Children can learn a lot about using expression simply by listening to you model the behavior when reading a story, poem, or nursery rhyme. They will, however, learn even more when you give them to opportunity to mimic your behavior.
Although we certainly would not expect a preschooler to be reading fluently and with expression at the age of three or four, they can, at this age, repeat what you have shown them how to do. One way to do this in which your child will most likely begin to mimic your behavior without any prompting from you, is to teach them some action rhymes.
Action rhymes are exactly what they sound to be. A poem or nursery rhyme that is read or sung to a child while performing actions that imitate what is being said. If you have every sung, “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” while connecting your fingers and pretending to rain, you have participated in an action rhyme.
A simple search in a search engine will yield you large number of results. Anything listed as an action rhyme, action poem or finger-play is sure to be a hit with toddlers and preschoolers. Most web sites will include the words and actions listed together and some may even have their collections organized by topic.
You can also find entire books dedicated to action rhymes and finger-plays at your local library.
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Written by BRWI Staff on October 17, 2011
To you and I, fingerplays may get boring and repetitive after the second time hearing one. But to your child, fingerplays offer a wonderful way in which he can expressively tell a short story from start to finish. The ability to complete a fingerplay on his own builds his confidence, and gives him practice with memorization as well as storytelling. They can also offer practice with motor skills
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Written by Laura on January 15, 2010
