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Nursery rhymes

Nursery rhyme

Nursery rhymes

What to do with this activity?

Sing or say nursery rhymes with your child. Sit your child on your lap facing you. Praise your child when they say the words with you.

Here is a traditional nursery rhyme with a lovely nonsense story. Look at the picture above and laugh about what the cow and cat are doing. 

Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle.
The cow jumped over the moon.
The little dog laughed to see such fun,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.

Click on the yellow activity link below to remind yourself of the words of lots of nursery rhymes

The repetition and rhythm of rhymes help your child understand language, and their confidence builds as they learn to say them. 

 

  • Why am I doing this?

    Reading aloud combines the benefits of talking, listening and storytelling within a single activity and helps to build the foundation for language development. From stories your child learns many things such as how to listen and concentrate, new words and understand why things happen. They also learn to put ideas in order, develop their memory skills, notice how spoken words relate to words on the page and learn how to predict. Reading gives your child a chance to develop their own opinions, build visual skills and learn how to handle books.

  • How can I do more?

    If you can spare 10 minutes a day to read with your child you can make a huge difference to their development. You don’t have to read a book, you could read a comic, magazine article or a story you have made up yourself. The most important thing is that you enjoy it, that way your child will too.

    Remember a good storybook is one that you the reader and your child find interesting. It might be funny or entertaining. Ask yourself whether your child would enjoy it and be able to listen to it. Are the pictures well drawn? Is it well written? Do you like it? You may be the one reading it, over and over, and over!

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