How nursery rhymes support your child's learning and development:

• You will be supporting them to learn to talk as they become familiar with the words and rhythm, and begin to imitate the sounds you make, or join in with the words.
• You will support the bond between you to develop as you look at each other and imitate one another’s actions.
• You will be supporting them to develop muscle control and coordination as you help them to follow the actions in rhymes.
• You will be supporting pre-reading and pre-writing skills as they develop phonological awareness by hearing sounds in the rhymes.
• You will support them to learn to count, add and subtract numbers when you sing number rhymes.

Here are some songs, rhymes and poetry for you to enjoy:

Further resources using song, rhyme and poetry:

Singing nursery rhyme lyrics with babies and children | Words for Life

Books with song

Nursery rhyme books can be a great way to learn traditional rhymes such as Hush Little Baby, Row Row Row Your Boat and Old Macdonald Had a Farm.

The Whales on the Bus by Katrina Charman and Nick Sharratt 

The Animal Boogie by Fred Penner

Down By the Station by Jennifer Riggs Vetter.

The Smartest Giant in Town by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. 

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr

Dinosaur Roar by Paul and Henrietta Stickland.