Learn French Shapes and Body Parts
Exploitation de l’album Va t’en, grand monstre vert!
Themes: colours, shapes, body parts
The book Va t’en, grand monstre vert!/Go Away, Big Green Monster! featuring Big Green Monster is more funny than scary and children love it! It's also a great way to learn French shapes and body parts. Children really enjoy turning the pages and seeing the monster appear then disappear, part by part, as they tell him to go away. Here are some printables and activity ideas based around the book. You may like to use our free French colours and body parts printables to support these activities.
Cut out and paste Big Green Monster - Maternelle de Bambou offers a free downloadable version of Grand Monstre Vert in pieces for you to print, cut out, then put together part by part, just like in the story! This activity is It’s perfect for learning colours as well as the French vocabulary for parts of the face. You can laminate it and use it again and again to play with, or just use a paper version and glue the pieces together once they’re all in the right place. You can get silly with this and put the pieces in the wrong place and ask your child if it looks right and to show you where it should go!
Colouring sheet - I was inspired by this fun Green Monster colouring by numbers activity from JDaniel4’s mom. Download our free colouring in sheet and work on learning both colours and numbers in French! Roll a die to see which part to colour green monster or just use it as a colour by number.
Big Green Monster toilet roll craft - An easy craft idea is to make a Green Monster out a toilet paper roll. You’ll find instructions over at The Best Ideas for Kids, as well as some other easy monster themed craft projects. You could even make him some monster friends!
Printable worksheets - This printable from Maitresse Ananas focuses on letter recognition. Cut out the letters and have your child match them up to recreate the title of the book. You could even adapt the activity and use it to practise handwriting if you have an older child and have them write the letters instead of pasting them. Over at La maternelle de Camille, you will find a selection of several activities based on the book. The printable “La carte d'identité de mon monstre” focuses on the written words for the colours. The first page shows each individual part of the monster with a blank box next to it, and the second page has the colour words for your child to cut out and stick. I would suggest using the book for reference to talk about the colours and maybe even colouring the parts in together first before adding the labels. This sequencing activity is another simple worksheet that focuses on comprehension and understanding the order of events.
Green Monster cake pops - For something different, you might like to try making your own Green Monster cake pops if you’re confident in the kitchen. Here’s a recipe to try for Monster and Zombie Cake Pops by Bakerella. Cooking with your child is a great way to learn about numbers and measuring, and it’s always fun to have a sweet treat. I've never tried my hand at cake pops but these look so adorable that I just had to add them to the list!
Music
Not quite a monster, Canadian children’s musician Alain Le Lait’s funny song Arc-En-Ciel is about a wooden head with different colour eyes! It’s available on his album Parapluie.
Je cache mes yeux is another song that also works really well with this story. Although not about colours, it ties in as it features the parts of the face. This is a lovely action song which helps to remember the words for eyes, ears, nose and mouth. It’s available as part of our online video library subscription.