Le transport week 1 - les roues du bus

Last Friday was the first session of our new theme "le transport".  Our songs for this topic include "les roues du bus" (the wheels on the bus), "le petit train" (the little train), "Londre flambe" (London's burning), "il tourne en rond", "rame,rame, rame donc" (row row your boat) and "au feu les pompiers".  This last song being the only new song for our repertoire (see previous posts for the lyrics of the others), here are the lyrics to "au feu les pompiers" (to the fire, firefighters)

Au feu, les pompiers,

V'là la maison qui brûle!

Au feu les pompiers,

V'là la maison brûlée!

C'est pas moi qui la brûlée,

C'est la canitinère!

C'est pas moi qui là brûlée,

C'est la cantinier!

And a rough translation:

To the fire firefighters,

The house is burning!

To the fire firefighters,

The house burnt down!

It isn't me that burnt it,

It's the canteen cook,

It isn't me that burnt it,

It's the canteen cook.

La cantinière and le cantinier both mean the canteen cook, the difference being that la cantinière is a female cook and le cantinier is a male cook.  To make it a little more fun for the children you can substitute their names in instead e.g c'est pas moi qui la brûlée, c'est little imp!

For our craft this week, we repeated one from a long time ago that proved very popular at the time.  I printed out the outline of a bus on card for each child and then they used a variety of collage materials to decorate the bus however they wished.  We also had several toddler/preschooler magazines handy - think Cbeebies, disney etc.  and used the characters cut out to stick in the windows of the bus as the passengers.

Here are our fabulous buses:

Happy singing and crafting! :0)

Il était un petit navire...

A very busy week at Toddlers this week with those older siblings on half term holidays joining in as well! 


Sticking with the transport theme, I decided this week to introduce the classic French song "Il était un petit navire" (There was a little ship).  Now this is a long song, too long for our toddlers really and so I chose to use the version from the Skoldo CD.  This is the scheme I use with my primary classes and the songs are lovely, a reasonable speed for non-natives to sing along with and a reasonable length for children to learn and join in with.  To get hold of your own copy, visit the Skoldo website here: www.skoldo.com  Alternatively, the full version is available to read and listen to on Mama Lisa's website here: http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=139&c=22

The lyrics for the first verse go like this:

Il était un petit navire
Il était un petit navire
Qui n'avait ja-ja-jamais navigué
Qui n'avait ja-ja-jamais navigué
Ohé Ohé!


In English this would be:

There was a little ship
There was a little ship
That had never sailed
That had never sailed
Ahoy Ahoy!

To accompany our new song, our craft this week was naturally boat related.  When googling for ideas last week, I came across this fantastic rowing boat craft that actually stands up - and it's really simple to make as well!  I found it here: http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/17489/paper-crafts-make-a-boat

To make your own rowing boat you will need:
one piece thin card
3 wooden lollipop sticks
scissors
a pencil
glue
things from the craft box to decorate your boat and person e.g. felt, doilies, cupcake cases, stickers, googly eyes, felt pens, glitter glue, fabric, ribbons, wool, etc
sellotape

Folding the card is the most complicated part of the construction and is definitely best not left to your toddler!!  Even the older children needed a bit of advice on this.

1. Fold your card in half - like in picture 1 below

2. Now fold each side back on itself to create an "m" fold like picture 2 below.  This is the genius part of the whole craft that makes it actually stand my itself! :o)

3. Mark the shape of the sides of your boat and then cut along them, like in picture 3.

4. You can then secure the sides of your boat.  The link I found as you can see from the picture below used a stapler but we preferred to use sellotape with some of the children being only 1.

5. Finally cut a small slit in each side of your boat for your lollipop oars.

Now your boat is constructed, you can hand over to your toddler to finish the job of decorating it!

Once the boat is decorated, use the remaining lollipop stick to make a person for your boat.  I actually bought some little wooden people but a lolly stick would be fine.

Stick your person into the boat and pop your oars through and voilà - one self-standing rowing boat!

Here are our amazing boats to give you some inspiration for your own:

 

Happy singing and crafting! :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)

 

 

Londres flambe, Londres flambe...

Welcome to 2013!  Little Imp and I wish you all "une bonne année"!

For our first toddler session of 2013, I decided on a French version of an English round "London's burning" and a lovely Fire Engine and Fire fighter craft to go with it.

The lyrics to the French version are as follows:

Londres flambe, Londres flambe.

Quelle affaire, quelle affaire

Au feu! Au feu!

Pas d’eau, rien à faire!

Clearly, it is not such an issue in France if London is burning as rather than pouring on water - they have none and can do nothing!!  Still, a nice simple song for toddlers to learn and join in with though and one which can be sung as a round, which is also nice for a change.

After our sing song, we went over to the craft tables to create our Fire Engine and fire fighter craft.  For this craft, you will need:

• 1 A3 sheet of craft/construction paper for your background
• 1 fire engine template which you can print from here: http://www.busybeekidscrafts.com/support-files/firetruck.pdf
• red felt pens and collage materials for the fire engine
• black paper/foam for the wheels
• craft lolly sticks/straws for the ladder
• shiny paper/stickers for the flashing light
• red paper/card for the firefighter hand print
• pink/flesh colour paper/card/felt for the faces
• yellow paper/card/felt/foam etc. for the hats

Once you have everything ready, this is how you make it:

• First, fill in your fire engine with red.  You can either colour it or paint it or, like we did use red materials to make a collage.
• Next, cut out your fire engine and glue it onto your background sheet.
• Now, using your craft lolly sticks or similar glue a ladder onto the fire engine and use your shiny material to add a flashing light on the top.
• Cut out two wheels from your black paper or foam and glue them onto the picture.
• You are now ready to make your Fire fighters.  Draw around your toddler's hand on red paper or card and cut out.
• Glue this onto your background sheet.
• Next, cut out 5 small faces and glue them on to the fingers and thumb on your picture.  Draw on eyes and a mouth with felt pen.
• Finally, cut out 5 yellow hats for your fire fighters and glue on.

Here are our finished pictures:

Happy singing and crafting! :o)