Have you heard of Pete the Cat by Eric Litwin? Just type in Pete the Cat on Pinterest and you will find a plethora of activity ideas and art projects for the book in English. You can well imagine my excitement when I found out it was also available in French! Read on to find out more in the next installment of Read Aloud Wednesdays.
This post contains affiliate links.
Pat le chat : J’adore mes souliers blancs is a wonderful book that I use with my early Grade 1 students. It is easy to understand, has great illustrations and a repetitiveness that makes it great for beginning learners. Plus, many of my students come into Grade 1 having read Pete the Cat stories in English. This enables me to use the story to help my students make the connection that the structure of stories in French are the same as those in English, only the words differ.
Pat le chat : J’adore mes souliers blancs is about a cat who goes out for a walk and ends up stepping in different things that change the colour of his shoes. Yet no matter what, he keeps singing his song. A number of colours are used, as well as the expression “J’adore mes souliers . . .” There is a fun little rhyme that the cat keeps singing as he moves from one mess to the next! My students love to sing along! There are youtube versions of the author singing the song in English but I just make up my own little tune!
As students become more proficient in the language, Pat le chat : J’adore mes souliers blancs is useful for teaching students about the idea of cause and effect in stories. It simple language and repetitive nature naturally points to this. Cause: Pat stepped in a pile of blueberries. Effect: His shoes turned blue. Try having students make up their own little story with Pat on an adventure! What other things could he step in? What would happen to his shoes? And, be sure to check out my “Pat le chat” pinterest board for some fun arts and crafts inspiration!
Related
