Let’s Sing and Dance in French

30 morning sessions per year featuring music and movement to introduce 3- to 4-year-old children from non-French-speaking backgrounds in the Prélaz-Valency neighborhood to the French language.

Objectives of our project: 1. To provide children with a gentle introduction to the French language through nursery rhymes, circle games, finger plays, and French-language nursery games (drawn from the repertoire or composed specifically by the workshop’s teacher-musicians). Words in a language are much easier to learn when they are associated with musical and rhythmic prosody. In this repertoire, the songs and nursery rhymes are short, talk to children about things that are familiar to them, and make extensive use of repetition, rhymes, and very simple melodies to help children commit syllables and words to memory. The gestures, movements, circles, and games associated with them help children retain words through kinesthetic learning. 2. Provide children with an opportunity to interact and share with their primary caregivers (educators/musicians) in a creative setting. 3. Give children the opportunity to form bonds with their peers. Music offers them a chance to share and have a collective experience through body language. 4. Provide an alternative setting to home or the after-school program that encourages children to assert themselves. 5. Help families become part of the neighborhood by holding these workshops at the sociocultural center.

Thirty Thursday mornings each year, children from the neighborhood who speak languages other than French come to the Prélaz-Valency sociocultural center at 9:15 a.m. They are welcomed by two teacher-musicians and two early childhood educators. The welcome session centers around books. From 9:30 a.m. to 10:20 a.m., they participate in an initial group workshop during which they work on specific, theme-based vocabulary through songs and movement games. After snack time, the vocabulary is revisited, this time individually or in smaller groups through specially selected games, symbolic play, books, or coloring pictures that illustrate the songs related to the vocabulary. At regular intervals, parents are invited to actively participate in the morning session.

Prélaz-Valency Socio-Cultural Center, 12c Chemin de Renens, 1004 Lausanne. Prélaz-Valency neighborhood