Nursery Rhymes: Not Just for Babies!

Activities for younger children

• Create word families. Use refrigerator magnets to spell a word ending (-ap). Have your child put other letters in front of the word ending to create rhyming words (tap, cap, map, lap).
• Fill in the blank. Read children's poems aloud and leave off the final word, having your child fill in the missing rhyming word:
  
  "Run, run, as fast as you can,
  You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread ____."


• Make TV time a time for learning. Choose programs with a focus on reading. Check out PBS' Between the Lions, for children ages 4-7, or Reading Rainbow, for ages 4-8.

Activities for older children

• Write a swap poem. You write one line of a poem, and have your child write the next line, matching the rhythm, and rhyming the last word. (Hint: Use words that are easy to rhyme!)
• Create a rhyming dictionary. Have a page for –op words, and –end words, and –ing words, and –oat words, and then move on to more complex letter patterns like –ouble (trouble, double).
• If kids don't like reading, try poetry! Poems are short, provide important practice with reading fluency, and give reluctant readers a sense of accomplishment.

Some good poetry books for kids:

• Sing to the Sun, by Ashley Bryan
• In the Eyes of a Cat: Japanese Poetry, by Demi
• This Big Sky, by Pat Mora
• The Random House Book of Poetry for Children, edited by Jack Prelutsky
• A Child's Garden of Verses, by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Any book by Dr. Seuss!

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