Nursery rhymes are catchy and when we hear them; they instantly bring back childhood memories. If you are teaching your child nursery rhymes, this can be a fun time for you to see how many nursery rhymes you remember. Here are some great nursery rhyme activities you can play with your family:
Nursery Rhyme Charades
Most everyone knows how to play the game charades. When you play charades, you simply divide people into two teams. Each team will present words, phrases, titles, or anything in a dramatic form. Turn a normal charades game into a nursery rhyme game by writing different nursery rhymes down on pieces of paper and have each person draw a piece of paper when it is their turn to act it out.
Each player will need to act out what is on their piece of paper. The players can use their hands, body, and facial expressions to communicate what is on the piece of paper. Each team member will be given a set amount of time to act out their phrase and their team can only answer during this time. If the team guesses the rhyme during the allotted time, they get ten points. If the team fails to guess the rhyme during their allotted time, the opposing team gets five points.
Nursery Rhyme Pictionary
Another great nursery rhyme activity is nursery rhyme pictionary. Pictionary is similar to charades, only you have to draw the nursery rhyme you selected from the basket instead of acting it out. Everyone is divided into two teams and each player will get a turn. When it is your turn, you will select a piece of paper from the basket and draw it onto a piece of paper during your turn. You are not allowed to use numbers or letters in your drawing. While you are drawing, your team will shout out different answers as to what they think you are drawing.
If your team guesses right within the specified time limit, your team gets ten points. If your team fails to answer within the set time limit, the opposing team gets five points. The opposing team does not interfere with the opposing team’s time limit. Once the time limit has expired the opposing team gets one guess at the nursery rhyme for full point credit. If they guess right, they get the ten points that the opposing team was fighting for.
Design your own Humpty Dumpty
Using your imagination is the most important tool you have when you are reading nursery rhymes. A great nursery rhyme activity you can play with your children is to have everyone design their own version of Humpty Dumpty. If you have a large group, split it up into two or three teams. Allow everyone to draw their version of Humpty Dumpty in a set time limit, such as two minutes. Once the timer rings, everyone will need to hang their Humpty Dumpty on the wall and everyone will vote on whose Humpty Dumpy character resembles the nursery rhyme the best. If you have everyone divided into teams, the team will each have to draw one part of Humpty Dumpty in order to make a complete egg.
You can make the game more difficult by making each team responsible for a sentence in the nursery rhyme. For example, team one may get the sentence “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.” The goal of team one will be to draw a picture of Humpty Dumpty sitting on a wall. Team two will get the next sentence, “Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.” And the other teams will get the following sentences in order to make a complete nursery rhyme.