This story is wonderful for helping children to foster their phonological awareness. This nursery rhyme is full of long sing-song sounds and letters that help children recognize the words that are being spoken. Such as when the book says "roll it", it is typically held out and done with a motion to catch the children's attention. It is also a very simple song with repetition and movements. This makes it easier for children to practice the words and recognize them as words and not just sounds. Phonological awareness is a critical part of a child's language development, and simple songs that can be sung with movements and even pictures are great for helping children recognize sounds and words.

Personally when I sing this with the children I work with, I like to make it more personal and use their name instead of "baby". For example if the child's name was Lucy, I would sing "mark it with an L, and put it in the oven for Lucy and me". I think this not only helps children work on putting sounds to words and letter, but it also helps them to start to recognize their own name and the way it sounds compared to other words. I love little simple songs like this that are often sang with movements because it keeps the children engaged and focused.

This classic nursery rhyme is brought to life with hand motions. Almost all children who come to me by age 3-4 have sang "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" with a parent or grandparent doing finger and hand movements to tell the story. Introducing this story to them is great because it takes what they already knew and elevates it. They can sing along in the beginning, doing the hand motions, and then are captivated by the sing-songy rhythm of the rest of the story. I love stories or songs that create space for movement because it holds their attention longer than just reading to them, and this book/ nursery rhyme does just that.

In this particular nursery rhyme, Hickory Dickory Dock, children's phonological awareness is fostered in several ways. When children sing the rhyme, they are exposed to a variety of word sounds, such as the short 'i' in "Hickory" and the hard 'c' in "clock." This can help them hear and distinguish individual phonemes, which is important for later reading and spelling skills. The rhyme's repetitive sounds and rhyming patterns (e.g., "dock," "clock") also help children recognize and manipulate the sounds of language.

Not only is this book cute and very well illustrated with eye-catching pages that are full of color, but the children also learn about their numbers, counting, telling time on a clock, and about the animals included in the book and the things they do (e.g., the chickens pecked the clock, the horse bucked). You can include snapping or clapping in reading this book to keep a tempo set while reading in the sing-song voice it is intended to be read in. This is a simple nursery rhyme that I enjoy sharing with my children, which keeps them engaged and interested.

This nursery rhyme is my 16 month old sons favorite. It keeps him entertained, and he can even do the movements with me while I sing the song.

To me, books like row row row your boat are very effective and very enjoyable tools to help support early emerging literacy skills, especially phonological awareness. What stands out to me is how naturally this book invites the reader/listener to be silly and to play with sounds. This is a fun one where many things can be incorporated including physical body movements or actions like clapping, dancing, etc, fun sounds, instruments, etc.

I love this book, it reminds me of my childhood, and I still remember this rhyme and taught it to my own children. Except the end of my rhyme was "nine, ten a big fat hen". I would probably read this to my students but also turn it into a song as well. Where we would sing the rhyme but also clap with the rhyme to notice the syllables. I also love just how simple the book is and because it is so simple I feel children remember it, especially when they are starting to count. I know it helped me and my own children when learning to read and count. A win win! :)

I loved this nursery rhyme when I was little. I could relate to it, because I have so many siblings (I’m the youngest of 7). We always did the opposite of what our mom told us to do, just like in the story. The mama says, “No more monkeys jumping on the bed!” None of them listened to her, because they all fell off the bed and got hurt.

Nursery rhymes include conventions like sequencing (listing, ordering, etc.), rhymes, and repetition. These functions of nursery rhymes engage the reader and audience by giving them sentences or phrases to repeat (There was an old lady who swallowed a fly). Repetition supports language and cognitive development by giving children phrases they can remember, they can repeat, and they can anticipate. The next is sequencing. Sequencing is one of the drivers for this book. After the old lady swallows a fly, she swallows other animals to eat the last in her stomach. For example, the old lady swallowed a cat to eat the spider, she swallowed a spider to eat the fly, I don't know why we swallowed the fly, etc. The story follows this sequencing and allows children to jump into the silliest and tag along in the story!

I loved this nursery rhyme because I remember singing it with my grandma, growing up. It is more of a comfort rhyme than anything. It also provides beautiful visuals. I can't help but think of the night sky and being with her when I hear it.

There is also a lot of rhyming and rhythm in Fiddle-I-Fee since it was based on a song. The lyrical pose of the book supports the children’s awareness of rhyming words especially if a teacher points them out and has the children repeat them back. You could even potentially “sing” the book and have the children act as a choral to echo the lines back to you. This would help improve the children’s phonological memory as well as pronunciation and fluency.

Once I read this nursery rhyme, I knew that if I was 5 years old, I would know what the letter "b" sounded like. The word, "bitter" is considered a Tier 2 word. This nursery rhyme is part of the Mother Goose Collection. Identifying and producing words that begin with the same sound - Alliteration. It's part of Phonological Awareness. Alliteration is fun for me. I've always enjoyed it when I see it and the fact that teachers can make catchy melodies when it comes to nursery rhymes that use alliteration is even better. Learning should be fun for children. I could see myself singing and dancing to this nursery rhyme. That would foster my student's Phonological awareness because they would see me having fun singing all of the "b" words. It would get branded in their heads, for sure! :)

I chose “Mary Had a little lamb” because the rhyme in the nursery has a strong rhythm as well as repetition, and it has a predictable sound pattern that allows children to hear how language sounds. To help children, I would help them clap the syllables of “Mary”, “little”, and “lamb”. As well as have them listen for words that rhyme and have them join in.