Nursery Rhymes Aren't Just for Grandmas!

Generation X has seemed to distance themselves from the good, old-fashioned nursery rhyme. Jack and Jill, Little Bo Peep, and the cow that jumped over the moon are vague characters to many students I see entering kindergarten. While the stories may be antiquated and lack the CGI animation today's millennium children crave, important emerging literacy skills are learned from repeated exposure to nursery rhymes.

Rhyming is an early literacy skill that helps students learn about the sounds within words and, later, word families that can be used when attempting to decode or spell an unknown word. As easy as rhyming seems, we are actually starting to see a declining trend in rhyming ability as assessed in kindergarten literacy screening in the fall. Teaching nursery rhymes at home  can help your child prepare for rhyming tasks that are essential to learning how to read and write.

Many nursery rhymes have been set to tunes, and their verses can be used as lyrics for a fun sing-along! Caroline and I enjoy singing "Hey Diddle Diddle" and "Jack and Jill" in the car. Now that she is familiar with the rhymes and can recite them with me, I often do what teachers call a "cloze" activity with the rhymes: While reciting or singing the nursery rhyme, I stop and allow her to "fill in the blank" when it comes to the rhyming pairs. For example, I might sing, "Hey Diddle Diddle, the cat and the _______" and allow her to complete the rhyming pair. Or, I might say, "Jack and _____ went up the _____ to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell ____ and broke his ____ and Jill came tumbling after," allowing time for her to complete each line by filling in the correct rhyme. If you need some ideas for nursery rhymes, I love the "Webbing Into Literacy's Rhyme-A-Week" series with downloadable rhyme cards, rhyming picture cards, and riddle rhymes. These can be downloaded and printed for free. I have made binders with all of the materials for use in my classroom, but they tend to matriculate home every couple of months because Caroline loves "reading" the picture cards and figuring out the rhymes.

I also work on rhyming with Caroline at the grocery store, while waiting for our food to arrive at a restaurant, or any other time I need to keep her occupied by playing "Rhyme Tag." I say a word, and then she identifies a word that rhymes, then I identify another word that rhymes, and so on until we run out of rhyming words. For example:

Mommy: Cat
Caroline: Hat
Mommy: Sat
Caroline: Bat

We like to count how many rhyming words we can come up with before we have to start a new list. It's an easy way to pass the time while also working on developing important literacy skills!

Alphabet Knowledge in the Automobile!

I would certainly win American Idol...... if I could carry a tune. The only things that get to hear my singing voice are my children and the steering wheel. However, songs and poems can play a huge role in developing alphabet knowledge- the primary building block on which a foundation for literacy is based!

In the car, we are always singing. Caroline (3 1/2) will sing along to every word, while Camden (1) tries to match our "noise" with his own random vocalizations. While the traditional Alphabet Song is a good start (try singing is backwards with your kids to mix things up a bit), I wanted to share some other 'tried and true' songs to help your children learn their letter sounds.


"The A says /a/." This a personal favorite that I learned from a colleague in my reading clinic experience
for my master's degree two summers ago. It is sung to the tune of  "The Farmer in the Dell." The leader recites each letter of the alphabet and the corresponding sound using the following format: "The ___ says ____. The ___ says ____. Every letter has a sound, the ____ says ____." (Example: "The A says /a/. The A says /a/. Every letter has a sound, the A says /a/." You continue substituting letters all the way to Z, thus working on letter names, letter sounds, and alphabetical order all in one song! It usually takes us about 5-7 minutes to get through, so make sure you aren't just running down the street when you start this song.

Another great song is "Apples and Bananas." It has been recorded by various artists, but the Raffi version is my personal favorite. If you want to be technical, this song works on medial vowel phoneme isolation and substitution, which is just  fancy way of saying that it helps children learn to identify that there are different sounds within a word and how to change the middle sound to make a new word.

I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas
I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas

I like to ate, ate, ate ay-ples and ba-nay-nays
I like to ate, ate, ate ay-ples and ba-nay-nays

I like to eat, eat, eat ee-ples and bee-nee-nees
I like to eat, eat, eat ee-ples and bee-nee-nees

I like to ite, ite, ite i-ples and by-ny-nys
I like to ite, ite, ite i-ples and by-ny-nys

I like to ote, ote, ote oh-ples and bo-no-nos
I like to ote, ote, ote oh-ples and bo-no-nos

I like to oot, oot, oot oo-ples and boo-noo-noos
I like to oot, oot, oot oo-ples and boo-noo-noos
Next post- the use of those good-old-fashioned nursery rhymes to develop literacy!