Here's a classic nursery rhyme that lets kids play around with the concept of rhyme:
A-Hunting We Will Go
A-Hunting We Will Go
A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go
Heigh ho, the dairy-o, a hunting we will go
We'll catch a
fox and put him in a
box
And then we'll let him go
A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go
Heigh ho, the dairy-o, a hunting we will go
We'll catch a
fish and put him on a
dish
And then we'll let him go
A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go
Heigh ho, the dairy-o, a hunting we will go
We'll catch a
bear and cut his
hair
And then we'll let him go
A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go
Heigh ho, the dairy-o, a hunting we will go
We'll catch a
pig and dance a little
jig
And then we'll let him go
A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go
Heigh ho, the dairy-o, a hunting we will go!
I like to march, so I do it as a march. Our good friends at the
King County Library System show how to do it as a lap pat:
Check it out.
The best part of this one is the rhymes:
We'll catch a
fox and put him in a
box
We'll catch a
fish and put him on a
dish
We'll catch a
bear and cut his
hair
We'll catch a
pig and dance a little
jig
You can keep building and building on this nursery rhyme by adding more animals. With older kids, it's best played when you enlist them to help you think up new animals. Together you can try to complete the rhyme.
We'll catch a
frog........ and put her on a
log!!
We'll catch a
cat........ and put him on a
mat!!
We'll catch a
mouse...... and put her in a (hint: it's something people live in)!!
When kids play with rhymes they increase their ability to recognize the smaller sounds in words. This skill helps them when they begin to learn how to read. Kids who have a rich understanding of rhyme will have a much easier time distinguishing between (and making sense of) "cat", "mat", "bat", "hat", "fat", "sat" and "rat"!!
