Singing with Preschoolers

At story time we teach that parents should Talk, Sing, Read, Write, and Play with their children every day to help them be ready to be good readers.  Why is singing important for early literacy?

Reading requires two skills, decoding and comprehension.  A child needs to be able to figure out what the word is (decoding) and what it means (comprehension). For example, you can sound out (or decode) the word "fresas" but if you don't know Spanish you may not know that it means "strawberries" (comprehension). Kids need both skills to be successful readers.

Singing helps with both these skills.  When we sing we naturally divide words into sound parts. Think of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. "Twinkle" is one word, but in the song we divide it up into two parts, "Twin-kle".  Learning that words are made of sound parts is the first step to understanding that each letter in a word contributes a sound. Singing songs helps children be ready to learn to "sound out" words as part of decoding.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is also a good example of how singing helps with comprehension. Language is made of common words, ones we say frequently, and rare words, ones that don't often occur in daily conversation. Most children easily learn the common words, but not all children are exposed to the same amount of rare words.  How often do you use the word, "twinkle" in daily conversation? A child who never sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star might not know the word "twinkle" when they start kindergarten, but any child who has sung the song, will. Think of other common children's songs. What rare words do you find?

So that is why we sing every week in Story Time. We want kids to learn decoding and comprehension skills. We encourage parents to sing with their children as well. It doesn't really matter if you have a good voice, or even if you can carry a tune. The more we sing with small children, the better prepared they will be to become good readers.

April Fish!

No one is entirely sure why fish were chosen as part of the French celebration, but to this day Poisson D'Avril (which means April Fish) is a day for games and all around silliness. April 1st, or April Fool's, is a day for French children (and adults) to play silly pranks, one of which includes attaching a fish onto someones back and seeing how long before they notice.

The holiday is known to date back to at least 1564. For a long time New Year's had been celebrated on April 1st, but in 1563 King Charles IX of France decided that henceforth the New Year would begin on January 1st. It is likely not everyone was happy with the change, and also possible some people had no idea the change was made at all. Regardless the first day in April was still a day of celebration. Those who got on board with the new calendar started to make fun of those who weren't. They used the day to play tricks, including to attach a dried fish to the back of the "fool's" shirt.

Some have said that April is not a good month for fishing, so perhaps individuals threw dried fish into the water hoping to trick fishermen, and then sat and watched them try to "catch" the fish. It is also possible that the use of fish has to do with Lent. April 1st often coincides with the end of Lent during which the faithful are forbidden to eat meat - but fish is still considered appropriate. Perhaps this is why people began using false fish to trick their victims. Regardless of how it began it is still a lot of fun today. Today French children will color their own paper fishes for use in their very own pranks. If you do trick someone with a fish make sure to shout "Poisson D'Avril!"