Good morning everybody! In this new post I´m going to talk about the main difference between fingerplays and nursery rhymes, then I will give you some examples of each one and I will give you some resources too.
This week we have been working in class with fingerplays, but at the beginning I can´t find any difference between fingerplays and nursery rhymes. For me was the same thing or something very similar. Then, after read about this topic, I discover that the main difference is that in one of them you use your fingers and in the other you don´t have to, but usually you have to do some body movements or dancing too. Because of that a fingerplay is a kind of nursery rhyme. Here I give you both definitions:
As you all know, nursery rhymes are short and simple songs or poems for children. And fingerplays are songs or chants for little children in what you have to coordinate some hand movements with the words you are singing, in order to catch the attention and the interest of the children.
Now I think is really clear, I´m going to show you some examples:
Nursery rhyme:
The Big Ship Sails on The Ally-Ally-Oh
The big ship sails on the ally-ally-oh
The ally-ally-oh, the ally-ally-oh
Oh, the big ship sails on the ally-ally-oh
On the last day of September.
The captain said it will never, never do
Never, never do, never, never do
The captain said it will never, never do
On the last day of September.
The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea
The bottom of the sea, the bottom of the sea
The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea
On the last day of September.
We all dip our heads in the deep blue sea
The deep blue sea, the deep blue sea
We all dip our heads in the deep blue sea
On the last day of September.
Fingerplay:
Five little popcorn seeds sitting in a pot
Have the children squat down low
One got hot and it went “Pop!”
Jump on the word “Pop!”
Repeat with Four, three, two, one, and no more popcorn seeds sitting in the pot.
Variation: You may want to start with the number of children in your class rather than the number five.
In this webpage is indicated the movements that you have to do when you are singing. So the song is in bold letter and the movements in italic letter.
I´ve been exploring this website because Raquel, our teacher, told us about it and it is very complete. You can find songs and games to learn lot of things like numbers, colors, animals… In addition you can work on specific topics like festivities. Now it is plenty of Halloween songs and is great for young children!
Here I give you some other links for resources: