Promenons nous dans les bois...

This morning, our toddlers went for a walk in the woods (well an imaginary walk in the woods) - but we had to keep an eye out for the big bad wolf!

Today's new song is called "Promenons nous dans les bois" (We are walking in the woods).  It is a very repetitive song - the refrain is the longest part and each verse consists of no more than a sentence in French.

First, I will set the scene - the refrain talks about how we are walking in the woods which is fine as the wolf is not there.  If he was he would eat us, but because he is not he won't!  The refrain finishes by asking the wolf 3 questions:

Loup y'est-tu?  Are you there wolf?

M'entends tu?  Can you hear me?

Que fais-tu?  What are you doing?

The verses are the wolf's response to the last question, e.g. Je mets ma chemise (I'm putting on my shirt).  Each verse follows the same pattern, just the item of clothing changes, until finally, in the last verse, he says "me voilà!"  Here I am!

Although a long song, there are 7 verses in total, it is fairly easy to pick up because of the repetition and has the added advantage of introducing items of clothing.  Of course, you could change the verses to include different items of clothing if you wanted too.

The song goes like this:

Promenons nous dans les bois,

pendant que le loup n’y est pas

si le loup y était, il nous mangerai

mais comme il n’y est pas

il nous mangera pas!

Loup y-es-tu?

M’entends tu?

Que fais tu?

1.           Je mets ma culotte!

2.           Je mets mon pantalon!

3.           Je mets ma chemise!

4.           Je mets mes chausettes!

5.           Je mets mes chaussures!

6.           Je mets mon manteau!

7.           Me voilà!

If you are unsure of the tune, then here is a link to a version that you can listen to online and also download for free!:

http://enfants.stephyprod.com/musique-gratuite-pour-enfants/musique-gratuite-pour-enfants-musique-mp3-gratuite-mp3-pour-enfants-promenons-nous-dans-bois.htm

For our craft activity today, we created a big picture to illustrate the song. 

We started with a big piece of paper on the wall, blank apart from a wolf:

We then all created our own trees to turn this big blank page into a forest/woods scene.  Here are some pictures of the fantastic trees our little ones created  and finally the end result of all their creatitivity and hard work:

Happy singing and crafting - and I hope the wolf stays away!! ;o)