Nursery Rhymes are important to young children’s development of pre-reading skills. Nursery rhymes help children learn phonological (sound) concepts in fun and engaging ways. They also allow children to hear and practice fluency with the English language. Nursery Rhymes are great venues to teach rhyming, beginning sounds, develop a deeper and more varied vocabulary, enhance listening skills, memory skills, gain confidence and have fun with language. Nursery Rhymes are perfect for teaching the foundational skills needed for a child to become a good reader.
How I Use Nursery Rhymes
I focus on one nursery rhyme for two weeks (Update: With the kinder team I am now on we do one Nursery Rhyme a week. So, many more have been added since I first made this page.). On Monday of the first week I send home a Note and Retell Pieces for my families. The purpose is two fold. One, since the note includes the nursery rhyme lyrics, it allows my families to know what version and how much of the rhyme we are working on. Second, the retell pieces allow for practice and memorization work at home in a fun way.
Click the Links Below to Access the PDF Version of Note & Retell Pieces
I use the Nursery Rhyme Readers mostly as morning work. However, they would be great as an independent center or directed center as well. These readers can go home on the day they are assigned giving my students and their families another way to practice the rhyme at home or they can stay at school in a book box that students use for various activities.
Click the Links Below to Access the PDF Version of Student Readers
Nursery Rhyme Teacher Readers are full color one page per page duplicates of the Student Readers. These are great for whole group reading, or home school situations or any other time you only have need for one copy of the reader.
Click the Links Below to Access the PDF Version of Teacher Readers
Count the Objects I use as morning work. Its fairly simple and straight forward and easily completed independently after its first introduction.
Click the Links Below to Access the PDF Version of Count the Objects
What’s the Missing Number requires a little more help than count the objects and is best for end of the year pre-k or mid-year kinder. Each page has a number line that assists children in the completion of the work. I recommend reviewing the What’s the Missing Number pages to see where in the year you should plan to teach a certain rhyme as these pages vary in difficulty.
Click the Links Below to Access the PDF Version of Missing Number
Nursery Rhyme Sequencing are a great way to assess a child’s story sequencing abilities. You can also ask deeper level questions based on the child’s completed work.
Click the Links Below to Access the PDF Version of Sequencing
Nursery Rhyme Notebook: My kinder team is always working on making our units better. This year I created this Nursery Rhyme Notebook to go along with out Nursery Rhyme Unit. We have moved to doing one Nursery Rhyme a week so this notebook has 35 nursery rhymes! And just in case you hadn’t already noticed I added them to the other sections here in Nursery Rhymes. In the notebook there is a place for students to earn a Golden Ticket for memorizing each Nursery Rhyme.
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