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I fell in love with this book during my visit to the book festival in Paris in December 2016 and was lucky enough to meet its lovely author and its equally lovely illustrator (see pictures below). When I got back my 16-year old couldn’t stop reading it and laughing so I would even consider using it with older pupils!!
Language of text: French
Type of text: picture book
Author or source: Christine Naumann-Villemin / Marianne Barcilon
Intended age of students: Key Stage 1/2
Source reference: 9782877678957
Approaches:
This story of the day a crocodile joined school is very repetitive so children from a young age can join in with “les enfants lui montrent”; older pupils, once you have broken down the question, can also join in with “Oh! Mais c’est une idée ou le crocodile a un peu grandi?”.
Rationale:
It is a lovely story with beautiful illustrations which also shows that it is easy to make someone new and different feel welcome and as a result we all learn and grow together; this is a lovely message which I want to share with my pupils.
Outcomes:
The children, once they have enjoyed joining in the story and extracted vocabulary and structures from it, could use dictionaries and come up with other situations in the day when the crocodile might have needed help. They will really enjoy that and get a lot from it linguistically and socially!
Topics or themes:
Daily routine
Grammar:
Negative forms; infinitives
How much time required:
1-2 lessons

Click here to see how a school in France has exploited this story.
Below is a photo of the writer, Christine Naumann-Villemin, meeting Mini Miss Paris and signing the book for her.

This is the illustrator, Marianne Barcilon, drawing the best picture of MinI Miss Paris ever! it makes me want to write a story for her!!
This is the beautiful photo and signing by both ladies.

I hope you can enjoy this story too!
You can also read here my top 5 stories about school.