Poem 📜 about ❄️ January

Research suggests that music 🎶 has direct impact on helping young children develop literacy skills. And what about learning 📜

poetry? Experts in literacy and child development have discovered that:

“If children know eight nursery rhymes by heart by the time they’re four years old, they’re usually among the best readers by the time they’re eight.” Why do Children Love Poems. Fox, Mem. (2001). 

I have been thinking about making a poetry basket. After searching for a winter❄️ poem for Adrian, and not finding the one that spoke my heart, I decided to write one myself: a simple poem that Adrian can memorize; a poem about a current month – January, and about something fun that Adrian can relate to.   

https://player.vimeo.com/video/207917300

                                   January

"I am happy that January is finally here,

What a beautiful way to greet a New Year!

Snowflakes❄️ dance throughout the night,

When I open my eyes, the world is white!

We rush outdoors and play in the snow,

It’s the best time, that I know!"

                                           Anya © Montessori From The Heart

The Benefits of exposing a child early to rhyming poetry:

Poetry helps develop memorization skills. As children practice memorizing a poem, their memory is linked with audio and visual events, helping them memorize. Being proficient in memorization, patterns, and sequences in turns gives a child an advantage in learning new languages, reading comprehension and mathematics.Here are some of the benefits of exposing your child early to rhyming poetry:

• Poetry helps develop cognitive skills. Reading rhyming poetry out loud makes it easier for younger children to learn new vocabulary words. Reading poetry and rhymes allows children to learn how similar-sounding words can have very different meanings. Children also learn speech patterns and how these patterns can be used and fit together. Thus, by analyzing the meanings of words through context, children are improving their cognitive learning skills.  
• Poetry helps develop language skills by using devices such as meter (rhythm) and rhyme. Children are able to remember the verse by learning auditory rhymes, which in turn improves their language skills and word association. Eventually, when children are ready to write their own rhymes, they will seek out new words or new uses for existing words. Such will allows them to greatly expand their linguistic building blocks.
• Reading and memorizing rhythmic poetry also helps develop phonemic awareness by understanding pitch, voice inflection, and volume. When a child recites poetry, s/he places emphasis on the sound and the rhythm of language, thus building phonemic awareness and solidifying the foundation for reading abilities. 

Adrian knows a lot of nursery rhymes from our Suzuki music lessons (read here); he learns many songs from Julia, and we have been memorizing short poems by Agniya Barto (see here). Also, we have been loving the Mini Masters books set (buy here), which includes Dancing with Degas, A Picnic with Monet, A Magical Day with Matisse, and In the Garden with Van Gogh – each boasting with famous colorful art reproductions and simple captivating rhymes. So, making a themed poetry basket for each season will continue our exploration and appreciation for poetry.

p.s. Read here "Winter Animal Friends" poem I wrote for Julia.

What are you favorite children's poems?