*chunks of language = words that naturally come together e.g. ‘thank you very much’, ‘glass of water’, ‘have a nice day’ – that are easily learnt, repeated and do not need analysis.
Chants Chants are great as children
Chants are easy to make up. This is an example of a chant for 5-6 year olds. They had already begun learning animals. Teacher and children can chant it together and do actions for the different animals. (pretend to splash water etc)
My name’s Fred and I’m a frog – jump, jump, jump
My name’s Kate and I’m a cat – miaow, miaow, miaow
My name’s Fergie and I’m a fish – splash, splash, splash
My name’s Micky and I’m a mouse – squeak, squeak, squeak
My name’s Benny and I’m a bird – flap, flap, flap
This is a lovely chant with a rhythm that children enjoy. They can stretch their arms out to show ‘big’ and bring their hands close together to show ‘little’. It also helps to develop:
Motor skills - children will enjoy coloring in the pictures that come with the chant. Coloring demands concentration, eye/hand coordination and hand control – all important pre-writing skills
Word recognition - when beginning word recognition they can draw a line between the animal words – cat, mouse etc and the pictures.