-3194- bb3b-136bad5cf58d_       _ cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_         _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     1928      _cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_         _cc781905-5cde-3194- bb3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905- 5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb 3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905- 5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_         _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b -136bad5cf58d_   1970

affiche film 1920
affiche film 1970

After the screening

 

  • Telling (evocation language)

  • Draw Charlot

 

  • Go back to the movie poster: What is the Tramp looking through the hole?

      _cc781905- 5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     _cc781905-5cde- 3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     _cc781905-5cde-3194- bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b- 136bad5cf58d_ _cc781905-5c de-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     _cc781905-5cde- 3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     _cc781905-5cde-3194- bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b- 136bad5cf58d_      _cc781905- 5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d__cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b -136bad5cf58d_      _cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_ What is the difference between the poster and the film?

 

  • Timeline (reordering of film frames)

The circus - Educational exploitation ...

Organigramme          _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_Theme :le cirque          _cc781905-5cde- 3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_  Trigger :a trip to the circus
          _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_         _cc781905-5cde-3194- bb3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905- 5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b- 136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905-5cde- 3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_                     _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     _cc781905-5 cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_         _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b -136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905-5cde -3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_        ou une affiche, une oeuvre, un poster , a book

Literature - Reading images:

  • Themed Albums, Stories and Magazines 

  • Documentary: the circus

  • study of the album Bénépate (ed not scale)

  • Show posters, posters, movie poster

Oral language:

  • Acquire vocabulary on the theme (tent-track-spectators-jugglers-tamers-...

  • List the questions that students have about the circus, look for answers in books and on the way to the show

  • Poems (the clown-Like on parade...)

  • Evocation language: recounting an outing

  • Dictation to the adult (keep track in the life book)

Written production :

  • Make a poster to inform parents of the outing

  • To remember (memory evocation): 

      _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad

Math :

  • progression adapted to the theme

The circus
live performance

Audiovisual:

  • Movie: Chaplin's Circus

  • circus show recording

living world:

  • Discover animals that have been used in circuses (use)

  • then these same animals in their natural environment

Body language :

  • Dance, mime, juggling

  • Acrosport: balance, postures, cooperation

  • facial expressions 

Space-time :

  • Locate the date of the show on the class calendar (timekeeping)

  • Chronology: (from release-from featured issues)

  • The capital: a special place (vocabulary-topology-way of life)

  • Arrangement to delimit the space (marquee-trucks-caravans)

  • the circus of yesteryear/the circus of our days 

Become a student:

  • Control of road education concepts for an outdoor outing 

Musical Education :

  • Audition of circus music, the walkers (Bécaud), the clown is dying (Moouloudji)

  • The Circus Orchestra

  • Percussion

  • Rhymes and songs: I have a big red nose...

Plastic arts:

  • Study of paintings (see the circus in art)

  • Creation of masks, disguises 

  • The clown portrait (facial expressions)

  • The unstructured portrait

Language mastery

Vocabulary :

  • circus professions

  • clothes and accessories

  • animals

  • places

the marquee - the circus - the ring - the spectators - the director - Monsieur Loyal - the orchestra - the drum - the juggler - the horsewoman - the tamer - the clowns - the white clown - the august - the magician - . ...

Rhymes, songs and poems:

  • Like on parade - Marie Litra

  • The Clown - Topor

  • The Clown (vocals)

  • Clown-Soprano (YT video link)to be used in PE (dance-choreographic creation)

Written production 

Sheets on the theme

Lea at the circus

A short story to tell from the magazine La Classe Maternelle n°165 01/2008

BENEPATE

Part 1 :  Reading - comprehension   (beginning -> didn't belong among the turnips)

  • Whose story is this? (clear the main character)

A: Bénépate, a little mole

  • Where does she live ?

A: at the bottom of the vegetable garden

  • Uncover the problem:

What does she do all day?

What does the gardener think?

Who is not happy too?

A: Hubert, the earthworm - Edmond, the lazy hedgehog - Lucette, the flirtatious bee

=> The inhabitants of the vegetable garden were getting tired of it!

=> They want her gone

=> The little mole thinks they are right

  • Imagine what's next

Part 2 :  Reading - comprehension   (-> nor in the beautiful tree-lined garden... where to go?)

Bénépate leaves the vegetable garden.

  • Who helps Bénépate to find a place?

the gardener's cat

          _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_    !

          _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_ the meadow -----------------------> problem: the cow is chasing it 

  • Where to go?  Imagine the rest

Part 3 :  Reading - comprehension   (-> end)

  • Reminder: characters, places (vegetable garden, meadow)

  • Problem :

She loves jumping, doing acrobatics.

The animals in the vegetable garden hunt.

The cow drives it out of the meadow.

  • Reading part 3

  • The resolution: The Centipede Circus.

          _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_         _cc781905-5cde-3194- bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     She becomes an artist, an acrobat.

          _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_         _cc781905-5cde-3194- bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     His friends come to see his show.

Benepate au cirque
Benepate au jardin potager

You will be a tightrope walker like dad!

(Some parts concern late CP / CE1)

Discovery of the 1st cover

Objective :Get the students to interpret the illustrations and the title of the album

to make assumptions about its content

I. In groups of 2(one photocopy of the cover per group)                             

Silent discovery then ask them to find all they can say

on the album

-> search for as many clues as possible to then develop different

assumptions about the contents of the album.

​II. In large group                                                                                                                             

Mise en commun des éléments découverts dans les différents groupes        _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_

Faire préciser : - le titre (Que veut dire funambule ?)        _cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_         _cc781905-5cde-3194- bb3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905- 5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_         _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b -136bad5cf58d_       _cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_         _cc781905-5cde-3194- bb3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905- 5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_         _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b -136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905-5cde -3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_

          _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_      - l'auteur (Frédéric STEHR)_cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b -136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905-5cde -3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_                 _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_         _cc781905-5cde-3194- bb3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905- 5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b -136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905-5cde -3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_         _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b- 136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905-5cde- 3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_        

          _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_      - l'illustrateur  _cc781905-5cde -3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_         _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b- 136bad5cf58d_       _cc781905- 5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_         _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b -136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905-5cde -3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_         _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b- 136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905-5cde- 3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf5 8d_           _cc781905-5cde- 3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_                     _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     _cc781905-5cde-3194-b b3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905- 5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_  

          _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_      - l'éditeur  _cc781905-5cde -3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_         _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b- 136bad5cf58d_       _cc781905-5cde- 3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_                     _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_         _cc781905-5cde-3194- bb3b-136bad5cf58d_       _ cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_         _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_         _cc781905-5cde-3194- bb3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905- 5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b-1 36bad5cf58d_           _cc781905-5cde- 3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_          

          _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_      - les personnages  _cc781905-5cde- 3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_                 _cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_         _cc781905-5cde-3194- bb3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905- 5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_         _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b -136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905-5cde -3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf 58d_           _cc781905-5cde- 3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_          

Take note of all the illustrated elements (characters, objects, places)

Discovery of history

Absence of the mother 

Father/son opposition

  • the father wants Pepito to be a tightrope walker (tradition)

  • the son is afraid and wants to become a musician

Oral and collective reading

 

  • Initial situation(from page 1 to page 6 - Pepito on the wire)

-> search for characters, places​

-> highlighting the problem and the characteristics of the characters

-> check understanding, explain difficult words

  • The dream(from page 7 to page 10 - they sleep in the trailer)

The image serves as a launcher for a written production = imagine their dreams 

          _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_      by drawing - creation of bubbles (comic book approach)

         _cc781905-5cde-3194- by text

Highlight concurrency.​

  • The argument and the fall(from page 11 to page 20) = highlight (trigger)

This part is conducive to a debate and a philosophical workshop session.​

          _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905 Is Pépito responsible for Papa Bear's accident?

          _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     Do we have the right to oppose the will of our parents?

Emission of hypotheses:

What will Pepito decide? Obey in spite of his fear / continue what he loves?

  • The spectacle and reconciliation(from page 21 to the end)

Give your opinion on this album​

- I liked it because...... (use the connector)

- I didn't like because..... (use the negative form)

  • Extensions 

 

- Thematic network​

 

- Jobs:  

          _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_  - list the trades known to the students (baker, hairdresser, shopkeeper...), the trades of the parents

          _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_           _cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_     (related to becoming a student: everyone plays a role)

          _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_  - identify the advantages and disadvantages (including uniformed trades)

          _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_  - make a classification: dangerous, dirty jobs, outdoors, in an office....

Express yourself on your projects: Later, I will be ...... because I will have, I will be able, I will win ..... (use the future tense)

- Imagine a sequel (expl: Dad will become a musician and a tightrope walker)

Albums, magazines and documentaries on the subject 

The circus in art

Georges Seurat

Fernand LEGER

Pablo Picasso

Marc Chagall

"Monsieur Loyal" by Matisse

Display the reproduction and leave time for observation and free comments.

Then return the painting and give its title (Monsieur Loyal). Explain the role of this character in the circus if you haven't already done so during the screening of the film.

The circles evoke juggling balls (one of the circus professions).

Karel Appel

The Clown Portrait

Bernard Buffett

picasso

The unstructured portrait

picasso

Andy Warhol

bottom of page