Je sais compter week 6/ Halloween week 1 - 5 petites citrouilles

I decided to round off our je sais compter theme by introducing a new rhyme which also brought us into our new theme of Halloween, the rhyme 5 little pumpkins seemed a perfect choice. :0)

For those of you unfamiliar with the rhyme, the lyrics in English are as follows:

5 little pumpkins sitting on a gate,

The first one said "my my it's getting late"

The second one said "there are witches in the air"

The third one said "humph, I don't care!"

The fourth one said "let's run and run and run"

The fifth one said "I'm ready for some fun!"

Then ooooooooooo went the wind,

And out went the light

And 5 little pumpkins rolled right out of sight.

A fab rhyme for little ones with plenty of options for actions etc.

I came across a French version online last year and the words are as follows:

5 petites citrouilles étaient assises sur une grille,

La première a dit: "Ooo il se fait tard les filles"

La deuxième a dit "il y a des sorcières dans l'air"

La troisième a dit "pffutt, je ne rien a faire"

La quatrième a dit "courons, courons, courons vite"

La cinquième a dit "je suis prêt pour la suite"

Le vent a fait ooooooooo

Et pfuit la lumière a disparu

Et les 5 petites citrouilles not roulé hors de la vue.

The children enjoyed joining in with the actions and we then made our own collage pictures to illustrate the rhyme.

Happy singing and crafting! :0)

Je sais compter - week 5 - number cupcakes

For our 5th week on the topic of je sais compter, it had been requested by one of our toddlers that we have an edible craft and so we had lots of fun making (and eating) number cupcakes.

The little ones rolled out sugarpaste in a variety of colours and used the number cutters to cut out their chosen numbers before placing them on to their cupcakes.  

Here are the ones I was quick enough to photograph before they were gobbled up!! :0)

Happy singing and crafting! :0)

Je sais compter - week 4 - 5 ouistitis/5 naughty monkeys

For the fourth week of our counting theme, our craft focused on the action rhyme "5 ouistitis" or as we know it in English "5 naughty monkeys".  Ouistiti doesn't translate as naughty monkey, rather a ouistiti is a marmoset monkey - I have to admit though from having observed them closely at the zoo with Little Imp this summer they do have a rather cheeky air about them and seem to be the perfect choice for this rhyme!! :0)

If you would like the lyrics to this rhyme, please see my earlier blog post on it :0)

For our craft we made some naughty monkeys and a bed for them to jump on. To make your own, you will need:

A paper plate (or a piece of card)

Craft foam

Felt/fabric scraps, ribbon etc

Craft lollipop sticks 

Glitter (what toddler craft doesn't need glitter!)

Glue

Scissors

Felt pens

And maybe some little monkey templates - I printed some off on card so that there was a choice to draw freehand or use a template to draw around or simply to decorate the printed monkeys.

First you need to cut out the bed shape from the paper plate or piece of card.

Add a pillow and quilt from fabrics or your choice.  You then need to cut 5 small slots along the middle of the bed, big enough for the lolly sticks to go through.

Create your monkeys out of foam or card and decorate as you wish.  Glue the monkeys onto lollipop sticks.

Slide the sticks into the slits you cut in the bed and now by sliding the lolly sticks up and down you can make your monkeys jump up and down on the bed, and even fall out if you wish to act out the rhyme :0)

Happy singing and crafting! :0)

Je sais compter - week 3 - Quel âge as-tu?

For our third counting session I decided to teach the children how to give their age in French, so after our singing we had a little practice at saying "j'ai trois ans" or "j'ai deux ans" together before we started our craft.

As a prompt for practicing the phrase at home, we made a picture with a birthday cake and the correct number of candles for each child, the grown ups then wrote the phrase onto the pictures (little imp wrote her own phrase 😃 )

Happy singing and crafting! :0)

Je sais compter - week 2 - un éléphant se balançait...

The inspiration for our craft on the second week of our "je sais compter" theme came from the song "un éléphant se balançait".

This song tells the story of 5 elephants who one after another balance on a spider's web which they find a fun game until suddenly it breaks and they all fall down.  As you can imagine our little ones have great fun pretending to be elephants and falling down when the web breaks.

We made our own spiders' webs by threading wool around paper plates in a random pattern.

We then coloured and glittered 5 little elephants, which I had printed on card before the session, and stuck these onto our spiders' webs.  

Happy singing and crafting! :0)

Je sais compter week 1 - 5 currant buns / 5 brioches aux raisins

Our first topic of the new term is "Je sais compter" (I can count) and all of our songs for the next few weeks involve numbers and counting.

The songs we are singing are: cinq brioches aux raisins (5 currant buns), il étaient 5 dans le lit (5 in the bed), 5 éléphants se balançait (5 elephants went out to play), voici mes doigts, 5 petits pois (5 little peas) and 5 ouistitis (5 naughty monkeys).  Many of these have featured before on the blog so if you want the lyrics or some craft ideas please browse back through the posts :0)

Our first number related craft is linked to the 5 brioches aux raisins song.  We made 5 currant buns out of card/foam/felt etc and used sticker dots to put currants on.  We then attached them to a paper plate using Velcro so that they can be removed and replaced allowing the children to play with their craft whilst they sing the song :0)

Some fabulous interactive creations there I'm sure you'll agree!! 

Happy singing and crafting! :0)

La surprise de Handa

Our final summer holiday session was centered around the lovely story of "Handa's surprise" by Eileen Browne.  Little Imp loves this story in both the original English version and the French translation "La surprise de Handa".

If you are not familiar with the story it is about a little girl Handa who sets off with a basket full of fruit to take a surprise to her friend.  Along the walk the fruit from her basket is taken by various animals without Handa realising and her basket gets filled with falling tangerines.  When Handa reaches Akeyo's village, Akeyo is thrilled with the surprise and Handa is equally surprised at her baskets contents.

The story is a great way to learn some fruit and animal vocabulary.  Those that feature in the story are:

Le singe - monkey

L'autruche - ostrich

Le zèbre - zebra

La girafe - giraffe

L'antelope - antelope

L'éléphant - elephant

Le perroquet - parrot

Le chèvre - goat

La banane - banana

Le goyave - guava

L'orange - orange

L'ananas - pineapple

La mangue - mango

L'avocat - avocado

Le fruit de la passion - passion fruit

To accompany the story, we made our own masks of some of the animals in the story:

Happy singing and crafting :0)

 

La chenille qui fait des trous

Our second story book based session was focused around the story of "la chenille qui fait des trous" (the caterpillar that made holes or as we know it "the very hungry caterpillar" by Eric Carle.

We had fun listening to the story and counting the different fruits and the holes.

We also had a go at the action rhyme la petite chenille:

La petite chenille se promène dans le jardin (hold your left arm horizontal and with your right index finger make a caterpillar crawling along your arm)

Et rencontre une arbre (put your arm vertical and spread your palm out to make a tree)

Elle monte l'arbre (make your little caterpillar climb the tree)

Et dans ses branches elle fabrique un cocon (make a fist with you right hand on your spread palm)

Un jour passe, et puis une nuit (keep your tree arm and with your other arm wave infront of the tree one way for day and back again for night) 

Un jour passe et puis une nuit (as above)

Un jour passe et puis une nuit (as above)

Et la petite chenille se transforme en papillon (make a cocoon with your fist again and then make both your hands into a butterfly by spreading your palms and crossing your thumbs.  Make your papillon fly off).

For our craft we painted our very own chenille using paints, balloons, fingers and brushes and stuck on some eye stickers to complete the look:

Some of the children also had a go at making a papillon (butterfly) by painting on one half of their paper and folding the other side over to print a symmetrical pattern for their butterflies:

Lots of messy fun was had and I'm sure you will agree the final paintings are fabulous!! 

Happy singing and crafting! :0)