Joyeux anniversaire!!

This week marks the first birthday of les petites étoiles toddler group!! :o)


To celebrate this momentous day, our session this week was a little different to usual.  We didn't introduce a new song to the mix, instead we had requests and sang some of our favourites from over the last year.


It was so lovely to see these little toddlers and preschoolers singing at the tops of their voices in beautiful French and to think back to a year ago when none of them had really been introduced to much, if any, French at all!  And as well as becoming great little singers - they have all become great little friends as well!!  Who could have asked for more!


As there was no new song this week, and as it was a party of sorts, our craft activity consisted of decorating birthday cupcakes and then eating them!! Miam miam!!


Here are our wonderful creations - well the ones I managed to snap before they were gobbled up!! :o)

 

If you would like the words to happy birthday in French, here they are (the tune is the same as in English):

 

Joyeux anniversaire

Joyeux anniversare

Joyeux anniversaire *NAME*

Joyeux anniversaire

 

Quel âge as-tu?

Quel âge as-tu?

Quel âge as-tu *NAME*?

Quel âge as-tu?

 

Aujourd'hui j'ai (e.g. trois) ans

Aujourd'hui j'ai (e.g. trois) ans

C'est mon anniversaire

Aujourd'hui j'ai (e.g. trois) ans

 

Happy singing, celebrating and eating of cake!! :O)

Il était un petit navire...

A very busy week at Toddlers this week with those older siblings on half term holidays joining in as well! 


Sticking with the transport theme, I decided this week to introduce the classic French song "Il était un petit navire" (There was a little ship).  Now this is a long song, too long for our toddlers really and so I chose to use the version from the Skoldo CD.  This is the scheme I use with my primary classes and the songs are lovely, a reasonable speed for non-natives to sing along with and a reasonable length for children to learn and join in with.  To get hold of your own copy, visit the Skoldo website here: www.skoldo.com  Alternatively, the full version is available to read and listen to on Mama Lisa's website here: http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=139&c=22

The lyrics for the first verse go like this:

Il était un petit navire
Il était un petit navire
Qui n'avait ja-ja-jamais navigué
Qui n'avait ja-ja-jamais navigué
Ohé Ohé!


In English this would be:

There was a little ship
There was a little ship
That had never sailed
That had never sailed
Ahoy Ahoy!

To accompany our new song, our craft this week was naturally boat related.  When googling for ideas last week, I came across this fantastic rowing boat craft that actually stands up - and it's really simple to make as well!  I found it here: http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/17489/paper-crafts-make-a-boat

To make your own rowing boat you will need:
one piece thin card
3 wooden lollipop sticks
scissors
a pencil
glue
things from the craft box to decorate your boat and person e.g. felt, doilies, cupcake cases, stickers, googly eyes, felt pens, glitter glue, fabric, ribbons, wool, etc
sellotape

Folding the card is the most complicated part of the construction and is definitely best not left to your toddler!!  Even the older children needed a bit of advice on this.

1. Fold your card in half - like in picture 1 below

2. Now fold each side back on itself to create an "m" fold like picture 2 below.  This is the genius part of the whole craft that makes it actually stand my itself! :o)

3. Mark the shape of the sides of your boat and then cut along them, like in picture 3.

4. You can then secure the sides of your boat.  The link I found as you can see from the picture below used a stapler but we preferred to use sellotape with some of the children being only 1.

5. Finally cut a small slit in each side of your boat for your lollipop oars.

Now your boat is constructed, you can hand over to your toddler to finish the job of decorating it!

Once the boat is decorated, use the remaining lollipop stick to make a person for your boat.  I actually bought some little wooden people but a lolly stick would be fine.

Stick your person into the boat and pop your oars through and voilà - one self-standing rowing boat!

Here are our amazing boats to give you some inspiration for your own:

 

Happy singing and crafting! :o)

French for Toddlers is now on Pinterest!!

I have finally the last couple of days found time to join up to Pinterest and to start creating some boards - it is strangely addictive I am finding and I can see myself going crazy pinning things everywhere I go!!

The aim is to collect together craft ideas around themes in French, for example le corps or le transport - or relating to a particular story, song or rhyme e.g. La chenille qui fait des trous.

I hope that those of you who are regular readers of my blog and who love crafting with their little ones will find some good inspiration here - it is so difficult for me to settle on one craft each week when there are often dozens that I love!

Anyway, take a look and feel free to follow me!

You can find me here: http://pinterest.com/funwithfrench/

Emma :o)

Le petit train fait...

Our theme this week was transport and try as I might I could not find a song that covered several forms of transport.  We have previously sung "les roues du bus" and I began to wonder if it was possible to alter the words to fit other modes of transport...  It was and the song "Le petit train fait" was born!

So, the tune is the wheels on the bus and the first verse goes like this:

Le petit tran fait chou chou chou
chou chou chou
chou chou chou
Le petit train fait chou chou chou
pour aller à Bottesford.

Obviously I chose Bottesford as that is where our Toddler group takes place but you can replace it with the town you live in or "la maison" or "la plage", etc. as you wish.

I wanted the song to include a variety of modes of transport but didn't want it so long that the toddlers became bored of it so i decided just to add 3 more verses.  I added "la petite voiture fait vroom, vroom, vroom" (car), "le petit avion fait neeyaam"(aeroplane) and "la petite fusée fait woooosh" (rocket).  I also tried this with my primary school groups and they then added more verses themselves making up sounds for ambulances, lorries, motorbikes, tractors etc.  Lots of fun!!

Our craft then needed to include a variety of transport in order to cover the vocabulary in the song and also the possibility of introducing some more at home during the week.  I decided on a town scene with movable transport to make the craft more fun and interactive. 

To make your own transport town scene, you will need:
a3 sheet of craft paper or thin card
black paper/foam/felt for the road
blue paper/foam/felt for the sea/lake/pond
green paper/foam/felt for grass/fields/bushes
paper to make the buildings
transport foam stickers - I got mine from yellow moon, they have updated them now though and they are even more colourful and bright and not expensive for the amount you get in the bag.  Here is a link if you want it: http://www.yellowmoon.org.uk/product-Transport-Foam-Stickers-A067.htm
Alternatively, you could make your own transport using the paper, card, foam etc in your craft box.
craft lollipop sticks
felt pens, crayons, glitter glues, etc

First design your background scene.  Then cut slits in the roads etc where your transport will go, allow them some room to move along the road/track but don't cut to near to the edges of the paper as this makes your picture very unstable and difficult to play with. 

Stick your transport onto your lollipop sticks and pop them through the appropriate slits in the picture.

Voilà!  A perfect interactive transport picture! :o)

Here are our wonderful creations to give you some inspiration for your own project:

 

 

Don't forget to check out the book review page for my transport themed recommendations!

 

Happy singing and crafting! :o)

 

 

V’là le bon vent...

A change in the weather this week with the end of the snow but the appearance of very strong winds which has made Little Imp and I feel like we were going to take-off more than once!  It felt only right then that we should stick with the weather theme from last week and sing this week about the wind.

V’là le bon vent, is a traditional French children's song and Little Imp and I love it.  We have it on CD and it is one we often sing along to in the car - well we join in with the chorus anyway!  There are many verses and they are not very toddler friendly really so I decided that we would just focus on the chorus in the toddler session.  The lyrics in their entirity can be found on the momes website here though for anyone wants to give the whole song a try: http://www.momes.net/comptines/vent/lbon-vent.html

And if you are unsure of the tune, you can find it on Mama Lisa's website here: http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=3177&c=22

 

The chorus goes like this:

V’là le bon vent,

V’là le joli vent,

V’là le bon vent,

M’amie m’appelle.

V’là le bon vent,

V’là le joli vent,

V’là le bon vent,

M’amie m’attend.

 

A rough translation:

Here comes the good wind,

Here comes the pretty wind,

Here comes the good wind,

My love is calling me.

Here comes the good wind,

Here comes the pretty wind,

Here comes the good wind,

My love is waiting for me.

 

Our craft this week was to make a kite - not a real one that would fly but one we could display on the wall or use as a bookmark, etc.

 

To make your own you will need:

coloured card, wool or string, ribbons, colours, stickers, glitter, etc for decoration.

 

To make your kite:

Cut a kite shape from your card,

Stick a length of wool on to the back of the card,

decorate your kite using your colours, glitter, stickers etc,

Finally tie bows onto the wool using the ribbons.

 

Once we had made our kites we sang the song again this time making our kites fly around the singing circle :o)

 

Here are our fantastic kites for you to enjoy:

 

 

Happy singing and crafting! :o)