Week commencing 3^rd of February was National Story Telling Week and on the 6^th March it is World Book day.

Books, Stories, Songs and Nursery Rhymes have such a big impact on child development, and have been a key in child development for a long time. They are able to support adults to support children’s growth in a holistic and engaging manner.

Language & Literacy

Nursery rhymes and stories are able to introduce a wide range of new vocabulary and support the ability to remember and recall words, the repetitive and rhythmic nature also helps children to develop a phonemic awareness which means that they are able to hear and manipulate the sounds in words, which in turn is a skill that is crucial for reading success.

Cognitive Development

Stories or rhymes that describe an event help children to understand the concept of cause and effect and sequencing and they help to support children’s memory and comprehension skills.

Songs with numbers also add the mathematical concept of simple counting or subtracting like 5 little ducks, using prompts with these songs can also help children to visualise the numbers changing.

Social and Emotional Development

At nursery we all come together to sing nursery rhymes or read a story, especially during group times with our younger children. As a group we are able to provide social interaction and collaboration, this is especially when we do songs with something like the lycra or the parachute and we have to work together to keep the material moving, we can also incorporate using instruments, props and turn taking. Through music children are able to express themselves and manage their feelings.

Physical Development

There are lots of nursery rhymes that are accompanied by actions and movements that promote physical development, through doing these actions we are developing gross motor skills and coordination. Songs such as itsy bitsy spider and twinkle twinkle little star also enhance their fine motor skills through the movements and actions. Nursery rhymes also enhance hand-eye coordination and spatial awareness.

Imagination and Creativity

Through nursery rhymes and stories we are able to open up children’s eyes to imagination and creativity, children are then able to bring what they have heard or read into their play or as they get older they may choose to story scribe and create their own story based on what they have heard.

Exploring different cultures

Books and nursery rhymes also introduce children to new cultures and languages, there are nursery rhymes such as ‘Frère Jacques’ and ‘London’s burning’ as a nursery rhyme for the Great Fire of London, these teach children about cultural significance and historical context, learning about heritage and diversity.

When each child starts with us at Great Wood Farm they receive a 10 Nursery Rhymes Book, with the 10 most popular songs that we sing at nursery, this is there to support parents/carers with nursery rhymes at home and have a link between what we do at nursery and what they can do at home. We also have a bedtime library where parents/carers can borrow books to read at home with their children and bring them back when they have finished.

Reading is so important;

-It is important to read around your child, children look up to the adults around them, if they see you reading, they are more likely to see this as the norm and copy!

- Children’s books (especially as they get older) contain more advanced language than adult’s television (which makes sense if you think of all the beautiful descriptions we get in books). Children benefit from this exposure to a range of vocabulary to extend their own, and to access other reading material.

- Don’t be afraid of using longer or more advanced words (we often call them low-frequency words)- children absorb so much, especially when it’s connected to topics they are interested in. As the meme says, if they can understand, remember and repeat ‘tyrannauraus rex’, imagine what else they can say.