Why Clapping Games Matter in Early Childhood
An ABC’s Clapping Game for Preschoolers | Crossing the Midline & Rhythm
I could probably write a dissertation on clapping games. I believe they are one of the most undervalued and least spoken about musical activities available to children. They also demonstrate something that so many of the great educational philosophies have long spoken about: children learn best through play. Not worksheets. Not drills. Not flashcards. Not by optimizing every minute of their day—but through PLAY. We are little mammals, after all, and a quick look at the behavior of young mammals tells us something very important. Play is not time taken away from development. Play is one of the primary ways development actually happens.
Until fairly recently, it was commonplace to see children inventing and passing along musical games and chants in playgrounds, sidewalks and backyards. Today, all types of free play are disappearing and the reasons are numerous. One could blame technology, overscheduling, less time outdoors, fewer mixed-age groups of children, less unstructured time together etc etc, all valid root causes for sure. However, I don’t want to get lost in the weeds looking for something to blame and would prefer to focus on the positive changes we can make in our own homes, where we still have influence and impact. I believe the play of one child can create a ripple effect. Teach one child a clapping game and before long that child may be teaching it to a sibling, cousin or friend. I have seen this happen among families around me and among those of you who have found me through social media. When I started posting clapping games over a year ago on social media, so many of you told me about how much joy you were finding in this play again and I have to say it has been one of the nicest aspects of social media. It has been a lovely reminder of the good social media can accomplish when it is used well. Although my message and work extends far beyond clapping games, I am very proud to be known for helping families rediscover them again (at least in my small corner of the internet).
What looks like play is doing a remarkable amount of work.
Teachers have been saying for a long time now that they are seeing motor issues that were not present in the classroom to this degree—ever. So many music teachers have messaged me saying that many, many children are unable to keep a steady beat in elementary school—something that would have been unheard of a few decades back. And the truth is that keeping a beat, crossing the midline, are in fact, essential skills for not just music, but reading and writing!
Clapping games offer a child a way to practice so many skills without turning them into isolated exercises or drills. They are learning through play how to: keep a steady beat, coordinate the hands and eyes, cross the midline of the body, remember words and movement sequences, building concentration, anticipating what comes next, taking turns, adjusting their timing when they get out of sync and persisting and beginning again after making a mistake. All these abilities matter in every aspect of life and not just for musical proficiency.
When children clap across the body they coordinate movement between the left and right side which is the type of bilateral coordination used in everyday life and necessary for reading, writing, getting dressed and more. And also, beyond the physical component of clapping games is the language component which often involves rhyming, syllable play and patterns that help lay important pre-literacy skills. All that silly, sing-song syllable play and chanting is gold for the auditory system and strengthens phonemic awareness.
Beyond the auditorial and motor skills development, one of my favorite aspects of clapping games is that the “mistakes” that can occur actually have immense value in of themselves. As children play clapping games they usually become faster, sillier and more complicated until someone “messes up.” It results in laughter and shared connections as children learn to reorganize themselves and begin again, not letting themselves be deterred by a mistake. What a life lesson! The experience of clapping games, where children have to look at each other, pay attention, and move in synchrony creates this magical embodied experience for them where they see what cooperation in action looks like.
I have shared many clapping games on social media, created a curated selection with tutorials in my early childhood music method and will continue to keep sharing, even as I speak more about my elementary homeschool music curriculum, Living with the Muses, because I believe this play is essential— and maybe needed now more than ever. The end goal is that by teaching the clapping games we knew growing up to our own children, they will then pass them on to their friends, reinvent them, and ultimately create their own new ones that will reflect the history and time of their own generation.
A New Way to Sing the ABC’s as a Clapping Game
I happened upon this verse by Trevor Smith Westgarth and immediately knew it would make such a perfect little clapping game for my preschooler. What could be better than learning/reinforcing the ABC’s in this new way and working on the wonderful skills outlined above?! I took a little tiny liberty with changing his lyrics from sing to clap, but whichever way you choose to sing it, I hope you and your preschooler (or even older child) will enjoy learning this!
Walking the Alphabet
Trevor Smith Westgarth
A B C D E F G
Sing the alphabet with me
H I J K L M N
We’ll sing it again and again
O P Q R S T U
Fun for me and fun for you
U V W X Y Z
Now the alphabet’s been said.
[To the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Repeat the first four bars of the tune for H I J K L M N.]
Thank you so much for being here and look forward to hearing if you try this clapping game with your children.
Musically yours,
Veronica
Nursery Rhymes Are the First Literature of Childhood
And What We Lose When They Disappear.
It’s ironic how we have become so “sophisticated” in modern life with all our technology, advancements and capabilities and yet we seemed to have gone backwards in so many ways.
We are seeing the rapid decline of literacy, creativity and overall excellence in our children in numerous ways.
In our pursuit of modernity, we have determined that so much of what was in the past holds no value and should be thrown out with all the other outdated traditions that have existed for hundreds of years.
The truth is though, many traditions, like nursery rhymes held immense benefits for our children. Nursery rhymes were the first step in a continuum that led to classical education. Children who learned nursery rhymes, were then well on their way to developing into children who could memorize poetry, more complex songs, stories and blossom into loving great literature, music and art.
See the thing with education and learning, is that it’s all intrinsically linked to early childhood and how are tastes are shaped.
We have blamed the lack of teaching phonics in our country as the root of all evil, but in reality the truth is much more complex. Yes, phonics is incredibly important and necessary, but what about what comes before phonics?
Do we think children will become excited to memorize abstract sounds for abstract letters when it comes time for reading if they never developed rich pre-literacy skills? If they didn’t develop a love of the spoken word, and rhythmic phrasing, and silly rhyming and the ability to break down syllables and sounds?
The answer is a resounding no. Phonics is not a magic wand. The demise of literacy in our country is due to not only the lack of phonics teaching, but also the lack of musical, literature rich childhoods. It was the straw that broke the camels back. We already were facing a generation that was using screens more, being read to less, being less musical and knowing less nursery rhymes.
Children’s auditory system is at the most sensitive in early childhood. They are picking up new sounds. It’s why meaningful music exposure is so important in early childhood. It forms the foundation for all future learning along with skills for emotional regulation. It’s truly the all in one foundational skill that builds all other skills. This development of the auditory system is what will make future phonics learning either, a walk in the park, or an uphill battle.
What I find strangest of all though, is that it seems like an agenda to remove nursery rhymes from childhood, People started talking about how they were strange, and unusual and not appropriate for children. Why should we be talking about Humpty Dumpty not being able to be put back together again? This is too scary for kids. And outlandish silly things like cows jumping over the moon.
Then began the barrage of pandering down to children and remaking nursery rhymes to be more palatable and less strange and more kid friendly. Everything became sanitized, over explained and emotionally flat.
And guess what? No wonder kids found these new re-written rhymes boring. Because they are! The lack of respect for childhood and understanding of development, wether intentional or not, still astounds me.
The beauty of nursery rhymes is that they give children an opportunity to encounter fear, humor, surprise, tension and loss all from a safe distance. It actually helps them build the necessary coping skills they need in life.
By removing these opportunities in symbolic literature, like nursery rhymes, we don’t make children safer. In fact, we make them less safe, because they never are given the opportunity to start to develop the coping skills needed.
From: Over the Hills and Far Away: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes Collected by: Elizabeth HammillIt also needs to be said that nursery rhymes are not purely a Western world tradition. Many cultures have their own nursery rhymes and child-lore and traditions. In fact, many other cultures have far richer oral traditions than the English speaking world and it should be noted that if cultures stop passing down their oral traditions and nursery rhymes, then history ceases to be passed on.
Parents should be passing on the mantle of nursery rhymes to their children. I have heard countless examples from teachers in the classrooms telling me how so many children have never heard some of the most common nursery rhymes. This should be shocking.
It’s an example of how we have gone backwards. Decades ago, children could recite dozens of nursery rhymes, clapping games, folk songs, chants and other childhood lore with ease. And it enriched their lives and learning immensely.
We need parents to bring back nursery rhymes. Bring back excellence.
Watch my latest video on YouTube where I talk more about nursery rhymes and my son’s immediate response after I taught him a particular nursery rhyme. It’s a beautiful example of why nursery rhymes are so effective.
Nursery Rhyme Books
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I have created a list of some of my favorite nursery rhyme books and ones that I dug up on different cultures. I scoured the internet looking for nursery rhymes from Asia, Africa, South America, the Caribbean- as much as I could find! I hope that there will be something for everyone and that you will find some hidden gems! Please click the book list links below for the full list as I did not link individual books in the photos below.
I wanted to especially mention this book because it’s not only chock full of nursery rhymes, but so many other things and it is without a doubt one of our most loved books. My youngest child looks at this book every day without fail and will spend so much time on his own flipping through the pages. Highly recommend this book! :) It’s linked in the book lists below.
Purchase from Bookshop.org and support local bookstores: Nursery Rhymes Book List
Purchase from Amazon: Nursery Rhymes Book List
Magical Music Method Members
I have added a Nursery Rhymes Section to Magical Music Method this weekend! Learning nursery rhymes with accompanying activities from using nursery rhymes to draw, to play with music bells and so much more to come. It is truly one of the parts of the membership I am so excited to grow with content.
If you would like to join Magical Music Method and gain lifetime access to a unique, growing body of content for parents to raise musical kids the way it should have always been, consider joining.
Thank you to all the wonderful families who have joined so far - your support has made it possible for me to continue growing wonderful content.