Hey. It’s Me. You know…. the girl who created an entirely brand new website this summer and then fell off the face of the earth.
Yep…. that’s me! So it turns out that this back to school time in the school year is pretty draining and demanding. Especially in kindergarten. My life has been consumed by being a mom, wife, teacher, (back – to – school teacher I might add!), creator of #allthethings, living at the baseball fields with BOTH of my boys playing Fall Ball, sitting in on a few district committees, and trying to get some sleep in between all of that!
BUT….. these last 8 weeks of school have been pretty AMAZING despite all of the back to school demands that come along with it! I honestly can’t believe we are in the middle of October… but I have been blessed with a pretty awesome group of students this year! We are rockin’ and rollin’ down in Kinderland and things are going pretty smooth!
During the first 8-10 weeks of school, one of the things that I incorporate into my literacy plans is NURSERY RHYMES!
Many people say that nursery rhymes are outdated…. they are for pre-school…. they are too short to have any value… etc…
WELL.… Let me blow your mind for a minute 😉
Nursery Rhymes are extremely valuable in a K-2 classroom! Research has proven that nursery rhymes have multiple benefits for students throughout their early literacy career.
***Did you know that a student’s vocabulary for entering into kindergarten has DROPPED significantly over the last 20 years?! In 2000, a study was conducted that showed an average kindergartener coming in with approximately 10,000 words.
Can you guess what that number was in 2015 when the same study was conducted again? 2,500 words. Now you don’t have to be good at math to figure out that the number went DOWN. Like a lot. While we could get into an entirely different blog post about WHY that number has dropped…. I wanted to focus on a way that could help that number go back up!
Research states that Nursery Rhymes are one of the top 3 tools to use when trying to increase student vocabulary!
Nursery rhymes were written a LONG time ago…. and many use words that we typically don’t use in our everyday language with students. Reading nursery rhymes in your classroom can help students increase vocabulary DAILY…. just by simply reading a short VALUABLE nursery rhyme!
I created these posters for some popular nursery rhymes that I enlarged on the copy machine!
You can grab a set of these posters HERE.
Research also suggests that Nursery Rhymes are great for building fluency in new readers. Nursery Rhymes often have a certain rhyme and rhythm, making them easier to read for our students! And a bonus… they are often pretty silly too!
Throughout the week, we read through the nursery rhyme, we touch read, we identify vocabulary words, rhyming words, and any words to match our phonics pattern (which is usually a letter sound or word family!).
One of the things my students LOVE…. is having a copy of the nursery rhyme for themselves.
You can grab this small set of books HERE.
Once students have heard and recited the nursery rhyme multiple times… they build a confidence while they are independently touching and reading their own copy! These books can then go into their independent book boxes, sent home, or just used for additional reading practice!
I think my most favorite nursery rhyme activity of all…. has to be the Build and Read!
This nursery rhyme activity stays in my fluency center because my students absolutely LOVE building and reading them!
This FUN and ENGAGING station has minimal prep…. but creates a year-long station! There are SO many activities you can do with this one station.
My students will build the nursery rhyme, count the words, find words with ___ letters, find words that begin with ___, identify rhyming words, illustrate the nursery rhyme, read the nursery rhyme, write the nursery rhyme…. and SO MUCH MORE!
You can grab the mini set HERE.
Directions to assemble are in the download.
Sooooo….. still think Nursery Rhymes are just for toddlers? Too short for any value? THINK AGAIN! Nursery Rhymes are a simple, yet powerful tool to utilize in your classroom DAILY. Students will benefit from the important literacy concepts that can be taught with a simple nursery rhyme! Just give it a try….. once your students fall in love with Nursery Rhymes…. you’ll never teach without them!
Until next time (which hopefully will not be a 3-month hiatus!)…. Happy Teaching!
Wowzer…thank you for these amazing freebies. How generous of you. I will definitely use these in my kindergarten classroom. ❤️
Thank you so much. I love the readers!
Such an important post! Thank you for bringing attention back to these powerful tools. My mom read them to me, I read them to my own kids, and I have always used them in my classroom. Just attended another training emphasizing their importance. Glad you are back, and thanks for the freebies!!
Amazing post! I teach first grade with A LOT of different levels as well as a huge ESL population. This is going to be a great addition for everyone! Thank you so much!
Thank you! I have long said the one of the keys to unlocking reading and vocabulary for children are Nursey Rhymes. Our district pushed us away from those but I’m bringing them back out! Love the build and read envelopes!!
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Will you be making more resources with different nursery rhymes? I LOVE this and the simplicity to make fluency fun! Thanks so much for sharing
This has been so timely to read! I did a shared read with a book called “Little Jack Horner, Live from the Corner” from Scholastic Books to a 2nd and 3rd Graders. Only two students new the rhyme and when I recited a few others and asked who they thought the author was I got R.L. Stien! We have lots of work to do!
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