The more something is repeated, the more likely children are to remember it. Repetition in a variety of forms also increases the likelihood of reaching children with different learning styles and provides a more comprehensive understanding of concepts. Learn how educational children’s programming uses repetition and how you can use books and activities to give variety to a subject.
“Having ordinary routines and rituals, such as bedtime stories, Sunday dinners, birthday cakes, even chores, is linked to marital satisfaction, better children’s health and academic achievement, and more secure adolescents, according to an examination at Syracuse University of 50 years of data on family dynamics. Researchers there found that life’s little routines add up to a big security blanket, especially in times of stress. Boring is a blessing!”—Woman’s Day, February 2004
This workshop includes the following sections:
Learning Triangle Activity Sheet Why Is This Important to My Child? What Can I Do for My Child? Book List Activities Additional Resources
Learning Through the Early Years: The Benefits of Repetition and Variation
Special Thanks
KBYU Eleven gratefully acknowledges the following individuals and organizations that contributed to the design and creation of this workshop and the thousands of workshop participants whose questions and suggestions inspired our work: Stephanie Anderson, Carrie Allen Baker, Barbara Leavitt, Aubrey McLaughlin, Theresa Robinson, Public Broadcasting Service, and United Way of Utah County.
Children are born equipped for learning. Parents and caregivers can help children enter school with the essential skills and knowledge they need to be ready to learn. KBYU Eleven provides children and parents with three related services:
1. Quality educational television programs. Children who consistently watch these programs enter school better prepared to learn, and once in school they perform at a higher level.
2. A safe and fun online environment offering engaging activities, games, and videos that teach and reinforce key skills and concepts.
3. Online video workshops that provide insights into how children develop and demonstrate how to combine media with reading and hands-on activities to greatly enhance children’s learning.
What Is the Purpose of the KBYU Eleven Ready To Learn Workshops?
The 12 KBYU Eleven Ready To Learn workshops help parents become their child’s first and best teacher. The workshops were created over several years by experts in early childhood education and offered in partnership with schools, libraries, and community organizations throughout Utah. In creating these workshops KBYU Eleven built on the national Ready To Learn initiative sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), PBS, and the Ready To Learn Partnership (RTLP). You can learn more about the national Ready To Learn effort at pbskids.org/read/about.
What Are the 12 KBYU Eleven Ready To Learn Workshops?
1. Benefits of Media and the Learning Triangle
2. Rhymers Are Readers: The Importance of Nursery Rhymes
3. Music Is a Must!
4. Storytelling: You Can Do It!
5. The Brain: How Children Develop
6. The FUNdamental Powers of Play
7. What Do You Do with the Mad That You Feel?
8. Who Is My Child? Understanding Temperament
9. Math Is Everywhere!
10. Learning Through the Early Years: The Benefits of Repetition and Variation
11. Shared Reading: Tools to Bring Literacy to Life
12. Building Blocks: The Sequence of Emergent Literacy Skills
How Can I Participate in a KBYU Eleven Ready To Learn Workshop?Video versions of the workshops are available online at no charge. While they are sequentially based—with each workshop building on the previous one—they can also be viewed independently. To watch a workshop, visit kbyueleven.org and click on Ready To Learn under the Kids & Family section.
What Are the Four Areas of Child Development? 1. Cognitive development includes thinking, information processing, problem solving,
remembering, decision making, understanding concepts, and overall intelligence.
2. Physical development is rapid following birth as children learn to control large and then small muscle groups. The sequence of stages is important, and providing an environment children can physically explore while they are growing is critical to all ages.
3. Language development is most intensive during the first three years while the brain is developing rapidly and is stimulated most by exposure to sights, sounds, and being talked to.
4. Social/emotional development is critical to all other areas of development, because how children perceive their world (their ability to give and accept love, be confident and secure, show empathy, be curious and persistent, and relate well to others) affects how the brain physically develops and how they learn and process information.
What is the PBS Learning Triangle®?The Learning Triangle is a three-part learning pattern that helps reach
all types of learners by teaching through a variety of activities. The three points of the Learning Triangle are View, Read, and Do.
VIEW with your child an educational program that teaches a concept or skill.READ with your child age-appropriate books that reiterate the new concept or skill.
DO an activity that reinforces the concept or skill and allows your child to practice what she or he has learned.
As you use the Learning Triangle you will see how each point reinforces the others. The workshops provide suggested Learning Triangle activities, but more important, they teach you how to build your own learning triangles to best meet the needs of your child.
How Do Children Learn?The Learning Triangle is built on how we learn. Using our senses we gather information and then process it into our memory. Some learners rely more on one sense than another.
• Auditory learners use their sense of hearing. They process information better when they can hear the information.
• Visual learners use sight as a key tool for processing information.
• Kinesthetic (or hands-on) learners process information best by physically performing a task that incorporates the new information.
While learners can have a strong affinity to one type of learning, it is more effective to teach using a combination of all three. As a parent or caregiver, it is important to understand what types of learning work best for your child so that you can guide them to become better learners. For young children, ages 0–3, learning is holistic, meaning that they use all three types of learning. PBS developed the Learning Triangle to help reach all types of learners and enhance their learning through repetition. According to Dr. Bruce Perry, repetition is key to the development of a child’s brain. Repetition leads to skill mastery, which increases confidence and builds self-esteem.
Learning Through the Early Years: The Benefits of Repetition and Variation
Repetition is the key for any learning. When children are able to duplicate activities, the task becomes easier. Make sure to use sensory-based activities: real-life examples that allow children to touch, smell, hear, speak, or even taste the learning experience.
Read a book, such as Cookie’s Week, by Cindy Ward, that has repetition
and variation in the text and pictures.
Watch your child’s favorite PBS show with him or her to
see how the show is the same each time. Point out these
elements of repetition to your child, and discuss how the show changes each time.
Choose your favorite children’s book. Read it to your child on the first day, then have your child draw pictures about the book on the second day. Act the story out on the third day. On the fourth day, read a different book by the same
author and see if the books have any similarities.
Language DevelopmentAs children mature, they begin to try to use the words you are reading. As they hear you read a book over and over, they will begin to say words that they remember .
Asking children questions about what they see and building on their answers often begins their use of words.
Some books provide intentional repetition so that children can hear you say the word and then join you in saying the same word when it is repeated on each page.
Cognitive DevelopmentChildren will personify characters in a book, especially pictures of animals or babies. By the end of the first year, when caregivers use special voices for the characters or animal noises for the animal pictures, children will often imitate the sounds and begin to speak for the characters in the book.
When you ask the child to interact with you in reading a book, you soon will experience the enjoyment of a child who says “oink” when a pig appears and “neigh, neigh” when a horse appears.
When children turn pages in books on their own, they may know what comes next and vocalize what they see. If you have ever tried to skip a page in a familiar book, you know that children will alert you about the skipped page. They are thinking and know what to expect.
Learning Through the Early Years: The Benefits of Repetition and Variation
ReferencesRaver, C. Young children’s emotional development and school readiness. Educational Resource Information Center. Retrieved from
www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Young_ChildrensOjose, B. Applying Piaget’s theory of cognitive development to mathematics instruction. The Mathematics Educator, 18 (1), 26–30.
Retrieved from math.coe.uga.edu/tme/issues/v18n1/v18n1_Ojose.pdf
Physical DevelopmentFind books that allow children to turn the pages. Remember that children love to read the same book over and over and look at the same pictures over and over. Let the child be physically in control of the book by holding it and deciding when to turn the pages.
After reading the book have the child pretend to be one of the characters and act out the story. You can be a character too!
Social/Emotional DevelopmentWhen a parent or caregiver “reads” the pictures in a picture book and shares the excitement of surprise in discovering each page, children become engaged, first through their emotional connection and then through their interest in discovery.
As children are able to look at a book on their own, they discover these same pictures and feel the same pleasure. Before long, the book becomes a friend to the child.
Explore the pictures and talk about how the characters are feeling (e.g., “Baby Bear looks sad. How can we tell?”).
Many books have pictures of things that are common in a child’s world (e.g., “There is a ball. Where is our ball?”). This gives a child a sense of security by seeing familiar items.
Ask children to find objects in the room like the ones in their favorite book.
Learning Through the Early Years: The Benefits of Repetition and Variation
Learning Through the Early Years: The Benefits of Repetition and Variation
For Babies to Toddlers (0–2 years)• Let children pick their own books. Don’t worry if they choose the same one over and over. It
takes an adult six times to recognize a word; it takes even longer for an infant or toddler.• When repeating rhymes or fingerplays, let children act them out as you say them.• Play peek-a-boo and guessing games. Hide toys under different items to see if children can
find them.• Use sensory activities to allow children to feel different textures. Most things will end up in a
child’s mouth, so make sure there are no choking hazards.• Use facial and vocal expression as you talk and play with your child.
For Toddlers (2–4 years)• After reading a story or book, try to extend the learning by using real-life experiences in your
child’s life. • Let children use all of their senses during an activity; for example, if you go for a walk, have
them listen to the sounds outside and feel different objects. Ask them open-ended questions about what they are seeing and feeling.
• Make up a song about one of the characters in a book you read.• When reading rhyming books, pause to let the child finish the word and tell the story.• Find online activities that support what you are teaching.
For Older Children (4–5 years)• Let children hold items and be in charge of an activity.• Ask open-ended questions about what would happen if you did an activity differently.• Use different materials, such as dress-up clothes, puppets, and pictures, to retell a child’s
favorite stories.• When at the library or bookstore, find books by the child’s favorite author and compare the
Learning Through the Early Years: The Benefits of Repetition and Variation
A Is for Annabelle Tasha Tudor ABC VariationA Was Once an Apple Pie Edward Lear ABC VariationAlexander and the Terrible, Horrible No Good, Very Bad Day Judith Viorst Book VariationAlice the Fairy David Shannon Book VariationAnimalia Graeme Base ABC VariationAnimals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing Judi Barrett Book VariationBad Case of Stripes, A David Shannon Book VariationBob’s A to Z Word Book Kate Telfeyan ABC VariationBugliest Bug, The Carol Diggory Shields Theme RepetitionButterfly Susan Canizares Book VariationChicka Chicka 1 2 3 Bill Martin Jr. Theme and Word RepetitionChicka Chicka Boom Boom Bill Martin Jr. ABC VariationChicken Soup with Rice Maurice Sendak Theme RepetitionClifford’s ABC Norman Bridwell ABC VariationCloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Judi Barrett Book VariationCommotion in the Ocean Giles Andreae Theme RepetitionCount the Ways, Little Brown Bear Jonathan London Theme RepetitionDinosaur Roar! Paul Stickland Theme RepetitionDo You Know the Difference? Andrea Bischhoff-Miersch Book VariationDown on the Farm Merrily Kutner Word Repetition Duck on a Bike David Shannon Book VariationDucks in Muck Lori Haskins Theme and Word Repetition Farm Flu Teresa Bateman Theme and Word RepetitionFlea’s Sneeze, The Lynn Downey Theme and Word RepetitionFrederick! Leo Lionni Book VariationFuntime ABC and 123 Eugene Bradley ABC VariationGrumpy Morning, The Pamela Duncan Edwards Theme RepetitionHoney . . . Honey . . . Lion! Jan Brett Theme RepetitionHop on Pop Dr. Seuss Theme and Word RepetitionHouse for Hermit Crab, A Eric Carle Book VariationHow Are You Peeling? Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers Theme RepetitionI Heard Said the Bird Polly Berrien Berends Word RepetitionI Like It When . . . Mary Murphy Word RepetitionI Went Walking Sue Williams Word RepetitionIf You Give a Moose a Muffin Laura Numeroff Theme and Word RepetitionIf You Give a Mouse a Cookie Laura Numeroff Theme and Word RepetitionIf You Give a Pig a Pancake Laura Numeroff Theme and Word Repetition
If You Take a Mouse to School Laura Numeroff Theme and Word RepetitionIf You Take a Mouse to the Movies Laura Numeroff Theme and Word RepetitionInside a Barn in the Country Alyssa Satin Capucilli Word RepetitionInside a House That Is Haunted Alyssa Satin Capucilli Word RepetitionInto the A, B, Sea Deborah Lee Rose ABC VariationIs Your Mama a Llama? Deborah Guarino Theme RepetitionK Is for Kissing a Cool Kangaroo Giles Andreae ABC VariationKisses Nanda Roep Word RepetitionLet’s Go Visiting Sue Williams Word RepetitionMiss Bindergarten (any title in the series) Joseph Slate ABC VariationMole in a Hole Rita Golden Gelman ABC VariationMouse Makes Words Kathryn Heling and Deborah Hembrook ABC VariationMy Crayons Talk Patricia Hubbard Word RepetitionPapa Papa Jean Marzollo Word RepetitionSeeds! Seeds! Seeds! Nancy Elizabeth Wallace Book VariationShe’ll Be Coming ’Round the Mountain Chris Demarest Word RepetitionSo Many Bunnies Rick Walton ABC VariationSpider Names Susan Canizares Book VariationSwimmy Leo Lionni Book VariationThe Biggest, Best Snowman Margery Cuyler Book VariationThis Is the House That Jack Built Simms Taback Book VariationVery Busy Spider, The Eric Carle Word RepetitionVery Hungry Caterpillar, The Eric Carle Book VariationWe All Went on Safari Laurie Krebs Theme RepetitionWe’re Going on a Bear Hunt Michael Rosen Word RepetitionWe’re Going on a Lion Hunt David Axtell Word RepetitionWheels on the Bus and Other Transportation Songs Dick Witt Word RepetitionWhere Do Kisses Come From? Maria Fleming Word RepetitionWho Says Moo? Ruth Young Theme Repetition
This is a small reference sample of books that can be found at your local library.
Learning Through the Early Years: The Benefits of Repetition and Variation
Learning Through the Early Years: The Benefits of Repetition and Variation
There was an old lady who swallowed a fly. I don’t know why she swallowed that fly. Perhaps she’ll die.
There was an old lady who swallowed a spider that wriggled and jiggled and wiggled inside her. She swallowed the spider to catch the fly. But I don’t know why she swallowed that fly. Perhaps she’ll die.
There was an old lady who swallowed a bird. How absurd, to swallow a bird! She swallowed the bird to catch the spider that wriggled and jiggled and wiggled inside her. She swallowed the spider to catch the fly. But I don’t know why she swallowed that fly. Perhaps she’ll die.
There was an old lady who swallowed a cat. Imagine that! She swallowed a cat. She swallowed the cat to catch the bird. She swallowed the bird to catch the spider that wriggled and jiggled and wiggled inside her. She swallowed the spider to catch the fly. But I don’t know why she swallowed that fly. Perhaps she’ll die.
There was an old lady who swallowed a dog. What a hog, to swallow a dog! She swallowed the dog to catch the cat. She swallowed the cat to catch the bird. She swallowed the bird to catch the spider that wriggled and jiggled and wiggled inside her. She swallowed the spider to catch the fly. But I don’t know why she swallowed that fly. Perhaps she’ll die.
There was an old lady who swallowed a goat. Just opened her throat and swallowed a goat! She swallowed the goat to catch the dog. She swallowed the dog to catch the cat. She swallowed the cat to catch the bird. She swallowed the bird to catch the spider that wriggled and jiggled and wiggled inside her. She swallowed the spider to catch the fly. But I don’t know why she swallowed that fly. Perhaps she’ll die.
There was an old lady who swallowed a cow. I don’t know how she swallowed a cow! She swallowed the cow to catch the goat. She swallowed the goat to catch the dog. She swallowed the dog to catch the cat. She swallowed the cat to catch the bird. She swallowed the bird to catch the spider that wriggled and jiggled and wiggled inside her. She swallowed the spider to catch the fly. But I don’t know why she swallowed that fly. Perhaps she’ll die.
There was an old lady who swallowed a horse. She’s dead, of course!
This colorful and lively video brings to life thefavorite children’s rhym
e. Jack’s house is like no otherand its inhabitants are full of fun and surprises.C
aldecott Award-w
inning author Simm
s Taback addshis ow
n creative wit to the endless com
motion. From
different kinds of rats, to different varieties of cats, todifferent flavors of cheese, this video takes view
ersdeeper into Jack’s house than they’ve probably everbeen. There is even a special guest star at the end ofthis hum
orous and unique interpretation of an age-oldclassic, w
hose appearance will teach children about its
often forgotten origins.
OBJEC
TIVES
• Students will learn about the cadence and repetition
of poetry through listening, speaking, and writing.
• Students will learn about R
andolph Caldecott and the
Caldecott M
edal for art in children’s literature.
BEFOR
E-VIEW
ING
AC
TIVITIES
Read aloud the traditional poem
“The House That
Jack Built.” Encourage children to join into the
reading as they begin to remem
ber the sequence andrepetition. Suggested activities:• Shared reading: C
opy the poem in big letters onto
chart paper. Draw
simple pictures beneath the key
words such as: house, Jack, rat, cheese, etc. U
se apointer to track the w
ords as you and the children readthem
aloud together.• Total Physical R
esponse (TPR): This is an
instructional method that w
orks very well to build oral
language for English language learners. Create sim
plem
ovements to correspond to the key w
ords in thepoem
. As you and the children chant the poem
aloudtogether, perform
these movem
ents as you say the cor-responding w
ords. After practicing several tim
es, youbegin to w
hisper the words, but the children continue
to say them aloud. C
ontinue to perform the m
ove-m
ents. As the children becom
e proficient, you sayfew
er and fewer of the key w
ords until you are silentlyacting out the m
ovements w
hile the children chant thepoem
independently (also acting out the movem
ents).• A
sk students to look for diff erences between the tra-
ditional poem and Taback’s interpretation in the video.
Guiding questions:
• How
does Simm
s Taback make the poem
come
alive? Does he change the w
ords or does he do itthrough art and illustrations or both? W
hat other dif-ferences do you notice?• W
rite down (or draw
) one new thing that you learned
from the video that w
as not included in the traditionalpoem
.
AFTER
-VIEW
ING
AC
TIVITIES
Discuss R
andolph Caldecott and the C
aldecott Medal.
Share biographical information about R
andolphC
aldecott and historical information about the
Caldecott M
edal. Show students exam
ples of booksthat have w
on the Caldecott M
edal (or Honor M
edal),including Sim
ms Taback’s
Joseph Had a Little
Overcoatand There W
as an Old Lady W
ho Swallow
eda Fly. G
uiding questions:• W
hy did these books win aw
ards for art? What
makes the art in these books different from
the art youhave seen in other books? (You m
ay want to provide
examples of non-C
aldecott Medal w
inning books)• H
ow does the art in these books support the story?
Read aloud another classic poem
, such as “Stoppingby W
oods on a Snowy Evening,” by R
obert Frost, or“The R
ed Wheelbarrow
,” by William
Carlos W
illiams.
Ask students to visualize the action or setting of the
poemand then try to depict a part or all of it in a
drawing. R
emind students that details not described
in the poem can be added to the draw
ing to enhancethe m
eaning of the poem, as they see it.
Invite children to write their ow
n poetry about theirow
n house, using the model and cadence of the
traditional poem. They can title it “This Is the
House That (C
hild’s Nam
e) Built.” Encourage
children to be creative by reminding them
that theycan have any anim
als and people in their houses thatthey w
ant to. Alternatively, you can w
rite a classpoem
where children brainstorm
ideas, write, and
illustrate the poem together. This also
can be presented as a play or skit for other grades or classes.
Other videos based on books by Sim
ms Taback avail-
able from W
eston Woods are:
Joseph Had a Little O
vercoat(Caldecott)
There Was an O
ld Lady Who Sw
allowed a Fly
(Caldecott)
Other videos on poetry available from
Weston W
oodsare:A
ntarctic Antics, by Judy Sierra, ill. by Jose A
ruegoand A
riane Dew
eyH
ow D
o Dinosaurs Say G
ood Night?
by Jane Yolen,ill. by M
ark TeagueJohnny A
ppleseed, by Reeve Lindbergh, ill. by K
athyJakobsenIn the Sm
all, Small Pond, by D
enise Fleming
(Caldecott)
THIS
ISTH
EH
OU
SETH
ATJA
CK
BUILT
CA
LL1-800-243-5020 TO
OR
DER
THESE A
ND
OTH
ER W
ESTON
WO
OD
S VID
EOS!
This guide may be photocopied for free distribution w
ithout restriction
Activities
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree
Learning Through the Early Years: The Benefits of Repetition and Variation
Color and cut out the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree, and put it on your refrigerator or other safe metallic surface. Use alphabet magnets to let your child
• act out the story.
• create a new story.
• practice his or her alphabet.
• explore creating words.
• group magnets by color, shapes, upper- or lowercase letters, etc.
Learning Through the Early Years: The Benefits of Repetition and Variation
Create or print out the barn and animals. Cut out the animals, or have your child draw his or her own animals. Cut the barn doors so they will open.
Have your child practice repetition by having the animals come in or go out of the barn. Each time an animal enters or exits, help your child think of a word that rhymes with that animal’s name. Here are a few suggestions:
You can expand this learning activity by • having your child repeat the animal sounds.
• asking your child, “What type of food does this animal eat?”
• asking your child, “How many different colors does the animal come in?”
• asking your child, “What would you do if you had a pet _________________?”
• sorting the animals by color, diet, or type of animal (feathered, fury, etc.).
Goldilocks, Goldilocks, turn around. (Turn around.) Goldilocks, Goldilocks, knock on the door. (Knock with hands.) Goldilocks, Goldilocks, eat some porridge. (Pretend to eat.) Goldilocks, Goldilocks, have a seat. (Squat.) Goldilocks, Goldilocks, go to sleep. (Put cheek on folded hands.) Goldilocks, Goldilocks, run, run, run. (Run off.)
Goldilocks and the Three Bears Song Sung to: “Pop Goes the Weasel”
Goldilocks came to a house in the woods. Inside was all quiet. She saw cereal in three different bowls And said, “I think I’ll try it.”
“The first bowl is much too hot. The second’s too cold—I hate it! But the third bowl tastes just right!” So Goldie quickly ate it!
Goldilocks went to another room. Inside all was quiet. She found three chairs, looked at each, And said, “I think I’ll try it.”
“The first chair is much too hard. The second’s too soft, I fear. But the third chair feels just right!” Then she sat and broke it. “Oh, dear!”
Goldilocks next climbed into a bed. And after she closed her eyes The three bears came back to their home And found her—what a surprise!
“Who’s in my bed?” cried Baby Bear. “Who’s that in our house?” Goldilocks awoke and ran away As quickly as a mouse.
