Your children will listen, watch, and imitate words and actions as you perform each fingerplay.
Learning Area(s): Reading and Writing; Physical Development
MATERIALS
- None
LET'S PLAY
Fingerplays combine hand movements with a rhyming song or chant. Fingerplays, like nursery rhymes and singing, encourage young children to tune in to sound patterns in ways that prepare their brains for later reading and spelling. Each of the fingerplays in this group tells a little story with words and actions. They stimulate children’s imaginations by using hands and fingers to represent animals and objects.
Start by telling your child the name of the fingerplay, and then use an animated voice to say the words while performing the actions. Try to emphasize the rhyming words and other key words in each fingerplay, as you see in this demonstration video. Once your child has seen the fingerplay at least once, encourage her to put up her fingers or hands and try to do it with you.
“Bumble Bees”
Here’s the beehive, but where are the bees?
They’re hiding inside where nobody sees.
Soon they’ll come creeping out of their hive
One, two, three, four, five! Buzzzzzzzzzz!
“Pancake”
Mix a pancake,
Stir a pancake,
Pour it in a pan.
Fry a pancake,
Toss a pancake,
Catch it if you can!
“There Was a Little Turtle”
There was a little turtle.
He lived in a box.
He swam in the water.
He climbed on the rocks.
He snapped at a mosquito.
He snapped at a flea.
He snapped at a minnow.
He snapped at me!
He caught the mosquito.
He caught the flea.
He caught the minnow,
but he didn’t catch me!
TIPS
- It takes practice to get comfortable with each of these fingerplays, so be sure to practice ahead of time. You may want to practice along with the demonstration video or in front of a mirror.
- You do not need to do all the fingerplays in this group at once, but you may want to do more than one if your child is attentive and interested.
- For more fingerplays, see the activity named “Fingerplays.”