Nursery rhymes are a wonderful way for kids and adults to spend time together and grow their imaginations. Some great nursery rhyme activities you can do with your child include the following:
A great way to spend time together and learn nursery rhymes is to have a play night. Assign a different nursery rhyme to each of your kids and have them act out the nursery rhyme. Provide them with masks, puppets, and stick puppets to use in their plays. Use items around the house to make props like a candlestick or a large shoe.
If you like Jack and Jill, use a small pail, a cardboard hill, a picture of a well, and a picture of Jack and Jill. You can use a flannel board if you prefer and place the pictures on the board as you read the nursery rhyme to your kids.
Hey Diddle Diddle can be read with some fun props like a plastic spoon and plate, a toy cow, dog, cat, a picture of the moon on cardstock. Flannel boards are great teaching tools and a fun way to keep the kids involved in the nursery rhyme.
Recreate the nursery rhyme of the Three Little Pigs by making their houses. Gather some twigs, straw, paper, glue and paint. Have your child use red paper to be the brick house, then use straw or spaghetti to make the straw house and of course twigs to be the stick house. To add a little fun, turn on your blow dryer when the houses are built to see if they can withstand the huffs and puffs of the big bad wolf. This is fun for parents and children to do together, if you want, you can even try blowing over the houses on your own without a blow-dryer!
Another fun nursery rhyme activity for kids and adults is to participate in a Humpty Dumpty egg race. You will need a dozen uncooked eggs, plastic spoons, and two chairs. Divide everyone into two teams and hand the first member of each team a plastic spoon and an uncooked egg. The object of the game is to have everyone run while balancing an uncooked egg on a plastic spoon, circle a chair, and return the egg to their teammate without dropping it. You cannot use your hands, so this adds some difficulty to the game. Only one member of each team is allowed to carry the egg at one time. Once they get to their team member, they need to place the egg in the plastic spoon without using their hands. Whichever team makes it through the course without breaking an egg will be the winner. This is a great game to play as someone recites the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme.
Another great benefit to nursery rhymes is that they can help your children complete chores and homework assignments. Teach your children about cleaning the house or working outside using nursery rhymes. For example, if it is time to plant the garden, you can use the nursery rhyme “Jack and the Beanstalk.” Teach your children that they can have a beanstalk similar to Jack’s beanstalk. You can encourage them to participate in planting a garden by making their own flowers, just like Mary in “Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary.” If it is winter time, you can cut out flower pedals from construction paper or old fabric. Use straws to be the stems of the flowers and glue the paper to the straw. Once the flowers are made, you can “plant” then in flower pots inside your home. To add some fun to the flower project, you can make oversized flowers with wrapping paper tubing as the stem.
