Research on children's experiences with designing has emphasized cognitive processes, self-efficacy, and outcomes related to designing. However, efforts have been limited towards identifying approaches children use while designing and making decisions related to design. This study, which incorporated a qualitative analysis of children's design…

The author shares activities for use in the primary classroom that require active participation with nursery rhymes through dramatization. The activities involve repeated readings, reading in context, and examining rhyming components, and help to develop young children's phonemic awareness and oral language skills.

Describes how kindergarten children use invented spelling to rewrite Mother Goose nursery rhymes, indicating the phoneme grapheme system the children perceived from spoken language. (HTH)

Investigates children's interest in the nursery rhyme genre. Notes that by talking about the rhymes, seeing an expert writer modeling the writing process and writing collaboratively with their teacher and with each other, the children wrote an "alternative" nursery rhyme book. Concludes the children began to see writing as a long term process but…

Examines children's attraction to rhythm and rhyme of nursery rhymes and how these factors affect literacy. Discusses the connection between rhyme and reading and spelling acquisition. (HTH)

Compares the effectiveness of two approaches for teaching basic sight words to educable mentally handicapped students: (1) using the Language Experience Approach (LEA) alone; and (2) using LEA with nursery rhymes. Finds the subjects learned words more easily and rapidly when using nursery rhymes. (RS)

Discusses opportunities to use nursery rhymes to aid in the mathematical development of young children. Considers rhymes that involve patterns, ordering, and problem solving. (MKR)