ELF Module 2 – Nursery Rhymes

Elf Module 2 uses the theme of fairy tales and nursery rhymes to develop phonological awareness skills.

Learning Activities

It assumes that children have a knowledge of common fairy tales and nursery rhymes. This is not always the case and we need to take a step side ways and expose children to these stories. Please read fairy tales and sing nursery rhymes with your children as this is a very rich source of language and literacy development.

1. Following instructions – acting out different 2 step moves linked to the fairy tale theme e.g. take 5 giants steps and then climb the beanstalk.
2. Rhyming – this activity involves taking a known nursery rhyme and changing the rhyme component e.g. Humpty Dumpty sat on a chair, Humpty Dumpty lost his hair.
3. Exploring mouth movements – make different sounds and identify which mouth parts are involved to make the sound.
4. Counting how many words in a sentence – the children count how many words in a given sentence. They find it difficult for multi syllable words e.g the mouse saw Goldilocks (4 words, Goldilocks is all 1 word).
5. Counting syllables – count the syllables in fairy tale themed words.
6. Rhyming – this is a cutting and sticking task. Students are required to cut out and match pictures that rhyme. Some students find the organisation of the pictures onto the page difficult. Other difficulties are when students find it difficult to cut stright lines on the lines.
7. Handwriting – rain letters (letters which start at the top and go down) – l i j t f. We identify head, tail and body parts of letters.
8. Alphabet – say the alphabet in order, be aware of l m n o p clarity. Identify vowel and consonant letters.
9. Language development – teachers read books to the students and discuss the content using Blanks Questions as a basis to extend language and vocabulary. Training in Blanks Questions is available at Blanks Questions Training
10. Months of the year – recite in order. Months of the year
11. Write their name. The students initially trace the letter and learn where to place the letters on the red and blue lines. For many  students they have not been exposed to red and blue lines in Prep so this is a good introduction and will be built on in later sessions.
12. Sight words – students are exposed to and play games focusing on the Red words from Magic Words

You can work on rhyming using the following apps and games. At this stage students are expected to identify if words rhyme or not. Students are not expected to generate their own rhymes yet.

Rhyming app

A syllable game

Common fairy tales and nursery rhymes