To be honest with you when I received this book in the post from my parents when my son (now 18) was a toddler… I read it and thought: what on earth were you thinking buying this?!? Really?!? Now I LOVE it and more importantly children do too! I have even used it in activities week with Y7 and Y8 pupils before and we had a fantastic time with it!!! A few weeks back it won me a friend: at an event I was attending this 12-year old girl felt she was too old to come on the bus for a story; a couple of younger children were looking up to her and tempted to not come either… I’ll spare you the details but in the end I decided to promise them this story and it totally won them over!
Language of text: French
Author or source: Werner Holzwarth/Wolf Erlbruch
Intended age of students: Key Stage 2/3
Source reference: 2.86726.866.4
Approaches:
This story of the little mole who goes on a search to find out who has pooed on its head is hilarious. Your children won’t believe you are reading such a story to them!! I want to read it to them and let them try to guess which animal has done it; I want them to join in and be “la petite taupe” and also be each animal, in turns. I want them to laugh and have fun with the language and learning without realising it.
Rationale:
I have chosen this book because it is so unexpected and clever; all it talks about is poo without once mentioning the word!! The pictures are beautiful and self-explanatory, making it easy to understand the story even though the descriptive language is complex.
Outcomes:
Once you have enjoyed reading the story with your children taking part in it, they could write their own version of it and/or add an animal… Only if they know what their poo looks like mind! In my case, it would have to be a cochon d’Inde!!
Topics or themes:
You could use this story to introduce or revise animals in French as well as body parts. You could also ask the pupils how they think the petite taupe is feeling and do some dictionary work so they can express their opinions.
Grammar:
You could use this story to introduce yes/no questions in French, the imperative, emphatic pronouns and the verb “faire” in the present and the past tense.
Strategies:
This book is also great to look at onomatopoeia and you can all have great fun with them.
How much time required:
You can spend as little or as long on this story as you want!
Please note you can get this book in English but in my opinion the translation is not as good… I also own the original version, in German, and of course that is the best!
Tthere are so many amazing ideas about activities and resources here , also here and here to help you exploit this story.
Did you know that International Mole Day is on 23rd October? What is YOUR favourite story about a mole? I also love these of course: Petite taupe ouvre-moi ta porte! and Joyeux Noël Petite taupe!
