Meet Hoot and Toot, two owl siblings who live in the same old oak tree but couldn’t be more different. One is big and the other is small, one goes up while the other goes down, and throughout their day they seem to do almost everything in completely opposite ways.
 
Hoot and Toot introduce children to the idea of opposites through a playful bilingual story. The two owls live together, eat together, fly together and play together, but their differences make every part of their day a little more entertaining. Hoot is the big brother and Toot is the little sister. One turns left while the other turns right, one flies forwards while the other flies backwards, one likes a hot drink while the other prefers a cold one, and even when it is time to settle down for the night, the pair continue doing things their own way. 
 
The story provides a fun context for developing French vocabulary and phrases around opposites, direction, size, position and everyday descriptions. Children hear and practise language such as grand, petit, le frère, la sœur, le jour, la nuit, en haut, en bas, en avant, en arrière, à gauche, à droite, vieux, nouveau, plein, vide, rapide, lent, chaud, froid, un peu and beaucoup. 
 
The accompanying Opposite Owls song / Les hiboux opposés gives children plenty of opportunities to hear, repeat and sing the new vocabulary. The song brings together many of the opposites introduced in the story, including big and small, brother and sister, up and down, right and left, forwards and backwards, fast and slow, hot and cold. Repetition and rhyme help children become familiar with the words while joining in with the actions and rhythm of the song. 
 
But The Opposite Owls is much more than a vocabulary workbook. The module encourages children to look at the world around them and notice how many things can be described through contrasts and opposites. Big and small, hot and cold, full and empty, old and new, forwards and backwards — these simple ideas give children useful language they can begin applying to everyday objects, people and situations.
 
The workbook also introduces children to the fascinating world of owls. In the Hoot’s Interesting Owl Facts section, children discover more about owl feathers, eyes, hearing, size and other characteristics of these remarkable birds, adding an element of nature and discovery to the language-learning experience. 
 
Inside the workbook:
📖 The complete The Opposite Owls / Les hiboux opposés story in English and French
🎵 Bilingual The Opposite Owls / Les hiboux opposés song lyrics
🦉 French vocabulary activities based around Hoot, Toot and their world
↕️ Learn opposites including up and down
↔️ Practise left and right and forwards and backwards
📏 Learn big and small
🌞 Explore day and night
🔥❄️ Practise hot and cold
🐢💨 Discover slow and fast
🥤 Learn full and empty
🌳 Explore old and new
🤏 Learn expressions such as a little and a lot
👨‍👧 Practise family vocabulary including brother and sister
✏️ 10 worksheets, providing progressive language-learning activities
🎨 Drawing and colouring activities to introduce and reinforce vocabulary
🔎 Word, picture and matching activities linked to opposites
🎲 A bilingual Opposite Owls board game for practising vocabulary through play 
🧩 Let’s go!, Challenging and Tricky! activities offering different levels of challenge 
💬 Sentence-building activities encouraging children to use vocabulary in context
🦉 Activities asking children to identify whether a sentence describes Hoot or Toot
🌲 A Where are the owls? activity exploring position and descriptive language
🔤 A word hunt and vocabulary challenges
🧠 Hoot’s Interesting Owl Facts, helping children learn more about real owls
🎨 A creative Opposite Owls project, where children make their own mobile using characters and objects from the story 
🇫🇷 Explore French grammar and sentence structure through the story, song and worksheets
👩‍🏫 A suggested 7-week lesson plan
📈 A progress card to help track learning
 
The workbook is designed to be used alongside the Les Puces videos and online resources, allowing children to hear spoken French, follow Hoot and Toot’s story, sing along with the Opposite Owls song and then reinforce what they have learned through the workbook activities. The suggested lesson plan combines the story, song, vocabulary, worksheets and project over seven weeks, with opportunities to repeat and revisit language as children become more confident. 
 
A complete Les Puces learning journey — combining story, song, vocabulary, opposites, worksheets, games, owl facts and a creative project to help children learn French naturally while exploring the wonderfully opposite world of Hoot and Toot.