Preschool session 4 - counting, the hungry caterpillar and expressing preferences

This week I decided to introduce a story to my preschoolers, given that we are focusing on counting this half-term la chenille qui fait des trous (the very hungry caterpillar) seemed a good choice as it offers the opportunity to count the fruits that the caterpillar eats.  The fact that most, if not all, of the preschoolers would already be familiar with the story is also valuable as they can follow the story even if they don't understand every word of the text.

The story was very well received by the preschoolers, who joined in counting the fruits on each page and listened beautifully throughout.  It prompted a discussion, in English, of which fruits they like and dislike and so in a deviation from my planned session I decided to go with it and introduce "J'aime" (I like) and "Je n'aime pas" (I don't like).  I introduced the phrases with simple actions - thumbs up for J'aime and thumbs down for Je n'aime pas - and we had a quick practice altogether saying the phrases and showing the actions.  I then asked questions like "Qui aime les pommes?" (Who likes apples?) whilst holding up the book showing the fruit and the children responded altogther calling out their chosen phrase and showing the action.  Once we had done a few of these and they were getting confident at saying the phrases, I switched to asking individuals "Tu aimes les poires?" (Do you like pears?) etc and receiving individual responses.  Some children were reluctant to participate alone but most were enthusiastic in their responses.

To practice recalling the numbers 1-6 without counting up, I introduced a new game: "Où se cache le bébé pingouin?" (Where is the baby penguin hiding?).  I adapted this game from one I found on teacherspayteachers.  The original version includes more numbers and requires a pocket chart to play.  My simplified version involved printing out an A4 sheet of card on which were 6 numbered penguins and then printing out separately a baby penguin.  I then asked the children to "fermez les yeux" (close your eyes) whilst I stuck the baby penguin with blu tac behind one of the penguins.  I would then say "ouvrez les yeux" (open your eyes) and the children would put their hands up and take turns to guess where the baby penguin was by saying a number in French e.g. "cinq".  Once the penguin was found we would start the game over and I would hide him again.  The children really enjoyed this game and were all eager to participate.  Some were able to instantly recall the numbers in French and some counted up to reach the one they wanted to guess - I think with some more play they will soon all be instantly recalling these numbers.  And once we progress to more numbers it will be simple to adapt my word document to have different numbers on the penguins, and jumble the order up, etc.  Any parents of my preschoolers please drop me an email if you want me to forward you the word doc and you can print out a version to play at home. :o)

The rest of our session included singing 5 brioches aux raisins, voici mes doigts and deux petits oiseaux and practicing answering the questions "Comment t'appelles tu?", "Quel âge as-tu?" and “Ça va?”, which all the children are getting more confident in answering despite having had a week off last week. :o)

Have a good week practicing your French! :O)