This unit was created as a result of a summer institute sponsored by the National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. The Center's goal is to improve student learning of foreign languages in kindergarten through twelfth grade (K-12). To this end, the Center provides professional support for foreign language educators through ongoing research projects, publications, and national summer institutes. In the summer of 1996, the Center offered the Culture and Children's Literature institute of France and Mexico. Forty participants (20 teachers of French and 20 of Spanish) were selected from applicants across the nation to participate in the 10 day institute. A key component of this institute was small group collaboration in the development of thematic units integrating language, culture, and content. Each small group selected a work of children's literature and created a unit. During the fall of 1996, the teachers piloted their units in their own classrooms after which final revisions were made. This unit was based on the children's book, "Crictor". This unit links language, content, and culture as it introduces students to an entertaining story about boa constrictors and life in French villages of the past. Lessons integrate "comptines", poems, and rap to offer students engaging activities that focus on language and culture.