Two months already that Petit Flo and Ondine, the characters of the Vendée Globe juniors, are accompanying the children.
Games related to the preservation of nature, coloring, model ships, kits where the point Nemo - the point of the Ocean furthest from the land - or Cape Horn are explained ... The Vendée Globe is much more than a race around the world, it has even now become an educational project in many schools.
This week, at the Paul Bert school group in Saint-Mandé (Val-de-Marne), the students of Elisa and Alexandra have returned to their little ritual.
On the map, everyone has traced the route taken by their favorite skipper during the Christmas holidays.
Some had crossed Cape Horn, others were still sailing in the Pacific.
Places that no longer hold any secrets for children.
Cape Horn rhymes with unicorn, the Kerguelen with whale
“We don't need to do a big lesson so that the children know where the Cape of Good Hope is located, all the continents take on meaning for them,” smiles Evelyne Gaschot, school teacher in Châtelain, in Mayenne.
At Sainte-Thérèse school, we follow the entire fleet, but Maxime Sorel, the navigator of “V and B - La Mayenne”, is at the heart of the conversations.
“The children know her boat with the dragon,” continues the director.
When he tore his veil, one of my students said to me:
Mistress, you should phone her, my mom is sewing, she could fix it!
"
Due to the health crisis, the school trip planned for the end of October to the departure village of Sables-d'Olonne has been canceled, no child has yet been able to meet the skipper, but everyone regularly watches videos of his journey.
The theme chosen by the school this year: "Around the world in 36 weeks", took on its full meaning thanks to the Vendée Globe.
We talk about geography, ecology or the human body.
Through Maxime Sorel, sponsor of the association "Vaincre la cysticoviscidose", the students of CP-CE1 were also able to learn how today we fight against this dreadful disease.
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In Saint-Mandé, where the sequence has been baptized “solidarity”, it is above all Clarisse Crémer, the skipper of “Banque Populaire” who grew up in the Paris region, that we follow.
Here again, the topics covered are extremely varied.
Geography of course, but also the lexicon linked to the sea and even poetry.
In Elisa's class, Cape Horn rhymes with unicorn, the Kerguelen with whale.
“Through the videos, the children observe everything,” explains the teacher.
If she's in shorts it's sunny, if she's wearing her oilskin, it's because she's in a cold area.
“Thanks to the navigator, to whom they were able to ask questions through video interposed, the children now know what flying fish are.
In Alexandra's class, we learned to tame the wind, the element that allows Clarisse Crémer to move forward or to stagnate.
“She goes to places that children don't know, which makes the event even more magical,” admits Alexandra.
"Clarisse is very natural, she has a very mothering face for these children who mostly knew male sportsmen", considers Elisa.
"They discovered that the world was much bigger"
As the weeks go by, the children become attached to the sailors.
“We all got caught up in the game, even those who didn't like school very much, found a new interest,” says Evelyne Gaschot, from Sainte-Thérèse school.
A little boy comes every morning to tell me what he knows about Maxime Sorel, he knows all the abandonments.
We found a common thread which means that, for him, school is no longer something laborious.
For that alone, what we have built is a great adventure.
"
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A magnificent adventure that will take place until February.
“A strong affect has developed and we are necessarily dependent on what Clarisse Crémer is going through,” underlines Elisa.
We necessarily want her to complete her world tour.
We adults would understand if the adventure had to end.
It would be more difficult to get the children admitted.
"
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Thanks to the Vendée Globe, "they discovered that the world was much larger than they imagined", points out Elisa.
All the children, whether in Mayenne or in Val-de-Marne, also got it into their heads that they would soon meet their new idol.
In real life this time.
