Reading E-Tips from Read to Me!
Nova Scotia’s Early Reading Promotion Program
The Importance of Nursery Rhymes
E-Tip No. 3
Welcome to Read to Me’s Reading E-Tips – a series of tips for reading with your baby in the first year.
There is a reason nursery rhymes have been around for thousands of years – rhymes actually help children learn
to talk and read. Take the well-known rhyme, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”. It may seem like just a silly rhyme,
but it actually contains the building blocks your baby needs to learn language.
Why are Rhymes Important?
Rhymes break words into sound which help your baby to hear the phonemes or individual parts of a
word, as in ‘Twin-kle, twin-kle, lit-tle star’.
From birth and before, babies are drawn to rhythm, in fact the first sound they hear is the beating rhythm
of their mother’s heart. Research has shown that babies are drawn to language that has strong rhythm,
rhyme and beat in the words, such as the beat heard in ‘row – row – row – your – boat’.
Rhymes introduce new words which help build your baby’s vocabulary. Rhymes are fun, and by playing
with the sounds, you are giving your baby the opportunity to learn new sounds and words. Before your
baby learns how to talk, they will practice making sounds by babbling. The sounds in rhymes,
like the long O sounds in Row, Row, Row Your Boat, and the short a sounds in Baa Baa Black Sheep,
will help your baby learn to speak words later on.
The best thing about rhymes is that
they are free, fun and portable!
If you memorize a rhyme or two, you can say
them wherever you and your baby go:
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at the doctor’s office
on a plane
driving in the car
You can use rhymes to calm and entertain your baby as
you go throughout your busy day, and singing a lullaby
can soothe a crying baby to sleep.
Pat-a-cake
Between nine months and a year, many babies start to clap their hands and will enjoy playing clapping games like
Pat-a-cake. Pat-a-cake is a timeless classic nursery rhyme that will help your baby learn hand-eye coordination,
muscle control and rhythm.
Pat-a-cake has a wonderful rhyme that encourages your baby’s phonological awareness (the understanding that
words are made up of individual sounds) which is an important first step to reading. If your baby doesn’t clap
yet, you can still enjoy playing Pat-a-cake by holding your baby in your lap and gently bringing their hands
together on the beat.
aeroijoiuqwerqwerqwerqwer
Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker’s man
(Clap your hands with the beat)
Bake me a cake as fast as you can
(Pretend to stir batter in a bowl)
Pat it and roll it and mark it with ‘B’
(Gently pat baby’s tummy and trace the letter ‘B’)
And put it in the oven for Baby and me!
(Clap your hands with the beat)
Tips for using rhymes with your baby
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Clap along when chanting a rhyme to emphasize the rhythm
Choose nursery rhyme books with bright bold images
Use a silly voice and play with the sounds and words to catch your child’s attention
Sing them, chant them, say them … but most of all have fun with rhymes!
Start with the rhymes you received in your Read to Me! bag: there is a rhyme for each month of your baby’s first
year in the Read to Me! Family Reading Guide and there are lots of classic rhymes on the Hey Diddle Diddle! CD.
You can find more nursery rhyme books at your local library or bookstore. Rhymes are wonderful gifts to give
your baby. Pass along the rhymes that you may have heard as a baby, and discover new ones that will become
family classics, to be handed down for generations to come.
Great Nursery Rhyme Books for Your Baby
Sing a Song of Mother Goose
by Barbara Reid
Big Fat Hen
by Keith Baker
okijiji
Row, Row, Row Your Boat
by Annie Kubler
Great Pat-a-Cake Books for Your Baby
Pat a Cake! Nursery Rhymes
from Child’s Play
Clap Hands
by Helen Oxenbury
okijiji
Pat a Cake!
by Heather Collins
We hope you have enjoyed this Reading E-Tip. You will receive your next E-Tip automatically in three months.
For more book suggestions visit readtome.ca, your local public library or bookstore.
Comments? Email us at [email protected]
Happy Reading from Read to Me!
© 2012 Read to Me!