Get Moving with Nursery Rhymes

This is the last post for the month in our Nursery Rhyme series on Totally Tots, but I will still be sharing Nursery Rhyme ideas on my blog. 

What I love about nursery rhymes is that they are short and simple and easy to incorporate during the day. You can read the rhymes, sing them, create crafts or even play games with these stories. I’ve had fun thinking of ways to get kids moving with nursery rhymes. I came up with several active ways to tell nursery rhymes and listed them below.

Hickory Dickory Dock:

Hickory, dickory, dock,

The mouse ran up the clock.

(We used a foam puzzle to be our clock, but you could draw one with chalk on the driveway or garage floor, use a length of string, or masking tape too.)

The clock struck one,

The mouse ran down,

Hickory, dickory, dock.

I sang the song while my daughter ran up and down the clock. This was a simple way to practice the rhyme and move those muscles!

Jack Be Nimble:

 

We did this fun activity while studying about Jack earlier this year. I wrote the letter J all over our driveway with chalk. My girls jumped on all the letter j’s and then jumped over the candle stick.

Jack and Jill: Have your child practice doing the log-roll while the rhyme is being read.

Simple Simon/Little Jack Horner: Set up a simple obstacle course with a couple of chairs. Give your child an empty pie-plate to balance on their head while they walk around the chairs.

Wee Willie Winkie: Place several pairs of slippers in a pile. Have your child run to the pile, find a matching pair of slippers and put it on, and then run back to the starting point.

The Crooked Man: Tape a very crooked and winding path with masking tape onto the floor. Have your child start at one end and wind around to the finish.

Yankee Doodle: Make a stick-horse and gallop around the room while singing the rhyme.

Diddle, Diddle, Dumpling My Son John: Have your child see how fast they can put their socks and shoes on by themselves. Then see how fast they can take them off.

These are just a few ideas! Can you think of other active nursery rhyme games? If so, please share with us in the comments.

 

Here are a few more good nursery rhyme resources:

Mother Goose Club – great source of online videos

Hubbard’s Cupboard: If you have a group of children you will want to check out The Mother Goose Olympics idea from Hubbard’s Cupboard.

Nursery Rhyme Pinterest Board

Nursery Rhyme Unit from Spell Outloud

Nursery Rhyme Ideas from Totally Tots