Hidden Meanings of Nursery Rhymes

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We have all grown up with the well-known set of nursery rhymes, such as “Humpty Dumpty,” “Rock-a-Bye, Baby”, or “Mary, Mary Quite Contrary”. It has been said that if a child knows eight nursery rhymes by heart by the time they are four years old, they are usually among the best readers and spellers in their class by the time they are in third grade. Being an advocate of the advancement of children learning to read and write nursery rhymes is one of the greatest methods to enhancing children’s literacy. Nursery rhymes are a basic cultural literacy and are known to be the gifts of language that all children deserve to own. Nursery rhymes can be used as a great way to enhance our children’s ability to hear, recognize and use letter sounds. This method of teaching helps give children the practice they need to learn the language variations of daily use. Some nursery rhymes are short and full of alliteration and rhymes that make it ideal for children to quickly learn how to play with language and make it their own. There are many nursery rhymes that that show forms of alliteration and imaginative imagery. Nursery rhymes are short and easy to repeat, they become some of a child’s first words and sentences, which leads back to language development. When a child hears a nursery rhyme, they tend to make the sounds of vowels and consonants that they hear. By doing this they learn how to put different sounds together to make words. Children also are able to practice pitch, volume, and the rhythm of language. For example, many different people speak differently. When giving a speech or telling a story their tone of voice or volume can be different from if they were to ask someone a question. Children for example are able to hear words in nursery rhymes that they would not originally hear in everyday language, therefore allowing them to listen and learn different words
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