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Sunday, May 20, 2007
Preschool teacher recasts magic spell
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last year, a teacher told Marialyce Orr that some kids in the Mountain Park First Baptist Church Preschool didn’t know simple nursery rhymes.
Like “Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater.”
So this year, Orr, the preschool’s music teacher, made nursery rhymes a curriculum theme. She culled together some teacher resources and scoured the library for nursery rhyme books and CDs.
“I just had fun with it,” said Orr, whose favorite rhymes as a kid were “This Little Piggie,” “Hey Diddle Diddle,” and “Little Miss Muffet.”
On Friday, the preschoolers performed an end-of-the-year show: “Preschool Rhymes and Wonderful Times.” Every class, from the toddlers to the 4-year-olds, took to a stage decorated with a moon, sun, mulberry bush and other props.
Some of the 100 or so tykes sang sheepishly. Others sang robustly. A few cried. Stage fright, I suppose.
Not that it mattered. When you’re this age, it doesn’t take a whole heap to please mommas, papas and grandparents, to make them proud.
Cameras flashed. Video cameras rolled. Delightful.
I learned about the school performance early last week. See, my son and Orr’s two boys are on the same swim team, just in different age groups. One day at practice, she was poolside, working on props for the performance.
We talked about traditional rhymes, recalled a few favorites, and lamented the fact that some contemporary kids are clueless about “Hickory Dickory Dock.”
I did some online research and found out that some parents find many of the time-honored rhymes mean-spirited, vile, improper for children. So they shy away from them altogether.
It’s something Chris Wilson doesn’t understand. His son, Garrett, 3, took part in Friday’s program.
“My son comes home singing nursery rhymes, and we sing them on a regular basis at home,” he told me. “It’s how we learned, you know, and in my opinion, the impact is enormous for kids. Families are just getting away from these things.”
Bruce Lansky, an American poet and author, wrote in a 2006 essay that nursery rhymes are “beginning to fall into disuse because parents are uncomfortable or bored with them.”
Understandable. But there’s a way to skirt discomfort and boredom and introduce your kids to rhymes that are fun, proven teaching tools.
For example, Lansky has published two books that are anthologies of traditional nursery rhymes rewritten by poets to be more palatable. One of the book’s titles says it all: “Mary Had a Little Jam.”
In class, Orr used nursery rhymes as a literacy tool, to teach rhythmic patterns (with instruments), and to problem solve. The kids acted out the actions of the rhymes.
Palatability was a concern of Orr’s, too. She and her charges found ways to make the rhymes positive and contemporary. They replaced the trouble-spots with words or phrases less likely to offend.
On Friday, when the 4-year-old classes sang “Jack and Jill,” they end with the youngsters taking the pail of water to mom, who thanks them.
And when the 3-year-olds sang “Old Mother Hubbard,” the mother ventures to a pet store to buy the dog a bone.
“I wanted to bring back the traditional rhymes as pure enjoyment because they are childish and imaginative,” Orr told me in an e-mail. “Where else would we find a cat playing a fiddle or children living in a shoe?”
• Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
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