Preschool Nursery
Rhyme Activities

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. A year or two ago I bought some at Walgreens. Have the children sit in a circle and give one card to each child. Make 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 of my favorite preschool nursery rhyme activities: (if you need the words to these nursery rhyme songs, click here)

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
I had my 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.


 
 What are your favorite nursery rhyme activities?

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