Non-Native Treasure Trove : Il était une histoire

Il était une histore is a fantastic free resource overflowing with French stories, songs and nursery rhymes for children between the ages of 3 and 10.

It already boasts a catalogue of around 100 stories and a new story is added to the site every Friday.

An element that particularly appeals to me is the 'Documentaires' section which teaches children about different countries, the weather, various customs and much more.

To top it off, not only are the stories available to read, you can also opt to listen to them in MP3 format. Some even have a 'karaoke' option which allows children to read along.

A large part of the site is open for access to anyone. There's also a bonus section containing colouring pages, puzzles and printables if you register to the site.

For more information about how the site works, click here to see la visite guidée.

For those of you looking for English language activities to do with your children, you will also find an 'Anglais' section containing English stories and rhymes etc click here if you're interested.

Le Chat Français

Each week Poppette and I go along to a great playgroup where our time is filled with nursery rhymes, singing, dancing, interacting with fabulous puppets and playing with musical instruments (well, mainly rattles and maybe a few drums for the slightly older babies). Poppette loves it and I love that she loves it.

It is at this playgroup that we met Le Chat Français. He is one of the many life-like puppets that the host of the playgroup brings along from time to time. At other times there may a dog, a camel, even a spider... but none of these other puppets claims to hail from foreign lands.

I was over the moon when we were introduced to Le Chat Français as making his aquaintance was most unexpected at a playgroup for English children.

Each time Le Chat makes an appearance, the host plays her favourite French song which is called 'Les Oignons' (onions)...I have never heard of this song and neither have any of my French friends. It is very wordy and rather fast - certainly not a song who's words could be easily understood and repeated by youngsters.

So... I have offered to give some of my music to the group's host to bolster Le Chat's repertoire. My hopes are twofold -  a) as Poppette gets older, she will be able to sit and sing these songs along with the other children which will be great fun for her - she may even have fun helping them learn the words and b) the other children will find these songs fun and want to join in.

It strikes me that if we start with something like 'tête, épaules, genoux et pieds' (head, shoulders, knees and toes) we can't go far wrong. It is sung to the exact same tune as the English version and it will be relatively easy for the children to pick up these new words and then go home and show off to their friends and family. They will be language learning without even really noticing.... and surely that's the best way of all to learn.

A Wise Old Owl That Can Only Speak French

For a while now I have been wanting to give Poppette a soft toy that could only speak French. I have been on the lookout for the perfect one.

Yesterday I found him in the guise of Monsieur L'Hibou (Mr Owl). He's totally adorable and thankfully Poppette seems quite taken with him (I would run out of fingers if I tried to count how many times I have bought her what I think is the cutest soft toy on the planet only for her to pick up an empty Evian bottle and play with that instead!).

So, the plan is that, as Poppette grows and interacts more with her toys, she will (hopefully) always interact with Monsieur L'Hibou en français. For now, I will start to bring that alive for her by singing Dans La Forêt Prochaine with her whenever we play with him. It's a really cute song, whose lyrics are as follows:-

Dans la forêt prochaine,
On entend le coucou.

Du haut de son vieux chêne,
Il répond au hibou.

Coucou hibou, coucou hibou,
Coucou hibou, coucou.

A rough but not nearly as poetic translation would be:-

'In the nearby forest you can hear the cuckoo sing.
From high up in the old oak tree he is responding to the call of the owl.
"Hi there Owl", "hi there Owl", "hi there Owl", "hi".'

This version on YouTube is slightly different to the one on Poppette's nursery rhyme album (Toutes Mes Chansons Préférées) but the tune is the same.

I have also been thinking of creating un coin français which was suggested to me by another blogger...an area in our apartment where only French can be spoken.... even by Papa or friends and family. . . . I think that could be really good fun for everyone.

Like a Rabbit Caught in the Headlights

Today Poppette and I learnt a new nursery rhyme:-

Les Cinq Petits Cochons (The Five Little Pigs)

Cinq petits cochons tout roses et tout ronds
Celui-ci reste à la maison
Celui-ci va faire le marché
Celui-ci mange tout
Celui-ci ne dit rien
Et celui-ci pleure tout le long du chemin.
Guiliguili!

This is another rhyme so close to the English version I grew up with that it has easily cemented into my head.

Today at playgroup Incy Wincy Spider was sung in both English and Spanish. I could have piped up with the French version given that it trips off my tongue hundreds of times a day when Popette and I are alone. But...... I was like a rabbit caught in the headlights. I kept quiet and no-one knew my little secret - that I am the Araignée Gypsie Queen.

Maybe next time.

L'araignée gypsie.... sing along

My mum came to visit shortly after my post on Incy Wincy Spider last week. Having been the one who had taught me all about Incy in my youth and helped it to become my favourite nursery rhyme, she was eager to learn the tune to the lyrics of l'araignee gypsie so that she could do the same for Poppette mais en français.

This post is for my mum and anyone else who found themselves wondering about the tune.

YouTube yet again came to the rescue. Click here to find a cute little snail singing the rhyme. You will find that if you search 'Les comptines de L'escargot' you will find the same little snail rehearsing several different french nursery rhymes.

Incy Wincy Spider

The weird bit about nursery rhymes is, that in your native language, they just roll off your tongue. You can find yourself belting out impromptu renditions of row, row, row your boat or rock a bye baby during playtime, bath time, hug time or anytime really. Unfortunately, in my second language, where there should be rhyme there is often just a pregnant pause.

Of course, I have spent a good deal of time learning the words and tunes to various classic French nursery rhymes but somehow they just weren’t rolling off the tongue the way I would like. I decided this simply had to be down to the lack of nostalgia. I have no connection back to my own childhood when singing a nursery rhyme to Poppette in French.

And then I stumbled upon: -

L’araignée Gypsie

L’araignée Gypsie monte à la gouttière,

Tiens, voilà la pluie, Gypsie tombe par terre,

Mais le soleil a chassé la pluie.

L’araignée Gypsie r’monte à la gouttière.

For those of you who don’t speak French - L’araignée Gypsie is effectively Incy Wincy Spider – one of my favourite childhood rhymes. It even has the same little actions that go along with it.

I feel like I have hit pay dirt. A rhyme that I connect with in French almost in the same way as I do with the rhymes that are hard wired into my brain from infancy.

But I am sure this one little rhyme will begin to wear thin for all involved if I keep singing it at the rate I have been doing for the past couple of days.

So I am appealing to anyone who may know more rhymes with a similar French/English crossover – could you please let me have details?