“Les Aventures de Petit Croissant” is the adventure of a croissant as it makes friends with other food and finds its way home to France.
It was Vive la France for some sixth-grade students in the Gifted Academic Program at Hartford School this past school year as they collaborated to create their own French children’s book.
“Les Aventures de Petit Croissant,” or “The Adventures of Little Croissant,” follows the adventure of Petit Croissant, Little Croissant, as it travels the world, making friends with new food items and trying to find its way back home to France.
The book, 45 pages in total, was researched, planned, written and illustrated through the efforts of gifted students through their French and art classes under the guidance of French teacher Catherine Pullion and art teacher Megan Richards.
Once finished, the students used an online company to print their work, creating enough copies for each student, with an additional 200 copies printed to send to needy children in French-speaking Haiti as a service project.
“We also just liked the idea of a service project, especially for kids living in Mt. Laurel,” Richards said. “They have lives very different from the students living in Haiti, and with the book going to those students, it gave them an extra sense of purpose to the project. It wasn’t just for a grade.”
Pullion and Richards said their students wanted the younger children in Haiti to learn about the countries of the world other than their own where French is a spoken language, so they had their story move through various settings and cultures.
The book also teaches about numbers, as each time Petit Croissant makes a new friend, the book features a page with the new number of friends who have joined Petit Croissant on its journey.
Planning and creating the book also allowed the students to collaborate and present their own ideas.
Through their French class, students worked in groups to create various plots, characters and themes. The groups then presented their ideas to their classmates, with students voting on a final story they liked best.
“The group collaboration work, with choosing themes and voting on which story they really thought was the best, took a lot of insight for them,” Pullion said. “It took courage and honesty and integrity to decide which story deserved to be the one that should be printed.”
Once finalized, students then worked on the details of their story by researching countries where French is a spoken language and learning about additional food items for Petit Croissant to befriend along its journey, such as waffles and chocolate.
Meanwhile, students in art class also researched the French-speaking countries and the food items to reference in their illustrations, with students once again voting in class to finalize character designs.
Art students then planned the layout of each page’s illustration and sketched each design, using watercolor techniques learned in class to add color to each page.
Richards said the project was a success because the GAP students were able to think outside the box and use more cognitive skills.
“We expected a lot out of them, and it was neat to seem them rise to that challenge,” Richards said.
Pullion said it was impressive to see the students come together creatively to help a community other than their own.
“In the end, the students realized they published a book that could be shared with younger students that are experiencing hardships, and I think they appreciated that,” Pullion said.
