Tag: circle time

Hickory Dickory Dock: what children can learn from nursery rhymes?

~ Storykate ~ Leave a comment

Did you know that a simple nursery rhyme can offer significant learning opportunities and extensions? Take Hickory Dickory Dock as an example. Beyond just a catchy tune, this rhyme can support language development, enhance numeracy skills, and even improve fine motor abilities through associated activities.

Here is an example of using puppets to tell the story to children. They can retell the story later.

Nursery rhymes like Hickory Dickory Dock offer children multiple learning benefits. They help children develop language and cognitive skills, as well as introduce them to basic mathematical and sequencing concepts.

For example,

  1. : Nursery rhymes use rhythm and repetition, which are excellent for helping children focus on different sounds in language. This helps develop their phonemic awareness, an essential skill for early reading. Activities like Hickory Dickory Dock with puppets can make this even more engaging.
  2. Repeating rhymes exposes children to new vocabulary. For example, Hickory Dickory Dock introduces words like “clock” and “dock,” expanding their lexicon in a fun context. Interactive activities with rhymes can strengthen word recognition as children associate words with images and actions. I use puppets to tell stories for a reason, especially when doing Hickory Dickory Dock with puppets.
  3. Many nursery rhymes involve numbers, allowing children to practice counting through play. Hickory Dickory Dock, in particular, uses the numbers on a clock, which can help children learn number order and basic time-telling skills. Incorporating puppets can add another layer of interaction.
  4. Activities associated with nursery rhymes, such as gluing pictures in sequence or creating simple crafts, help develop fine motor skills. Doing Hickory Dickory Dock with puppets can enhance this experience.
  5. The repetitive nature of nursery rhymes makes them easy to remember, which strengthens children’s ability to recall sequences and narratives. This can improve their memory skills as they practice reciting the rhyme and remembering the order of events.

In this video, I talk about a lot of extensions you can do with this story, including Hickory Dickory Dock with puppets.

Nursery rhymes are more than catchy tunes

For further insights, check out Storykate’s videos, which explore engaging ways to integrate nursery rhymes into early childhood learning. You might find activities specifically tailored to enhance the learning experience with rhymes like Hickory Dickory Dock.

Hickory, dickory, dock.
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
The mouse ran down,
Hickory, dickory, dock.

Hickory, dickory, dock.
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck two,
The mouse said ooohhh,
Hickory, dickory, dock.

Hickory, dickory, dock.
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck three
The mouse said weeee
Hickory, dickory, dock.

Consider translating nursery rhyme and learning it in one of your community languages for a child who just moved to English - speaking country. Here is a russian version. 

RUSSIAN 
Вышли мыши как-то раз
Посмотреть который час.
Раз-два-три-четыре,
Мыши дёрнули за гири.
Тут раздался страшный звон —
Разбежались мыши вон.

Here is my version of it in both languages👇🏻

https://storykate.com.au/nursery-rhymes-for-multilingual-learning/

Get this wonderful set from Zac Home

Storykate FIRST online Course is OUT!!!

~ Storykate ~ Leave a comment

I am super excited to let my community know that I have created my first ONLINE course. And guess what?! It is on puppetry. If it is a topic you find interesting, especially teaching with puppets, check this out. I promise you will learn a lot from this course, as this is the result of my 20 years of practice of telling stories and teaching young children, inspiring pre-service educators.

https://payhip.com/b/SfHLp

#puppets#puppetsofinstagram

#teachingwithpuppets

#puppetry#circletimefun#earlychildhoodeducation#puppetskate

Word games to teach fluent reading: part 2

~ Storykate ~ Leave a comment

Most children, one way or another, begin to read during the ages of 4-8. Educators can help them acquire reading skills by creating an appropriate atmosphere. In particular, they read books aloud to their child every day or almost every day, and look through books together. Once, in an Australian kindergarten, I met a five-year-old boy who confidently spoke and read (!) in three languages – Russian, English, and Hebrew. When asked who taught him to read, he replied, “My grandmother did!” Intrigued, I decided to wait for his grandmother. Chatting with her, I asked what she did to develop speech and reading skills. “Oh, I don’t do anything special… I read a lot and ask questions about what we read.”

Book About Me

When my child first entered an Australian school, his teacher gave him a wonderful little book a week after he started his studies. A book about Misha. The photos (the teacher intentionally took photos of the child in various situations) were accompanied by captions. Misha on the swings, Misha is working, Misha is reading, Misha is playing with friends, Misha is having lunch, Misha is during the break, Misha is with the teacher, etc. I made him the same book in Russian. Today, “book printing” is possible at home, or you can order a photo book at the nearest photo studio. And it will not only be printed on good paper but also formatted. There’s an example of such a book in the “download” section. The plot could be a trip to the zoo, a joint outing, etc. The text of the book should be very short, with one sentence per page consisting of 3-4 words.

My Little Book

Give each child in your room a book with “The Extraordinary Adventures of _____ ” (insert your child’s name). It’s preferable to compose “adventures” from short sentences, leaving space for their drawings. It’s better to cut off the narration at the most interesting place. This way, reading, storytelling, and writing will become a part of the child’s everyday life.

Magic Book

An amazing pedagogical technique worked for the father of five-year-old Sonya. She was cautious about reading, and not interested in letter games. Dad made a book called “Tales About Sonya”, in which Sonya’s name was highlighted with a bright marker. When he took this book from the shelf, he sincerely surprised her: “Sonya, what is this book? How strange… There’s nothing written in it.”

  • “Nothing written? But my name is here,” Sonya prompts.
  • “I don’t see it. I don’t understand anything, not a single letter.”

Sonya went around the house and made sure that the book was indeed magical. Neither Dad, nor mum, nor grandma could read a single word in this book. And there are letters in it (and it’s obvious!) – they are there.

  • “Yes, it’s a magic book,” confirmed Dad. Only the person it’s written about can read it. This is how Sonya’s stubbornness was overcome.

Poetry Posters

When you already have such poems and songs – posters, it’s time to master echo-reading. Echo-reading is when the teacher reads aloud loudly and expressively, and children track the text with their eyes and repeat after him like an echo. While you read aloud, the child reads with their “inner voice”, and this work is very important for them. “To avoid stumbling when reading aloud,” my teacher Zaitsev believed, “you need to learn to look ahead with your eyes, see punctuation marks, not just read the word, but read it with expression.”

“When learning from the mind,” the teacher reads. “When learning from the mind,” the children immediately repeat, looking at the poster. – “Then it’s not a wonder” (“Then it’s not a wonder,” the children repeat) “and it’s useful to seek” (“and it’s useful to seek”); “but to learn without mind” (“but to learn without mind”),” God forbid” (“God forbid”), “how bad!” (“how bad!”). “I’ll give an example of this” (“I’ll give an example of this”) “from distant lands” (“from distant lands”). “Whoever saw monkeys” (“Whoever saw monkeys”), “they know” (“they know”), “how eagerly” (“how eagerly”) “they mimic” (“they mimic”)”. The text should be divided into intonation-semantic pieces, gradually increasing the periods, bringing them to whole sentences. Echo repetition is a wonderful way to master reading not only for children but also for adults learning a foreign language.

After a couple of repetitions, the child knows the text by heart and can demonstrate how they can read “like an adult”. Reading should be done with feeling, meaning, and emphasis. That’s how teachers taught children: “Read with expression, not monotonously”; “Don’t shout, not everyone around is deaf”; “And you, Matthre, read louder, otherwise not everyone can hear you”. They explained where and how long to pause, and so on.

When I was teaching young children to read, we took turns reading the same text. Choose famous children’s poems, and high-quality texts, ideally cheerful and with some humour.

Story Sequencing

Provide picture cards depicting scenes from a story and have children arrange the cards in the correct sequence, then retell the story using the pictures. I often use story stones for that.

Sight Word Scavenger Hunt

I often hide sight words (e.g., “the,” “and,” “is”) around the room or outdoors, and have children find and read them.

Story Retelling

After reading a story together, have children retell the story in their own words, using picture cards or acting out scenes.

These are just some games to play with words and promote reading. What are your favourite games?

Kodaly method for early childhood educators: a brief introduction

~ Storykate ~ Leave a comment

Exploring Kodaly 

Have you ever thought about adding music to your early childhood education and care program more systematically and effectively? Listen up! I will tell you about KODALY METHOD.

Zoltan Kodaly

Choksy, Abramsom, Gillespie, Woods and York (2001) believe that there is a need for a method in the teaching of music. Moreover, the teacher with clear musical foals and an understanding of the underlying principles of each approach is more likely to choose best suited one (p.1).   Choksy et al. (2001, p.2) identify four characteristics of a teaching method or approach. Firstly, it has an identifiable underlying philosophy or a set of principles. Secondly, pedagogy is a unique and well-defined practice. Thirdly, goals and objectives and, finally, integrity, or, in other words, the raison d’etre must not be commercial.  As the differences between approaches to teaching music for my target age group (0-5) are vast, it was not easy to choose one approach. After extensive reading, I have decided to explore the approach of prominent Hungarian musicologist and theorist Zoltan Kodaly (1882-1967).  Kodaly combined well-known teaching techniques (hand-singing, use of rhythm syllables, solfa) with quality folk and art music in a child-centred curriculum where children sequentially developed their skills through discovery (Forrai, 1998; Tacka and Houlahan, 2008; Choksy, 1999).  Researchers describe the Kodaly method as highly sequential, child developmental, based on active music-making, with the ultimate goal of producing universal music literacy, lifelong skills, excellent music ears, and the fullest development of musicianship inherent in all people (Choksy et al, 2001). 

Kodaly believed that music education to be most effective should start at a very young age (Forrai, 1998).  Adopted by Forrai to the kindergarten context, the Kodaly Method of music teaching proved to be effective both in  Hungary and around the world. 

The idea of singing as the basis of learning resonated with me. Likewise, I shared the appreciation of folk songs as a child’s musical mother tongue (Choksy et al., 2001). Kodaly advocated presenting musical skills and concepts from simple to complex, known to unknown (Mason, 2012), taking into consideration the child’s age and stage of development. 

From Kodaly’s perspective, high-quality art music is nourishment, a comforting elixir. It multiplies all that is beautiful in life (Houlahan & Tacka, 2008, p. 19).  For that reason, I started to build up a classical music library that included lively, calming, mysterious compositions. 

My list included:

  • “Anitra’s Dance”
  • “Morning” and “In the Hall of the Mountain King” from Peer Gynt by Grieg
  • “Peter and the Wolf” by Prokofiev
  • “Carnival of Animals” by Saint Saens;
  • “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Rimsky-Korsakov;
  • Gymnopedie No. 3 by Erik Satie;
  • “Swan lake” and “Nutcracker” by Tchaikovsky;
  • “Devil’s Dance” by Stravinsky, to name a few. 

Every day I introduced a piece of music to the children and encouraged them to listen to it during quiet rest time. Sometimes I asked them to reflect on how the music makes them feel, or which kind of music they like best. I also encouraged children to quietly move, walk, slide and dance to the music. 

Implications

The sociocultural approach (Vygotsky, 1978) emphasises the interactive nature of learning. More knowledgeable others play a significant role in children’s development and learning. DeVries discusses intergenerational music engagement as a great example of creating a “community of learners” (Wenger, 2004). Older people have “funds of knowledge” (Gonzalez, Moll, Amati, 2005) and desire to share their experiences and interact with others. 

So such collaboration in musicking is a positive experience for both age groups. I can see the benefits of utilising the musical experience of older people in school and preschool settings. 

I would start with getting to know the families attending the centre and the music experiences they are already involved in. If found, interested volunteers will be invited to participate in classroom experiences of music making, e.g. introducing the musical instrument they can play during circle time. Like reading helpers at Prep, older people can be involved in formal and informal music sessions. That’s when musically educated older adults can participate and get involved.