What it’s all about

Mr Men books are great for language lessons - excellent for learning new vocabulary and practising verbs, and guaranteed to be funny, which makes them perfect for a Red Nose Day class, writes Catherine Paver.

First, look at lists of existing Mr Men characters in foreign languages. Meet Don Cosquillas (the Spanish Mr Tickle) and Herr Glucklich (the German Mr Happy). Wikipedia and Amazon are a great source for these lists, as is the official French Mr Men website.

Now let pupils loose with dictionaries to create their own characters. Ask them to change the gender and title. Doctor Clueless, Lord Fussy and Mr Tactless are always good value. So are Lady Disaster, Professor Vague and Miss Grumpy.

The classroom will soon fill up with strange characters and new vocabulary. Get pupils to choose one character to draw, label and describe. Then put them in pairs to let their characters meet each other. Pupils could write and perform scripted dialogues. What will happen when Doctor Doom meets Mr Nice, or when Mr Angry meets Miss Technophobe?

Next, put pupils in groups to role play. They could make a seating plan for a dinner party. What would happen if you put Mr Friendly next to Lord Furious? Or Mr Nervous between Mrs Clumsy and Mr Sarcastic?

Just knowing the character’s name helps pupils to guess the meaning of new vocabulary. Put up a display and keep copies of the best for future use.

What else?

Visit the official Mr Men website in French. www.mrmen.comfr. Draw on this list of French Mr Men. bit.lyMonsieurMadame

Some Mr Men books have been translated into Welsh. bit.lyRilyBooklist.