Dancing to Nursery Rhymes: A New Approach to Literacy Development
Dancing to nursery rhymes is not only fun but has enormous educational value for the young child, enhancing both dance and reading literacy. The fusion of dance and nursery rhymes makes for an effective method that supports future reading, language development, and communication.
Creative dance has its own vocabulary -- a language that provides new ways for a young children to express themselves. This kind of movement literacy is transferable to reading and writing skills. Dancing to musical verses which use patterns and rhythms is the first memorization piece for movement and language recall for the young child. Moreover, just like when you learn the principles of a basic narrative, dancing to a nursery rhyme expresses a short story that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. As such, dance is the perfect introduction to teaching story structure to the young child.
Below are a few new ideas that use nursery rhymes as a springboard for dance exploration.
Jack Be Nimble
Line up children behind one another. In the middle of the floor, place an image of a candlestick (could be hand drawn). One at a time, the children jump over the image of the candlestick while they say this rhyme, using their own name: “Jane be nimble, Jane be quick, Jane jump over the candlestick.’
Row, Row, Row, Your Boat
Put children in partners and have them sit cross-legged on the ground facing one another. They then reach out and hold hands across the body, rocking back and forth while they sing the song. On the words “Man overboard,” children scatter to find another partner and repeat the rhyme with a new friend.
Two Little Black Birds
Choose 2 dancers to come up to the front of the class. Recite the words to this poem, inserting their names:
“Two little black birds, sitting on a wall, One named ____, one named ____.” Fly away ____, fly away ____.
Come back ____, come back ____.
When you say the words “fly away ____,” the two children mimic a flying motion to the back of the room, and when you say “come back___,” they then both come back to where they “sat on the wall” at the beginning of the rhyme.
Hickory Dickory Dock
Recite the nursery rhyme below and increase the number each time; as in “the clock struck
one", "the clock struck two.” On hearing the numbers being called out, children show that
number on their fingers and call out the number with you.
Hickory dickory dock,
The mouse went up the clock.
The clock struck one,
The mouse went down,
Hickory dickory dock.
A-Tisket, A-Tasket
Children sit in a circle and everyone sings the nursery rhyme together. One child is chosen and skips around the outside of the circle carrying a small folded letter. When the nursery rhyme ends, the skipper then places the letter behind one of the seated children. It is then their turn to become the skipper. Make sure all children get a turn.
A-tisket, a-tasket,
A green and yellow basket.
I wrote a letter to my love,
And on the way I dropped it.
I dropped it, I dropped it,
And on the way I dropped it.
A little boy he picked it up,
And put it in his pocket.
Sarina Condello is Together Classroom’s Creative Dance Expert. Serena has traveled the world for over 30 years, teaching dance to thousands of children. She also stars as Belle in the Youtube Creative Dance series MOSI + MOO. MOSI + MOO provides countless opportunities for this kind of transferable learning to take place. Click here for 13+ minutes of MOSI + MOO Nursery Rhyme Dances! Old MacDonald + More Nursery Rhyme Dances for Kids.