Nursery Rhymes

Nursery Rhymes

Nursery Rhymes can be a terrific theme for the beginning of the school year. There are some terrific big books that introduce many nursery rhyme characters:

Each Peach Pear Plum

The Enormous Watermelon

The Missing Tarts

Other Great Nursery Rhyme Books

*The Jolly Postman* Janet and Allan Ahlberg	*And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon* Janet Stevens
*Mary Had a Little Ham* Margie Palatina	*Humpty Dumpty Egg-splodes* Kevin O'Malley
*This is the House That Jack Built* Simms Taback	*Hickory, Dickory Dock* Robin Muller
*You Read to Me, I'll Read to You* *Mother Goose* Mary Ann Hoberman	*Hey Diddle Diddle* Kin Eagle
*If the Shoe Fits* Alison Jackson	*This Little Piggy* Jane Manning
*Humpty Dumpty* Kin Eagle	*Baa Baa Black Sheep* Iza Trapani
*Mary Had a Little Jam* Bruce Lansky	*What Comes in Three's?* Rozanne Lanczak Williams
*Can You Read a Map?* Rozanne Lanczak Williams	*The Enormous Watermelon* Brenda Parkes
*The Jolly Pocket Postman* Janet and Allan Ahlberg	*Each Peach Pear Plum* Janet and Allan Ahlberg
*Mary Had a Little Lamb* Sara Joseph Hale	*Tomie de Paola's Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes*
*Old Mother Hubbard* James Marshall	*The Missing Tarts* B.J. Hennessey
*Fairy Tale Mail* by Rozanne Lanczak Williams	*The Gingerbread Man* by Carol Jones * In this version of the Gingerbread Man, Nursery Rhyme characters chase him!!
*Moonstruck* by Gennifer Choldenko	*Mrs. Mooley* by Jack Kent

This is my reading center during my Nursery Rhyme Unit, I have nursery rhyme puppets they can read to in the Reading Center.

In accordance with Georgia's new State Standards our county has embarked on producing "Performance Task Units" that are thematic based. As I begin each of my themes this year I will post my unit online. Click below to download the Nursery Rhymes performance task unit.

Nursery Rhymes Performance Task Unit

Great Nursery Rhyme Music
Singing is an all day activity in my classroom
These are some of my favorite nursery rhyme CDs.

I found out about Sandy Champion from an email buddy. I ordered this CD and its wonderful!! Visit Sandy at Sandy Champion.com to order your CD.

Dr. Jean is my wonderful talented friend. I have all of her CDs and they get constant use in my classroom. Kids love Dr.Jean. Visit her website at dr.jean.org to order your CDs.

Jack Hartmann's Rhyming to the Beat (Vol. 1&2) will have your children dancing, singing and learning with a rocking beat. Order Jack's CDs at www.jackhartmann.com

Ideas for Literacy and Math Centers

Literacy
Beginning Sounds Sort (choose nursery rhymes characters to introduce beginning sounds)
Make Humpty Dumpty (rename using the beginning initials of first and last name)
Sequence simple nursery rhymes (Jack and Jill, Humpty Dumpty....)
Rhyming picture match (find objects from nursery rhymes and a matching rhyming picture,
spoon/moon; clock/rock; dish/fish;....)
Make stick puppets
Make a haystack and field for Little Boy Blue
Rebuild nursery rhyme sentences (one sentence
at the beginning of year)

Humpty Dumpty
made by the studnets and renamed (for example my Humpty Dumpty name would be Lumpty Mumpty)

We read

and then made a map of Mother Goose land.

Math
Make a clock
Make a template for a large shoe/place a number on shoe and have students
draw correct number of children on the shoe
Place pictures of candles in short to tall order
Make patterns of characters from Hey Diddle Diddle
Working on numbers to 5/have students cut and paste or draw up to five
objects related to nursery rhymes
Sort objects related to nursery rhymes (ex.animals/people/objects/food...)

Click on this link for ideas on:
Developing Comprehension and
Exploring Story Elements with Nursery Rhymes

Little Miss Muffet

Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet,
Eating her curds and whey;
Along came a spider
And sat down beside her,
And frightened Miss Muffet away.

Make a spider using a black circle and eight strips of black paper. Attach a piece of yarn.

Discuss concepts: beside, away, on.

Dramatize the poem.

Discuss insects and spiders.

Old Mother Hubbard

Old Mother Hubbard
went to her cupboard,
to get her poor doggie a bone.
But, when she got there,
the cupboard was bare,
and so the poor doggie had none.

Decorate a cardboard box to resemble a cupboard. recite the poem.

Play "Doggie, Doggie Where's Your Bone" with a large rubber bone.

Discuss dogs. Show pictures of different breeds and sizes of dogs. Count the number of children who have dogs as pets in the class.

Discuss the care of dogs. Make a list of things a pet needs.

Read Clifford, Harry and McDuff books.

Math games I developed based on

Nursery Rhyme Literature

Old Mother Hubbard and Her Wonderful Dog
James Marshall

I designed a game using small dog bones. The dog bones are sprayed with a clear acrylic spray for durability. Each child is given a small stuffed dog and a bowl. Students take turns rolling a dice and placing the corresponding number of bones in their bowl. After each child has had a turn, the child that has the most bones gets to roll first. Play as many times as there is interest.

The Missing Tarts
by B.J. Hennessey

Sets of cookies were made in four different colors for this game. The plain cookie shapes were ran on dark blue paperand glued on plastic plates purchased at The Dollar Tree. I cut a round piece of contact paper and pressed over the shapes on plate. (The original worksheets can be found in Hickory Dickory Math by Cecilia Dinio-Durkin, a Scholastic publication). To play the game, students take turns spinning the spinner and placing the cookies on the correct shape.

Jack Be Nimble

Jack be nimble,
Jack be quick.
Jack jump over
the candlestick.

Make a candlestick from a toilet tissue roll. Glue to a small paper plate, glue a flame to the top.

Have students jump over a real candle as they recite the poem.

Discuss candle making.

Discuss fire safety.

Hey Diddle Diddle

Hey diddle diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon:
The little dog laughed
To see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.

Make illustrated sequence cards of the poem.

Construct a mobile of a cow jumping over the moon to hang in the classroom.

Make a list of the characters in the poem.

Discuss the moon and it's phases.

Discuss concepts: over, away

One, Two Buckle My Shoe

One, two,
buckle my shoe.
Three, four,
shut the door.
Five, six,
pick up sticks.
Seven, eight,
lay them straight.
Nine, ten,
a big fat hen.

Make large foot prints: print the poem on the shapes and laminate. Lay the footprints on the floor and let the students "walk" the poem as they read it.

Make shoe shapes numbers and number word cards for students to match.

Name objects in the poem; make a list.

Enlarge the shape of a shoe. Brainstorm "shoe" words. Write on the shoe shape.

Have students measure their shoes with unifix cubes. Have them compare their shoe length with another student's and tell which one is longer.

Have students brainstorm a list of things which come in pairs.

Make a class graph of the type shoes students are wearing (velcro, buckle, tie).

Hickory Dickory Dock

Hickory, dickory, dock,
the mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
the mouse ran down,
Hickory, dickory, dock.

Make a round clock face; paste on a paper plate. Have students draw a small mouse and cut it out. Staple the mouse to a piece of yarn. Punch a hole above the 12 on the clock face and pull the mouse up the clock as you recite the poem.

Discuss the clock, move hands on the hour and have students tell the time.

Discuss mice; if possible, bring a mouse into the classroom.

There Was an Old Woman

There was an old woman
who lived in a shoe,
She had so many children
she didn't know what to do.
She gave them some broth
without any bread,
She hugged them all soundly
and sent them to bed.

Make a shoe stencil. Have students trace two shoes.
Staple the shoes around the edges. Punch holes and lace shoes up with yarn. Make gingerbread shaped children to place in shoe. Have students count the "children" as they put them in the shoe.

Have students illustrate the poem on shoe shaped paper.

Discus "life" in a shoe. Elicit a discussion about how it might feel to live in a shoe. Make a language experience chart.

Make broth and serve with bread.

Dramatize the poem.

Links
Nursery Rhyme Thematic Units
Nursery Rhymes
Mother Goose
Rebus Rhymes
Rimes and Rhymes
Nursery Rhyme Mania a website for older primary students
Nursery Rhyme Theme
Mother Goose Rhymes

Additional Resources

Name that Nursery Rhyme Spin a Wheel game*

Name that Nursery Rhyme Character Spin a Wheel game*

Hey Diddle, Diddle slide show to download (Power Point)

Nursery Rhyme Sort: a Kidspiration activity to download

Mistress Mary Gameboard

Jack and Jill Shape Game

Hey Diddle Diddle Game

Little Bo Peep's Lost Sheep Game

Nursery Rhyme Sort

Jack Be Nimble Guided Reading response form

The Lamb Who Came for Dinner Listening Center response form

*You'll need the latest Microsoft Power Point version to make the wheel spin.