At Petits Poussins everything we do is interactive and upholds our motto of ‘Making Languages Fun!’ Think back to when you were at school or any time you had to learn something, a little bit of fun or a lot (in our case) injected into your learning experience changes how you learn and retain what you have been taught.  We tap into all learning styles, including children with special education needs, we advocate that everyone is capable of learning a foreign language, without exception!

Les roues [lay roo] – the wheels

L’autobus [lohto-bewss] – the bus

Toute au tour de la ville [toot oh toor deuh la veel] – all around the town

Les essuie-glaces [layz ess-wee glass]- the windscreen wipers

La porte [la port] – the door

Les sous [lay soo] – the money

Le klaxon [leuh klaxohn]- the horn

L’essence [less-ohnss]- the petrol

Check the link out below. We need more specialised teachers and training to make this a successful implementation. England came out bottom in reading, writing and listening in foreign languages when the European commission analysed language skills across 14 countries.  Our children are our future and we need more children with language skills for future trading with other countries.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-25634118?SThisFB

Comptines HD

Songs are a great way for your children to learn a language.  Our curriculum is developped in a clever way that ensures language is learned in a fun manner with lots of clever repetition, solely delivered in the target language.

This is a great app of traditional French ‘comptines’ - nursery songs, some with a twist on the French version.  Your children should be familiar with some them from our sessions too!  The wonderful thing, apart from the clear French, is that the words are displayed in karaoke style and the child can play a game to the rythmn of the music, a bit like a dance mat with their fingers!

The always win a ‘trophée’ regardless if they score any points or not!  We just love the vibrant graphics and catchy song style.

When we teach we like to use exciting songs that make the language experience fun for the children. As you know our motto is ‘Making Languages Fun!’

We often put a twist into songs or adapt them so that it reinforces our questions or the vocabulary that we have been covering.  When we sing Au Feu les Pompiers we replace the cantinier and the cantinière with the children’s names!  They really laugh a lot when we do this.  I hope they’ve been singing it at home with you.

We sometimes add extra songs to our lesson plans that may not be in your newsletter if the children enjoy a particular word.  The children have particularly enjoyed the word ‘le Pompier [leuh pomp-ee-ay] ‘, which means fireman…they may have even been singing pin-pon-pin-pon [pahn-pohn] around the house!  That’s the noise that the firetruck  ‘camion de pompier’ [cam-ee-ohn deuh pomp-ee-ay] makes!

Au feu les pompiers is all about the firemen being called to a fire…Here’s a translation to help you whilst you listen to the video clip.  These video clips are great as you can follow the words as they are sung.

Here is the link http://youtu.be/FfAvs3Dr3sI

Au feu les pompiers…to the fire firemen

V’là la maison qui brule…here’s the house burning

Au feu les pompiers…to the fire firemen

V’là la maison brulée…here’s the burnt house!

C’est pas moi qui l’ai brûlée - It wasn’t me who burnt it

C’est la cantinière – It was the woman from the canteen

C’est pas moi qui l’ai brûlée - It wasn’t me who burnt it

C’est le cantinier – It was the man from the canteen

Have fun!  It’s what makes language learning enjoyable and it’s the best way for your children to remember the vocabulary.

Merci beaucoup!

At Petits Poussins we work really hard to maintain our reputation and motto of ‘Making Languages Fun!’ This is what I deem to be a rather addictive video clip that will get us in the mood for our up and coming Italian classes, Piccoli Pulcini! Grazie mille Alexandra! This is just the kind of song we love, it’s educational but it also teaches languages through fun! Gill x

• How about you get some coloured objects and put them in a magic bag.
• Lay out different coloured paper on the floor.
• Remind your child of the colours in French.
• Ask your child to choose something from ‘le sac’ and get them to match it with the correct coloured sheet of paper.
• Ask your child ‘c’est de quelle couleur?’ [say deuh kel coo-leur] What colour is it?
• And then say the colour in French ‘c’est bleu’ [say bleuh] it’s blue!
• Check out your newsletter for all the other colours.
• Don’t worry if you don’t have any coloured paper just use different coloured objects from around the house to create your colour category or even better have some fun colouring or painting using different colours on several sheets of paper.

I bet you could have great fun this weekend practicing and bonding with you child.

Here’s some tips for encouraging your child to speak.

• Keep it fun!  Your child will engage so much more if we show fun and enthusiasm.
• Most of all and use lots of praise saying ‘bravo’ when they get it right and clap your hands!
• If your child says the correct colour in English say ‘bravo’ and then simply repeat the colour back in French, your child is corrrect and should never be told that they were wrong for saying the correct colour in English even if they are unsure of the French.
• Remember, children are so influenced by what we do as parents.  We are their rolemodels and if they see you speaking French and having lots of fun, they will too!

Please send us your pictures and Videoclips, we’d love to share them with you!

Teaching a foreign language to our little ones is something that should be encouraged and celebrated, a gift that most adults would add to their `wish list of life achievements’.  Research studies have shown time and time again that the earlier we expose our children to multiple languages the better.

Children who speak more than one language are believed to be more versatile and it is understood to have a positive effect on their mental development, improving analytical, social and academic skills.  It may seem like a long way off, but it will certainly give your child a head start in the world of work, a leading edge that the next candidate may not have.  

Petits Poussins has built upon its wealth of language teaching experience to develop aunique, highly engaging and robust curriculum with a dynamic, yet effective approach to learning.  Bilingual teachers continually reinforce language learning in a fun and structured manner, delivered solely in the target language.  Practical and educationalvocabulary is used whilst showing parents how to incorporate the new language into the home environment.  

With each session understanding, language acquisition, pronunciation and communication improve.  Some of these young people have had their first words in French and even the adults’ French is improving along the way!

We tap into children’s intrinsic and innate ability to learn more than one language at once.  Bilingual or multilingual parents are offered advice in raising their child with more than one language at home. We are acutely aware that individuals learn in different ways and of the importance of variety, regardless of age, so our motto is Making Languages Fun!  

Classes are offered in a number of settings to adults and children from as young as 10 months, in our mums and toddler sessions and from 1 in nurseries.  We provide sessions in blocks or theme days in schools and teacher training in our ‘Teaching theTeacher how to Teach Program’ and private tuition to children and adults too.  

What better time to start giving our little ones the gift of bilingualism?