Community
Primary Movement
In Banbridge Nursery, we put great value on the development of excellent physical skills throughout the course of the school year. Gross and fine motor development (big and small physical movements) form the foundations on which ALL other learning is built and it is imperative that your children are expected to be active and energetic in order to develop control, co-ordination, strength, stamina and balance. Physical capabilities also have an immense impact on your child's ability to attend, to process information and to plan their responses effectively. In order to support this development, we implement a programme known as 'Primary Movement' into our daily routines and learning. This is done initially through the singing of familiar nursery rhymes, with the addition of specific actions which require children to keep a steady beat and to cross their midline, so therefore, activating both side of their brains.
Please find below, videos of three of the rhymes we have been focusing on since the beginning of term and these include 'Row, row, row, your boat', 'Baa Baa black sheep' and 'Humpty Dumpty- parts 1-3'. The children all continue to make a good attempt to engage and attend to these rhymes and we will be continuing to focus on these and introduce new rhymes and actions after the half-term break. Additionally, we will be introducing a movement sequence, known as 'the arm stretch' and 'the sunflower movement'. We will post a video of this movement sequence in a few weeks time when the children are more aware of it.
We encourage you to sing these rhymes and engage in these primary movement actions to build on what they are doing in school.
If you want to find out more information about this programme, please visit http://www.primarymovement.org/about/index.html
Row, Row, Row your boat
Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream
Repeat
ACTIONS: (on first tow, clasp hands and extend arms straight out in front of body, then on second row, flex the elbows to bring clasped hands back to chest.
Continue these actions in this rhythm for the rest of the song)
-Baa Baa black Sheep
Baa baa black sheep have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full,
One for the master and one for the dame,
And one for the little boy who lives down the lane.
Actions: clap palms on to knees and then hands together
-Humpty Dumpty (PART 1)
Humpty dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty dumpty had a great fall,
All the kings horses and all the kings men
Couldn’t put humpty together again
Actions: (Both hands behind back. Then move hands to knees then both hands behind back, completing sequence twice for each line of the song)
-Humpty Dumpty (PART 2)
Humpty dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty dumpty had a great fall,
All the kings horses and all the kings men
Couldn’t put humpty together again
Actions:(one hand on knee and one behind back. Alternate the position of the hands, keeping in the rhythm of the song. Alternate either twice or four times for each line of song)
-Humpty Dumpty (part 3)
Humpty dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty dumpty had a great fall,
All the kings horses and all the kings men
Couldn’t put humpty together again
Actions: (one hand on knee and one on head. Alternate the position of the hands, keeping in the rhythm of the song. Alternate either twice or four times for each line of song)