Autumn leaves are falling down

My favourite season has arrived and it seems E. is enjoying it a lot, too. On the way home from the nursery we always collect some things (leaves, berries, conkers, bark pieces, stones etc.) to play or to do some craft projects with.

I put some contact paper on the window (sticky side out) and on a tray I prepared all the leaves we'd collected. And the sticking started.

Daddy assisted the little artist.

Art critic: Doggie. He sniffed the leaves then moved away.

Final art piece: Autumn leaves are falling down (and some petals)

Another project of ours with the autumn leaves was making a hedgehog. I saw this ideas here.
I drew three hedgehogs (as this was also a family project) and we glued the leaves on their backs.

Serious gluing in process

Final pieces of art

Another leaf craft we've made:
(they are not with real leaves but crepe paper)

More gluing and more sticking

 End result :)

More autumn crafts are on their way. Stay tuned!

Swinging up and down - games in the playground

Swinging and seesawing

When we go to the park, we always visit one of the playgrounds nearby.
As I didn't know a good swing song in English, I asked a good friend of mine, K. and she recommended the following:

Swinging up and down in my great big swing,
Swinging up and down in my great big swing,
Swinging up and down in my great big swing,
Won’t you be my darling?

 

Looking all around in my great big swing,
Looking all around in my great big swing,
Looking all around in my great big swing,
Won’t you be my darling?

 

Swaying back and forth in my great big swing,
Swaying back and forth in my great big swing,
Swaying back and forth in my great big swing,
Won’t you be my darling?

 

Swinging up and down in my great big swing,
Swinging up and down in my great big swing,
Swinging up and down in my great big swing,
Won’t you be my darling?

By the way K. is on facebook with her Rhyming nursery. She's got lots of great ideas to have fun in English with kids.

Another playground game that an 11-month-old can enjoy is the seesaw. Here is a song to sing along:

See Saw Margery Daw,

Johnny shall have a new master;

Johnny shall earn but a penny a day,

Because he can't work any faster.

I really like the Gracie Lou character, so here is a version of it:

 

 

This song has been made into a swing song by Helen Doron. I don't want to breach any copyrights so here is the lyrics only:

See Saw Margery Daw,

Johnny is swinging with granny;

He is swinging and it's lots of fun

And it can be very funny.

Well, I sing it with "mommy" instead of "granny" and I, of course, replace "Johnny" with E.

I also know some other seesaw rhymes:

See-Saw Sacradown,
Which is the way to London town?
One foot up, the other foot down,
That is the way to London town.

 

or

See-Saw, up and down,
Tommy goes up, Tommy goes down.

 

I'll be back with more playground stuff.

 



Walking in the park in Enlgish - birds, trees and flowers

Every morning we go out for a walk. E. is the most attentive at this time of the day. At the beginning I was rather tense talking in English while we were walking and meeting other people, but by now I've got used to it.

On our way I name whatever we see. I try to pay attention to which direction she looks and what she sees. As I'm behind her, it's not easy. So what I say is:

"Look, there's a pigeon. She's eating." or "The pigeons have flown away."



"The pigeons have flown away."

"Can you see that big tree? The leaves are all green."

Pansies in the flowerbed

"Let's smell the flowers. Atishoo. Atishooooo." (Here she smiles or even laughs at this.)

"Look, this flower is purple, and this one is white. And your favourite colour is here. It's yellow."

"What is buzzing? It's a bee, flying from one flower to the other."

We were blowing dandelions: "Look, mommy's blowing the dandelion." (minimum 10 times :) )

"I'll taste this blowball."

If we see a dog: "Look, what's coming? A doggy. (She screams or says da-da)

If we go on a bumpy road I make it even bumpier and shake the pushchair a little: "Bumpy, bumpy, bumpy" (She enjoys it as well and grabs the sides of the pushchair hard)



Two pigeons

Today we have counted three pigeons and two doves: "One pigeon, two pigeons, three pigeons.""Are those pigeons? Nooooo. They're doves. One dove, two doves"

These are some of the example, but as usual I'm talking to her continuously about what we see around us. She likes touching (and picking) leaves from the bushes. She is pointing at things so I name them (flowers, animals, people etc.)

Of course, I don't know a lot of flowers and tree types, but I'm working on collecting some of the most common ones, which can be found in our area. I don't like the long lists of vocabulary which include ALL the plant names. We need a small part of them only. The other thing is that I, myself, really need to learn them. I'm getting old, I have to spare some memory storage place in my head.

I don't believe saying only "flower" or "tree" when we name plants is natural. In Hungarian I name them exactly (the ones I know, as I have deficiency in this field even in my mother tongue).

So here is a small collection of useful vocabulary concerning nature or rather wildlife in Budapest parks:

Birds:

crow

dove

blackbird

house sparrow

great tit ;)

swallow

woodpecker

magpie




English	Magyar
magpie	szarka
sparrow	veréb
crow	varjú
swallow	fecske
pigeon	galamb
dove	gerle
blackbird	feketerigó
great tit	széncinege
woodpecker	fakopáncs
warbler	énekesmadár

Trees:

acacia

willow

horse chestnut

poplar

beech tree

oak

sycamore

English	Magyar
chestnut tree	vadgesztenyefa
acacia	akácfa
beech tree	bükkfa
oak tree	tölgyfa
willow	szomorúfűz
sycamore	platán
pine	fenyő
birch tree	nyírfa
poplar	nyárfa

Flowers:


forget-me-not

daisies

daffodils

dandelion or the so-called "blowball" or "clock"



dandelion in full bloom

geranium



flowering almond

golden chain

hyacinth





lavender



bluebells



violet pansy

peony

of course, tulips



lilac






English	Magyar
lilac	orgona
golden chain	aranyeső
dandelion	gyermekláncfű, pitypang
daisy	margaréta
forget-me-not	nefelejcs
pansy	árvácska
begonia	begónia
tulip	tulipán
flowering almond	babarózsa
daffodil	nárcisz
hyacinth	jácint
geranium	muskátli
peony	pünkösdi rózsa
lavender	levendula
bluebell	harangvirág