Another great children’s book I use in class is…
Children’s books allow you to practice key structures and get in the repetitions necessary for acquisition. For example, in the Spanish version of this book, there are lots of reps of tenía que, it has a lot of preterite and imperfect. The French version is in present tense with lots of first person verbs: je dois, je remplis, je decends. It doesn’t matter, because I can take the basic story and work with it in whatever tense or with whatever structures I need to practice. I “Movie Talk” it or read it like you would naturally read to little kids, pointing to things in the picture and asking questions about what’s going to happen, prediction.
I also love all the ready made authentic resources available on the internet around children’s literature. Here are some activities a French teacher made for his French students in the south of France. Note the lines for the students to practice cursive writing. This is another awesome authentic resource for French.
I think this book is perfect to connect to a discussion on fears or child hood fears? What were you afraid of? What was under your Bed? What are you afraid of now? How do you conquer your fears and solve your problems like the boy in this story did?
But what I really like about this book is the problem solving. He had a problem, an alligator under his bed, and he solved it by leaving a trail of food to trap the alligator in the garage. What is a problem that you have resolved on your own? What steps did you take to solve the problem? What happened the next morning when dad went to work? How does the story really end? Prediction!