Introducing French to your 4-6 yr olds
Bonjour!
We have made this guide in the hopes that it helps you and your 4-6 year olds practice your French together. See below for tips, tricks, activities, programs and more!
Books
Books are a great way to practice your French. We list many book recommendations for all ages, but here’s a quick list on our favourites for this age group. These books will make your children laugh, learn, think and most of all enjoy reading in French!
Couleurs by Hervé Tulles- This one is all about colours and mixing them together. Its interactive and engaging, almost like a game!
Imagine un arbre by Barbara Reid- This books has beautiful plasticine imagery that tells the story about all the different ways that trees are a part of our daily lives.
Nos boucles au naturel by Matthew A. Cherry – A beautiful father/daughter story about loving yourself as you are!
Trop de carottes! By Katy Hudson – A very funny story that helps explain why we should share and not hoard!
Une famille c’est une famille by Sara O’Leary- A beautiful story that helps to explain how each and every family is unique and comes in all shapes and sizes.
Here are some other Book reccomendations
French Beginner Chapter Books for Kids
Looking for some easy French chapter books for kids? I asked our Instagram community which books “sparked a love of reading” for their child, and
Best French Gifts for Kids
Best Gifts for Kids : A French Gift Guide Whether it be the holiday season, or a birthday, gifts are a great way to allow
French books for Mothers Day
Celebrate Mother’s Day this year with these lovely keepsakes that show the beautiful relationship between a mother or caregiver and child. The French books for
French books for Babies and Infants
French books for Babies and Infants A little while back we asked you when you started reading books with your infant/baby and we were surprised
French Activity Books
We love to encourage outdoor play but sometimes, in our cold climate, it is just too cold to play outside. We have come up with
French Winter Books
As winter quickly approaches, and lots of fun out in the snow, there is nothing better than curling up with a good book after all
Workbooks
Our favourite workbook for this age group is Mon grand cahier d’activités maternelle. The activities included are educational but also a lot of fun! It includes tracing, letters, shapes, sizes and pretty much any and all of your kinder topics.
You can find it here in our Amazon store- Click Here
*This is an affiliate link
In general, activity and workbooks are a great way to practice French and can be lots of fun. Check out this blog post for more suggestions to help when Introducing French to your 4-6 yr olds
Try a French learning app
Our favourite French app (although you can switch it to any language) is Edoki Academy Montessori preschool app. This app has SO MANY activities from cooking to cleaning, watering plants, feeding animals, music and so much more. They are continuously adding new programs and activities to this app too so that your child will never get bored and it can grow with them.
Check it out for a one week free trial and get 50% off with the code: AMY50.
Some of our other favourite French apps can be found on our blog post here
And of course we know that screen time isn’t always great, but we came up with a way to make educational apps more hands-on! Engagement and hands-on learning is so important. So just like with our online classes, we suggest bringing out fun tools and use movement to make learning all the more exciting. Next time you bring out the iPad, try adding something hands-on too.
Examples can be colourful toys if you are practicing colours, or an alphabet set (magnets, letter blocks, etc) if you are practicing your letters. This can help to solidify their new knowledge since they are practicing their skills in different ways.
Watch educational French videos
When Introducing French to your 4-6 yr olds, Our OnDemand program is full of French tunes, educational videos, movement games, and more! It’s an ever growing library that allows participants to get French practice in at any time. Our program has been compared to a mini French educational Netflix!
For more information about our OnDemand program – Click Here
Practice French school vocabulary
We have so many cheat sheets that can be used around the house and as part of your daily routines. But we have included this one as a great way to prepare for starting school.
Make French practice FUN!
We have lots of posts on our Instagram page to help with ideas for fun activities all while practicing French. All of the activities posted have French vocabulary along with their pronunciations.
For instance, a letter recognition activity is to write out the alphabet on a chalkboard (or outside), either in order, jumbled, upper or lower case letters. Then ask your child where each letter is by pointing to the letter that you name out. If your child is correct, have them water that letter! You can use a spray bottle or watering can.
Another fun activity is to go out and collect leaves, then you can use them for this outdoor art/science/math activity! Draw a Venn diagram on a piece of cardboard. Go on a leaf hunt to find yellow, red and orange leaves. Glue the red leaves on one side, yellow leaves on the other, and orange in the middle. You can practice naming the colours, discuss that red and yellow mixed together make orange, count the leaves and more!
A fun guess who game
Did you know that we offer a French guess who game that’s available for download? This game comes with instructions as well as support for those learning French. It’s a fun and easy way to practice descriptive words.
Join a virtual French kindergarten program
This program has everything you could ever need to teach a full year of French to a 4-6 yr old. Our program is an immersive French home learning program; the first of its kind! We offer an all-inclusive French as a second language homeschooling option or at-home French support for parents and children ages 4-6yrs old. This program has full step-by-step weekly plans covering the Ontario kindergarten curriculum. French, Math, Science, outdoor education and more is taught (all in French!) Plus the program provides ample support, translations, and pronunciation guides for parents who are learning French alongside their child. If you want to see what its all about before committing to the full program you can try the first week for 18$ plus tax.
Examples of what’s included in the program are things like a memory match game and science worksheet on discovering magnetism.
Use French during dramatic play
Does your child like pretend play? Use our French cheat sheets to practice vocabulary while you play doctor or veterinarian, chef in the kitchen, or while cleaning up! Look through our cheat sheets which can be found on our Instagram page to accompany any dramatic play your child is engaged in. Have an idea for a new dramatic play or cheat sheet we don’t have? Let us know and we’ll be sure to create one!
Join a live virtual class!
Here at 123 Petits Pas we run seasonal French classes for parents and children to learn together. We play, make crafts and experiments, sing, dance and so much more! Our live classes are designed to be an engaging and immersive as possible by providing parents and children the opportunity to learn French through a variety of activities.
We also offer a new program: Beginner Reader Skills! This class is great if you would like to support your child’s beginner reader skills in French. The program leads you step-by-step through engaging language-building activities geared towards your child’s age. Plus it allows you to have a dedicated weekly French time!
Take French learning outside!
During some of our classes we take French learning outside and you can too! Learn some nature vocabulary and then practice it all outdoors on a trail or in your neighbourhood. Use our cheat sheets to take the vocabulary with you outdoors, or use them to create a scavenger hunt or I spy sheet while playing outside.
Join the waitlist!
Our seasonal sessions fill quickly. Join our mailing list to get 48hrs advanced notice of registration opening and our quarterly French freebies!
We hope this guide in Introducing French to your 4-6 yr olds helps you and your little one get started today!