I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to find great French books that I can read during my science lessons. I found the Ma vie de … series and I’ve never looked back. I wish they had more of these on other bugs and animals! These books provide some information about the flies, spiders and worms (and there is crossover between the books – they’re all friends).
They are written journal style, so they are very interactive for the students. The Ma vie de … books have an element of humour to them. I really really love reading these with my class and they find them entertaining. They are great French read aloud books for Primary Science. Click on the photos below for a direct link to the book on Amazon!
Grade 1: Needs and Characteristics of Living Things
All 3 books are great to use to talk about the characteristics of these bugs for our Living Things Unit. We use these as a basis to brainstorm about different bugs and then we choose another living thing that we want to learn more about as a class. It might be another bug, but it might also be an animal. We do the research as a class, then during our literacy block, I have my students each write a page about the animal. We then combine our pages and create a non-fiction class book.
Grade 2: Growth and Changes in Animals
Since bugs are included in the Growth and Changes in Animals unit, these are great to incorporate. I love reading the 3 books to the class then having students do some research on a bug of their choice. I usually pair this unit up with our non fiction texts unit in French Literacy so that my students can do some fun cross-curricular activities. After my students do some research on their bug, I have them complete some journal entries where they communicate information about their bug in a fun and creative way.
Grade 3: Soil in the Environment
I only use the Ma vie de ver de terre book during this unit, since the other two aren’t relevant. We talk about how worms are important for the soil and what they do for the soil. The book gives some of that information, but we do more research afterwards. I have a companion activity to go along with this book in my Soil in the Environment unit.
I also usually use these books to talk about points of view during our literacy lessons. There are crossovers between all 3 books, so you can discuss how the different characters were feeling at certain points. You can also have your students write a journal entry as one of the other bugs during a situation that involves them (in one of the other books).
I hope this helps you discover more books for your French science units! I will be back soon to share more French books with you that I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading with your class. Please leave me a comment below if you know of some other great science-themed French read aloud books! I am always on the hunt and I would love to have more to add to my repertoire.
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