Nursery Rhymes ~ Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

This is the third post in our Nursery Rhyme series. Each Thursday this month, I’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!

Today’s rhyme is Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

Twinkle, Twinkle is a rhyme my tot had memorized so I let her do all the “reading” this week. When we learned Hey, Diddle, Diddle, my 3yr. old’s favorite part was making her own booklet and “reading” the poem to everyone. I decided that I’d come up with another mini-booklet for her to read with Twinkle, Twinkle too.

You will need the following supplies:

~ blue paper

~ Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star mini-booklet

~ foam star stickers in various colors

Print the booklet out onto blue paper. Regular paper is easier to fold than cardstock. I used cardstock in the photo above and it was a challenge getting it to fold right. If you haven’t created non-stapled mini-booklets before, Valerie at Bible Story Printables has a great mini-booklet tutorial.

Place a different color star on each page of the booklet.

 

 

If your tot is really young, name the color of the star while they are putting it on the page. You might even sing the song together while making the book. :) After the booklet is completed, your child will have their own Twinkle, Twinkle book to read, plus a color book. You could even play a game with the left-over stars and book. Turn a small handful of stars upside down on the table. Have your child pick a star, name the color and then find that page in the book.

Stars in a Bottle

The second activity we did was make our own stars in a bottle, otherwise know as a sensory bottle or I Spy bottle.

Supplies:

~ cheap hair-gel, dish soap, or corn syrup (if using corn syrup you will need blue food coloring)

~ plastic bottle with a lid

~ glow in the dark star beads

Fill the bottle about half-full with gel. Add beads and then add water to thin the consistency of the gel if it is too thick. Leave a little space at the top so that the materials came move around in the bottle when the bottle is turned. Glue the cap on with E-600 glue or another strong adhesive.

This was a big hit. I’ve made many I Spy bottles over the years and my kids have always enjoyed them. With this bottle we had fun watching the stars move, we tried to count how many stars we saw, and we would go to a dark room and see the bottle shine! She loved it!

 

We also printed out a couple of blank stars onto yellow cardstock and taped them to craft sticks. We used it while singing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and I used it as a pointed when going over the sequence cards for this rhyme.

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.