Songs and Finger plays

Music has many benefits for everyone involved. It is a powerful teaching tool and because the rhythm is predictable, it is a comfortable medium for children to learn new skills and to practise existing ones.

By using songs and finger plays in the Get Set Learn classes, you can:

• Encourage participation
• Improve memory skills
• Improve vocabulary
• Establish routines through repetition of certain songs and rhythms
• Utilize multi-sensory learning (children singing, listening, movement)
• Enhance success
• Have fun

Songs, poems and finger plays teach children pre-reading skills such as:

• Building vocabulary
• Developing memory
• Hearing syllables
• Gaining phonemic awareness
• Learning auditory discrimination
• Hearing rhyme and flow of language

As children learn songs, finger plays, and poems, they develop a love of words and language (West and Cox, 2004). Research also says that newborns possess a natural response to music through their conditioning to rhythm, sound, and movement. Music that has a repeated melody is soothing to an infant because he/she heard soothing sounds in the womb. Recent studies show that exposure to music develops a toddlers spatial-temporal reasoning which is the ability to see a mixed-up picture and mentally piece it back together (Silberg, 2002 ). These reasoning skills are similar to those needed in math activities. By having children listening and taking part in singing, they are developing their listening skills which will help them with language and math skills later.