Nursery Rhyme Activities for Preschool

Nursery rhyme activities and fingerplays are great for reinforcing phonological awareness. When reading rhyming text to children or saying nursery rhymes point out the rhyming words. Or pause when it is time for a rhyming word and wait for the children to say the word then say that's right hat rhymes with bat etc.

Buy or make a deck of rhyming cards with pictures of things that rhyme. Have the children sit in a circle and give one card to each child. Make sure both cards in the pair are given to children. Then say a word and ask the children who have the words that rhyme with it change places. (like upset the fruit basket.) You might say," If you have a word that rhymes with muck change places." Then the child with a picture of a truck and the child with a picture of the duck change places.

I like to use nursery rhymes with props for a transition activity. "Jack be Nimble" becomes "Mary be Nimble" and "Sam be Nimble" Children all chant the rhyme using each child's name as he or she jumps over the candle stick. One of those chunky type candles works fine.

Use your flannel board to do nursery rhymes and fingerplays too.

We all try to eliminate wait time but in the event you are waiting for a bus etc. you can always do fingerplays and preschool nursery rhyme activities.

Here are some favorite preschool nursery rhyme activities:

Little Jack Horner

Make a pie by stuffing a "pot pie" pan and covering with felt and sticking a small ball with a hole for a child's thumb in it.

Little Miss Muffet Sat on a Tuffet

To act this out, you only need a low chair or stool, a bowl, and a toy spider.

Jack and Jill

Have your students make stick puppets to retell the nursery rhyme. Simply find (or draw) simple figures for Jack and Jill and glue them to the top of popsicle sticks. On a large sheet of paper, draw the hill and the well at the top. Children take turns retelling the rhyme with their stick puppets.

Little Bo Peep

This nursery rhyme is easily turned into a game of "hide and seek." Have children take turns being "Little Bo Peep," and the others are all the lost sheep!

Humpty Dumpty

For this nursery rhyme activity, I hard-boiled eggs for each student. They were then allowed to decorate Humpty Dumpty with non-toxic markers. We took turns letting Humpty "fall off a wall" - and comparing what each of our eggs looked like. Afterwards, we ate our eggs!

Hey Diddle Diddle

We acted this out with props. I had a stuffed cat, cow, and dog, paper plate, and plastic spoon. I made a moon out of a paper plate and painted it yellow.

Another Nursery Rhyme Activities FREE Resource!

Looking for a full week of Nursery Rhyme Activities for your preschool program?
Click here for my Nursery Rhyme Theme page on my sister site!
You find OVER 85 activities.....and yup.....they are all free!

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