135 Story Sharing——Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes

1. What exactly is the Mother Goose nursery rhyme?

From the perspective of human language learning, children's babbling has never been separated from the influence of rhymed nursery rhymes. Chinese children have been chanting "Little Mouse on the Lampstand" and "Shake, Shake" since childhood. ", Rock to Grandma Bridge", and "Beijing Nursery Rhymes" that many children love to read when they grow up. European and American children naturally have their own high-quality nursery rhymes with traditional characteristics. This is the "Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme" in English.

Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes is actually a general term for folk children's songs in the United Kingdom and the United States. The original version only had 52 poems, which were included in the Newbery version of "Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes" in 1791. This version of nursery rhymes can also be regarded as It is the world's earliest collection of children's songs. As the times change, the content of nursery rhymes continues to expand. At the most, there were more than 800 children's songs included in it.

My American friend Josh is 39 years old and graduated from the School of Architecture at Columbia University. When I asked him about "Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes", he could still blurt out those very musical sentences.

Josh said that every child in the United States can memorize several Mother Goose songs. When he was still babbling, his mother often read Mother Goose to him. It was a nursery rhyme that was deeply ingrained in his heart and stayed with him throughout his life.

Because they have been circulated for a long time, many children's songs in Mother Goose's nursery rhymes are full of the color of the times. In the 18th century, the industrial revolution occurred in Britain and social unrest occurred. Folks began to spontaneously produce some songs that criticized the inequality of wealth and poverty in society. Small poems, these small poems are also included in it. To put it simply, Mother Goose nursery rhymes were not originally meant for children. They reflected a large number of adult emotions and moods. There were many negative contents in the lyrics about "life and death", "crime", "murder", and "loneliness". . On a larger scale, if we can read the original version of Mother Goose's nursery rhyme, we can get a brief glimpse of the development history of Britain from the side.

After entering the 20th century, major British and American children's book publishers and illustrators have discovered that excluding those nursery rhymes with dark colors, this collection of nursery rhymes that has been circulating for many years has very good reading rhythm and text. Rhyming is suitable for children to read aloud in the initial stage of learning language. Therefore, they return these children's songs to the "nursery rhymes" themselves, with warm and loving illustrations, modify the text that is not suitable for children's songs to be recited, or modify some nursery rhymes Make some cuts to make these short poems suitable for children to read.

The most well-known Mother Goose nursery rhyme now is the version of My Very First Mother Goose recommended by Liao Caixing. However, in fact, the Mother Goose nursery rhyme has been circulated among European and American folk for many years and is the favorite of many children's book illustrators. Adapted material, so a good version of the Mother Goose nursery rhyme is much more than just this one.

For example, what you can see in the picture below:

1. Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes produced by Xinxiyue Children’s Books

Today I would like to introduce to you This version is from the American children's book illustrator Sylvia Long. It was introduced by Xinxiyue Children's Books in China. After the introduction and publication, the book looked like this:

In terms of the author's popularity and praise, Sylvia Long is not inferior to Rosemary Wells, the author of My Very First Mother Goose:

She has personally won more than ten children's book illustration creation awards. She knows very well that it is very difficult to create a different Mother Goose nursery rhyme. , when creating this version of Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes, the author once said this:

“Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes has such a long and profound cultural heritage, and bookstores are filled with various versions of Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes. The collection, many of it, is brilliant and I feel strongly that there's no point in doing another version unless I can make it different.

”

——Sylvia Long

In the American children’s book industry, Sylvia Long’s version of Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes has been widely recognized and received various star reviews from mainstream publishing magazines. and awards:

The planning editor of this set of books once talked to me about the planning ideas for this set of books:

As a planning editor, I have two responsibilities: the first is to select good books , the process of finding high-quality topics mentioned just now is the process of selecting good books for readers; the second responsibility is the core work of editors, planning good books-how to present this book in the best form In front of readers, make them feel useful and easy to use.

When planning this set of Mother Goose nursery rhymes, the editors racked their brains to consider the parents' thoughts and thought about it from the user's perspective. Round after round of usage plans:

How can we maximize the value of this nursery rhyme?

How can we make nursery rhymes not just nursery rhymes, but become the glue for family parent-child interaction? What?

In the end, they positioned this nursery rhymes as "playing nursery rhymes". Are nursery rhymes only for reading? Of course not, nursery rhymes can be used as excellent English game materials for children to discover. The charm of nursery rhymes naturally absorbs and accepts English rhythms, forming a good listening and pronunciation ability.

The publisher selected 10 nursery rhymes from 82 nursery rhymes as representatives, and equipped these 10 nursery rhymes with nursery rhyme backgrounds. Introduction, key vocabulary and sentence structures, and 2 family-friendly expansion games. It took a lot of effort to find an introductory teacher, and finally we decided to invite Teacher Cherry, who has taught in the UK for many years, to write an introduction to the nursery rhyme games.

So, this part is the biggest difference between the imported version and the original version. There is a trend now, that is, parents are very keen to buy the original book. People subconsciously think that the original book is a pure English environment and is more advanced. However, In fact, the original book may not be suitable for all families. It is only suitable for families whose parents are very good at English. This is because the original English book is not directly aimed at children learning a second language. The original book is intended to be read by children whose native language is English. , so the English learning attributes of the book will not be taken into account. The imported version, while retaining the original English, takes into account the needs of Chinese children and Chinese parents, and appropriately adds some auxiliary materials, such as the imported version. The Chinese translation, game guide and reading audio for this set of Mother Goose nursery rhymes are all planned so that Chinese children can better absorb them.

In order to retain the original English version to the greatest extent, we have planned it. At that time, except for the Chinese words "Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme" on the cover, the inner text remained exactly the same as the original version. In addition to the full English version, we also made a slightly smaller Chinese translation, which is actually a set of two. One English version and one Chinese version!

3. Playing Mother Goose nursery rhymes - this is how we sharpen our ears and sense of idioms

Before talking about the specific method, I want to choose this first This is one of the Mother Goose nursery rhymes that will help you feel the unique rhythm of English nursery rhymes.

Speaking of "Little Star", I believe many people can hum it. This is the first English song that many children learn, but most people have only heard the first verse of this song. , how many people know the complete version of this nursery rhyme?

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder what you are.

Up above the world so high,

Like a diamond in the sky.

When the blazing sun is gone,

When he nothing shines upon,

Then you show your little light,

Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

Then the traveler in the dark

Thanks you for your tiny spark;

He could not see which way to go,

If you did not twinkle so.

In the dark blue sky you keep,

And often through my curtains peep,

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For you never shut your eye,

Till the sun is in the sky.

As your bright and tiny spark

Lights the traveler in the dark,

Though I know not what you are,

Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

This complete song "Little Star" will language The beauty of rhyme is vividly expressed, among which rhyme is particularly prominent. Each paragraph of text is neatly rhymed with one or two lines, and three or four lines rhymed - AABB style, which is "continuous rhyme", also known as "following rhyme". Such beautiful language is complemented by the illustrations of the quiet starry sky. The two are perfectly integrated, making readers feel as if they are under the bright starry sky, and beautiful songs are heard in their ears.

Of course, not only this song "Little Star", but other nursery rhymes also have a certain rhyme and rhythm, so that they can be read catchy and children can receive language signals more deeply and perceive the language of English. , thereby achieving the purpose of grinding the ears.

Now, let’s go through another song in the book, Sing a Song of Sixpence. Let’s talk specifically about how to use nursery rhymes to learn English.

The nursery rhyme is pronounced like this:

Sing a song of sixpence,

A pocket full of rye,

Four-and- twenty blackbirds

Baked in a pie.

When the pie was opened

The birds began to sing;

Wasn't that a dainty dish

To set before the king?

Step one: Parents preview

Before reading nursery rhymes to their children, parents need to preview in advance. In addition to some difficult words and sentences, you also need to understand the content and background information of the nursery rhyme based on the translation. The reason why the background of nursery rhymes is mentioned is because of the historical specificity of Mother Goose nursery rhymes. It has also been mentioned before that each nursery rhyme may actually be a reflection of the background of the times. Therefore, if your children are interested, you can tell them the story behind the nursery rhymes. , will make the impression on the child more profound. Therefore, we still encourage parents who are interested and have sufficient time to "investigate" the background of nursery rhymes.

Sing a Song of Sixpence has a long historical background, and there are various interpretations of the background story of this nursery rhyme. The most widely circulated interpretation version says this:

It is said that one of the usual pastimes and entertainment activities of people in the 16th century was to put firebirds in pies to make a delicious dessert! When an important guest, such as a king, comes to the house, the most exciting moment is when the guest cuts the pie open and everyone watches the bird fly out of the pie, covered in flour, and float in front of everyone. Parents and children can imagine together that when all the guests sit down and put on napkins, the birds will fly out of the pie one after another. Children will definitely be very interested in such incredible pictures and will ask all kinds of questions.

I also noticed this problem when I was planning the introductory part. Basically, the 10 nursery rhymes I selected all talked about the history and background of nursery rhymes.

Step 2: Parent-child reading

After parents are familiar with nursery rhymes, they can read them with their children. For the first reading, we encourage parents to read aloud to their children instead of listening to the audio, because children generally will not be willing to listen to nursery rhymes if they are not familiar with them. Compared with audio, parents' reading is warmer and the process is easier to control. So no matter how your pronunciation is, parents, please check out the words you don't know and read them to your children. The length of nursery rhymes is generally not the same. It is long, so reading nursery rhymes is relatively less difficult than reading longer story books.

For babies under 3 years old, the role of nursery rhymes is reflected in a large number of extensive listening to sharpen their ears, so the meaning of nursery rhymes can actually be ignored to a certain extent. Children of this age absorb from nursery rhymes The most important thing is the unique rhythm of English, and the familiarity with English pronunciation enhances the ability to listen to sounds and distinguish sounds.

For children over 3 years old, especially those 4 years old and up, in addition to a lot of extensive listening, it is necessary to combine illustrations and reading of nursery rhymes to let the children understand the general meaning of the nursery rhymes. Then this parent-child reading process will be richer: you can ask some simple English questions based on the illustrations and guide the children to use their imagination. Of course, do not force the children to answer the questions in English. You should read in Chinese first according to the children's English level. Pictures are okay, but you should also guide them to answer in English. This greatly develops the relative value of a nursery rhyme. For example, What animals are there in the picture? Or How many birds are there in the picture? Wait for the question.

What animals? How many birds?

If it is an intensive lesson, it is recommended to tell only one nursery rhyme every day. The preview content is actually not much, so don’t be afraid and don’t have to put a lot of pressure. However, extensive listening to nursery rhymes should become a child's daily listening habit. You can arrange extensive listening of nursery rhymes according to three meals, and learn to use fragmented time to provide children with casual English input.

Step 3: Listen to pure English audio

After parent-child reading, we then enter the audio listening process.

(Play audio 2. Sing a song of sixpence)

Many parents are worried that their poor pronunciation will affect their children. In fact, as long as they have a good balance between reading English and reading to their children, There is no need to worry about the proportion of children listening to pure foreign teacher audio. Therefore, it is very important to equip the materials used for English enlightenment with audio. Parent-child reading makes children familiar with the nursery rhymes themselves. After children fall in love with it, they will naturally accept the pure audio from foreign teachers. Comprehensible English input is effective input. When the accumulation reaches a certain level, it will naturally bloom and bear fruit. The waiting process may be short or long, and both parents need to be patient enough to accompany their children to grow together.

Step 4: Learn and use key words and phrases

Back to the intensive reading of nursery rhymes, there are several words in this nursery rhyme that are relatively rare. Teaching words cannot be taught out of context, so We need to use example sentences to help children understand the meaning and usage of words. Situational correspondence and repeated use are powerful tools for learning English. For example:

The meaning of "dainty" in nursery rhymes is equivalent to "delicious", which means "delicious, exquisite".

When talking about this word, the first step is of course to use ready-made sentences in nursery rhymes to let the children understand. The second step is to look up more example sentences in the dictionary.

For example: After dinner, we had dainty ice cream for dessert. After dinner, we had dainty ice cream for dessert.

In the future, when you eat something delicious, you can use dainty instead of delicious. Isn’t it more advanced?

Step 5: Play the nursery rhyme game

To go deeper, we can use nursery rhymes to play games with the children. This requires the children to be familiar enough with the nursery rhymes. And there are certain requirements for children’s English proficiency.

①? The name of this nursery rhyme is Sing a Song of Sixpence. Parents guide their children to discover what is special about the title of this song - the three main words all start with the letter "s". This is a good opportunity for your child to learn the letter S and its pronunciation. For example, you can ask your child to say a series of words starting with "s", and you can compete with your parents. If your child's level is good, you can also encourage your child to use these words to make sentences to see if you can put more words starting with "s" in each sentence. words starting with s".

Every nursery rhyme has its own special place, which is why it can be passed down for hundreds of years. Therefore, as long as clever parents use sharp eyes to discover, they can always think of many games to play with their children at home. This process is really a rare family time.

①? Another feature of this nursery rhyme is that there are several numbers. Find the numbers with the children, and make these numbers into cards, with Arabic numerals written on one side and English numerals written on the other. Parents play the reading audio or read aloud to their children. When the children hear the number, they will immediately find the number card and say the number in English. They can also specify a certain action to be done when the number is said. For example, when the child hears six, the child will find the six card. Hop on one foot 6 times; the parent continues to recite the lyrics, and when the child hears four, the child finds the card and does 4 sit-ups.

Such parent-child games not only allow children to become familiar with the lyrics, but also practice listening, mastering numbers, and exercising by listening to the target number words, and also strengthen the parent-child relationship.

I don’t know if you have discovered that we don’t just need to change the words on the cards. In fact, we can use this method to "play" many nursery rhymes. This is the purpose of the introduction in this book. It is an intensive reading guide composed of ten selected nursery rhymes, which has universally applicable value.

At this point, we have finished reading a nursery rhyme in such detail, but don’t think that you can just put the book aside and sleep. We can read it with our children every once in a while, and repeat it over and over again to deepen the impression and turn it into something that even if we want to forget.

What we are talking about above is reading a nursery rhyme. We usually recommend using these 5 steps to read a nursery rhyme intensively. However, according to the different characteristics of different nursery rhymes, the gameplay is also different. Parents must learn to find the different characteristics of different nursery rhymes and design games accordingly.

For example, in this book "Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes", we have summarized the following types of nursery rhymes:

l? Bedtime nursery rhymes, represented by Rock-a-Bye , Baby;

l? Game activity nursery rhymes, represented by Ring Around the Rosies;

l? Digital nursery rhymes, represented by One, Two, Buckle My Shoe;

l? Tongue twister nursery rhyme, represented by Peter Piper Picked a Peck;

l? Alphabet nursery rhyme, represented by A was an Angler;

l? Animal nursery rhyme, represented by Bow- Wow, Says the Dog;

l? Story nursery rhymes, represented by Three Little Kittens They Lost Their Mittens.

…

Different types of nursery rhymes, we Different methods of play will be used.

For example, for bedtime nursery rhymes, we certainly recommend that parents hum them to their children when coaxing them to sleep. Some parents are afraid of singing English songs to their children. First, they are afraid that they are tone deaf; I am afraid that my English pronunciation is not good. In fact, gently humming lullabies to your children is an excellent opportunity to spend some warm parent-child time. At this time, if you can sing English songs to your children, that would be great. , the child will not care whether you sing in tune or whether your English pronunciation is standard. It is not the most important thing in the eyes of the child. The English lullaby at this time gives the child a bedtime habit, a kind of The warm family atmosphere and the enlightenment of English pronunciation and intonation for children are a good thing that kills two birds with one stone.

Let’s take a specific look at the nursery rhyme rock-a-bye, baby. Its history can be traced back to the early 18th century. For more than 200 years, this nursery rhyme has become the longest-standing classic lullaby. So parents must learn to sing. Our CD is equipped with a cappella version by a foreign teacher, so you can learn it once you learn it!

In addition to the attributes of a lullaby, this nursery rhyme also has the most important attribute that all nursery rhymes cannot lack. Yes, it is rhyming. In this nursery rhyme, there are three important groups of rhyming words. , green/queen, ring/king, baby/lady, consciously summarizing the rhyming part, that is, the root of the word, will help the child remember more words. When letting the child understand the concept of rhyme, we can even let the child do whatever they want. When we make up rhyming words, it doesn't matter even if they don't make any sense. Our goal is to let children experience the feeling of rhyming and deeply understand the meaning of rhyming.

Here is one of the easiest rhyming word games to play in the family: Mom and Dad write a set of words on paper (usually at the beginning, we only list 3 words). One of the three words is a non-rhyming word. If the child has a certain foundation in English and can pronounce these three words by himself, ask the child to pronounce them by himself and find out the non-rhyming words. If the child cannot read yet, When the words are written, the parents read out the three words and let the children identify which one is not a rhyming word.

As the child becomes more proficient, the set of words can be increased to 5 and the difficulty increases. The difficulty setting of all games depends on the child's own English level.

Next, let’s take a look at nursery rhymes for game activities. The most typical representative is the song “ring around the rosies”.

The background of this ballad is actually not that beautiful. This song actually describes the full outbreak of the plague in London in 1665. However, hundreds of years later, people have probably forgotten the dark history behind the poem. It has evolved into a joyful collective game for children. Therefore, matching this song is the best choice for children's outdoor games and activities.

As shown in the illustration, we can let the children hold hands in a circle, recite nursery rhymes while turning clockwise, and let the children pretend to sneeze when singing "ashes, ashes" , when singing "we all fall down", everyone pretended to fall to the ground together. This game does not require any props, just the children and their parents. Sometimes children's happiness is very simple. In a happy game, children can quickly remember the lyrics of nursery rhymes.

Let’s talk about a very special type of nursery rhymes - tongue-twisting nursery rhymes, such as the song peter piper picked a peck in our book.

In this nursery rhyme, the various p sounds make you dizzy.

I suggest parents to challenge themselves first and see if they can read it in one sitting.

We see a lot of Chinese tongue twisters, but as a Chinese, English tongue twisters must be rare. This in itself is a particularly interesting point.

As a tongue twister, there must be a certain pronunciation or some detailed pronunciation that appears repeatedly. This means that there must be a key pronunciation in the tongue twister, which needs to be focused on by the children. For example, the letter p in this nursery rhyme is repeatedly input to the child. First listen to the audio, and then listen to the parents read it, so that the child can feel the characteristics of the pronunciation of p during the listening process. Since it is easy to make mistakes, the reading process is full of laughter, so there is no need to worry about the children not being able to listen. After the entire game is completed, the child will definitely remember the pronunciation of p.

If the child has a certain foundation, you can also try to let the child follow the reading. Of course, this adds another level of difficulty.

What is very interesting is that the translation of this nursery rhyme in the Chinese version is very clever, and it has the meaning of a Chinese tongue twister. After challenging the English tongue twister, let’s recite the Chinese tongue twister together. You will definitely have the fun of tongue twisters*2. The Chinese translation says:

Finally, let’s talk about story-based nursery rhymes.

What is a story-type nursery rhyme? In fact, a nursery rhyme tells a complete story, with causes and consequences, and a complete beginning and end.

This kind of nursery rhyme should be the easiest for children to sit down and listen to, because it has a storyline, so when faced with this kind of nursery rhyme, parents must learn to make good use of the story's succession and suspense, Arouse children's continued interest in nursery rhymes.

Let’s take a look at the representative work of this nursery rhyme: three little kittens they lost their mittens.

This is the story of three little kittens who lost their mittens. Are you familiar with it? of?

The entire nursery rhyme is mainly composed of complete descriptive sentence patterns, with no special emphasis on rhyme, but it has the rhythm of a narrative nursery rhyme when read.

Due to the richness of the plot, it is best for parents to read aloud in conjunction with the plot of the nursery rhyme. For example, when reading "they began to cry", you can cry with a cry, and then read what! Lost your mittens, you naughty kittens, can bring mother's surprise, dissatisfaction and harshness... Emotional performances and recitations can better attract children's attention to the language in nursery rhymes.

In addition, since this nursery rhyme is very similar to children's life, do you have situations in your life where children disobey, lose things, and are punished by their parents? Therefore, many words and phrases in this nursery rhyme can be applied to life, for example, apply what! What can we say in the sentence lost your mittens, you naughty kittens! lost your bag, you naughty kid! Or, when we give our children something they like, we can use the sentence oh, let us have some pie, for example, let us have some candy! It can be said as oh, let us have some candies!

In fact, every original nursery rhyme or picture book is an opportunity for us to come into contact with the original English. These books allow us to intuitively see how foreigners speak. Careful parents should Learn to graft these sentences into real life, say them more and use them more, so that they can penetrate into the hearts of children. If you just read them while reading, read them, close the book and forget them, the effect will not be very good.

Finally, let me tell you about the most familiar nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty as the ending song shared today.

How do you pronounce this nursery rhyme?

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall

All the king's horses, and all the king's men

Couldn't put Humpty together again

Let's make it simple first Let me introduce. In Europe and the United States, Humpty Dumpty is a very famous little fat guy. If you don’t believe it, you can see it everywhere.

It is the sculpture sitting on the street

It is the mural on the wall

It is the hot air balloon flying into the sky

Even the children are the most popular My favorite cookies and cakes are also Humpty Dumpty!

Humpty Dumpty means big fat egg, but it is just a name, like "Tiantian, Angela, Tiantian". When babies grow up, they have no chance to use this word in their daily lives. Instead, babies will be exposed to these words in nursery rhymes:

l Horse [h?rs] horse

l King [k?] king

Fall [f?l] fall

l? wall [w?l] wall

Finally, let the children experience the most authentic "Humpty Dumpty", because Thinking about how when we were young, we only listened to the standard slow speed when we learned English. This is very mechanical. After going abroad, I found that everyone has different accents and speaks at different speeds. I just want to give the children a feeling as soon as possible. The video below is a reading and singing performance by a street artist from Chicago, USA. It is very exciting, don’t miss it!

Please read aloud carefully. These nursery rhymes are magical and sweet, sometimes absurd, sometimes wise, full of loving language, rhyme and stories. Let children get started by listening and reading nursery rhymes and become familiar with the structure and pronunciation pattern of the English language. Follow the reading and recitation, master the various rhymes of English poetry through repeated imitation, and cultivate an excellent sense of English language.

Let me end today’s sharing with a small poem at the beginning of this book:

Be careful as this small books ages

Do not fold or tear the pages,

Treat it carefully as can be,

For this book belongs to me

The little book is getting older

Do not fold or tear the pages

Please be careful and gentle

This little book belongs to me

Today’s story is shared here. Thank you everyone for your support. Participate[Rose]