Deux petits lapins...

This Friday was the last toddler session before Easter and so despite the cold and the snow it seemed only right that we should have a song/rhyme and a craft with an Easter theme.


The rhyme I chose is in no way an authentic French Easter rhyme but the language is so simple that toddlers and preschoolers can easily pick it up and join in - and as it is based on a familiar English rhyme the actions are no problem either!


I am sure that you are all familiar with the rhyme "Two little dickie birds", well let me introduce you to "Deux petit lapins" (two little bunny rabbits).  The tune and actions of the rhyme are exactly the same, but the words have been altered to fit an Easter theme.


Deux petits lapins
Assis près du lac.
Je m'appelle Jean
et Je m'appelle Jacques.
Au revoir Jean,
Au revoir Jacques.
Rebonjour et
Joyeuses Pâques!

To accompany our bunny rabbit rhyme, I chose a lovely Easter bunny mask craft that I came across on Pinterest.  To make your own, you will need:

A paper plate,
white paper,
pink paper,
black paper,
a pencil,
a craft lollipop stick,
scissors,
glue,
sticky tape

1.  Cut out the middle circle of your paper plate and discard.
2.  Cut out 2 bunny ears from your white paper, and two smaller bunny ear shapes from your pink paper.
3. Glue the pink shapes onto the white ears and set aside.
4. cut 6 thin strips of black paper and curl the ends with your scissors to make the whiskers.
5. Using the sticky tape, stick the ears to the back of the plate, the whiskers to the front and the lollipop stick to the bottom on the back to give your little one something to hold when wearing their mask.
And it really is as simple as that!

Here are our fabulous Easter bunny masks:

Happy singing and crafting and we will be back in a fortnight! :o)

 

Joyeuses Pâques!



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)





Petit escargot...

This week I decided to introduce our toddlers to a French "jeux de doigts" (finger rhyme) that Little Imp and I love singing "petit escargot" (little snail).

For those of you that are not familiar with this rhyme, the words are as follows, and in brackets are the actions for each line.  Hopefully they will make sense!  If not there are several examples on you tube where you can watch someone acting out the rhyme!

 

petit escargot (make a snail head with your hand by using your little finger and index finger as the horns and curling your other fingers and thumb into a fist)

porte sur son dos (point to your back)
sa maisonette (make a roof shape with your arms with fingers touching in a point)
Aussitôt qu'il pleut (use your fingers to indicate rain)
Il était heureux (draw a smile on your face)
Il sort sa tête (make a snail head again and make it peep out from under your other hand arched over the top)

Our craft this week was to make a paper plate snail. To create your own, you will need:

a paper plate (for the shell)
card or foam (for the body)
a pipecleaner (for the horns)
a googly eye or eye sticker
any materials you have suitable for collage - tissue paper, paper, felt, fabric, ribbon, foam, cupcake cases, doilies, coloured cellophane, wool, etc.
glue stick and pva glue
sticky tape
glitter glue (optional)

First, you create your paper plate shell by cutting or ripping little pieces of your assorted materials and sticking them onto the paper plate.  With an older preschooler you can encourage them to try to create a spiral pattern - maybe draw one on to the plate for them to follow.  With a younger toddler just let them go nuts with the glue - you can help them add a spiral with glitter glue or a felt tip later.

Once you shell is complete set it aside for the glue to dry and you can create your snail's body.  We used craft foam for these but card would work just as well.  Either cut out free hand or draw onto the foam first.

Cut 2 lengths off the pipe cleaner for the horns and attach to the back of the snails head with sticky tape.

Glue the shell and googly eye to the snail's body and set aside to dry.

Here are our amazing snails:

 

Happy singing and crafting! :o)