Preschool session 9 - les animaux et les couleurs

Time seems to be flying by so quickly at the moment, that end of summer term round of cello concerts, sports days, dance shows... I can't believe how far behind I am with keeping the blog updated!  I will give a quick overview of what we did in the Preschool groups last week here, then update with last week's toddler session.  Then I will try to get back on track this weekend with a proper post about this week's preschool session which will be the final one before the summer break.

So, last week we were continuing with our theme of animals and colours based around the story ours brun, dis-moi.  We sang the songs we have been learning over the last few weeks - "Dans la ferme de Macdonald", "Tourne tourne petit moulin", "Deux petits oiseaux", "Peux tu marcher comme un canard" and "Baa baa mouton noir".  Again, we expanded on Baa Baa by adding extra verses as the children chose different colours for the sheep to be.

We played a game with the coloured beanbags, throwing and catching and calling out the colours - the children are all gaining in confidence in naming the colours in French and are really good at recognising the French names if I call for "vert" for example the child with the green beanbag will throw it to me, more often than not accompanied by the other children shouting "A. has it!"

I introduced a new game in this session as well which proved a big big hit - so popular in fact that we had to play it twice and had there been more time the children would have loved to play it again, I have promised we will play it at this week's session :o)  The game is one I am sure you are familiar with - matching pairs.  I made some cards of the animals in the story, so a brown bear, yellow duck, etc.  I then cut these in half so that the children have to find the matching heads and tails of the animals.  We sat in a circle and each child took it in turns to turn two cards over - if the cards matched they got to keep them, if not they had to turn them back over.  However, to get us practicing the French vocabulary they also had to name either the colours they had turned over or the animals.  On our second game, they had a go at naming both.  Such a simple game and one that could easily be adapted to introduce French vocabulary with any matching pairs game I'm sure - Little Imp has a game that matches the animal to it's baby and this is great fun to play in French or English.

I read the children a new story about animals, the wonderful "Cher Zoo" (Dear Zoo) by Rod Campbell.  The children enjoyed the story and I was thrilled that some of them were able to join in with "grenouille" (frog) and all were able to join in with "chien" (dog) - the animals that we have come across in Ours brun over the past few weeks.  As well as listening to the story, we also spoke about the various colours of the animals and the boxes and crates that they are hiding under.  You can find my review of this book here: http://www.frenchfortoddlers.blogspot.co.uk/p/book-reviews.html 
And an idea for a dear zoo craft activity here: http://www.frenchfortoddlers.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/cher-zoo.html

The next session will be the final one on this topic and the final one before the summer break.  The children will all be bringing home their end of topic certificates and also their progress reports. 

Wishing you a fun week of French! :o)

Preschool session 6 - les animaux et les couleurs

After a week off for half-term, I was interested to see how much my little pre-schoolers would have remembered of what we had learnt over our first 5 sessions.  I was amazed to find them not only able to say "bonjour" and sing our bonjour song with their usual gusto but also easily able to recall numbers to 6, how to introduce themselves, say how they are, AND sing all the songs and rhymes we have been learning!  They really are little superstars and it just goes to show what even a little foreign language exposure a week at such a young age can do, their little brains just soak it all up - fantastic!

So, for this half-term we will of course continue to reinforce the work we did over the first few sessions but our new topics are going to be animals and colours and they are going to be mainly focused around Eric Carle's "Ours brun, dis-moi..."  this seemed an obvious choice of story for this topic.  If you are unfamiliar with it check out my blog post of a couple of week's ago about the story.

I read the story to the children in English and French and decided for the first session to focus on just 4 animal words in depth.  I chose l'ours (the bear), le mouton (the sheep), le chien (the dog) and le chat (the cat).  I chose these particular 4 for the following reasons - the bear because this is the title and starting point of the story; the sheep because this allowed me to introduce the song baa baa mouton noir and the colour noir (black); and le chien and le chat as I figured several of the children would have one of these as a pet and so would be interested to learn their names in French.

We practiced saying the names of these 4 animals and then we played 2 games with our puppet Jacques.  In the first game, Jacques tried to remember the names of the animals, if he got them right the children would put their thumbs up and say "oui", if he got it wrong they would put their thumbs down and tell him the correct name of the animal.  In the second game, I asked the children to "fermez les yeux" (close their eyes) and Jaques hid one of the animals - the children had to say in French which animal was missing when they opened their eyes.  The children all responded well to these games and they provided plenty of oral and listening practice of the new words.

We then sang baa baa black sheep in English before I introduced the French version.  For those who are unfamiliar with the lyrics, they are as follows:

Baa baa mouton noir
As-tu de la laine?
Oui, monsieur, oui, monsieur,
trois poches pleines.
Une pour mon maître,
Une pour Madame,
Et une pour les enfants
qui jouent au ra-ta-tam.

I then asked the children to choose another colour from the story, they chose rouge and so we sang "baa baa mouton rouge" instead!  This proved a popular addition and so I intend to add to this over the next few weeks by adding additional verses including a variety of colours.

I have decided that for this topic each of the children will make a mini book.  I have made them all a front cover entitled "Je vois..."  and this week gave each of them page one which has a picture of a sheep and the line "un mouton noir" ready for them to colour in black.  We will add a page or two each week and then once complete it can be stapled together as a little book to read together at home and reinforce the language.

As always, we rounded off our session by singing au revoir to each other.

Animal vocabulary can be reinforced at home if playing with toy animals, or looking at picture books with animals in.  Also a day trip to the zoo or just to the park to feed the ducks can provide opportunities.

Colours can be practiced even more easily - when putting bricks or mega blocks away, when getting dressed, when out and about, in the car - my children love to take a colour or two each and when they see a car in one of their colours they have to shout out it's colour name.

Hope you have a fun week of colours and animals! :o)

ours brun, dis-moi...

This week as a change from a new song, I decided that we would once again have a story with a related craft.  I have recently purchased Eric Carle's "Ours brun dis-moi" (Brown bear, Brown bear) and it has already become a firm favourite with Little Imp.  It is such a good story to read in a foreign language to your little one not only because it is a story that they are probably very familiar with in English, but because the French is fairly simple and very repetitive and as with all Eric Carle books the pictures are colourful and engaging. If you do not have a copy of the story lots of libraries have foreign language children's book now so that may be worth a look.  I bought my copy from little linguist but it is also available from amazon and waterstones - and I have often picked up good condition French books second hand on ebay for a fraction of the new price!  Alternatively, here is a link to a slideshare of the story online: http://www.slideshare.net/smt786/our-brun-dismoi?ref=http://pinterest.com/pin/527132331355014382/


To accompany the story I had lots of ideas for craft activities - in fact if you check out my "ours brun" pinterest board you will see just how many I have come across that I think are worth a try at some point!  In the end, however, I decided to exploit the obvious opportunities which the book offers to introduce colours and animals.

We haven't had the paints out in our craft time for a while and I have a whole load of animal sponges and stencils, so this too seemed like a good starting point.

Each of our toddlers chose to paint whichever animals they wanted from the selection available and using whichever colours they wanted from the available paints.  We then annotated these for them to describe what animals they could see in their picture, along the lines of the book.

So, for example, on the top of Little Imp's picture I wrote out:
"Little Imp, dis-moi ce que tu vois?" (Little Imp tell me what do you see?) followed by "Je vois..."  (I see...) and then I labelled each of her animal pictures accordingly e.g. un chat rouge (a red cat) etc.  Her painting is now proudly displayed on the playroom wall not only providing lovely decoration but also giving us the opportunity to practice some French when we are playing in there and look at it.  I tend to do this with all her artwork as it provides lots of different vocabulary opportunities during the week :o)

Of course, you do not necessarily need to use paints and stencils/sponges to create such a picture.  Your little one could draw their own animals or you could print out some animals to colour in and then stick them onto a backing sheet to label them.  You could also make a little mini book - in fact this is something that I think I will do with Little Imp when she is a little older.

Here are our fabulous paintings to give you some inspiration for your own brown bear style pictures:

Happy story telling and crafting! :o)

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) 

Le petit train fait...

Our theme this week was transport and try as I might I could not find a song that covered several forms of transport.  We have previously sung "les roues du bus" and I began to wonder if it was possible to alter the words to fit other modes of transport...  It was and the song "Le petit train fait" was born!

So, the tune is the wheels on the bus and the first verse goes like this:

Le petit tran fait chou chou chou
chou chou chou
chou chou chou
Le petit train fait chou chou chou
pour aller à Bottesford.

Obviously I chose Bottesford as that is where our Toddler group takes place but you can replace it with the town you live in or "la maison" or "la plage", etc. as you wish.

I wanted the song to include a variety of modes of transport but didn't want it so long that the toddlers became bored of it so i decided just to add 3 more verses.  I added "la petite voiture fait vroom, vroom, vroom" (car), "le petit avion fait neeyaam"(aeroplane) and "la petite fusée fait woooosh" (rocket).  I also tried this with my primary school groups and they then added more verses themselves making up sounds for ambulances, lorries, motorbikes, tractors etc.  Lots of fun!!

Our craft then needed to include a variety of transport in order to cover the vocabulary in the song and also the possibility of introducing some more at home during the week.  I decided on a town scene with movable transport to make the craft more fun and interactive. 

To make your own transport town scene, you will need:
a3 sheet of craft paper or thin card
black paper/foam/felt for the road
blue paper/foam/felt for the sea/lake/pond
green paper/foam/felt for grass/fields/bushes
paper to make the buildings
transport foam stickers - I got mine from yellow moon, they have updated them now though and they are even more colourful and bright and not expensive for the amount you get in the bag.  Here is a link if you want it: http://www.yellowmoon.org.uk/product-Transport-Foam-Stickers-A067.htm
Alternatively, you could make your own transport using the paper, card, foam etc in your craft box.
craft lollipop sticks
felt pens, crayons, glitter glues, etc

First design your background scene.  Then cut slits in the roads etc where your transport will go, allow them some room to move along the road/track but don't cut to near to the edges of the paper as this makes your picture very unstable and difficult to play with. 

Stick your transport onto your lollipop sticks and pop them through the appropriate slits in the picture.

Voilà!  A perfect interactive transport picture! :o)

Here are our wonderful creations to give you some inspiration for your own project:

 

 

Don't forget to check out the book review page for my transport themed recommendations!

 

Happy singing and crafting! :o)

 

 

Où est mon renne?

This week there has unfortunately been no toddler session as I am suffering with tonsillitis and have lost my voice :o( 

The week has mostly been spent snuggled up on the sofa with Little Imp looking at books and so I thought I would add another review to the book review page, which has been rather neglected since I pinched the idea from the lovely Tallulah all those months ago!

One of Little Imp's favourites this week has been the Usborne book Où est mon renne? (That's not my reindeer).  So if you hop over to the book review page you can read all about it!


Fingers crossed the voice will return and we will be back to singing and crafting again next Friday!

Cher Zoo...

This week, as a change from all songs, I decided to add a story at the end of our sing-song and relate our craft activity to this.  As you will know if you have read my first book review - I will get round to doing another one soon I promise! - Rod Campbell's Dear Zoo/Cher Zoo bilingual text is a real favourite with Little Imp at the moment.  We have been reading it at least once a day since our visit to the zoo on holiday and she is getting really good at naming the toy animals in French as well as English when we play with those.  It seemed, therefore, an obvious choice for a story - plus I had come across this lovely craft idea when googling last week and I thought the children would have fun making it so, decision made!

Now, in all honesty, there is a big difference between reading a story to one Little Imp on your knee and trying to show the pictures to a wriggly bunch of toddlers (and they were quite wriggly having danced around pretty energetically to the Hokey Cokey in French as well as ainsi font and meunier tu dors amongst others!), whilst simultaneously remembering the French text - but I think they all enjoyed it!!  They all stayed sitting and looking at the book so that must be a good sign! I guess we'll know for sure next week if they want to hear the story again!!  Anyway, even if the book wasn't as successful as the songs and rhymes are, I think it is valuable to include one every so often as it widens the language introduced quite significantly and also introduces French in another format.

If you don't have a copy of the book in French, it is possible to make your own simple French translation with a few phrases and the animal names and descriptions.  If you don't feel confident enough to ad lib the French, you could write out the phrases first and blu tac them into the English version to give you a prompt as you read it, I'm sure your little one wouldn't mind! :o)

The craft idea, is very simple to make but also very effective.  The original version I found on the web calls for animal crackers - now I had planned to substitute these for the chocolate animal biscuits that you get here in the UK, but decided that the Zoo would be a bit redundant once the biscuits had been eaten, and so I decided on Foam animal stickers as well.  The local Co-op and Spar both let me down unfortunately though - not a chocolate animal biscuit to be found :o( - so it was a good job we had the foam animals!
The original craft idea complete with edible animals can be found here:
http://www.allmylittlegems.com/2012/03/zoo-craft-for-kids-preschool-fun.html

Anyway, to make your our version of the Zoo you will need:
1 piece of A4 card,
4 or 5 pipecleaners
a hole punch
foam animal stickers or equivalent,
felt pens/crayons/glitter glue - to decorate your Zoo as you wish

1. Fold the card in half
2. Unfold and on the inside draw a rectangle on one half - leave enough of a border around the edge to allow for the holes to be punched
3. Cut out the rectangle and re-fold the card
4. Punch 4 or 5 pairs of holes along the top and bottom edge of the rectangle - try to line them up if you can
5. Stick your animals on to the card so that they can be seen through the cut out rectangle and decorate the zoo as you wish
6. Thread your pipe cleaners through the holes to make the bars, just twist the ends around to secure them

Here is how we all got on:

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you have lots of fun reading the story yourselves and creating your very own zoo! :o)

It's easier than you think to teach your little one French!

Have you considered teaching your little one another language but dismissed it as being too difficult and too expensive?  It is actually easier than you think - and you don't need to be fluent in a language yourself to start!
I'm sure you have plenty of toys and everyday activities that lend themselves to introducing a language.  Just by spending 5 or 10 minutes a day you would be amazed at how much a toddler can pick up.
Little Imp was 15 months old when I started running my toddler classes and prior to that I had not spoken any French to her at all.  Now only 4 months on she can say "Bonjour" and "Au revoir", asks for French versions of nursery rhymes as well as English ones "Baa Baa mou noir mama" (Baa Baa mouton noir mama) or "Baa Baa sheep mama" (Baa Baa black sheep mama) depending which one she wants to sing and can name several colours and fruits in both English and French.
My aim with this blog is to document the activities we do at our toddler group - songs and crafts that you can  do with your own little one at home - and also ideas for introducing a little taste of French into everyday life.
Thanks for reading and I hope that you enjoy learning some French along with us!
Emma and Little Imp :o)