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)