posted on 26 Aug 2025

Five Little Friends: A Collection of Finger Rhymes by Sean Taylor, illustrated by Fiona Woodcock

When I was training to be a teacher back in the last century, we were told that a confident repertoire of a dozen finger rhymes would stand us in excellent stead for settling a group of fidgety young children. The idea was to use them to focus attention and at the same time prevent them from poking one another or picking their noses because their hands would be otherwise occupied. The other obvious benefit is to help with language development in a fun, age-appropriate way, and to build on knowledge of traditional nursery rhymes to help them to appreciate and use language creatively. I certainly found them to be very useful to use as an introduction to a story-time session and I still use a couple of my favourites when reading books with nursery and reception children. I was curious to see if I would recognise any of the ones in this collection.

The first thing to note is the very colourful front cover which sums up the pleasure to follow. I really liked the message to the intended reader on the first page:

‘These are poems that don’t just sit still on the pages. You can use your fingers to bring them to life. And if you do, a bit of magic happens - when you bring a poem to life, it brings YOU to life too!’

Whilst I didn’t recognise any of the rich variety of rhymes, I could envisage using them in the classroom. All of them are short, simple, and powerfully rhythmic with eye catching illustrations to capture the imagination and to demonstrate the required movements. Despite the book title, most of them involve more than fingers and hands, so might need a much bigger space to make them work. Let me tell you a bit more about three of the best that could be used with a large group of children sitting down on the carpet in a story time area:

One Seed, Two Seeds

This one requires the ability to make small and large circles with thumbs and forefingers and to be able to stretch out palms and fingers to drop the seeds and then mimic falling rain. None of these movements are difficult for most children to learn, but they might need to practice them before learning the rhyme.

Octopus

A slightly trickier rhyme which involves some counting but I liked the air of suspense as he watches with ‘octopus eyes’ and then waits to pounce which will require some stillness and concentration. Then the welcome release as he swims away ‘quick as a shooting star’.

Trampoline

This is a familiar activity for many young children which will be easy for them to imagine. The repetition in this one gives it a natural pace and pattern finishing with forward and backward flips plus ‘the highest jumps you’ve ever seen!’

I strongly recommend this engaging picture book to all Early Years practitioners and parents who will hopefully enjoy learning and then using these finger rhymes with young children. Published by Walker Books, it should be available to buy from your local independent bookshop who will be happy to order if not already on their shelves.

 

Karen Argent

August 2025