Teach-Early-Years-14.1

EMMA SPIERS IS AN EARLY EDUCATION CONSULTANT AND AUTHOR R hythmic play has long been an essential ingredient of early learning, but I hadn’t always understood its importance until I met Patience. This super-enthusiastic three-year-old with a love of music and an amazing sense of rhythm reminded me of the rhythmic play I loved as a child and of its potential to unlock learning across so many areas of development, too. WHAT IS RHYTHMIC PLAY? Rhythmic play involves hearing patterns of sounds. Initially, these can be musical, for example, joining in with clapping a steady beat or moving to the rhythm of music. However, playing with rhythm can also relate to the patterns of sounds in words. Joining in with catchy stories and rhymes with repeatable phrases like We’re Going On A Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury, or Brown, Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See by Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carle, are great examples. Rhythmic games can also involve sequencing clapping patterns, copying and repeating patterns with instruments, or joining in with interactive songs with repetitive actions. BUILDING STRONG BRAINS Human brains are hardwired to seek out patterns to make sense of the world, categorising and organising memories effectively in the brain for rapid recall. Most rhythmic activities are intentionally repetitive, so these have amazing memory-building potential. Teaching early years children to Learning to the beat! remember is vital for learning overall, and memory is a muscle that needs exercise to work well. The patterned and repetitive nature of rhythmic stories, songs, and games makes these a powerful workout for the brain! Patience had a brilliant memory for a three-year-old. She picked things up very quickly, matching, copying, and repeating anything she heard with ease. Her brain was getting the regular exercise it needed through the joy of playing with patterns in sound and words. an important process known as phonological awareness. PLAYING WITH SYLLABLES Rhythm in stories, songs, and rhymes is created by syllables. These sound like the “beats” in words. Syllables are created by vowel sounds: a, e, i, o, u. All words have at least one syllable or beat.The vowels are dominant sounds that create the “heartbeat” of words. Everyday words always include at least one vowel, which means they all have syllables. This makes it easy to use toys and objects from around the setting for instant rhythmic play. Patience loved to play a simple treasure hunt game. I provided a clapping clue (one clap, two claps, three claps or four claps); these corresponded to the number of syllables in familiar objects. Patience would hunt for an object with the corresponding number of claps, such as: Car – one syllable, one clap Du-plo – two syllables, two claps Di-no-saur – three syllables, three claps Wa-ter-ing can – four claps Patience couldn’t get enough of this game. It was a challenge thinking of words with more syllables for her to find! STRUGGLING WITH SYLLABLES? Patience is not typical of all children. Children with limited rhythmic play experience often have trouble remembering spoken instructions or blending sounds together when they start reading. This is because their Memory is a muscle that needs exercise to work well Every setting should provide children with opportunities to engage in rhythmic play, says Emma Spiers … LANGUAGE AND LITERACY Rhythmic stories, songs, and games are popular with preschoolers, who are eager to explore patterns in language. Their vocabularies are growing speedily, expanding by up to eight new words every day. Hearing patterns in words and sounds helps two- and three-year-olds remember new words, so rhythmic play is language development rocket fuel! As vocabulary expands, three- and four-year-olds are increasingly ready to move beyond using words simply for communication. At this stage, playing around with rhythm in words is the first building block towards being “reading ready”. It helps preschoolers hear “chunks” of spoken sounds in words, without the added complication of letters. This is the beginning of 26 Teachearlyyears.com