Nursery Rhymes

Nursery rhymes play an important role in the lives of our young children. Children love to chant and sing these wonderful rhymes. In fact it is so much fun, they have no idea that they are learning valuable reading skills.

Rhyming words help build phonemic awareness. Nursery rhymes expose children to great vocabulary words, and they tell entertaining stories with a beginning, middle, and end.

Unfortunately, many students come to school without ever hearing these wonderful tales. That is why we learn several of them during library time. I read them aloud and have students listen for rhyming words. Then I teach them the rhyme, line by line, by having them repeat each line along with the motions. Then we say the the whole rhyme together several times while doing the motions. Hopefully many of these precious students go home and teach them to their younger siblings.

In the video above, kindergarteners are acting out and reciting one of my favorite nursery rhyme about Little Jack Horner.