LEWISTON — The Franco Center started its new session of Saturday morning “Fun in French” classes on Jan. 10 for ages 4 to 8. It will begin Saturday, Jan. 24, for ages 9 to 12.

The free course consists of 90-minute sessions running from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday mornings. The classes will take place over four weeks with one class every other week. A full schedule of classes will be available at the first session or by contacting The Franco Center.

No prior language experience is necessary. A parent, grandparent or adult caregiver must accompany each child or pair of siblings 8 and under.

The intention is to provide an opportunity for families to learn some activities in French that they can build on between sessions. The Maine French Heritage Language Program curriculum is used as the foundation for the activities offered. The MFHLP curriculum provides quality fun by offering a wide range of activities influenced by the local Franco-American culture as well as other French-speaking cultures. Games, crafts, music and songs, dancing and interactive play as well as story-telling will be major components of this session.

The course will be taught by Jacynthe Jacques, a native of Quebec who has lived in the Lewiston area for nearly 20 years.

While the Franco Center has met the minimum requirement of five in order to hold the classes, there is still room in both classes for more participants, with a maximum of 15 students per classes. All others who will sign up will be put on a waiting list and will be contacted as space becomes available.

Another session building on what has been learning in this session will be offered in April.

In keeping with The Franco Center and MFHLP’s commitment to bring quality fun to as many young people as possible, classes will be offered for free through grants from the French Heritage Language Program of New York and the French American Cultural Exchange.

To register, or for more information, go to francocenter.org, email boxoffice@francocenter.org or call the center at 783-1585.