Lizzi Ogle – Tremont District Library 1 Early Literacy Tip Tuesday September 15th – Learning with Music Hi everyone and welcome to another installment of Early Literacy Tip Tuesdays. Throughout this video series we are discussing the Five Practices of Early Literacy: Talking, Singing, Reading, Writing, and Play. Last week we concluded our discussion of the Talking Practice and learned some helpful tips about asking our children questions and developing their critical thinking skills. Because the next Practice, Singing, is very similar to talking, we’ll be discussing it in just one video this week. Like Talking, Singing helps to develop a child’s vocabulary and communication skills. Singing earns its place as a Practice of its own, though, because studies show that children learn so much and so well through rhythm and rhyme. Music and singing helps develop vocabulary and language, introduces new concepts, and even helps to develop fine and gross motor skills. Learning words through music helps children to learn the sounds of words and their language. Because music stretches words and adds a tune to them, they are distinct and different from each other. Young children are very good at deciphering between sounds, this is why babies inherently smile when we use happy voices even if they don’t understand the words we are using. As children get older, music helps continue to grow their vocabulary and help them understand it. One of my favorite examples of playing with the sounds of language in a song is Raffi’s “Apples and Bananas”. If you haven’t heard this song, the basis is that each verse you change the vowels in the words “eat”, “apples”, and “bananas”, resulting in silly sounding words like “ I like to oot, oot, oot ooples and boonoonoos”, and so on. Even though pre-school age children won’t know the concept of vowels yet, they can identify that these new words sound silly and out of place! Encouraging children to play with different sounds in their Lizzi Ogle – Tremont District Library 2 language helps them to understand how language is broken up into many different sounds. Many children’s songs introduce new concepts like patterns, spelling, and counting. Seeing patterns in songs is easy for adults and even elementary aged children. Hearing repetition in a song's chorus and seeing events progress in the verses help young children to establish sequencing skills. Take “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” for example. The repeated lines of “Old MacDonald had a farm E, I, E, I, O… And on that farm he had a….” are great base lines to remember and come back to in between each animal. Adding in different animals each verse creates anticipation in the story that contrasts well with the familiarity of the opening lines. Counting is another concept first introduced in song and rhyme. Before children understand how to use numbers, they can recite rhymes that count up or down. Think of “5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed”, “Hickory Dickory Dock”, or “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe”. Music helps children develop gross and fine motor skills as well! Have you ever seen a toddler wiggling along to a song? Not only is it super cute, it’s also helping to build their core muscles! Finger plays with songs help children define their fine motor skills. Try teaching your toddler “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”. As they perfect each hand movement they are working on their fine motor skills while having fun. If you’re looking for more fun finger plays or interactive songs, check out JBrary on YouTube. Jbrary is a great source for nursery rhymes, finger plays, and other interactive songs for babies, toddlers, and preschool aged children. Incorporating the Practice of Singing into daily life with a young child is easy. Just like talking about everything you are doing, try singing about things you are doing! Help to establish routines by singing songs about hand-washing, or getting ready for bed. If you’re looking for song based books, check out Jane Cabrera. Cabrera adds Lizzi Ogle – Tremont District Library 3 bright, colorful illustrations to classic rhymes that your child is sure to love. Check your local library for CD’s to listen to on the go or during playtime as well. Here’s a few of my top picks that we have here at Tremont District Library! 1. Baby Einstein CD’s: Just like the videos, Baby Einstein CD’s include both classic musical pieces and songs with silly sounds to grab the youngest of the listener's attention. 2. There are lots of Nursery Rhyme CD’s out there, but Laurie Berkner is one of my favorite kid’s musicians to cover them. Raffi also gets a mention because I loved listening to him so much growing up. He has lots of original songs! 3. And this certainly isn’t the end of our collection, but it is the last one I’ll mention: Bobs and Lolo. Bobs and Lolo are a musical duo who sing songs about getting outside, counting, getting clean, being a friend, and really just about anything that is relevant to a busy bee kiddo. Their songs are great for connecting with routines. Okay, that’s it for the Practice of Singing. We covered a lot today! Thank you so much for joining me once again for an Early Literacy Tip Tuesday. Next week we’ll start our discussion on the next practice: Reading and why reading aloud is so important for pre-readers (and experienced readers too!). See you all next week! Book/Media Recommendations: Jane Cabrera’s One, Two, Buckle My Shoe & If You’re Happy and You Know It Baby Einstein CD’s The Laurie Berkner Band Raffi Bobs and Lolo Articles for more information: Lizzi Ogle – Tremont District Library 4 https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/1514-beyond-twinkle-twinkle-using- music-with-infants-and-toddlers https://www.naeyc.org/our-work/families/10-ways-babies-learn-sing-to-them
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