Let me tell you about a super fun game we played this month! We worked with the nursery rhyme Hickory Dickory Dock:
Hickory dickory dock
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
And he ran down.
Hickory dickory dock.
Each child put on the mouse finger puppet and chose a consonant letter from the basket. The challenge was to change the beginning sounds of the nursery rhyme to match the letter they chose from the basket. The children find this activity SO FUNNY, year after year!
Here's an example for the letter 'S':
Sickory sickory sock
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
And he ran down.
Sickory, sickory, sock.
In addition to wearing the fun puppet, acting out the mouse going up and down, and chanting a nursery rhyme, this activity really strengthens the phonemic awareness skills in young children.
- They first hear the change that peers make in the rhyme.
- Later they can recognize the letter and sound, and make the change themselves.
- Even more advanced children will apply this game to new words or rhymes to invent silly expressions.
- Games like this one set children up for understanding and reading onset/rime patterns later in school.
So give it a try, play with words today!
