I love Dorothée de Monfreid’s characters “les toutous” (the doggies), but this one might just be my favourite story of theirs!
Click here to look at the inside of the book and give you a good idea what it is about in a very short video on my YouTube channel!
Language of text: French
Type of text: picture book
Author or source: Dorothée de Monfreid, published by l’école des loisirs
Intended age of students: Key Stages 1/2
Source reference: 9782211234788
This is the story of the day a group of dogs receives an umbrella through the post… but they have no idea what it is, so they try to work it out!
The language is so simple that you can read this story, all in French, all the way through. The second time round, you can get the children to join in and say “oui” or “non” after each suggestion: even if they do not recognise the words, they will be able to answer from looking at the pictures!
When you read it for the 3rd time, get the children to repeat each suggestion and join in with an action to match each word, so they start to practise and memorise them.
Lastly, for fun, you could teach the children the word “parapluie” and get them to shout “c’est un parapluie!!” every time the “toutous” get it wrong!
Rationale:
This is such a simple but effective story which will enable to teach (or reinforce) very useful vocabulary and structures. The children will relate to it, they will be hooked and will want to know when the “toutous” will work it all out! They will feel good that they can understand a story that was written for French children.
Outcomes:
The children will pick up, from the story, useful short phrases for speaking, like: mais non, n’importe quoi, ah zut.
Once they are familiar with the book, they can write their own version of the story: choose an object that could potentially be misused, plan how it will be misused, look up any necessary vocabulary in dictionaries and rewrite it. They will need a lot of imagination!
Topics or themes:
Teaching “c’est” = it is
Grammar:
masculine and feminine words; asking questions: c’est quoi ? = qu’est ce que c’est ?
How much time required:
1-2 lessons
You can buy this book here at Amazon.co.uk.
Do you actually know of another story where characters are trying to work out what something is? Then please share it in the comments below! Merci !
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