DOCSLIB.ORG

The Bittersweet Vine: Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Bittersweet Vine: Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes Volume 19 Number 2 Article 5 Spring 3-15-1993 The Bittersweet Vine: Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes Kathleen Hess Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Hess, Kathleen (1993) "The Bittersweet Vine: Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 19 : No. 2 , Article 5. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol19/iss2/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Contrasts more modern versions of fairy tales with less sanitized early versions. Recounts the darker meaning behind some well-known nursery rhymes. Contends that removing the harshness of original versions is a mistake, because denying the “bitter truth” doesn’t build inner strength. Additional Keywords Fairy tales—Psychological aspects; Nursery rhymes—Psychological aspects This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol19/iss2/5 P a g g 54 issue 72 — S P R I N G 1993 CDyxfol-OKe Xlfe*s JBm rsiRsw eiST 'Y mko F a iry T aLgs and H u r sg r y tto v co e s kATl}LeeN D ess Give me beauty; give me lies — age. And since public floggings, hangings, disembow- Give me dreams that cannot shatter. elments, and imprisonment in stocks were well at­ tended in town squares, violence, cruelty, and death Take the harshness; take the truth — were no strangers to children. Life was harsh. Fairy Take the pain and seek to scatter. tales blended blissful fantasy with that harsh reality. itter shadows lurk in the still darkness of reality. And exposing children to the combination seemed Humanity, if given the choice, would choose to perfectly natural then, and not particularly harmful. run from these harsh realities, yet these very (Panati 168-169) truths — the bittersweet vine of fairy tales and Perrault's account of "Sleeping Beauty" eliminated nurseryH rhymes — have shaped human history. The many of the horrifying trials that this princess endured, beauty of life does not condemn humanity; the beauty of thus stealing the opportunity for spiritual growth in soci­ life does not force humanity to look into a mirror; the ety. Originally centering on rape, adultery, and cannibal­ beauty of life does not trouble the mind. However, truth ism, this fairy tale forces society, wanting change in the — especially the bittersweet vine of fairy tales and nursery present, to search within itself. Perrault's "Sleeping rhymes — does condemn humanity; this bittersweet vine Beauty" departs from the original version after Talia's does force humanity to look into the mirror of the past and father, the king, places her in a velvet chair after she pricks present; this bittersweet vine does trouble the mind. her finger with the poisonous thorn. From this point for­ Originally, authors penned nursery rhymes and fairy ward, Perrault deliberately hides the truth. tales to describe the harsh realities of those bitter times. In the original version, another king (Prince Charming Detailing these realities historically served as an outlet for in the modern version) discovers Talia, the princess, sleep­ that society's pain. Understanding these harsh realities ing on the velvet chair inside the palace. Failing to arouse gave the courage to conquer those bitter times. Finding the Talia, the king, overwhelmed by her beauty, rapes her and truth, the truth in fairy tales and nursery rhymes, although then leaves the palace. Nine months later, still sleeping, a bitter experience, strengthens the soul to deal with pain. Talia gives birth to twins, a girl and a boy named Sun and The original versions of "Sleeping Beauty," "Little Red Moon. Searching for Talia's breast one day, one of the Riding Hood," "Cinderella," "London Bridge," and babies mistakenly begins to nurse from Talia's finger. The "Ring-a-Ringo' Roses" destroy childhood dreams. Instead baby sucks so hard that the poisonous splinter dislodges of focusing on beautiful fantasy, these fairy tales and nur­ from Talia's finger, thus waldng her from the deep sleep sery rhymes mirror the painful realities of the past: rape, (Bettelheim 227). adultery, cannibalism, incest, jealousy, mutilation, seduc­ tion, destruction, human sacrifice, and death. Months pass. Remembering his pleasurable encounter with the princess, the king returns to the palace and finds However, this bittersweet truth — the bittersweet vine Talia awake with his two beautiful children. Talia and the of fairy tales and nursery rhymes — at the same time king bask in a week-long affair before he leaves her again. blesses humanity. Running from the bitter truth, the bitter Conveniently, he neglects to inform Talia of his hidden vine, does not build character; running only serves to stunt secret — his wife (Panati 170). spiritual growth, the growth that builds inner strength. Sweetness, the sweet vine, builds character by using the After discovering the king's deception, his wife, in the experience of the past pain in life to bear the present pain king's name, sends for Talia's two children. Upon their in life. Then and only then will spiritual growth develop. arrival, she orders her cook to kill the children and serve Only by facing the pain of the past will today's society, them for her husband's dinner that night. Unknown to his singly and as a whole, cope with the pain of the present. wife, the cook spares the children and substitutes goat Fairy tales and nursery rhymes bless humanity as this meat. Sending for Talia, the queen plots to burn Talia alive: bittersweet vine. Talia has stolen the king's love from her. At the lastminute, the king rescues Talia, throws his own wife into the fire, Probing into fairy tales shatters dreams. Behind each finds his children still alive, and finally marries Talia fairy tale, religiously read as a bedtime story, lurks a (Bettelheim 227-228). Perrault curiously closes his revision hidden darkness, but why? In his study, Panati suggests, with a rhyme suggesting the rape, yet not boldly stating Children witnessed drunkenness and drank at an early this fact: "Lucky people, so 'tis said / Are blessed by CPyTfoLoKe i s s u e 72 — SPRING 1993 P A q e 55 Fortune whilst in bed" (Bettelheim 228). Rape, adultery, her own misery due to these Oedipal entanglements be­ and cannibalism lived and breathed in the past, just as they tween her and her father, or so the earlier versions of this live and breathe in the present. fairy tale inform us. Perrault allowed the gruesome ending in "Little Red Bettelheim's investigation reveals many earlier writings Riding Hood" and decided to add his own lewd details to of "Cinderella' which suggest this Oedipal relationship. which other writers highly objected. Centering on a young Cinderella flees from a father who wants to marry her. girl's temptation, seduction, and ultimate destruction of In another group of widely distributed tales she is her body and soul, Perrault used this fairy tale to instill fear exiled by her father because she does not love him as in the hearts of all young girls. much as he requires, although she loves him well Perrault begins his details as other versions do. However, enough. So there are many examples of the he soon departs from these versions. When the wolf asks Little "Cinderella" theme in which her degradation often Red Riding Hood where her grandmother lives, she "freely" without any step-mother or step-sisters being part of the story is the consequence of Oedipal entanglement gives him the information. The wolf, masquerading as Little of father and daughter. (Bettelheim 245) Red Riding Hood, gains entrance into the grandmother's home. Once inside, the wolf devours the grandmother, thus One might ask, "Why would the earlier writers focus on eliminating Little Red Riding Hood's protection. In this ver­ such a theme in this fairy tale?" The answer lies in the fact sion, the wolf does not dress in the grandmother's garments; that during this period in history certain peasant cultures he simply lies down "naked' in her bed. accepted this element of life as normal (Bettelheim 175). Upon the arrival of Little Red Riding Hood, the wolf, Earlier versions of "Cinderella," focusing on the sibling pretending to be the grandmother, invites her to get into bed rivalry theme, differ in another terrifying aspect — mutila­ with him. At this point the young girl "undresses and joins tion. Perrault invented the "glass slipper" to eliminate this him in bed." Quite shocked at her grandmother's "naked­ gruesome but important highlight. The step-sisters mutilated ness", Little Red Riding Hood poses the infamous statement, their feet, at their mother's command, so they could fit their 'Grandmother, what big arms you have," to which the wolf feet into the slipper.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Friends, Enemies, and Fools: a Collection of Uyghur Proverbs by Michael Fiddler, Zhejiang Normal University
    GIALens 2017 Volume 11, No. 3 Friends, enemies, and fools: A collection of Uyghur proverbs by Michael Fiddler, Zhejiang Normal University Erning körki saqal, sözning körki maqal. A beard is the beauty of a man; proverbs are the beauty of speech. Abstract: This article presents two groups of Uyghur proverbs on the topics of friendship and wisdom, to my knowledge only the second set of Uyghur proverbs published with English translation (after Mahmut & Smith-Finley 2016). It begins with a brief introduction of Uyghur language and culture, then a description of Uyghur proverb styles, then the two sets of proverbs, and finally a few concluding comments. Key words: Proverb, Uyghur, folly, wisdom, friend, enemy 1. Introduction Uyghur is spoken by about 10 million people, mostly in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. It is a Turkic language, most closely related to Uzbek and Salar, but also sharing similarity with its neighbors Kazakh and Kyrgyz. The lexicon is composed of about 50% old Turkic roots, 40% relatively old borrowings from Arabic and Persian, and 6% from Russian and 2% from Mandarin (Nadzhip 1971; since then, the Russian and Mandarin borrowings have presumably seen a slight increase due to increased language contact, especially with Mandarin). The grammar is generally head-final, with default SOV clause structure, A-N noun phrases, and postpositions. Stress is typically word-final. Its phoneme inventory includes eight vowels and 24 consonants. The phonology includes vowel harmony in both roots and suffixes, which is sensitive to rounded/unrounded (labial harmony) and front/back (palatal harmony), consonant harmony across suffixes, which is sensitive to voiced/unvoiced and front/back distinctions; and frequent devoicing of high vowels (see Comrie 1997 and Hahn 1991 for details).
    [Show full text]
  • M'alt Ese Children's Rhymes and Poet Ry
    M'ALT ESE CHILDREN'S RHYMES AND POET RY by J. CASSAR PULLICINO The songs and ditties falling under the heading 'Children's Rhymes' immediately conjure up recollections of our earliest exist­ ence and childhood activities, of games and emotions long since forgotten. I have used the wider term 'Children's Rhymes', and not 'Nursery Rhyme s' on purpose, for apart fron: those verses which are traditionally passed on by adults to a child while it is still of nurse­ ry age, there is another kind of verse lore passing between children beyond the age of six when out of sight of their parents or at play that in a very real sense also belongs to children. Let us make this distinction clear. In defining the scope of their encyclopaedic work on Nursery Rhymes, Iona and Peter Opie write as follows: 'As well as the nonsense jingles, humorous songs and character rhymes, it includes the more common lullabies, infant amusements, nursery counting-out formulas, baby puzzles and rid­ dles, rhyming alphabets, tongue twisters, nursery prayers and a few singing games the words of which have an independent existence in the nursery ... ,1 Extending their field of study beyond the nursery the same writers stress that 'the scraps of lore which children learn from each other are at once more real, more immediately serviceable, and more vastly entertaining to them than anything which they learn from grown-ups'. More importantly, the se well known authorities on the subject state: 'Such a verse ... can be as traditional and as well known to children as a nursery rhyme; yet no one would mis­ take it for one of Mother Goose's compositions.
    [Show full text]
  • Poetry Vocabulary
    Poetry Vocabulary Alliteration: Definition: •The repetition of consonant sounds in words that are close together. •Example: •Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. How many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick? Assonance: Definition: •The repetition of vowel sounds in words that are close together. •Example: •And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride. -Edgar Allen Poe, from “Annabel Lee” Ballad: Definition: •A song or songlike poem that tells a story. •Examples: •“The Dying Cowboy” • “The Cremation of Sam McGee” Cinquain: Definition: • A five-line poem in which each line follows a rule. 1. A word for the subject of the poem. 2. Two words that describe it. 3. Three words that show action. 4. Four words that show feeling. 5. The subject word again-or another word for it. End rhyme: Definition: • Rhymes at the ends of lines. • Example: – “I have to speak-I must-I should -I ought… I’d tell you how I love you if I thought The world would end tomorrow afternoon. But short of that…well, it might be too soon.” The end rhymes are ought, thought and afternoon, soon. Epic: Definition: • A long narrative poem that is written in heightened language and tells stories of the deeds of a heroic character who embodies that values of a society. • Example: – “Casey at the Bat” – “Beowulf” Figurative language: Definition: • An expressive use of language. • Example: – Simile – Metaphor Form: Definition: • The structure and organization of a poem. Free verse: Definition: • Poetry without a regular meter or rhyme scheme.
    [Show full text]
  • Poetry Explications A-State Online Writing Center
    Poetry Explications A-State Online Writing Center What are poetry explications? A poetry explication is an analytical essay that comments on a poem’s elements and possible meanings. In other words, writers make connections between the narrative of the poem and the literary choices the poet uses to convey that narrative such as imagery, tone, rhythm and meter, and word choice. Reading & identifying analysis points Before writing your essay, it’s best to take the time to read the poem to yourself at least twice to gain an understanding of the plot, structure, narrator’s point of view (POV), and main ideas. Remember that you need to separate the narrator of the poem from the poet, particularly if you know the poet’s identity. Do not conflate the poet’s POV and personal life with the narrator’s life. When you begin looking for major ideas and connections between poem elements, consider these questions: ● What are the major themes? ● How is the poem structured and broken up into lines and stanzas? ● Who does the narrator or speaker seem to be addressing? ● What are the major conflicts and plot points? ● What is the overall tone? Are there shifts in tone? ● Is there a location described? ● Are there patterns you can note throughout the poem? Are there patterns in word choice, imagery, structure, syntax, rhyme, rhythm, and other elements? Determining these answers are helpful when writing your analysis. General outline Briefly summarize the poem’s narrative in the introduction of your essay for context. Then develop a clear thesis statement that addresses your major analysis points.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Article (PDF)
    Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research (ASSEHR), volume 279 Third International Conference of Arts, Language and Culture (ICALC 2018) Uncovering the translator’s techniques in retaining the beauty of poetic children’s stories Nur Saptaningsih1, Ardianna Nuraeni 2 1 English Department, Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta, Indonesia 2 English Department, Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta, Indonesia 1 [email protected], 2* [email protected] Abstract: Studies on translation of children’s literature have been widely explored by researchers with a number of focus on translation readability, proper names, titles, and culture-specific terms. One area that is still rare to study is the presence of bilingual children’s books that are presented poetically, where the author writes the stories using poetic devices (such as presenting them in stanzas and rhyming expressions) and where the translator produces the translated stories with the same poetic sense. This study focuses our special attention to the issue of the translation of poetic illustrated stories for children, which aims to describe ways the translator of book series “Archipelago Legend” renders the poetic markers in his translation, particularly to keep maintaining the message of the Source Text (ST) in the Target Text (TT) and the beauty of the stanzas. Under the design of descriptive qualitative research, we analyzed seven bilingual books of Indonesia’s “Archipelago Legend”. Stanzas in the stories and their translations were selected and categorized into types of poetic devices used by the writer and the translator. The source language construction and their translations, as well as the poetic devices in both ST and TT were analyzed with the aim at exploring the translator’s techniques in maintaining the beauty of the poetic stories in rendering the message of ST.
    [Show full text]
  • Rhyme in European Verse: a Case for Quantitative Historical Poetics
    1 Rhyme in European Verse: A Case for Quantitative Historical Poetics Boris Maslov & Tatiana Nikitina Keywords rhyme, statistical methods, meter, Historical Poetics, Russian verse The past decade has witnessed an unprecedented rise of interest in objectivist, data-driven approaches to literary history, often grouped together under the heading of digital humanities. The rapid multiplication of software designed to map and chart literature, often on a massive scale, has engendered an anxious (and often unpublicized) reaction. A concern for the future of literary studies, traditionally committed to the study of individual texts accessed through “close reading” of individual passages, is exacerbated in the wake of the emergence of a version of “world literature” that normalizes the study of literary works in translation, effectively jettisoning the philological techniques of explication du texte. This article seeks to bypass these antagonisms by proposing an alternative approach to literary history which, while being rooted in data analysis and employing quantitative methods some of which have been part of a century-old scholarly tradition, retains a twofold focus on the workings of poetic form and on the interaction between national literary traditions—the two topics that have dominated theoretical poetics and comparative literature ever since the inception of these disciplines in the late nineteenth-early twentieth centuries. While close reading is admittedly of limited value in the study of 2 versification, a more rigorous type of statistical testing used in this study allows for reliable assessment of tendencies observed in relatively small corpora, while also making it possible to verify the significance of highly nuanced quantitative differences.
    [Show full text]
  • Voices from Early China
    Voices from Early China The Odes Demystified Voices from Early China The Odes Demystified Geoffrey Sampson Voices from Early China: The Odes Demystified By Geoffrey Sampson This book first published 2020 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2020 by Geoffrey Sampson All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-5212-8 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-5212-8 The symbol on the title page is the Chinese title of this book—Shi, “Poetry”—in the hand of the Tang dynasty monk Huai Su, who called his greatly admired calligraphy “the handwriting of a drunken immortal”. VOICES FROM EARLY CHINA v VOICES FROM EARLY CHINA Contents Map of the Tiw Kingdom xvi Introduction 1 List of Works Consulted 43 A Timeline of Early Chinese History and Myth 46 THE POEMS Airs of the States State of Tiw and Southwards 1 The Fish-Hawk 關雎 47 2 The Spreading Lablab Vine 葛覃 48 3 The Mouse-Ears 卷耳 49 4 Sagging Branches 樛木 50 5 Locusts 螽斯 50 6 The Delicate Peach-Tree 桃夭 51 7 The Rabbit Net 兔罝 52 8 Gathering Plantains 芣苢 52 9 The Wide River Han 漢廣 53 10 On the Embankment of the Nac 汝墳 54 11 A Unicorn’s Hooves 麟之趾 54 State of Daws and Southwards 12 Magpie and Dove 鵲巢 56 13
    [Show full text]
  • Copyrighted Material
    24_578413 bindex.qxd 1/13/05 2:31 PM Page 251 Index Amby Baby Motion Bed, 183 • A • American Massage Therapy abdominal massage Association, 248 cautions, 54 amino acid, 24 constipation relief, 181 Anderson, Gary (Children with five-minute massage, 175 HIV/AIDS ), 238 I Love You stroke, 75–76 Ankles Away technique, 68–69, 112 Let’s Go sequence, 166, 167 ANS (autonomic nervous overview, 72 system), 23 Sleeper sequence, 164 anterior fontanel, 88 Sun and Moon technique, 74–75 antibiotics, 100 Thumbs to Sides technique, 73–74 apathy, 9 Water Wheel technique, 72–73 Apgar test, 139 acupuncture, 100, 213 arched back, 24 addiction, 219–228 Are You My Mother? adhesion, 13 (Eastman, P.D.), 150 adopted baby, 201–204, 206, 216 Arm Cross stretch, 243–244 adrenaline, 23–24 arm massage African massage, 243 “C” Stroke, 81–82 ailment. See also specific ailments five-minute massage, 175 abdominal massage, 72 Little Sleeper sequence, 164–165 benefits of massage, 16–17 overview, 81 chest massage, 77 Sleeper sequence, 164 Down syndrome complications, Thumb Circles technique, 83 210, 211 aromatherapy, 53, 56 endorphins, 18 ascending colon, 72 injured baby, 55 Asian culture, 17 airplane, 176 Associated Bodywork & Massage alcohol, 36, 214, 219–228 Professionals, 249 alertness, 27–28, 141 asthma, 184–186 All You Need IsCOPYRIGHTED Love: Beatles Songs athetoid MATERIAL cerebral palsy, 211 for Kids (music CD), 149 attachment. See also bonding allergy developmental delays, 207 asthma causes, 184 drug-addicted baby, 221 breastfeeding benefits, 142 fetal alcohol syndrome,
    [Show full text]
  • Who Heard the Rhymes, and How: Shakespeare’S Dramaturgical Signals
    Oral Tradition, 11/2 (1996): 190-221 Who Heard the Rhymes, and How: Shakespeare’s Dramaturgical Signals Burton Raffel The Audience “The many-headed multitude” was how, in 1601, a contemporary referred to the Shakespearian audience (Salgado 1975:22). “Amazed I stood,” wondered an anonymous versifier in 1609, “to see a crowd/ Of civil throats stretched out so lowd;/ (As at a new play) all the rooms/ Did swarm with gentles mix’d with grooms.”1 This wide-ranging appeal considerably antedated Shakespeare’s plays: though he very significantly shaped its later course, he profited from rather than created the solidly popular status of the Elizabethan and, above all, the London stage, for “London was where the players could perform in their own custom-built playhouses, week after week and year after year. In London there were regular venues, regular audiences, regular incomes.”2 The first playhouses had been built in 1576; at least two professional “playhouses were flourishing in 1577.”3 (Shakespeare was then a country lad of thirteen.) The urgency of clerical denunciations, then as now, provides particularly revealing evidence of the theater’s already well- established place in many Londoners’ hearts.4 1 Idem:29. Festivity was of course a far more important aspect of Elizabethan life. “The popular culture of Elizabethan England . is characterized first and foremost by its general commitment to a world of merriment” (Laroque 1991:33). 2 Gurr 1992:6. And, just as today, those who wielded political power took most seriously the ancillary economic benefits produced by London’s professional theaters. See Harrison 1956:112-14, for the authorities’ immensely positive reaction, when appealed to by the watermen who ferried playgoers back and forth across the Thames, and whose profitable employment was being interfered with.
    [Show full text]
  • Elements of Poetry Title ➔ the Name Given to the Poem by the Author
    ELA Virtual Lesson #1: Handout The video that goes along with this lesson is posted in Google Classroom. If you do not have a way to access Google Classroom, I have included all necessary guidance on this handout. If you have any questions about this lesson, please email or message me. You can also join our Google Meet from 10am - 11am. Date: Tuesday, April 7th Objective: 5-RL.9. I will explain text structures and use terminology unique to poetry. Elements of Poetry Title ➔ The name given to the poem by the author. Verse/Line ➔ a “sentence” in a poem ➔ at least one word long ➔ the title is not a verse/line Stanza ➔ A “paragraph” in a poem ➔ a group of two or more verses/lines ➔ does not include the title ➔ a poem has at least 1 stanza Rhyme Rhyme Meter Repetition Mood Theme Free Scheme Verse → Words that → The pattern of → The beat → Words or → The → The lesson → Poems that have the same rhyming lines or rhythm of phrases that general or message are written ending sounds → Named using the poem. are repeated feeling the the author without a letters of the poem gives wants to rhyme scheme alphabet the reader. teach or express Guided Practice : Rhyme Scheme A poem's pa ttern of rhyming lines is called its rhyme scheme. Rhyme schemes are named using letters of the alphabet (usually A – D). This rhyme scheme is usually followed throughout each stanza. Here is an example of a poem with its rhyme scheme listed in brackets. Let's do a couple together..
    [Show full text]
  • Language Development and Emergent Literacy
    Introduction to Language Development and Mobile Infants Emergent Literacy Domains (8 to 18 months) for Mobile Infants Domain Components L1. Receptive Language L2. Expressive Language L3. Communication Skills L4. English Language Development for Dual Language Learners EL1. Engagement in literacy experiences and understanding of books and stories EL2. Phonological awareness EL3. Knowledge and use of books, print and letters ______________________________________________________________________ Here are some important things to know about young infants and their language development and emergent literacy: They use gestures to communicate their needs and wants. For example, they point, pull on a skirt or pants’ leg, and shake their head “No.” They can learn simple sign language for words such as “more”, “eat”, and “drink” They understand more words than they can say. They can follow simple directions such as “Bring me the ball,” or “Show me your belly button, please.” They create long, babbled sentences, then begin to repeat familiar words they hear. They recognize names for many familiar objects such as ball, doggy and keys. They use single-word expressions such as “doggy,” “bye-bye,” and “oh-oh,” then begin to use two-word sentences such as “More milk,” “Where Mommy?” or “Daddy go.” They may say seven to twenty words that adults can understand. This usually occurs between 12 to 18 months. They actively participate in book reading experiences by pointing to pictures, sometimes naming what they see in the pictures, and turning pages. They join in rhyming activities such as songs and nursery rhymes, and in games. By knowing these special things about mobile infants, families and caregivers can better understand how to support their language development and emergent literacy experiences.
    [Show full text]
  • Baby Nursery Rhymes Printable
    Baby Nursery I 10 Infant Minutes Songs Rhymes 6 weeks - 2 years Teachers will recite familiar nursery rhymes to stimulate response in infants and foster participation with child for social interaction. Learning Outcomes Domain: Indicator: Language Clapping along. Responding to voice sounds. Skills: Trying to mimic hand Mimicking motions and lyrics. Materials Instructions Step 1: Throughout the day when Step 4: Do the rhyme a few times to • Lyrics to various nursery awake, sing/recite a nursery rhyme get the children used to the with infants/toddlers. This can be song/rhyme. rhymes done in a small group or one-on-one. This is something you • Optional: finger puppets Step 5: If you have puppets, finger can do during diaper changes, on a puppets or other visuals, use walk with the stroller, during tummy them when appropriate. time, etc. Step 2: Speak/sing slowly and clearly when reciting the rhyme. Be sure to use different voices for different characters and make your voice go high and go low. Step 3: Use hands to do motions when appropriate. Playful Questions • What is your favorite rhyme? • Can we create our own nursery rhyme? • Should we sing it again? • Do you like this rhythm? • Can you sing it with me? Nursery Rhymes Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are, Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky, Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are. I'm a Little Tea Pot I’m a little teapot, short and stout Here’s my handle (place hand on hip) Here’s my spout (stick your other arm out straight) When I get all steamed up, hear me shout Just tip me over and pour me out (lean over with your spout arm) Mary Had A Little Lamb Mary had a little lamb, His fleece was white as snow, And everywhere that Mary went, The lamb was sure to go He followed her to school one day, Which was against the rule, It made the children laugh and play, To see a lamb at school.
    [Show full text]