More Fingerplays

Your children will listen, watch, and imitate words and actions as you perform each fingerplay.

Learning Area(s): Reading and Writing; Physical Development

MATERIALS

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None

LET'S PLAY

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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!