Guide for all ages

Nursery rhymes, songs, and poetry

Nursery rhymes, songs, and poetry are lots of fun for young children, and they also help them learn about the sounds in words. That’s very important for learning phonics, which means connecting sounds and letters.

These rhymes are a wonderful collection that you will want to read over and over with your child. In fact, they will remember them all their lives!

Reading Keep Books with your child

• Teach the rhyme first using hand gestures to illustrate it. If you know the tune, sing it and invite your child to join in.
• Bring out the book and say, “We can read that rhyme in a book!”
• Read the book to the child. Let your child talk about the pictures. It’s good to notice and point to things in the pictures.
• After you have read it once or twice, invite your child to join in and read it with you.
• When you notice your child is actually reading these books (as opposed to singing or reciting), you may teach him/her to point to words. Point right under the words. Be sure that you and your child can both see the words. Stop just a little bit under each word.

More learning

• Let your child color the pictures using colored pencils so the coloring won’t show through. Make sure he/she does not color on the words!
• Keep some of these books in the car to read again. Re-reading is good practice.
• On the back inside covers of some of these books are second verses or additional parts for you to read to your child and enjoy together.