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)