Adding Actions to Nursery Rhymes: Why?
For Toddler Twosday, we invite you to spice up those nursery rhymes by adding in some actions! Why? Not only do they get boring for you, but they teach so many skills!
Nursery rhymes are a great pre-literacy activity. Ask any teacher and they will tell you, rhyming is SO HARD to teach, but one of the pre-cursers needed for children to learn how to read! Nursery rhymes are LOADED with… you got it, rhymes!
Now, onto actions - why include them? This teaches:
Imitation skills, which believe it or not, is one of the major foundational skills to learning how to talk!
Motor skills, using their body in new, and at times scary, ways! Jumping is an action that toddlers should be exploring at this point. Getting two feet off the ground can be a terrifying experience, so it’s okay if they think they are jumping and only one foot comes up briefly.
Cognitive skills, problem-solving, “How do I move my body to look like mommy’s?” in addition, nursery rhymes teach new vocabulary, and what better way to learn new words than to DO THEM! Lastly, all of those tech-y toys you have for your child to learn their letters, colors, shapes, and numbers… won’t teach them as quickly as learning through play - and nursery rhymes with action? Well, that is play.
Social-emotional skills, where do I even begin? When your toddler is having fun doing these actions WITH YOU, you can comment on this. “I can tell you’re having fun because you’re laughing.” “Your smile tells me you are very happy!” In addition, some nursery rhymes don’t always elude to having positive emotions, like Humpty Dumpty. He fell apart and no one could put him back together. This could be a sad situation! Model the emotion sad with a frown and maybe pretend crying, explain why you’re pretending to be sad. Pretend play is imperative to increasing language and cognitive skills. This is a great activity to introducing the concept of pretending.
Discover your toddlers social-emotional, cognitive, and motor skills here: www.babiescannotwait.com/screen! If you have any questions, email us at info@babiescannotwait.com.
