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Ready to learn about France? Read on to find books, activities, and links to teach your kids all about France!
Our adventures around the world has lead us to Europe. We’ve been working through the continent v.e.r.y. s..l..o..w..l..y, leaving lots of space for extra reading, projects, and play. One of our favorite places to visit was France. Ooo la la!
Learn About France with Activities for Kids!
Role Playing
Role playing with Madeline and The Bad Hat was a huge hit! The best of child-led learning. “Mom! Let’s make a Bad Hat costume for me, and sis can be Madeline!” I printed off the faces from a Google search, and stuck on Popsicle sticks to make two quick costumes. The kids chased each other through the streets of Paris, joined a band of Gypsies, flew on magic carpets, and sang all the now familiar songs from the original episodes.
Building with Blocks
After reading and watching a bit about the Eiffel Tower the oldest was inspired to build his own. It turned into a STEM activity. How tall can we build it? How can we make it more stable? After looking at the Eiffel Tower we expanded our base and the final result was a tower as tall as him! Of course, the best part was knocking it down.
Take a Trip to Monet’s Garden
We looked at Monet and his family and the images of his house in Giverney. He loved looking at the reproductions of the water lillies and the Japanese bridge and was soon pointing out Monet references in the world. “Look, Mom, the Japaneese bridge!” on a journal at the book store. “Look, Mom, water lillies!” on a walk in the park.
We are lucky enough to live where the weather is beautiful for most of the year, so we made a trip to our local park to walk through the fragrance garden. I would have loved to bring some art supplies, but at this stage of life (3 little ones 5&under) that’s not the easiest undertaking!
We walked and talked about flowers. Noticed different colors and smells. Read the plaques and sat on every bench. We’d walked through the gardens before, but after talking about Monet and how he saw his garden my son seemed to see it through fresh eyes.
Enjoy Some French Cuisine
Our culminating French experience was a trip to a local French/American Bistro. We all ordered French cuisine, and the oldest was so happy to try ham and cheese crepes, croissants, baguettes, Â quiche, and of course French Fries. We noticed all of the French decor and learned a few French words like chandelier, a la carte, hors d’oeuvre.
Learn About France with Children’s Books
Madeline was an instant favorite in our house! Both my kindergartner and three year old loved reading this award winning series about Madeline’s magical adventures through Europe.
The prose makes the stories fun to read and rhyme, and the beautiful illustrations took us through Europe’s most famous monuments and palaces. I can’t say enough about this memorable series. We will return to these books again and again.
Magic Tree House Book #35, Night of the New Magicians by Mary Pope Osborne is a magical adventure through Paris with Jack and Annie. The Magic Tree House obsession continues in this house! The learning doesn’t stop when the Tree House disappears. These books have really inspired a great deal of interest in a huge variety of places, people, and times. There has been many adventures to choose from for all of our units this year!
Learn about France with Videos for Kids
Every Friday is movie night in our house, and the whole family enjoyed the Disney movies, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Ratatouille, and The AristoCats which are all based in Paris.
The original series of Madeline is included with Amazon Prime streaming (1 season). We all loved this series. The shows go right along with the books – even using the same rhymes with the addition of a few very memorable poems and songs. Madeline Sing-a-Long was also a favorite – and turned out to be a nice break from Christmas music during the holidays!
“We love our bread. We love our butter,
but most of all we love each other.”
If you just can’t get enough of Madeline (we couldn’t), an additional three seasons of Madeline episodes, The New Adventures of Madeline, as well as a very funny live action movie with all of the familiar characters is available to rent or purchase on Prime.
For more Europen Unit resources, playlists, and movies see this post.
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Ashley helps parents who want to homeschool find the resources they need to successfully teach their children. Ashley is a former teacher, current homeschooler, published author, and designer behind Circle Time with Miss Fox printables as well as the creator of this website, The Homeschool Resource Room.
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Thank you for sharing this and all the resources and ideas! My kids chose France and you gave me some new great ideas!
That’s great! We has so much fun “traveling” around Europe. Hope you do, too 🙂