Sous la mer week 1 - jellyfish painting

Friday saw the start of our latest theme "sous la mer" (under the sea).  Our songs for this include: la baleine, la mer  - not sure where I came across this one at some point over the years teaching though it has become part of my repertoire.  It is sung to the tune of "sur le pont d'Avignon" but covers sea creatures and their actions.  I will try to find a name at least and then I can acknowledge it properly next week! - les petits poissons, tourne tourne petit moulin (there is a fish in it!), rame rame donc (row your boat) and il tourne en rond notre beau bateau. You can find the lyrics to most of these on previous posts.  And here are the words for la baleine and il tourne en rond:

C'est la baleine qui va, qui vire

Qui fait le tour des navires

Oh la baleine, la baleine

Oh la baleine, la baleine

Me croque un doigt

CROC!

Aie, Aie, Aie, Aie, Aie!

X5 - one verse for each finger eaten!

Il tourne en rond notre beau bateau,

Il tourne en rond trois fois,

Il tourne en rond notre beau bateau,

Il tombe au fonde de l'eau

We do this a bit like ring o' roses, holding hands in a circle and then falling to the ground on the last line.

For our craft this week we had the paints out again and as it was the school holidays here still I decided we might as well get really messy :0)

We made jellyfish (la méduse) pictures.  To make your own you will need:

A large piece of paper,

Bubble wrap,

Blue and green paint and any other colours you choose

Googly eye stickers or googly eyes

A balloon (partially inflated)

First, cover the piece of bubble wrap with blue and green paint.

Then press your paper onto the bubble wrap to print the sea pattern background like this 

You then paint your toddlers hand in their chosen colour and print a handprint (or as many as you want jellyfish) onto the paper.

Dip the balloon into the paint and use it to print the body of the jelly fish over the hand print and add googly eyes

Here are our fabulous jellyfish paintings to give you some inspiration:

Happy singing and crafting! :0)

Joyeuses Pâques week 2 - Easter bunny biscuits

For our second Easter themed week we decorated Easter bunny biscuits.  I have to admit that I cheated and bought ready made bunny gingerbread biscuits from the local supermarket as I just ran out of time to bake any but the children didn't seem to mind! :0)

They were more than happy to set to work with various shades of icing, sprinkles and mini smarties to create these delicious masterpieces!!

Wishing you all a Joyeuses Pâques and hoping that the Easter Bunny or the cloches de Pâques leave plenty of chocolate eggs in your gardens on Sunday! 

Emma and Little Imp :0)

Joyeuses Pâques week 1 - Pom Pom painting

Last week was the first of our two Easter themed weeks.  The songs and rhymes I chose for this mini topic were: poussin poussinet, lapin pistache, saute petit lapin (a French version of sleepy bunnies), deux petits lapins (an Easter version of 2 petits oiseaux), le printemps and lapin de pâques (like nounours nounours but an Easter bunny version I made up).

For our craft I took my inspiration from Pinterest and decided we would paint Easter egg pictures with pom-poms.

First we drew the outline of the eggs onto craft paper, the children then had a variety of different coloured paints and different sized pom-poms to use for their painting.  They used pegs to pick up the pom-poms and dip them in the paint and then printed onto the paper with them.  Once dry you can either display as they are or cut out the eggs and glue onto Easter cards.

Here are some of our eggs, sadly I got distracted and didn't manage to photograph them all.

Happy singing and crafting! :0)

La fête des mamans - hand holding flowers

Last Sunday was Mothers' Day here in the UK and although I know it is not until May in France, I decided we needed to mark the occasion last Friday - maybe we will celebrate again in May!! :0)

We sang the farmyard songs that have formed our theme for the last few weeks and I added a simple mothers' day song too.  It is the same one that I have used the last 2 years with the toddler group, simply because it is not too difficult for them to sing along to even though we just have it one week a year.

The song is called "comptine des bisous pour maman" (kisses for mummy) and the lyrics are as follows and the tune is the same as ah vous dirais je maman of twinkle twinkle little star.

Sur un tissu très très doux 

Je dessine, Je dessine,

Sur un tissu très très doux,

Je dessine des bisous.

Pour la fête de maman,

Je dessine, je dessine,

Pour la fête des mamans

Je dessine en m'appliquant.

Roughly translated that would be:

On a very soft piece of material,

I am drawing, I am drawing,

On a very soft piece of material

I am drawing kisses.

For mummy's day,

I am drawing, I am drawing,

For mummies' day

I am drawing and doing my best.

If you search on YouTube you can listen to various versions of it.

To accompany our song, we made a special mothers' day craft of a 3d hand holding a bunch of flowers.

To make your own you will need:

Card

Coloured paper

Pipe cleaners or straws (for the stems)

A selection of materials for the flowers themselves, we had: cupcake cases, tissue paper, doilies, foam shapes, felt shapes, buttons, pom-poms, glitter glue, ribbon, etc

First, draw around your toddler's hand and lower arm on the coloured paper.  Cut out and glue the arm and palm to the card. DO NOT stick the fingers down.

Then let your toddler design their flowers on the card.

Once completed, bend the fingers over the flower stems and glue down onto the palm.

Here are our creations to give you some inspiration:

Happy singing and crafting! :0)