Children need to grow spiritually, socially, and academically. These are the three areas that allow us to become fruit-bearing vessels. Children also learn and grow with nursery rhymes. Therefore, Dawn Stephens has taken a traditional nursery rhyme and created a new nursery rhyme that will help children to grow in these three areas.

A New Nursery Rhyme for Jack Be Nimble

In the new nursery rhyme created for Jack Be Nimble, Jack is not jumping over a candlestick. He wants to jump over his shadow. Therefore, the rhyme and lessons surrounding Jack Be NImble teach students about shadows. Teachers and students can use this new nursery rhyme and lesson to grow three ways.

These three areas are more specifically described in the whole child approach and the holistic education model.

1. Spiritual Growth using Jack Be Nimble

When children gain an understanding of the benefits of a shadow, they find opportunities for spiritual growth. After helping them recognize that shade is nothing more than a shadow, they can brainstorm how shade can be comforting on a very hot day. They can learn how shade shelters them from the hot sun. Psalm 91:1 is a wonderful verse to share with them when they are learning about shadows. After reading this verse, children will see that we can rest in God’s shadow. They can then see that just as the shadow of a tree, building, or beach umbrella can protect us from the harmful rays of the sun, God’s shadow can protect us from harmful things. We live in a time when fear controls many of our decisions. Being in the “Shadow of the Almighty” means we do not need to be afraid.

Another example of spiritual growth using shadows can be found here. I wrote this blog about spiritual shadows and light as I was writing the Jack Be Nimble book.

2. Social Growth with Jack Be Nimble

The wonderful thing about shadows is that they resemble their source. Your shadow is unique because you are unique. As Jack Be nimble learns about shadows, he discovers how shadows are made and that they move with their source. By learning to appreciate the shadows we make, children learn to appreciate each other too. Creating fun activities with shadows like shadow dancing, shadow tracing, and guessing whose shadow is whose will provide opportunities for social growth.

3. Academic Growth with the New Nursery Rhyme of Jack Be Nimble.

As children study shadows they learn about the earth’s movement in relation to the sun. Lessons on shadows make a great segway to learning about how we can make things move. Children usually focus on moving an object with force. For example, they push or pull things to change the location of an object. A shadow, however, can be moved without direct contact. Children must learn how to manipulate the position of an object to a light source in order to make its shadow move. Likewise, a child can make the size of a shadow change too. Manipulating shadows can integrate science, literacy, mathematics, and art.

Learning with Jack Be Nimble

Dawn Stephens Books provides a full-color printable book with a new nursery rhyme for Jack Be Nimble. A twenty-page teacher’s guide also provides lessons that are geared specifically to spiritual, social, and academic growth. You can purchase the book and teachers guide on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Find other nursery rhymes with new lyrics that can provide spiritual, social, and academic growth here. Sign up below for our free growth model below.

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If you want to read more on this topic, check out the Helpful Professor.