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!

Je te plumerai le nez!

As part of our Petits Poussins Parent Partnership program with Kids 1st we have been conducting Parent open days so that the parents can come and see the progress and fun their children have in their French sessions.

What a great session we had today at Kids 1st Darlington!  As I arrived at the session I could not believe the turn out,  Sébastien got himself all nervous when he saw all the mamans, papas et la grandmère!  I was thrilled with the support for the session, my favourite bit was the children tapping ‘mon nez’ with ‘les plumes’ (feathers) for our body part song!

It was so exciting to be able to show the parents that Petits Poussins’ curriculum is not only about learning a load of nouns, that the children learn real day to day French using total immersion, so we only speak in the target language.  There was none more proud than I, when I asked one of our Petits Poussins to ask her friend across the room “what is your name?” in French…”va demander comment tu t’appelles?” I said, and off she went to ask her petit ami “comment tu t’appelles?” to which he responded “Je m’appelle….”

You have to bear in mind that these children are 3 and 4 years old and I only ever address them in French.  It’s incredible to see!  I hope that the parents enjoyed it as much as the staff, Sébastien and I did!  One of the parents told me that her children have little French conversations with one another now!  We are so grateful to the support of the parents who encourage their children at home, downloading the songs and apps we blog about.

Petits Poussins and Kids 1st staff have a real partnership going on.  We train the staff as we teach, to reinforce what we are teaching the children during the week until our next weekly session.  The staff are absolutely fantastique across the group and work so hard, even when they have never learned a word of French in their lives, it’s commendable and we are so grateful of their hard work.

As with all of our nurseries we work with, we help them to create French wall displays that reflect what the children have been learning and ensure that we link our curriculum with their lesson plans and the EYFS as much as possible. So if the children are learning about the weather we always try and link it with our theme and throw in something about the weather in French.

If you’d like to leave us some feedback we would be so grateful and we always love to see videoclips of the children at home!

merci beaucoup!

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.

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!

http://youtu.be/6GsPLAslPIA

We have already posted the Italian version of this song, it’s brilliant!!  It exsits in lots of languages too!  This is a great way of learning the animals and the noises that they make.  Believe it or not the dog doesn’t say “woof-woof” in French, he says “ouaf ouaf”  The cow says “meuh”…Watch out for the ending, poor poussin!

À la radio – on the radio [ah lah rad-ee-oh]

un poussin [poo-sahn] piou [pee-ou] - a chick

une poule [pool] cot cot [cot-cot] – a chicken

un coq [coc] cocorico [coc-ee-ree-co] – a cockrel

un dinde [dand] glouglouglou [gloo-gloo-gloo] – a turkey

un pigeon [pee-gee-ohn] roucoule [roo-cool] – a pigeon

un chat [sha] miaou [mee-ah-oow] – a cat

un chien [she-ahn] ouaf [waff] – a dog

une chèvre [sh-eh-vreuh] bêê [bay] – a goat

un agneau [an-yo] mee [may] – a lamb

une vache [vash] meuh [m-euh] – a cow

un taureau [toh-roh] muu [moow] – a bull

un tracteur [trac-teuhr] bruum [broowm] – a tractor

Let us know how your Petits Poussins found it!

Merci beaucoup et à très bientôt… see you real soon!

Bonne fête des mamans! Here’s a lovely videoclip for you and your Petits Poussins! Have a wonderful day, you deserve it! xx