There is no doubt that toddlers and young children love rhymes and repetitive rhythms. They are great as part of group activities for the shy children all the way through to the high energy ones who love to get into the actions that many rhymes have. Learning rhyme and rhythm with nursery rhymes is a great activity that all children love.
Learning Rhyme and Rhythm with Nursery Rhymes
Some children have struggled to understand rhyming words later on in their education, so learning nursery rhymes while they are still young is a great way to help encourage these important literacy skills as well as boosting their listening and concentration skills. Rhyming also helps to boost children’s brain activity and is a fun way for parents and teachers to get the toddlers to listen to what they are saying. It is also a great way of teaching children what to articulate words and build their memorisation skills while teaching them about classic literature.
As children get older, they are able to work of their creativity skills by making up their own rhymes or extra verses to the nursery rhymes they learnt when they were toddlers.
Rhymes such as 1,2 Buckle my Shoe and 5 Little Monkeys are a great way for young children to practice their math and counting skills. Mary Had a Little Lamb Old McDonald had a farm are great for teaching the names of animals. Hickory Dickory Dock can be a great way to introduce young children to time while Itsy Bitsy Spider and Row, Row, Row Your Boat are great for building vocabulary.
There are dozens of nursery rhymes for children to learn. Below I have created printable packs for the most popular nursery rhymes which can be used with your toddlers, preschoolers and kindergarteners. They can also be used a review for children in grades 1 and 2. Just click on the Nursery Rhyme to be taken to the printable pack for it.