We are currently singing songs around the theme of Autumn in Les Petits Tigres French for babies and toddlers. As much as French nursery rhymes are a great way for little ones to learn French, it's fantastic to diversify and add in some other elements to support your child's language learning. You can't go wrong with books as a way to provide another opportunity to provide exposure to the language and to build listening, vocabulary, and memory skills.
You can read more about how French books support language acquisition and can help with teaching French to babies and toddlers in our post as part of a previous series on How to Teach Your Child French. Here's a round up of some autumn themed French language books that we love! They are perfect for use with our French nursery rhymes and songs that we are currently singing in class.
Roule Citrouille is a simple story based on the premise of the classic tale of The Gingerbread Man. In this case, instead of a runaway gingerbread man, there is a runaway pumpkin that rolls and rolls. The story features a lot of repetition of phrases which makes it great for learning French. You can even incorporate a gesture for "roule citrouille" and turn your hands around one another to demonstrate rolling. Even better, you can take it a step further to reinforce the learning with the French nursery rhyme "Hérisson tout hérissé" - like the story Roule Citrouille, the song also features the verb "rouler" and the same gesture as the hedgehog rolls. You will have sung this one in our French classes for babies and toddlers.
Un, deux, trois, sorcière! is a cute story featuring a witch on a very windy autumnal day. It's also perfect for learning numbers and practising counting! This story ties in well with the song "Un, deux, trois, nous irons au bois" which you can find in our illustrated book of French nursery rhymes and songs Sing Your Baby Bilingual! and includes accompanying music as well.
Un automne avec Pop is another fabulous addition to the collection of books featuring Pop the multicoloured dinosaur from children's publishers l'école des loisirs. They also have a complimentary dossier pédagogique with ideas to further explore the book, however, do note that it is in French!
Le vent m'a pris is a fantastic literary introduction of French for babies featuring the wind. It is very simple with just a picture and a word on each page other than the first and last page, and large illustrations. It is also an excellent resource for teaching French vocabulary for clothing. You'll also find a cute graphic printable for winter clothing items as well as many others in our collection of free resources and French printables.
La promenade de Flaubert is a funny French story about the wind. The language is simple and easy to follow for beginner French learners, so a perfect resource to teach French for babies and toddlers. Early learners will giggle at the silly story while learning vocabulary for parts of the body.
Coucou! C'est qui? Animaux de la forêt is a lovely little lift the flap board book which unfortunately doesn't seem to be available at the moment. I've included it anyhow as I adore it for its simplicity, photos, repetition and the gentle introduction to autumn forest animals. If you find it available somewhere, do let us know!
Does your child have a favourite autumn French book that they enjoy? Comment below!