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

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.

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.

Crafty Corner ~ Nursery Rhymes

 

Itsy Bitsy Spider from Dresses ‘n Messes

 

 

Hickory Dickory Dock from Adventures in Mommydom

 

 

Three Little Pigs from No Time for Flashcards

 

 

Five Little Kittens from Adventures in Mommydom

 

 

Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, Where Have You Been from Love and Lollipops

 

 

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star from Because Babies Grow Up

 

 

Little Boy Blue from Adventures in Mommydom

 

 

Little Miss Muppet from Dress ‘n Messes

 

 

Hey Diddle Diddle from Adventures in Mommydom

 

 

Itsy Bitsy Spider from Mama Jenn

 

 

Humpty Dumpty from Adventures in Mommydom

 

 

Three Little Kittens from Love and Lollipops

 

 

Nursery Rhyme Book from Adventures in Mommydom

 

Do you share tot-friendly crafts on your blog? If so, please read here first and then email me (JennAtTotallyTots (at) gmail (dot) com)! I would love to add you to the "search" list for future posts! Do you have a Nursery Rhyme themed craft on your blog that is not already linked here? Please feel free to share your craft by leaving the link to it in a comment!

Nursery Rhyme ~ Little Bo Peep

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.

Our first rhyme is Little Bo Peep.

We read the rhyme in our Mother Goose book and then printed out a coloring page from Reading with Kids. We put this in our Nursery Rhyme notebook. Then we made a fingerprint sheep craft.

 

 Supplies:

1 index card
1 black ink pad (washable)
1 cotton ball
1 glue stick
1 black pen

Ink you child’s thumb and press onto the index card. Working on a hard surface such as a table works much better than a fabric ottoman. My tot wanted to work on the ottoman. :) Next glue the cotton ball next to the thumbprint. Draw legs and you have a simple sheep craft.

  

Bible Verse: “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me." John 10:14

Little Bo Peep wasn’t good at keeping track of her sheep. We have a shepherd though who always knows where we are. He promises never to loose us or leave us alone. Do you know who our shepherd is? Yes, Jesus! (Danielle’s Place has a great Bible script along this theme.)

Bible game extension: We used our sheep card for a game. My daughter would hide it in the room and then I would have to find it. Then I would hide it and she would find it. We talked about how the Good Shepherd always takes care of his sheep. After we played the game several times, my daughter glued this craft in her Nursery Rhyme notebook.

You can see other teaching ideas for Little Bo Peep, including a fun sensory tub and a sorting activity on my blog, Spell Outloud.

What's in the Tub ~ Nursery Rhymes

Our February theme here at Totally Tots is Nursery Rhymes. Here are a few ideas of what to include in your bin for your Tot to explore!

In this bin I've included props for the following nursery rhymes:

Little Bo Peep
Jack and Jill

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Hey Diddle Diddle

What's included:

Little Bo Peep ~ 3 sheep, 1 Bo Peep doll

Jack and Jill ~ 1 tiara ("crown"), Jack and Jill doll, play dough hill, 1 pail, blue pom poms ("water")

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star ~ several foam stars, many glow in the dark stars, 1 diamond-like gem

Hey Diddle Diddle ~ 1 cat, 1 dog, 1 cow, 1 moon, 1 dish, 1 spoon

I also added white and black pom poms as fillers for Little Bo Peep's sheep and Baa Baa Black Sheep.

With the combination of these nursery rhyme toys, learning and playing ideas are endless!

• sort the three colors of pom poms
• scoop and dump with the spoon
• stack the stars
• count items (pom poms, stars, dolls, or animals)
• play "hide the sheep" in the pom poms
• walk Jack and Jill up the hill, and have them fall down
• spill the water (blue pom poms) from the bucket and scoop them up
• as you read (or recite) each nursery rhyme let your Tot play with the props and act out the rhyme

Lydia (28 months) loved this bin more than I could have guessed. It kept her busy for quite some time! She lined up all the animals and made their animal sounds. She sorted the glow in the dark stars, giving me the middle sized ones and keeping the large ones for herself. I thought she'd be a huge fan of the tiara... yes, she liked it, but would not wear it! I love how simple scooping, dumping and transferring items from one container to another will entertain little ones for so long!

What's in the Tub? is a monthly feature that focuses on fun sensory tub ideas to go along with the monthly theme at Totally Tots. Click here to see past sensory tub ideas.