This week in nursery, our focus has been on traditional nursery rhymes.  In this digital age of Baby Shark, Crazy Frog etc, traditional nursery rhymes are not being learned by as many children.  The importance of learning rhymes has been widely researched  and rhymes are considered important for language acquisition and help with speech development. They help children develop auditory skills such as discriminating between sounds and developing the ear for the music of words.  We tend to speak more slowly when reciting rhymes and our speech is clearer, and easier for children to copy.  Children who have a good knowledge of rhymes find learning to read easier too.

We have been having fun with rhymes this week – we have had great discussions about the subjects of the rhymes – often talking about what happened in the “olden days”.  The old woman who lived in the shoe and 3 blind mice are no longer particularly “pc” but raised issues of fairness and cruelty, which our children were quick to recognise.  We had a fun Nursery Rhyme Quiz too, which showed us that lots of our children don’t know many of the most popular old rhymes.  For this reason,  and because we are enjoying our learning, we are going to extend our focus for another week.

Mrs Stilwell sent us this link to a really nice wee apple rhyme which we are going learn in nursery- its got suggestions for use with babies and toddlers for development of language, and it’s great for counting skills too!

http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/bookbug/bookbug-song-and-rhyme-library/ten-red-apples

We hope you enjoy it!!