Many of our classes over the past several weeks have been experiencing Nursery Rhymes.  What is it about these rhymes that have caused them to remain in our western culture on behalf of so numerous years.  In our Village class this semester our beginning unit is  Hickory Dickory Tickle as well as Bounce.  A good portion of the material on behalf of this class comes from classic nursery rhymes. Our lap bounce on behalf of the first couple of weeks was.
Cackle Cackle Mother Goose
Have you any feathers loose?
Truly have I pretty fellow,
Quite sufficient to fill a pillow.
This is not one of the an estimated all popular rhymes as well as a friend of mine took the time to look it up (Thanks Christa)  Google is a great thing. The actual nursery rhyme has a couple more lines at the end:
Here are quills take one or two,
And down to fill a bed on behalf of you.
In Fiddle Dee Dee we are currently bouncing to Dickery Dickery Dare the words read
Dickory Dickory Dare
The pig flew up in the air
The man in brown soon took him down
Dickery Dickery Dare.
This rhyme is often used as a second verse to the much more familiar “Hickory Dickory Dock” 
In Young Child 4 this week the students had to learn to play the rhythm of some popular nursery rhymes on their recorders as well as then had to guess which rhyme their friends were playing. 
So what’s the deal with nursery rhymes?  Here’s what we know
Several studies have shown that there's a strong relation between early knowledge of nursery rhymes as well as success in reading as well as spelling.    The knowledge of nursery rhymes enhances children’s phonological awareness (breakdown of words into individual sounds)  which in turn helps them to learn to read or decode the written word.  Nursery rhymes also help to develop the vocabulary of young children.  These vocabulary words include position words such as -  up, down, around, in, above, on as well as off (these words are often presented as opposites) animals as well as their sounds which we know are motivating on behalf of young children, as well as more!.  In addition to the previous listed benefits of rhymes, children who know a variety of rhymes are taught those rhymes by an adult in their lives.  This means an adult (mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, babysitter…) took the time to interact with the child as well as manufacture the rhyme interesting sufficient to be remembered.  Most rhymes have hand/body movements that go in conjunction with them, melodies which permit them to be sung, or are well suited to lap bounces (we haven’t even gotten into the benefits of bouncing - maybe another post).
This is an interesting website that discusses the origins, history as well as lyrics of numerous nursery rhymes. Check it out on behalf of some fun background information
Wondering how you might interact with your child as well as nursery rhymes?  This site  has some interesting ideas on behalf of children babies through elementary aged children.  Go here on behalf of some other rhymes as well as activities  that are lead a child to read.  And of course as if I could get through a blog post without mentioning Dr. Becky Bailey, her book, “I Love You Rituals” has some great revisions of numerous rhymes with little games you can play with your child(ren).   Here’s a quote from the book  “Connections require eye contact, touch, presence as well as a playful setting, all of which are present when you conduct I Love You Rituals with a child.”  This sounds like what we often do when interacting with our children as well as nursery rhymes.
Here’s a video of one of my favorite I love you rituals.  If you can’t hear the words the little boy says here they are.
A Wonderful Woman lived in a shoe, 
she had so numerous children as well as knew exactly what to do, 
she held them, she rocked them as well as tucked them into bed, 
I Love You I love you is what she said. 
If you think of it request me in class to show you how to do this with your child.

Until I see you…..enjoy a good rhyme with your child