Middle School French Students Expand Horizons at the Johnson Nature Center

Middle school French teacher Stephanie Potier is a fount of knowledge about French language and culture, as well as the natural world. In order to enrich their French vocabulary and appreciation for nature, Potier brought 7th and 8th grade French students from both North Hills and South Hills middle schools to a Bloomfield Hills French bakery and the Johnson Nature Center, on a unique land and language field trip.

The students began their trip with a visit to Chez Pierre et Genevieve, a bakery in Bloomfield Hills, to practice their French conversational skills while ordering and paying, along with experiencing intercultural awareness of French pastry (pâtisseries). After enjoying their pastries at Chez Pierre et Genevieve, students boarded the bus to the Johnson Nature Center, and received instruction from Potier on how to take notes on their graphic organizers to capture ideas for a story - a mystery happening during the maple moon season - that they will later write. Along the trails, students notated the various animals, people, objects, places, actions, and senses in French to grow their language and observational skills. Potier noted, “Nature makes us slow down and look around. Tap into your senses, and then write it down - what you smell, like something sugary or smoky in the sugar shack.”

Working alongside Johnson Nature Center and Bowers School Farm guides, Potier taught both the English and French words for everything they saw - from the peregrine falcon (le faucon) which was housed at the JNC due to a broken bone, to the descriptions of the bark (l’écorce) of a pine tree, to explanations of the Three Fires First Nations people who lived in Michigan for thousands of years before the French arrived in Michigan. Along the trail walk, Potier shared the vocabulary for various trees they encountered, from birch to willow to cottonwoods, and how the wood of these trees was used by First Nations people to make canoes and homes.

In the sugaring shack, after a presentation by JNC operations leader Brian Klosterman on the science of sap evaporation, Potier explained the French Canadian food connections: maple cream (le sucre à la crème) and maple candy (la tire) are more dense versions of maple syrup. The more liquid that is evaporated from the sap, the more dense a solid it becomes.

This land and language program at the Johnson Nature Center is a beautiful example of how Bloomfield Hills Schools teachers utilize the amazing resources at our fingertips to enhance student learning. Blending an appreciation for nature with an appreciation for French culture in our state’s history, Potier helps middle school students understand not just how to learn language in an authentic way, but how to slow down and see the natural world with new awareness.