Nursery Rhymes ~ Jack and Jill

Each Thursday this month, we’ll be focusing on one area of activities to go along with a different nursery rhyme (See my Getting Ready for Nursery Rhymes post for set-up information.) Using your favorite nursery rhyme book (see my suggestions above) we will learn a couple of these rhymes together.The ideas are short and simple, but FUN to start the learning with your tot! Be sure to check back each week in February for more Nursery Rhyme fun.

Today’s rhyme is Jack and Jill.

We read from The Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme book by Scott Gustafson. We read this rhyme multiple times during the week, and by the end of the week my daughter had it memorized. Truthfully, that was my goal :) We’d practice it in silly ways during the week, such as me substituting different names or different items that were fetched in the bucket. Then my daughter would tell me I was wrong. It was Jack and Jill, not Tom and Jerry, or it was water not chocolate milk.

I printed out Jack and Jill story sequence cards and placed them in my table-top pocket chart. The first time around I read the rhyme while my daughter put the pictures in place. The next day I had my daughter retell the story by using the pictures in the right order.

I pulled out a small basket, glass beads, and tongs for a Jack and Jill fine-motor skills activity. I had all the beads in the basket and then “spilled” them on the table. I handed my daughter the tongs and told her that she had to fill the bucket back up again. You can tell by the photo that she was concentrating very hard on this task! If you don’t have glass beads use pom poms. You could also have your child use a spoon to transfer the beads/pom-poms into the bucket too.

I printed off this Jack and Jill page from Making Learning Fun. This is another type of fine-motor skill activity. She had to cover up each circle with buttons. I slipped it in a page protector so that we can reuse it, but you could use circle magnets or Do-a-Dot markers too.

Then we colored and placed our Jack and Jill rhyme in our Nursery Rhyme notebook.

Be sure to check out our other nursery rhyme posts on Totally Tots. I also have a nursery rhyme Pinterest board with lots of inspiration and am posting additional nursery rhyme ideas on my site through the year.