Activity idea - 'Rhyming soup:'

This activity is well rehearsed with practitioners up and down the country. It features as an activity within Letters and Sounds itself as well as variations on other sites.

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Many practitioners have it as a 'dry soup' with ornate objects being thrown in. You could do it this way, or you could go full on (see above) and have it as muddy and messy as possible. This way the children will be more keen to replicate in the provision afterwards.

 

There is of course a song to sing alongside:

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"I'm making lots of silly soup, 

I'm making soup thats silly, 

I'm going to cook it in the fridge, 

And make it nice and chilly,

In goes a [rhyming couplets]"

E.g. a stick, a brick, a stone, a bone, a shoe, a two, some mud, a spud.

 

You can use whatever apparatus you have available to hand. I have used a variety of objects and containers over the years. All you need is rhyming objects, a spoon and a container.

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Activity idea - 'Songs with a regular beat:'

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For this you need to listen to the beat (see audio file below)

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A steady beat can be applied to almost every song that you sing (nursery rhymes included).

Use the beat below, clap it out and sing:

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'Twinkle Twinkle little star'

'Mary had a little lamb.'

'Humpty Dumpty.'

It works!

 

Being able to keep a steady beat supports children to understand intonation and rhythm in the words and sentences which they speak. Below are some other songs you could sing along with a beat. 

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To the simple beat:

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'Cow boy Joe, Broke his toe, riding on a buffalo, yeehaaw'

'I saw a ghost eating toast, halfway up a lampost. I saw a witch, in a ditch, eating up her sandwich.'