What is a Nursery Rhyme?

A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem, rhythm or song that is taught to kids mostly when they begin to attend nursery and also by parents at home. Learning these verses and rhymes helps in the development and overall understanding of vocabulary as the child grows from being a toddler to a little boy or girl. There are many rhymes that deal with counting, alphabets, animals, and fruits, assisting the in all round development of children. Rhymes have rhythm and that encourages children to have fun with music. Moreover, these have particular actions, dances or motions which children will gradually associate with a particular song/rhyme. Each rhyme, poem or song has a rhythm which aids kids in remembering the words they contain, ultimately helping in the development of auditory memory skills in kids. The golden age for memory development is widely believed to be between ages 6-9. During this time a child is able to memorize quickly, plus remember things for a greater span of time, rather longer than any other period of time during their life span. I have also heard it said that children, who cannot yet read, remember better than their peers who can read, as the non-readers cannot refer back to the text for information but have to remember everything they have seen or heard. Nursery Rhymes Are Captivating and Colourful Pre-school songs and nursery rhymes have fanciful and captivating stories, vivid language and the characters are hugely colourful, these songs and rhymes have caught the imagination of children and fascinated them for centuries additionally children have been introduced to a world that though does not exist in reality but certainly helps them expand their imaginations beyond realms of this globe. These rhymes and songs tell us about dishes that run, about people who live in shoes, an egged shaped Humptey Dumptey who sits on the wall - what better way to introduce children to the fascinating world of literature, storytelling, make-believe and play-acting. Develop Vocabulary and Other Concepts Typically, a nursery rhyme consists of easy to understand vocabulary plus a catchy rhyme. This allows children too easily learn to sing the nursery rhyme, and because of this particular aspect nursery rhymes are more often than not used as a means to assist young children build their vocabulary. Many a times counting is present in a nursery rhyme, thus children starting learning how to counting while having fun using nursery rhymes. Children are also taught to sing in a rhythm and then they are gradually introduced to reading the same rhyme they have been singing. Upon learning a certain nursery rhyme a child, she or he will also start following that particular rhyme or poem on the page, in this manner many children start learning the fundamentals of reading. A large number of nursery rhymes contain mathematical concepts, such as time, height, counting, measurement, temperature, position, weather volume, etc... you can take this opportunity and use the available concepts to develop vocabulary. Parents are encouraged to take up reading with and to their kids as this will get them excited of 1

doing things that you read and tell them about thus assisting in enhancing their language skills. Ideas for Teaching Songs, Nursery Rhymes and Poems There are many different methods which can be used and applied when attempting to teach nursery rhymes to children. No child knows a song, poem or nursery rhyme by birth and each child has to be at some point introduced. Upon introducing a rhyme to the child for the first time you can read it but it would be better if you would sing it while showing some pictures to them. Encourage them to sing along with you. Rhymes that contain activity Rhymes contain words about many kinds of activities that children take up in their every day life, like running, dancing, creating paper toys, colouring, drawing and many more. If rhymes that have similar wordings are taught to them then it shall assist them in being able to identify very quickly with that activity. Also make use of the dearest toys while enacting or singing the rhymes and poems, like by holding their bunny toy and use the bunny's hands to show them how to brush their teeth, once they see their favourite stuffed toy brushing its teeth they too shall find brushing their own teeth a fun activity to do. Also songs like Little Miss Muffet, Humptey Dumptey, Jack and Jill, Hickory Dickory Dock and Hide And Seek are great example of activity nursery rhymes that immensely benefits children by improving their all round activeness. Using Nursery Rhymes to Teach Children New Concepts 1. The use of rhymes fits aptly when trying to reinforce other kindergarten and preschool lessons. For instance, Hickory Dickory Dock could well be used where time is being mentioned or being used as description. Create a cardboard clock with string like hands to show the movement of clock's hands, also allow the children to move the strings while the song is being played or sung. 2. Another rhyme called Five Little Monkeys At The Zoo is a great way to teach the kids about a unit on numbers. Create (or ask the children to make) 5 paper monkeys, and when the rhyme is in progress the children can be asked to out the correct number of monkeys while each of the corresponding rhyme verse is read out. The rhyme One Two Three Four also works for this in a similar way. 3. The rhyme Monday's Child is apt while teaching kids about the different days of the week. There is another lovely weekday song called Sneezing that reads this way: If you sneeze on Monday, you sneeze for danger; Sneeze on a Tuesday, kiss a stranger; Sneeze on a Wednesday, sneeze for a letter; Sneeze on a Thursday, something better.

Sneeze on a Friday, sneeze for sorrow; Sneeze on a Saturday, joy to-morrow. 4. Also rhymes can be used to teach children about the changes in languages and customs that have occurred over a period in time. Admittedly many words found in rhymes are somewhat outmoded but their modern-day equivalents can be found. For instance, in the nursery rhyme Old Mother Hubbard, tell the kids that these days cupboard is prevalent. That's not all, rhymes also act as a means of telling kids some really interesting differences in the way we live presently and how people lead a rather simple life long ago. For instance, in the rhyme Rub-a-dubdub, there are three Men in a Tub, one of those three is a candle-stick maker. So you can tell them that many many years ago electricity wasn't available thus candles were a source for light. Jack and Jill fetches water; by reading this rhyme you can tell the kids that how water was sourced from wells and the carried all the way back home many hundred years ago. There are many rhymes, songs and poems that you can use to teach children songs and conversely while teaching songs you can also teach children on what these rhymes have to convey. We also have a huge collection of lullabies and nursery rhymes to help keep alive the traditions of mums and dads singing their children to sleep.