Book hunting is one of my favourite things to do when I travel to France. This time, I found some gems in the bookshops in Toulouse (
Gilbert Joseph,
Ombres Blanches,
Tire-Lire) and the
Museum of the school in Carcassone.
Here are the books / magazines and some ideas to use them in class:
J'ai vu un lion (Séverine Vidal, Laurent Simon - Milan)
A funny book that tells the story of a child who has seen a lion in the neighboor's garden. The child tells very random features in each of the pages, and the mum says a comment at each time:
"joli pour un lion, chouette pour un lion, étrange pour un lion".
At the end of the story, the child invites Bernard, the supposed lion, to come to eat
le goûter.
Children could write a mini-book starting with a supposed animal and then revealing a different animal by the description of the feathers, height, colour, wings, beak, etc.
Rouge hippopotame and
Jaune Chameau (Janik Coat - Éditions Memo)
The series include
Vert tamanoir, Rouse poulpe, Marron mammouth, Orange sanglier, Violet chat, Blanc chouette et Noir rhinocéros.
The language in these books is simple. The animal and the colour are introduced in the first page:
Mon hippopotame est rouge. Then, there are a series of similes:
rouge comme + plural noun.
I am thinking that the children could practise forming the plural of nouns, use the bilingual dictionary and write and illustrate their own mini-book.
Ça se fabrique peut-être comme ça (Chihiro Takeuchi - Rue du Monde)
I found this book very witty and original and couldn´t resist buying it. It´s the story of a factory where simple things can turn into unexpected items!
The text presents some items in the plural form with the indefinite article
des + repetition of the question
"Que vont-ils fabriquer?" + the name of the ending product in singular or in plural in the following page.
I think it would be a great story to stimulate children's creativity and another way of practising plurals and searching for words in the bilingual dictionary.
Un repas monstrueux (Tobias Krejtschi - Miniedition)
This is a cute lift-the-flap book that could be used to teach the shapes and perhaps some items of food.
It shows the picture of a plate with food in different shapes and a monster on the opposite page. The question is always the same: what will the monster eat? (monstre carré / rond / en triangle / en rectangle / ovale / en coeur).
Perhaps we could stick the names of the items of food on the picture so that the children can answer the question, then, they can check their answer by lifting the flap.
Mais qui est là? (Constanze V. Kitzing - La joie de lire)
This is another book written in short sentences. It shows a picture with the part of an animal and invites the reader to guess what it is through repetition of the question:
Qui est là?. When you turn the page you will see the full picture and a phrase: Article + name of the animal + adjective: un éléphant souriant, une grenouille affamée, etc.
We could use this book to teach about animals, articles, adjectives and the order of the sentence in French.
Ma pochette Montessori: les animaux des continents (Nathan)
I bought this resource to use when I teach my
unit on geography. It contains flashcards of the continents, flashcards of 35 animals and a leaflet with information about these animals.
We could first teach about the animals, habitats, classify them on the type of food they eat, etc. Then, we could play some games to sort the animals by continent (the flashcard of the continent has the shade of the animals that live there).
Les formes autour de moi (Tourbillon)
These cards show a figure made out of different shapes. For each figure, there are two cards: one card with the figure in colour and the shade of the figure in black on the other side; another card with no details on the figure, but the concrete shapes with different colours and on the other side the name of the figure.
We could use them in our lessons for different activities: naming the shapes, counting the shapes, but also matching the shade with the shapes or practising reading the new vocabulary, articles and nouns.
Coffret L'âne Trotro et son doudou
I have been searching for a Trotro teddy for some time so I couldn´t resist when I found this coffret.
The story is really cute, Trotro tells the children about all the things that he likes doing with his
doudou. I can´t wait to read it to my Year 2s, who love the stories of
Trotro.
Mots et images de l'école d'autrefois
I bought these books and the fountain pen in the
Musée de l'École de Carcassone. If you travel to Carcassone, this museum is worth the visit. It has a fantastic collection of items, resources, books and all type of memorabilia of the French educational system of the end of the XIX century.
Je comprends tout! CP, Français (Nathan) and J'apprends à lire (Magazine Milan)
I bought this revision workbook and this magazine for a French speaking pupil in Year 2. She often prefers to join the rest of the class and enjoys the songs and the stories, but she benefits from working on reading and writting on her own too.
Olalar, l'art dès la maternelle (Magazine Faton)
I really liked the observation games and the colouring activity about Degas.
Youpi, j'ai compris! Que deviennent nos déchets? (Magazine Bayard)
I bought this magazine to plan some new lessons for my unit on
recycling. I specially like the article on the benefits of recycling, the different recycling bins and what do the waste turn into.
Quelle histoire mag (Presse Fleurus)
Two of the topics that I teach in my CLIL history / French lessons are present in the articles of the magazine:
Ancient Egypt and
Romans. I was also interested in the article on Native Americans, as I am currently planning some lessons on les
Amérindiens.
