The Red Balloon
was one of my absolute favorite books when I was a kid. This is quite ironic considering I don’t even like balloons! However I loved this story of a boy, Pascal, who lived in Paris. Pascal was terribly lonely because he had no brothers or sisters and his mother would not let him keep any of the stray animals he brought home.
One day, on his way to school, he found a red balloon tied to a street lamp. He climbed the lamp, freed the balloon and kept it. The story follows Pascal’s adventure with his red balloon.
The illustrations in this read-aloud are photographs, some black and white and some color. Pascal encounters a “gang of boys” who want his balloon. This provides a great opportunity to talk to your children about bullying as it does happen in this book.
The story does have a happy ending and while I was looking through the pages to write up this post, I was flooded with memories from my own childhood.
The The Red Balloon is set in Paris, France so this is a great time to incorporate some world geography into your read aloud time.
Activities for The Red Balloon
- Locate Paris on a map
- Eiffel Tower coloring page
- Play in the rain with a balloon
- French flag coloring page
- Carry a balloon with you all day
- Balloon gas experiment
- The Letter “B” worksheets
- My color flip book
- Make French tartines (snack)
- Make French toast
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