I bought this story in a second-hand bookshop in the French Alps in August 2019. It is perfect to talk about the emotion of fear, around Halloween time or at any time!
Click here to watch a 2-minute video where I show you inside the book and tell you a little more about it.
Language of text: French
Type of text: picture book
Author or source: Grégoire Solotareff, published by l’école des loisirs
Intended age of students: Key Stage 1/2
Source reference: 9782211237406
This is the story of the day 3 friends (a rabbit, a cat and a wolf) decided to dress up as ghosts in order to scare others around them. Will they manage to?
The children can really have a good attempt at guessing what the story might be about, who the ghosts might be; then I would read it throughout, as it is so short.
I have a toy/puppet rabbit. a cat and a wolf, so I would use them to get some children to act out the story next to me, with old pieces of material used to over them and make them into ghosts.
The onomatopoeia are great in this story, and the children will love joining in with them next (eg ha ha ha, zut zut zut).
On each double-page (there are only 7 of them), you can ask the children how they think the characters are feeling. You may let them use the phrases they already know, or use it as an opportunity to add some: for instance here, “il a peur” would be a useful one.
Rationale:
I love this story because it is short and sweet. There are a lot of repetitive structures, which enables the children to memorise them as well as to take part in the story. For instance when it says “- un lapin déguisé en fantôme – un chat déguisé en fantôme et un loup déguisé en fantôme”, you can either get the children to say the names of the animals, then you say the name of the animal and they say “déguisé en fantôme”.
Outcomes:
The children will enjoy making a mini-book, rewriting the story but changing the animals and the cakes at the end.
The will also enjoy making cardboard puppets on sticks, some as the shapes of the animals, some as the ghosts, and retelling the story.
Topics or themes:
Halloween, friendship, being scared; animals, body parts
Grammar:
any of your choice, no specific ones
How much time required:
1-2 lessons
You can find some lovely ideas and resources to go with this story (and many other stories) by clicking here.
This story may inspire you to make some little ghosts with your children: Pâte à modeler has some great instructions for this here!
You can read about more stories about ghosts and other scary things in my dedicated blog, by clicking here!
N.B. Would you like to read about books, ideas, resources and opportunities for the primary languages classroom? Then click here to receive a monthly round up of my blog (and more!) straight in your mail box!
