It’s the start of a new year, it’s 2016 and we have come a long way since 2005 with developing our unique and dynamic curriculum and teaching method.  Petits Poussins is different in many ways, and apart from our fun and enthusiasm for languages, we don’t speak any English to teach your child French.  We believe that if you are going to learn a language, total immersion is the key.  Each week we teach 100′s of children and if we are totally honest with you, there’s many emotions we feel; however, one of them is ‘blessed’ and the other is ‘amazement’.

To put that into context, when children and adults follow our ‘Making Languages Fun’ learning programme it is like watching little happy angels soaking up every bit of joy, laughter and language in our teaching sessions.  We are witnesses all day, every day to the saying ’children are like sponges’.

As many of you know we teach from birth in our Parent and Toddler sessions, in fact in any of our sessions we advocate that language acquisition of additional languages should be started from as early an age as possible. Just as you do with your child’s mother tongue, they are hard wired to absorb it all!

So have you ever wondered how we teach your child, or what your children learn in our sessions, or how you can get involved, please have fun watching our video, let us know what you think!  If you would like more, let us know and if you would like to see our teaching in our ‘live classes’ or training for your school or educational establishment, we would be happy to help!  After all, the more people who get involved the bigger our chances of realising our dream of creating that revolution in the way modern foreign languages are taught in the UK…or maybe even across the globe! Pourquoi pas!

There are a few versions of the song, as usual we have added a #MakingLanguagesFun twist to it and we have modified the end of the song. We shout “tombez!” which means “fall” and we all fall, ‘splash’ into ‘la rivière’ – the river.

It’s also great bath time song and all of our children and families love it.

Sit your child on your knee and ‘row’ your boat until you fall ‘splash’ in the ‘la rivière’

You could also say ‘vite’ [veet] – which means ‘quick or fast’ to reinforce every day commands whilst injecting our motto of #MakingLanguagesFun into your game!

In our sessions children initially learn to count from 1-10, but we offer progression through out our classes and reinforce and build upon important vocabulary.  We always enrich learning by enhancing their vocabulary and taking them to the next level.  We often find really young children who are able to count really well in French.  Check out some of our video clips of our the videos on our social media sites that many of our parents have kindly shared with us!

Did you know that it is highly important that your child can count effectively to 20 in French as numbers are quite different once they go above 69 – soixante-neuf [swass-ante-neuf].  The next number literally translates as sixty-ten, soixante-dix [swassante-deess] and this is how you say seventy in French! It is followed by sixty-eleven,ie 71, soixante-onze [swassante-onz], then sixty-twelve ie 72, soixante-douze [swassante-dooz] and so on until you reach sixty-nineteen ie 79, soixante-dix-neuf [swassante dees neuf]!

Enjoy the song and please feel free to share your videos of your own children singing!  We just love it seeing how well everyone is progressing and #MakingLanguagesFun!

https://youtu.be/x4ayzlhMrZM

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

One song that sticks in everyone’s head in our sessions and provides lots of fun learning for our children is ‘Jean Petit qui Danse.’

The song is great for all ages to learn the body parts in French, from toddlers to GCSE students and even adults!

The song speeds up as it advances and provides a real test on the children’s ability to remember the song words, and even test our bilingual teachers delivering the classes! Give it a go and enjoy interacting with your children.  Here’s the words just in case you need a ‘coup de main’ a helping hand!

Check out the link to the video clip, le camion de pompier- the fire engine.

Leo is a curious truck and he has parts loaded on his back.  What is he going to make with the parts?  Enjoy watching the videoclip with your Peits Poussins and dicuss the vocabulary with them.  Remember it’s all about Making Languages Fun!

le camion [leuh camee-ohn] the truck

la voiture [lah vwa-tewr] the car

le camion de pompier [leuh camee-ohn deuh pomp-ee-ay] the fire truck

un [uhn] – one

deuc [deuh] -two

trois [twra] – three

les sièges [lay see-ej] the seats

le volant [leuh voh-lohn] the steering wheel

une cabine rouge [oon cabeen rooj] – a red cabin

un pare-choc en avant [uhn par-shock ohn avahn] – the front bumper

trois roues [trwa roo]  three wheels

à côté [ah coat-ay] to the side

les ailes [layz elss] the wings

la citerne-d’eau [lah see-tern doh] – the water tank

l’échelle [lay shell] the ladder

le girophare [leuh geero-far] the flashing light

Take a seat with your Petits Poussins and have 10 minutes watching and talking about the video clip we are sharing about transport – les transports [lay trahn-spor]. See how many words you can both recall.

Les transports is our theme for the half term and we will be posting more resources that will help you to expose your child to language learning outwith our classes.  If you have any questions or we can help in any way, please do not hesitate to ask.  Our staff are all bilingual and have an array of teaching, parenting and language experience.

Merci beaucoup! x

Les Transports – source le monde des petits

http://youtu.be/u1wROm-OF9w

Don’t you find that there are some French songs that you just know already?  But what does the song ‘Alouette gentile alouette’ actually mean?  Did you already know, or will I just share our knowledge of the French language with you?

An alouette is ‘lark’ and this poor bird is being plucked on his head and other parts of the bird’s body! Now the traditional song goes like this…..

Je te plumerai [jeuh teuh pew-meuh-ray] I will pluck you…

La tête [la tet] – the head

Le cou [leuh coo] – the neck

Les ailes [layz el] – the wings

Le bec [leuh bec] – the beak

La queue [la keuh] – the tail

Click on the link below to see the traditional version of the song and read on to find out how, at Petits Poussins we make the song fun!

But as you all know at Petits Poussins our motto is ‘Making Languages Fun’ so we take traditional songs and give them a little twist sometimes so that we reinforce the vocabulary that we are teaching…so we are plucking our heads, noses, mouths, hands and feet! As you sing the song with your child point to the body parts and emphasis the words as you sing or see if you can find a feather to liven up your performance!  You’ll soon see your child will better retain the words because you had some fun!

le nez [leuh nay] – the nose

la bouche [la boosh] – the mouth

les mains [lay mahn] – the hands

les pieds [lay pee-ay] – the feet

We hope that you might have heard your Petits Poussins singing it at home!

Go on send us a videoclip!

Merci et à bientôt

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.