Studies indicate thoughtfully planned chants integrated with shared book reading help young children remember concepts and vocabulary they hear in literature, capture children's imagination, develop their rhyming acuity, and background knowledge, and increase their sense of story structure, understanding of story sequence, phonological awareness,…

Teachers should foster in children's writing the use of words with "sparkle" and "spin"--"sparkle" implying brightness and vitality, "spin" connoting industry, patience, and painstaking work. By providing creative listening experiences with good children's or adult literature, the teacher can encourage students to broaden their imaginations and…