Phonemic awareness is vital to success in beginning reading, and this knowledge is most easily developed through rich experiences in oral language. Phonemic awareness is being able to hear the sounds that make up words and knowing how to “play with sounds” orally including rhyming, blending, segmenting, deleting and substituting. These skills are greatly enhanced by memorizing songs and rhymes and creating new verses to well-known song patterns. We must remember that it is the child’s familiarity with the spoken word that allows their decoding to be error free and reading to be fluent. Memorizing and performing many songs and rhymes is the most joyful, brain-friendly way we know to develop the oral language foundation necessary for success in learning essential reading skills: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension and fluency.  Short, explicit, instructional activities embedded in songs children know and love accelerates learning.

Early literacy research supports teaching letters and sounds within the context of meaningful language. Children should be taught strategies for integrating the language cueing systems as they read: meaning (semantic), sound of language (syntactic), and shapes and sounds of letters (graphophonemic) while relying on their background knowledge about that topic (schema theory). The rhythm, rhyme, and repetition of songs and rhymes are ideal for supporting early reading experiences and for providing a context to develop the use of all the cueing systems while teaching essential reading skills. The following short, engaging phonemic awareness and phonics lessons are embedded in real language that has meaning for the child.

Play with the Sounds of Oral Language

Nellie Edge Read and Sing Big Books™ are intended to be first experienced orally in a joyful, relaxed setting. When the child is joyful and relaxed, their brain is the most receptive to language learning. We encourage children to memorize and "play" with the language of songs and rhymes, providing multisensory and differentiated literacy instruction to support diverse language and literacy needs. (See Differentiated Literacy Guides for Nellie Edge Read and Sing Big Books™ .)

For example, while I am leading a shared literacy experience the children enjoy hearing, acting out and reciting the Big Book Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear several times. Then I pause, emphasize the beginning sound, and point to the "T" and say:

"Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear turn around.  Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, touch the ground. What do you notice about the beginning sounds of those words?"

This creates the optimum teaching moment to present a brief focused mini-lesson on "T", inviting the children to explore the sound and think of other words that start with the sound of "T".  We can write a "T" in the air, make it on the palm of our hand, and make shapes of both the capital and small "t" with our fingers.  We return to the Big Book and read it again, always letting the children see how the letters and sounds are a part of reading for meaning. During the next reading of Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear invite the children to clap or make a "T" with their fingers each time a word that begins with "T" is read. Children’s emotional engagement with the language is a powerful hook for learning phonics. Using "Books that Sing and Rhyme" we provide engaging explicit and implicit phonics instruction throughout the day.

Build on Success for Each Child

During Shared Literacy time with your Big Books or language charts, emphasize experiences that allow all children in the group to feel successful.  Our goal is to make our teaching as multisensory, meaningful and memorable as possible because that allows us to take advantage of how the brain learns best.  Educator Bobbi Fisher, author of the best-selling text Joyful Learning in Kindergarten (Heinemann revised edition 1998), recommends:

"My goal is for children to become successful independent readers and writers for a variety of meaningful purposes… throughout shared literacy time we are continually focusing on graphemes (the 26 letters of the alphabet), phonemes (the 44 sounds that make up English words), phonemic awareness (ability to hear the sounds that make up words), and how to use them strategically within a whole text. During choice time the children practice what they are learning as they read, write and play."

To build joy and confidence in reading and to accelerate children’s awareness of how printed words work, I teach five songs to emphasize the alphabetic principle early in the year.  These songs provide some multisensory, "elaborative rehearsal" strategies with letters and sounds:
I Can Read Colors, The ABC Sign Language and Phonics Song, I Can Spell Cat, L-O-V-E Spells Love, and M-O-M Spells Mom. We sing and sign the language.

Invite the children to sing and read I Can Read Colors , a Nellie Edge Read and Sing Big Book™, on the first day of school. Children can predict what the print says using picture clues and then check their knowledge of letters and sounds. After several repetitions of the song, look at the Big Book color words page by page. (Some teachers transfer the language to a pocket chart so that children can manipulate the print.) Ask the children:

"What do you notice about the word orange?  
What sound do you hear first? Yellow?
Listen for the ending sound. Brown? Red?"

Return to singing and reading the entire book, emphasizing the most important phrase:

"I can read. Listen to me!"

Make a "Walk and Read" chart of this song using a roll of 36" x 72" white butcher paper with large print and color symbols. Stand behind a child, guiding them as they step on each word while reading the rhyme and moving from left to right, and top to bottom. This is a highly kinesthetic way of teaching the one-to-one correspondence between the spoken and printed word.

Accelerate ABC Letter Recognition and Phonics through Signing Songs

Learning the ABCs — both automatic letter recognition and instant auditory connection to the corresponding sound — is essential literacy knowledge. Providing explicit, systematic phonics instruction that combines American Sign Language, letter recognition, and sound/symbol connection within a familiar melody is a joyful, accelerated learning approach that produces amazing results. The kinesthetic motion of finger spelling a letter and then signing the key word triggers a response that helps children recall the corresponding sound. This active engaging experience makes language come alive. Children love reading and performing The ABC Sign Language and Phonics Song. Our Parents as Partners connection encourages repetition of this alphabetic input from one, consistent ABC book. Children re-read the ABC book, touching the letter and key word image, several times daily at home and at school until it is known by heart — visually, kinesthetically, and auditorily. This knowledge is reinforced as children engage in daily interactive and "kid writing".

Consider making large language charts of the following songs that spell:

Children quickly learn these songs and proudly sing them to any appreciative listener. They can point to the letters on the chart and learn to finger spell and print them. (See the video Magic of Signing Songs .) Combined with the word "I", the young child can soon read, write and spell some powerful emotional phrases:

"I love you."               "I love Mom."              "I love Dad."

I believe every child deserves to learn these high-frequency vocabulary words very early on.  Many children will write "To Mom, I love you." on their papers all year. Some highly kinesthetic learners may write these words repeatedly before they recognize them in other contexts.

The M-O-M Spells Mom song also becomes a powerful phonemic awareness song, giving children a hook to understanding how words can be segmented and blended.  After the children know the song well, sing the song using phonemes for Mom, Dad, me and you. "M-o-m is Mom."  "D-a-d is Dad."  "Y-o-u is you." and "M-e is me."

To develop interest in the sounds and patterns of language, introduce I Can Spell Cat , a Nellie Edge Read and Sing Big Book™. As children sing about rhyming words that they can spell — cat, rat, hat — they become aware of, and interested in, word families and will start noticing more rhyming words in their reading. Their "phonics-based spelling" will reflect this growing awareness. Finger spell the words cat, rat, hat while stretching out the phonemes and children will be able to "feel" how the words are similar and different. Signing letters and words provides additional important multisensory instruction. (See Dancing with Words: Signing for Hearing Children’s Literacy , by Marilyn Daniels .)

Our Big Books and Little Books all end with the words: "The End". We want children to confidently anticipate chanting and reading those last two words.  To emphasize these words, I teach children to recite: "T-H-E  E-N-D, The End!" rhythmically, and children quickly come to recognize the letters and words and many write "The End" independently on their own Little Books.

Focus Children’s Attention on the Big Book Titles

Ask "What do you notice about the words in the title?" Children will soon begin noticing words like "I" and "love" in I Love the Mountains as we emphasize these high-frequency words throughout the curriculum. They may notice that the words "Miss Mary Mack" all begin with "M".  This awareness can lead to a mini-lesson on the sound and shape of the letter "M". Another time focus their attention on all the words that end in "s". Children will soon begin noticing and learning ending sounds. Big Books with repeated words like "cat" and “can” provide meaningful teaching moments to introduce and reinforce the "a" vowel. This implicit instruction in a meaningful context supports our explicit, multisensory ABC and Phonics Immersion activities.

Singing Teaches Spelling and Supports Writing

Use the melody and rhythm of our L-O-V-E song as a pattern to allow the children to sing, sign and spell their names.  You can stretch the melody and sing R-A-N-D-Y spells Randy or E-L-I-Z-A-B-E-T-H spells Elizabeth . The L-O-V-E Spells Love song easily adapts to "L-I-K-E Spells Like", which is another high-frequency word. Learning how to read and write their classmates’ names helps build community. Encourage children to send letters and pictures to each other. Writing teaches reading! Writing teaches phonics! Authentic daily “kid writing” experiences will support children’s phonics-based spelling and their instant knowledge of high-frequency words.

Bruno Bettleheim’s research shows that how a child perceives himself in the act of learning to read generalizes to his or her whole self-concept.

A comprehensive and balanced early literacy program must have a strong oral language focus and develop belief systems that allow the young child to affirm "I can read," "I care about reading and writing" and "I belong to a community of learners." Using Nellie Edge Read and Sing Big Books™ with multilevel literacy instruction builds success and confidence for children at all levels on the reading continuum. This approach to language and literacy is respectful of the diverse ways of knowing that children bring to the reading process and is consistent with how the brain learns best.

Permission granted for teachers to make a language chart of the above songs recorded on Music is Magic CD & cassette.  © Nellie Edge, 1988.

Celebrate Language and Celebrate Childhood!

The following are Nellie Edge Read and Sing Big Books™

• Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
• I Can Spell Cat
• Miss Mary Mack
• Mary Wore Her Red Dress
• I Can Read Colors
• I Love the Mountains

For more information, download the following articles.