Je cherche les musiciens...

Firstly, apologies that there was no post last week - illness has once again got in the way in our house!  Hopefully though, everyone is now okay and the glimpses of sunshine over the last few days are a sign that spring is really on its way and the winter bugs will soon be history!
I did manage to run a toddler session last Friday, just forgot to take any photos of the craft and had no chance to update the blog post.  Anyway, we sang another song about printemps and made some springtime collage pictures and all had good fun!

This week, our new song had a familiar tune "I am the music man" and gave us the opportunity to have a dance!  I did come across a French song called "Je cherche les musiciens" on Mama Lisa's site but the tune was not one I recognised and I decided that with a bit of tweaking it could be made to fit to the tune that we all know!

So here are my adapted lyrics:

Je cherche les musiciens
De quel instrument jouez-vous?
Nous jouons du piano
Et nous sommes des musiciens
pia-pia-piano, piano, piano, pia-pia-piano, pia-piano

Verse 2 replaces the piano with de la trompette and trom-trom-trom-trom-trom-trompette, trom-trompette, trom-trompette, trom-trom-trom-trom-trom-trompette, trom-trom-trom-trompette

Verse 3 has des castagnettes and cla-cla-cla-cla-cla-cla-cla, cla-cla-cla, cla-cla-cla, cla-cla-cla-cla-cla-cla-cla, cla-cla-cla-cla-cla

And verse 4 des cymbalettes and ting-ting-ting-ting-ting-ting-ting, ting-ting-ting, ting-ting-ting, ting-ting-ting-ting-ting-ting-ting, ting-ting-ting-ting-ting

Of course, a song about instruments provided a great opportunity for us to make our own and so this week our craft activity involved making shakers.

To make your own, you will need:
an empty plastic bottle
dried pasta/peas/lentils
straws
pipecleaners
scissors
glue
collage materials and stickers
sticky tape

First let your toddler choose materials and stickers to decorate the outside of the bottle as they wish.

Secondly, let them practice their scissor skills snipping up straws and pipe cleaners.

Add the straw and pipe cleaner pieces and some dried pasta/peas/lentils to the bottle.

Put the lid on and secure with sticky tape - this will not be totally secure though and you should make sure that your toddler is not left unattended with their shaker in case the lid comes off and they have access to the little things inside!

One shaker, ready to make music with!

Here are our creations to inspire you!

 

Happy singing, crafting and music making! :o)

Le printemps...

After an unintended break from our toddler group last week with a poorly child, we were back on full form this week and the sunshine peeping through a few times during the week and Spring almost officially here, I decided that we would not have a brand new song this week, rather we would bring back a firm favourite from last year.


The wonderful people at Sparklespeak (www.sparklespeak.co.uk) last Spring very kindly posted a free song on their blog called "Le printemps est arrivé" (Spring has arrived) and it was so popular with our toddlers that we sang it every week pretty much until enough was enough and around about October time I hid the song sheets away for a few months!


You can listen to the song for yourself here: http://sparklespeak.posterous.com/106728605

And here are the lyrics from the chorus and verse one to give you an idea:

Youpi! Youpi! Ça y est!
Yippee! Yippee! That's it!Le printemps est arrivé.
Spring has arrived. Youpi! Youpi! Ça y est!
Yippee! Yippee! That's it!Bonjour le soleil.
Hello sun.
Les fleurs poussent.
The flowers are growing.Et hop!
Hup!

1. Les fleurs poussent.
The flowers are growing.Et hop!
Hup!


Hmm... I don't seem to be able to change my font colour back to black now!!  Oops!

We like to dance around to this song as it has such a fab catchy tune.  We have also made up some actions as follows:
For "bonjour le soleil" we make a big circle with our arms to signify the sun.
For "les fleurs poussent" we start crouched on the ground in a ball and then grow up like a flower.  We repeat this action for "et hop".
For "les agneaux sautent" we jump around like like little lambs.  We repeat this for "et hop! et hop! et hop! et hop! et hop!"
For "les poussins naissent" we hide our faces and then hatch out and for "cui cui cui cui cui cui cui" we make a beak action with our hands

I took my craft inspiration this week from the first verse of the song: "Les fleurs poussent" the flowers are growing and decided that we would make our own flowers that grow before our eyes!

To make your own growing flower, you will need:
a paper cup
a pencil
green craft paper
a pipecleaner
squares or circles of coloured tissue paper
sticky tape
glue stick


1. First poke a hole in the bottom of the paper cup with your pencil, then set to one side.

2.Next draw around your toddler's hands on the green craft paper, depending on the size of your toddler's hands you will need two or three hands to wrap around the cup.  Little Imp is 2 years old and I needed 3 of her handprints.

3. Cut out the handprints and stick them onto the cup using your glue stick.

4. decide what colours you want to use for your flower and lay the tissue paper sheets on top of one another at a slight angle.

5. Use the pencil to poke a hole through the tissue paper sheets in the middle.  Then push the pipe cleaner through and wind it around itself to stop it coming back through the tissue paper.

6. Scrunch the tissue paper around the pipecleaner to make your flower.  You may chose to use the sticky tape to secure your flower to the pipecleaner as well - I did as I know that Little Imp will be a little more heavy handed than me when playing with her creation!

7. Now put the other end of the pipecleaner into the cup and through the hole.  Wind it around itself at the end to stop it coming back through the hole.

You now have a growing flower! :o)

Your flower can be hidden like this










And then when you push your pipecleaner up...

It grows into a beautiful flower!

ooo - the black text is back!!  How on earth did I do that?!?

Anyway, here are our beautiful growing flowers to inspire you!

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)

le doigt, le pouce, ça bouge...

Our new song this week involved lots and lots of actions and movement and was great fun for Mums and toddlers alike - it certainly warmed us all up on a cold January morning!

You are, I'm sure, all familiar with the popular children's song "One finger, one thumb, keep moving".  Well, I stumbled across this French version recently and knew it would be perfect for our toddler group.  Trying to think up a related craft was not so easy - but in the end I settled on life-sized people that we could label with the body parts mentioned in the song.  Little Imp's is now proudly displayed on the playroom wall giving us plenty of opportunity to reinforce the vocabulary every day.

The French version is sung to exactly the same tune as the English, although the lyrics are not a direct translation.  I will put the action directions in brackets after each line.

le doigt, le pouce,     (hold out first a finger and then a thumb)
ça bouge. (x3)           (roll arms)
un, deux, trois!           (clap hands three times)

le doigt, le pouce,     (hold out first a finger and then a thumb)
le bras, la jambe,       (touch arm, then leg)
ça bouge. (x3)           (roll arms)
un, deux, trois!           (clap hands three times)

le doigt, le pouce,     (hold out first a finger and then a thumb)
le bras, la jambe,       (touch arm, then leg)
une signe de la tête    (nod your head)
ça bouge. (x3)           (roll arms)
un, deux, trois!           (clap hands three times)

le doigt, le pouce,     (hold out first a finger and then a thumb)
le bras, la jambe,       (touch arm, then leg)
une signe de la tête    (nod your head)
debout, assis              (stand up, sit down)
ça bouge. (x3)           (roll arms)
un, deux, trois!           (clap hands three times)

To stick with the body parts theme, we also sang "tête, épaules, genoux, pieds" (head, shoulders, knees and toes) - you can find my blog post for this song with the lyrics and a little person craft under June 2012.  Another great body parts song with plenty of fun actions is "Savez vous planter les choux?" (Do you know how to plant cabbages?) and the blog post for this song including lyrics and a cabbage planting and plant pot decorating craft activity can be found under July 2012.

To make your own life size person, you will need:
a roll of paper (we used wallpaper lining paper as it is relatively inexpensive but thick and therefore reasonably robust!)
a pencil
things to decorate your person with - we used: felt, tissue paper, wrapping paper, ribbons, wool, crepe paper, pipe cleaners, feathers, doilies, shredded tissue paper, foam stickers, felt pens, crayons, glitter glue, fabric petals, etc.

First lay the paper out on the floor, get you little person to lie on the paper as still as they can and draw around them with the pencil. 
Next, get creative with your craft materials to create your life-sized person.  You could go for a self-portrait of your toddler or just let your imaginations run wild and make up your own person.

Here are our creations to give you some inspiration:

Happy singing and crafting! :o)

 

Nous chantons joyeux Noël...

Tonsillitis gone, voice back and so it was back to toddlers as usual this morning  :0)

Having missed last week's session I wanted to try and cover the songs I had planned for both weeks and so there are 3 new songs this week.  All of course with a Christmas theme, and a lovely Christmas tree craft to accompany them.


The first song up is my reinvention of the Christmas classic "We wish you a merry Christmas", " Nous chantons joyeux Noël".  Sung to the same tune but a bit more toddler friendly and action focused, the lyrics are as follows:

1. Nous chantons joyeux Noël,

Nous chantons joyeux Noël,

Nous chantons joyeux Noël,

Et une bonne année!

2. Nous frappons joyeux Noël,

Nous frappons joyeux Noël,

Nous frappons joyeux Noël,

Et une bonne année!

3. Nous sautons joyeux Noël,

Nous sautons joyeux Noël,

Nous sautons joyeux Noël,

Et une bonne année!

 

This got us all warmed up on this cold, wintery morning and was popular with all our toddlers.

 

Song number 2 is sung to the tune of "Frosty the snowman" and I'm afraid I can't take the credit for this one.  It is one that I stumbled across a long time ago and have used with children in school each Christmas since.  I'm afraid I have no idea where it came from and so can't credit the author.  It is a super little song though and I'm sure you will enjoy it as much as we did this morning.  The lyrics are as follows:

 

Je m’appelle Frosty.

Je suis un bonhomme de neige.

J’ai deux yeux noirs et une bouche

et un nez de carotte.

Je m’appelle Frosty.

Je suis un bonhomme de neige.

Je porte un écharpe verte, un chapeau noir

et je suis très content!

Finally, song number 3 is again one of my own.  I took Little Imp to a local Toddler group the week before last and we sang this lovely little song to the tune "I'm a little teapot":

I'm a little snowman

short and fat

Here's my scarf and here's my hat.

When the weather's snowing,

come and play.

Build a snowman everyday!

 

I thought it was a lovely idea and decided to try to come up with a French version for our group.  I'm sure it could be improved upon but here it is:

 

Je suis un bonhomme de neige

petit et gros,

Je porte une écharpe et je porte un chapeau.
Tous les jours quand il neige,
allons-vite,
Faisons un bonhomme de neige
tout de suite!

After our singing and dancing, we made some lovely Christmas trees to take home.  We had the templates of a tree and some decorations on card and after we decorated them and cut them out we could assemble them to make a 3d tree.  Here are the results of our efforts:

 

More Christmas songs and craft ideas next week and in the meantime we hope you have fun singing some not very authentic but catchy and simple French songs! :o)