Rhymes and Songs for Foundational Years

Rhymes and songs in Indian kindergartens and primary classrooms have always been a topic of contention. After all, why are we still stuck on ‘Jack and Jill’ or ‘Rain Rain go Away’? Yes, we have to teach children English language but that does not mean we have to do it by sacrificing our culture, beliefs and identity. It’s time to go ‘glocal’ in our selection of rhymes and songs for the foundational years, time to move from local to global.

It is important to select rhymes and songs to be appropriate for the age group, the local culture and ensure that they provide bite-sized learning opportunities for young children to develop key developmental skills. Our new National Education Policy 2020 talks about foundational literacy and focus on culture and thus this collection of rhymes and songs written by Tasneem Dohadwala is a powerful learning source in early literacy and will enable children to become interested in the rhythm and patterns of language.

It’s time to have relevant rhymes and songs that children can relate to and learn from and Tasneem has written rhymes that move from ‘known to unknown and ‘simple to complex’. Her way with words and the creative use of ideas is what makes these rhymes unique and developmentally appropriate for all children.