European
Picture 
Book
Collection

Country: Spain, Catalunya
Language: Catalan
Title: Cargol, Treu Banya (Snail, Show Your Horns)
Author:
Illustrator:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Chosen by: Elisabet Bosch; Jesica López; Lia Malagón; Anna Pepió.

Rationale for Choice:
This book has been chosen because it includes Catalan references.

Re-telling
XXX

Translation:

Page 1
Today Nin and Non want to go out but they can't because it's raining.

•  If this shower stops – Elena says- we could go to look for snails, it is when you can find more.

Page 2

•  Yes, yes! - Nin and Non shout.

They prepared the basket and waited…

Page 3
No sooner said then done, a few minutes later, it was not raining and the three brothers go out with the basket.

•  We should look at the border carefully- Elena recommends

Page 4

•  I can see snails- Nin says- but they are so small…

•  This one has a good size- Non comments

•  A brown garden snail!

Page 5

•  Should we take all of them?- Non asks

•  Only the big ones, when the lip is on the shell

•  Shall we cook a stew of edible snails?- Elena says But Nin and Non just want them to look properly how they are.

Page 6
They pick them up carefully by the shell and they introduce them in the basket.

Page 7
They have found a yellow snail, a “Bover” snail, a kind of brown garden snail, and a “Reineta” snail, a kind of banded wood snails, but all of them are well hidden inside their shell.

•  Why don't we sing the song?- Non asks

Page 8
                                                        “Snail, show your horns

Go up the mountain

Snail, take wine

And go up the hill.

Brown garden snail

I will come, too!”

Page 9

Little by little the snails show their heads, and later, their horns:

Two of them are short and the other two are long with eyes.

Page 10

At home, they put them in a box, with some lettuce leaves and the children cover them.

Nin, before going to sleep, looks at them and thinks:

•  I will uncover them and in this way they will breathe better.

Page 11
The next day there's only one snail; the others escaped

Page 12

•  Nin, you have done a foolish act! - Non cries out.

•  I thought the snails were sleeping!

•  The plants are full of holes because the snails have eaten all the leaves.

•  Now you can put back the snails where you found them- Dad says.

Page 13

•  We will put them back, Dad, but let us have one of each in the “cargolada”, where we cook the snails.

•  Ok- answers the father- but only if you guess who is who…

“It hasn't got legs but it walks,

It wears its house day and night

It isn't an ox and it has horns,

It isn't a sheep nor a kid”.

Page 14

A snail!

FOOT

Activities for use in school: 

Activity one

They will have to represent the song with mimics following the teacher's instructions. The song is divided in two parts; the first two sentences are the same in these two.

In the first line of the song, they will put their hands with two fingers on their head moving them backwards and forwards, representing the horns of the snail. Then, they will move their arms as if they were running, but with their legs, as if they were going up the mountain. In the following sentence, they will move their hands in and out, as if they want to take something out. Finally, they will repeat the same action as if they were climbing up the mountain.

In the second part of the song, they will have to lie down with their belly on the floor, acting as a snail. Then, when they are on the floor they move their hands in and out to express that they will also come.

This activity is thought for Infant education and for the first key-stage of Primary.

Activity two

The following activity is thought for First Key Stage. They will have to make the shape of the snail with plasticine. They can do different activities: for example, they can represent the story with the snail that they have made while the teacher is reading the story or they can sing the song while moving their snail, etc.

Another activity that we have thought of is to make a poster with several mountains that they will gradually reach depending on the good behaviour in class or on how they do the activities. The snail represents each child and will be stuck on the poster so the teacher will decide whether to make progress or to leave the snail where it is. This activity is more related to their behaviour in class.

Activity three

This activity consists in building out a cargolera, where snails live. In this way, children will know the properties of this animal and they will observe how they lay their eggs and how they get fed.

They could make an excursion to the forest to look for some snails and some soil for the cargolera . They will learn how to take care of snails and in the same way they will take part in the different vital processes of snails.

In this photograph you can see a cargolera .

This activity is thought for the first key-stage of Primary.

Activity four

The teacher has to draw a big snail and the children will have to write inside the shell the snail's song, in the shape of a spiral.

This activity is thought for the first Key Stage of Primary.

Activity five

This activity consists in playing a Memory game. The teacher will draw or scan the pictures of the book twice to have a pair of each. Not all the pictures are from the book because we should look for the different kind of snails; so the teacher will have to look for pictures in the Internet. The pictures that he or she will have to look for are:

•  A brown garden snail

•  A banded wood snail

•  The yellow snail

•  The basket

Activity six

In this activity we will use flashcards. Using the same pictures as in activity five and also more, the teacher should write the word of the pictures behind each flash-card. In this way, they will have a flashcard with the picture and the written word.

We could do a lot of activities related to flashcards. For example, we could show them the drawing quickly and they have to guess the name of the picture; in order to check if they have said it well, the teacher will show the other side of the flashcard where the name is written. The child who guesses more will be the winner. Another activity is to put some children in front of the class and give them one flashcard each; the teacher says a name and the children have to show the correct flashcard.

Activity seven

We can do a big mural in which we show all we have learnt. We can write the song or stick the snail with the song written on its shell, stick the snail's pictures (flash-cards) and the names of each, we can write a few characteristic of each snail, we can also stick the plasticine snails that they had done…

This could be an example:

Cultural Reflection:

Cargolada : in Catalonia it is very usual to gather with the family or friends to have a cargolada . It is like having a barbeque, but instead of eating meat, they eat snails with different sauces. The way of eating snails is to prick them, usually with a stick.

Cargol bover : a kind of brown garden snail

Cargol Reineta : A kind of banded wood snail

Nin, Non, Elena : typical Catalan names

NB Further literature and language-based activities can be found in
Picture Books sans Frontières available from tb@trentham-books.co.uk
or www.amazon.co.uk