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)