Voici mes doigts...

This week's toddler session saw another counting song introduced.  I chose the song "Voici mes doigts" as this is one of Little Imp's favourites at the moment and I felt sure the other children would love it too.

If you don't know the song, here are the lyrics for you  with the actions in italics for each line - and the tune is a nice, simple one, it is the same as 3 blind mice.

Un, deux, trois,  (hold up 1, 2, 3 fingers)

Voici mes doigts.

quatre, cinq, six (hold up a 4^th, 5^th and 6^th finger)

J’en ai dix.  (hold up the rest of your fingers)

 

Je les fais danser (make your fingers dance)

Je les fais marcher (make your fingers walk)

Je les fais frapper (clap your hands)

Voici mes doigts! (Hold your fingers up and wiggle them)

 

 

Our craft activity this week obviously needed to involve our fingers - I was tempted by finger painting but decided in the end to buy some of these cute little finger puppet die cuts and let the children get busy decorating them.  They really could then make their fingers dance and walk like the song lyrics!

 

Here are our fantastic finger puppets to inspire you in creating your own:

 

 

Happy singing and crafting! :o)

 

Preschool session 2 - greetings and counting to 6

As promised, here is a quick run through of our preschool session activities for today.

We started with our "Bonjour" song and I was happily surprised that all of the children had remembered the song and sang along with enthusiasm and volume! :o)  a great start to only our second session!

Last week I had introduced the question "Comment t'appelles tu?" and was delighted that the children had again retained an understanding of the question and also could all form a response using "Je m'appelle".

The positives kept right on flowing as they all enthusiastically counted from un to six :o)  In fact, as they had all retained so much information from our first session I deviated from my lesson plan a bit here and decided to introduce ages, with the children all being preschool age we had covered the required numbers and although initially they were counting up "J'ai un, deux, trois ans" for example,  when I revisited the question towards the end of the session some were able to respond with a perfectly formed sentence. :o)

Last week I had introduced the song "5 brioches aux raisins" my version of 5 currant buns, and we sang this song again today the children taking it in turns to bring up a cent in exchange for their brioche.  Initially, although they remembered the format of the song and the activity, mine was  the only voice singing the verse. All the children joined in with the counting of the brioches at the start of each verse though and by two or three verses in I could hear little voices joining in with some of the verses too. 

To further reinforce the numbers, we played another game very similar to last weeks.  This time instead of a gingerbread man, we had an alien and he was surrounded by the numbers 1-6.  Each child took a turn at rolling the die and we all counted the dots together and then identified and crossed out or coloured over the correct number on the sheet.  The children enjoyed both the die rolling, number colouring elements and the chanting of numbers in French as we counted the dots.  We also counted objects in the room (up to a maximum of 6) which slowly introduces other child relevant vocabulary, namely toys, in French.

Another song about numbers "Voici mes doigts" was very briefly introduced this week and we will spend more time on that next week.  Tomorrow's toddler group will be focused on this song as well and will of course link a craft activity.

A few further ideas to reinforce numbers at home that you may want to try include counting toys into and out of the toy box; counting the ducks when feeding them; counting the number of red/blue/etc. cars passed on the way to school/the supermarket/etc; building towers of a certain number of bricks; nature scavenger hunts - find 1 twig, 2 leaves, 3 petals, etc. (also good for increasing vocabulary).

I hope you and your little ones have fun counting in French over the coming week! :o)

5 brioches aux raisins...

This week has been a busy one with not only school classes and our toddler group but also the launch of a preschool class.  This post will include the activities from both the toddler group as usual but also the preschool class and in the future I will try to make time for a separate post for each group.  As little Imp is growing and becoming more confident with her French, I think there is a definite opportunity to involve French in some more structured activities like those at the preschool classes and hopefully they may be useful to you too!

So, we will start with the toddler session.  Our new song this week was a song that Little Imp and I love in English - 5 currant buns in a baker's shop.  I have spent hours working on a translation which would (hopefully!!) make sense in French and still fit with the original tune.  I just think this is such a great song for practicing counting in English and I was certain it would be just as valuable in French if I could get it to work.  So, I was finally happy with the words a few weeks ago and have been practicing to commit it properly to memory before launching into it at toddlers this week (on a side note we also sang it at the preschool class this week too!)

The lyrics are as follows:

Cinq brioches aux raisins chez le boulanger,
rondes et grosses avec une cerise surmontée.
Un jour (Little Imp) avec un cent est arrivé(e)
acheté un brioche et l'a emporté.

Un, deux, trois, quatre brioches aux raisins chez le boulanger...

and so on until you have sold out!

I made some cardboard currant buns and cents before the session and laminated them.  The children then took it in turns to have a cent and to come up and buy a brioche during the song.  It was good fun and they all seemed to enjoy the tactile element of the song.

Our craft acitivity naturally had to involve making our own currant buns that we could take home to play with :o)

To make your own you will need:
white card,
brown felt pens/tissue/foam/felt etc
black felt pen/sticky dots
red materials for the cherries - we had buttons, pom poms, tissue paper, cellophane, shiny paper, crepe paper, ribbon etc to choose from
glue
scissors

If you are feeling arty you can draw your own currant bun shape - if not I found a lovely template here:
http://loonsandquines.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/flannel-friday-five-currant-buns-with.html


Decorate the buns as you wish, not forgetting to add your currants and a cherry.

I googled for an image of a euro cent and made up a sheet in word to print out so that the children could also cut out coins to take home with their brioches to play with.

Here are our fabulous brioches aux raisins (well the ones I managed to snap a picture of!) to give you some ideas:

 

The preschool class topic for this half-term is greetings and the numbers 1-6.  The first session we sang our bonjour song (the same one I use at the toddler session as this is simple to pick up and join in with)  we also met and said bonjour to Jacques my French puppet friend.  We all introduced ourselves to Jacques using Je m'appelle and then we did some counting.  We practiced counting a variety of objects to 6 in French and we played a game which I will share with you now.  We took turns to roll the die and count the dots in French - the children are too small to instantly recognise the number of dots on the die anyway and counting from un up each time helps to reinforce the numbers for them as well.  Once we had counted the dots the child that had rolled the die could colour or cross out that number on their gingerbread man sheet, giving them the opportunity to start associating the number deux with the digit 2 for example.  The children all seemed to enjoy the game and by the end were confidently chanting the numbers out as we counted the dots together :o)  Here is a link to the worksheet that I used for the activity in case you would like to try it at home:

http://kinzieskreations.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/gingerbread-dice-game.html

 

So, happy singing, crafting and counting this week!! Look out for the week 2 preschool class post coming later in the week! :o)

Je cherche les musiciens...

Firstly, apologies that there was no post last week - illness has once again got in the way in our house!  Hopefully though, everyone is now okay and the glimpses of sunshine over the last few days are a sign that spring is really on its way and the winter bugs will soon be history!
I did manage to run a toddler session last Friday, just forgot to take any photos of the craft and had no chance to update the blog post.  Anyway, we sang another song about printemps and made some springtime collage pictures and all had good fun!

This week, our new song had a familiar tune "I am the music man" and gave us the opportunity to have a dance!  I did come across a French song called "Je cherche les musiciens" on Mama Lisa's site but the tune was not one I recognised and I decided that with a bit of tweaking it could be made to fit to the tune that we all know!

So here are my adapted lyrics:

Je cherche les musiciens
De quel instrument jouez-vous?
Nous jouons du piano
Et nous sommes des musiciens
pia-pia-piano, piano, piano, pia-pia-piano, pia-piano

Verse 2 replaces the piano with de la trompette and trom-trom-trom-trom-trom-trompette, trom-trompette, trom-trompette, trom-trom-trom-trom-trom-trompette, trom-trom-trom-trompette

Verse 3 has des castagnettes and cla-cla-cla-cla-cla-cla-cla, cla-cla-cla, cla-cla-cla, cla-cla-cla-cla-cla-cla-cla, cla-cla-cla-cla-cla

And verse 4 des cymbalettes and ting-ting-ting-ting-ting-ting-ting, ting-ting-ting, ting-ting-ting, ting-ting-ting-ting-ting-ting-ting, ting-ting-ting-ting-ting

Of course, a song about instruments provided a great opportunity for us to make our own and so this week our craft activity involved making shakers.

To make your own, you will need:
an empty plastic bottle
dried pasta/peas/lentils
straws
pipecleaners
scissors
glue
collage materials and stickers
sticky tape

First let your toddler choose materials and stickers to decorate the outside of the bottle as they wish.

Secondly, let them practice their scissor skills snipping up straws and pipe cleaners.

Add the straw and pipe cleaner pieces and some dried pasta/peas/lentils to the bottle.

Put the lid on and secure with sticky tape - this will not be totally secure though and you should make sure that your toddler is not left unattended with their shaker in case the lid comes off and they have access to the little things inside!

One shaker, ready to make music with!

Here are our creations to inspire you!

 

Happy singing, crafting and music making! :o)