too late to tell you about Christmas storytime?

I know, I know, it's February, but I'd been planning to blog about every French storytime that we offer at the library where I work!

New to this blog? Read about our storytime history here:

• Why we started our own storytime


• Making plans for our storytime


• Storytime #1: Autumn and forests


• Storytime #2: Farm animals


• Storytime #3: Under the sea


• Storytime #4: Africa

Our last storytime in December presented books about Christmas and songs about winter (because that's what we know and those were the books we had access to--thanks, Les Petits Livres, for loaning us more books for this storytime!) Belated apologies to anyone attending who doesn't celebrate Christmas. We're volunteers and doing the best that we can!

We read a cloth book about a little rabbit preparing for Père Noël's visit on Christmas Eve,

which featured cute manipulatives (a stuffed rabbit to tuck onto a sled or under the covers, doors to open, ornaments to velcro onto a tree, and so forth)

and the charming Cher Père Noël by Jeanne Ashbé.
(I think we read one other book, but I didn't take notes because, of course, I was going to write a post about it right away!)

In addition to our regular opening song ("Dans la forêt lointaine") and closing song ("Ainsi font font font les petites marionnettes"), we also sang "Vive le vent" and "Clic clac dans les mains" (here are all the words, which I couldn't find on a website):

Refrain: Clic clac
Dans les mains
Ça les réchauffe,
Ça les réchauffe
Clic clac
Dans les mains
Ça les réchauffe bien.

C'est l'hiver,
C'est l'hiver,
Chantent les flocons.
C'est l'hiver,
Bonhomme de neige
Faisons une ronde.

Refrain

C'est Noël,
C'est Noël,
La fête la plus belle.
C'est Noël,
Petit Père Noël,
Je t'attends dans le ciel.

Refrain

For this one, we encouraged the kids to clap their hands and rub their hands together to warm them as directed by the song. For "Vive le vent," since it's to the tune of "Jingle Bells," we passed out the library's bells-on-sticks for the children to shake in rhythm to the music. (Yeah, the French version isn't about bells. At all. But hey, we're volunteers and we're doing the best that we can! Besides, every kid loves to ring bells.)

Our next storytime, "l'amour" (in honor of the upcoming Valentine's Day), is coming up soon, which means I had better blog in the next couple of days about our January storytime (les dinosaures)! Stay tuned....