Les Dinosaures Apprenent les Couleurs was our Scholastic Canada Sponsored book at our French Tales for Tots Program

Spring has finally graced us with its glorious warmth. And our grateful eyes filled with its joyous colours as we take in the colours of the flowers and the brightness of the green grass. Colours were indeed on the mind of the momstown Milton group as little ones and their families gathered together at Indigo for another fun and educational French Tales for Tots session sponsored by Scholastic Canada.

After momstown Milton mama, Sam Kassam-Macfie, explained the easy-to-make dinosaur craft , the little hands went straight to work!  They had fun pasting the colourful scales on the dinosaurs body and repeating the names of the colours in French: "Jaune (yellow)! Rouge (red) as they assembled them.

Finished dinosaur crafts proudly in hand, it was time to sit down and read the Scholastic Canada featured book: Les dinosaures apprenent les couleurs by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague. The children's imaginations soared to bright and colourful heights as they followed the adventures of ten dinosaurs as they described their lives in colour. Little eyes and ears were enraptured by the descriptions: une serviette violette sur le plancher (a purple towel on the floor) and pointed eagerly at the pictures and repeated phrases as Madame Liz read through the French passage of the book first and then translated into English.

Following the reading of the featured Les dinosaures apprenent les couleurs, Madame Liz went through another book called Les formes, les couleurs which reinforced the lessons of shapes and colours. The children were asked to show where the various shapes were (for example, square - carré)  and had a lot of fun doing it!  

After singing a few crowd favourites, the group played a fun and very interactive game reinforcing the colours they had just learned. Singing about a bakery stocked with delicious donuts, the children were asked to identify the number of donuts (for example, deux - two) on the ground and choose the donut colour (for example, brun - brown) as called out.

The children also got a hand in playing a colours matching game with their families as each child was given a sheet of paper and with the help of their families, had to match the name of the colour in French  as it was called out alongside with the colour block.

Before concluding, a draw was held for the Scholastic Canada featured book,  Les dinosaures apprenent les couleurs,  and the very joyeux winner was little Zachary!

Au revoir amis! See you next month.

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Written by Liz Marques Kogan, a momstown Milton member and mother of two children. You can check out her blog at: www.orchidaforever.blogspot.ca 

momstown Milton kicks off a new French Literacy Program: Contes pour les bouts d'choux sponsored by Scholastic Canada

We are all proud of our beautiful nation, Canada, and its two official languages: English and French.  On January 16, 2013, the momstown Milton moms and tots were bursting with pride and excitement as they headed over to the Indigo bookstore for an  interactive French Tales for Tots: Contes pour les bouts d'choux story time sponsored by Scholastic Canada!

The featured book this month was Mon Ami Henri by Philippe Beha and the theme for the session was body parts (les parties du corps). Upon arriving to the bright and colourful Indigo store, the little ones were put to the creative test by making face puppets inspired by one of their real-life friends or by the delightful whim of their imaginations of what exactly Henri might look like?  

To help the tots become comfortable with French vocabulary, Madame Liz, would ask them repeat body part names and associate them back to their own puppet creations. They took to the task with gleeful enthusiasm. "Le nez!" they'd exclaim with excitement while gesturing at the noses on their puppets or their own face.

The tots then assembled in a circle on the floor to sing a "hello my friends" (bonjour mes amis) song. Their young but strong voices filled the air with happiness. Passers-by stopped with their children and grandchildren to find out what all of the buzz was about and then of course, they just had to join in on the fun too!

After the rousing rendition of the bonjour mes amis song, we moved on to a body parts song (to the tune of head and shoulders, knees and toes). "Tête, épaule, genoux et pieds!" Little hands and feet got busy grooving to the beat.

Then it was time to settle down for a story. The group gathered close together as Madame Liz read the featured book Mon Ami Henri. (With each page read, an English translation was provided). In the story, a young boy describes his best friend, Henri, and the children were mesmerized by the description of Henri: petit (small), frisé (curly hair), deux grands yeux noirs (two large black eyes), des tâches de rousseur sur le nez (freckles on the nose) and une sourire jusqu'aux oreilles (a smile that reaches to his ears). They happily followed along with the story using their puppet or own body parts for emphasis. 

Once the reading aloud of the story was done, the children then bounced off the floor and back to the craft station to review their colours in French. Each child was given a sheet with the colours in French and crayons so they could fill in the circles on the sheet with the appropriate colour. Little hands scribbled furiously to get the job done! We then reviewed all that we had learned together to gather a complete description of their friends - blue eyes, black hair, white teeth, etc..

After the review was completed, it was time for a few final songs. We sang "Alouette" and shrieked with delight and practically did a little dance showing off all of our body parts as they were announced in french. 

Our fun French time didn't end before our special Scholastic Books draw. Our lucky winner who funnily enough bore a strong resemblance to Henri (the character in the book) was delighted to take home the book to add to his own personal library! 

It was over all far too soon and as we bid au revoir to our amis, we weren't sad as we knew that we'll all be back next month for another exciting Contes pour les bouts d'choux. 

We would love to have you join us for French Tales for Tots/Contes pour les bouts d'choux  sponsored by Scholastic Books next month at Indigo - Milton. A fun way for kiddies to learn and practice French in a group!  Register here for your 6 week FREE trial.


Written by Liz Marques Kogan, a mother of two girls, and momstown Milton member. You can check out her blog at: www.orchidaforever.blogspot.ca 

Wishes come true at our momstown Milton Scholastic sponsored Tales for Tots program.

Our  momstown Milton monthly Tales for Tots was a magical event! It started off at Indigo Milton with our  Scholastic Canada sponsored book “Wishes” by Jean Little and was a perfect fit for our early literacy focused program to help set the mood for a very special gathering. The rhyming format immediately captured their attention and the illustrations used soft colours with reference to an array of items that a child could easily relate to.  

 

"If wishes were ice cream,
our cones would be doubles.
If wishes were soapsuds,
we’d blow shining bubbles"

 

Our craft was Shooting Stars, to go along with the book. The kids got to practice their hand / eye coordination weaving the thread through each hole. It also helped to improve on focus and patience to complete the weave around the entire parameter. We were able to practice our counting as we threaded each hole  They turned out so beautifully!

 

Supplies needed:

•   star hole punch (or another type will do)

•   Foam Stars

• shiny thread - for weaving

•  streamers / crepe paper

• glue

• scissors

 

After making our craft, we gathered in our circle and sang “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and we recited the poem “Star Bright, Star Light”. We went around the circle and had each child recite their wish out loud. This was a great activity that encouraged everyone to use their imaginations and to take the time to day dream including the mamas. It was a real eye opening experience to listen to the simple things that each child wanted  and it got me thinking of what my hopes and dreams were and how many of them I had achieved to date.  

 

I do  know we fulfilled one wish that day by sending home our sponsored book with this lucky winner! Congrats.

 

 

I wonder how many other wishes  will come true?

 

Thanks everyone for coming out! Be sure to join us next month when we will be celebrating fall! All you need to do is sign up for a momstown Milton membership which is only $45 for the entire year. You even get a 6 week free trial membership to check us out first!

Tales for Tots - Exploring our Senses

What a terrific turn out momstown Milton had this month at Indigo for our Tales for Tots program! It was an equal division of infants and toddlers which created a healthy environment for learning where the little ones could watch the older ones and practice a wee bit of modeling.

This months theme was My Senses so we raided our craft box and came up with a variety of sensory materials that the kids could explore while creating their spring pieces. The craft today was a visually stimulating bright Spring landscape with clouds made out of soft billowy cotton balls, flowers made with great smelling Fruit Loops and flower stems made of colourful pipe cleaners. For the grass we used strands of shredded paper that felt like straw to the touch. I think of all of the supplies provided the Fruit Loops were the biggest hit since it seemed to double as a tasty snack!





While the older ones were creating their crafts, the infants enjoyed the freedom of exploration, crawling around on the colourful parachute. They became quite excited by the fuzzy pig and fluffy quacking duck puppets,shiny glittering butterflies, and cloth textured books that were scattered about their play area.Giggles and thrills of excitement could be heard through the store as some of them saw these furry creatures come to life for the very first time.





For circle time we sang a modified version of "I've got two hands" and went through all of the five senses highlighting the importance of each one in making our world come to life. Our book selection was How Do Dinosaurs Eat Cookies? By Jane Yolen and Mark Teague donated to us by Scholastic Canada. What a great book for sensory awareness!Not only did it talk about cookies, which we all love to taste, but it had a scratch and sniff component that had our little ones amazed that a book could smell like chocolate chip cookies or lemon drops!Hannah - our lucky winner was thrilled to add this tasty book to her collection at home!

The Perfect Snow Day

Ask any child what their favourite thing is about winter and the universal answer will more than likely be SNOW! This year has been a bit of a disappointment for most since we've only had a hint of it here and there, making brief appearances not long enough to enjoy any of the winter activiites that go along with it.



Well at momstown, we aim to please so our Milton chapter came up with a unique way to enjoy the prefect snow day - INDOORS at our Tales for Tots hosted by Indigo! We started off by building a snowman out of mini marshmallows. This was a big hit with the kids since it was a multipurpose craft - snack and art piece all in one!





While the toddlers and preschoolers were constructing their crafts, the infants were kept busy engaging in a snow ball fight. The light, fluffy jumbo marshmallows were just the right size for little hands to grab a hold of and throw.




We then settled down to read our Scholastic sponsored book The Perfect Snow by Barbara Reid. The kids listened attentively and enjoyed the vivid illustrations that this book had to offer. Congrats to Phillip who was super excited to take home his very own copy for his book collection.

How to build a Sandcastle

Our little ones visited Indigo Milton yesterday for our Children's book club.The momstown themed curriculum was At the Beach this month so we focused on all that the beach has to offer. We started off with our craft which focused on how to build a sandcastle. The tots had a great time with this tactile experience and even our youngest members dove right in to give it a try.






After we finished constructing our castles, we assembled for circle time. We sang songs about creatures you would find in the ocean. A few of the favourites were Five Little Fishes in the Sea,Fish in the Sea and Five Little Shells.





We were then ready to read our feature book "The Sandcastle Contest". This is a classic tale from Robert Munsch and the kids absolutely adored it! If you've never read the book here is a summary of what it is all about. At the end of the program we were able to give away a copy of the book to our lucky winners Alexandra and Gabriella courtesy of Scholastic Canada!






Sign up now for next months Children's book club where will be focusing on Making Music!

Popularity of Nursery Rhymes carried on thru the generations

We grew up singing Nursery Rhymes and now our children are learning them. Where did these songs come from? What do they mean? Some lyrics are whimsical and are merely put together to provide entertainment and fun. Others however are deeply routed in our history and outline the story of events that were taking place in that period of time.

Over the years, the stories have been preserved thru song and children chanting them all over the world. If you would like to find out more about the origins of your favourite rhyme click here.

At this age, our momstown Milton tots are all about the nursery rhymes and the joy it brings hearing it recited over and over again. We had a great time at Indigo Milton with our Children's Book Club this month incorporating all of the little ones favourites into the program.







We started off by making our very own twinkle little star mobiles that each child could take home to hang in their bedroom to wish upon a star each night before going to bed.



We then sang classics and acted them out such as row, row, row your boat, Jack be Nimble, Little Miss Muffet, Pat a Cake and of course twinkle twinkle little star. We made the songs more personal by incorporating each child's name for example Little Master Jaxon sat on a tuffet... they absolutely loved it and couldn't wait for their turn to come around!









Check out some of our sister sites: momstown Oshawa-Port Perry and momstown Edmonton-North to see how they incorporated our Educational Ciriculum into their chapters.