Nursery rhyme activities are a great way to extend the basic nursery rhymes taught in nearly every preschool classroom. Having hands-on activities help bring the rhymes to life, and students practice various skills while reinforcing the rhymes.
Here are some easy nursery rhyme activities to incorporate into lessons about nursery rhymes!
1, 2, Buckle My Shoe
Stick art is a fantastic way to work on counting to ten while reciting the lines of the poem. Simply provide a variety of craft sticks, markers, and glue and let students’ creativity guide the art. When the student finishes, ask them to count the sticks they used in their art.
Other activities for this rhyme include:
- providing a variety of shoes to practice buckling, tying, and fastening
- knock knock jokes
- farm toys in the block area
- a tray with props for students to reenact the rhyme independently
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1-2 Buckle My Shoe Nursery Rhyme
$3.50Nursery Rhymes are a quick way for emergent readers to practice Concept of Word, rhyming, and many other important skills. The activities in this set focus on “1-2 Buckle My Shoe” and are included in the comprehensive Nursery Rhyme Circle Time Unit.
Counting Sheep
Why are there so many nursery rhymes about sheep? That might be a mystery that is never solved, but these are adorable nursery rhyme activities to count on when the class is learning Baa Baa Black Sheep, Little Bo Peep, or Mary had a Little Lamb!
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Baa Baa Black Sheep Nursery Rhyme
$3.50Nursery Rhymes are a quick way for emergent readers to practice Concept of Word, rhyming, and many other important skills. The activities in this set focus on “Baa Baa Black Sheep” and are included in the comprehensive Nursery Rhyme Circle Time Unit.
Baa Baa Purple Sheep?
Reinforce color words with the nursery rhyme “Baa Baa Black Sheep.” Start with the original rhyme. Next, substitute in different colors. A pocket chart with the rhyme written out and colored sheep with their words is beneficial. Students enjoy picking the different colors to replace in the rhyme.
Extend this activity to the art table by providing pages with sheep and different colors of paint or markers. Students select a color, copy the color word onto the blank, and color the sheep!
Counting Sheep
Baa Baa Black Sheep is a fantastic way to work counting practice as well! Provide counters and pages with bags of wool in different amounts. Students place one counter on each bag as they count, practicing one-to-one correspondence.
Mary Had a Little Lamb Letter Sort
File folder games are perfect for reviewing concepts such as “little” and “big.” Letter identification sorting is excellent here as well – sort items by the L sound for Lamb or the M sound for Mary!
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Mary Had a Little Lamb Nursery Rhyme Mini-Unit
$3.50The activities in this set focus on “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and are included in the comprehensive Nursery Rhyme Circle Time Unit.
Nursery Rhymes are a quick way for emergent readers to practice Concept of Word, rhyming, and many other important skills.
Little Bo Peep Hide and Seek
A prop tray with some sheep, an apron, and a little hat are all that students need to recreate the nursery rhyme on their own. Turn this into a preschool-friendly variation of “Hide and Seek” by having “Bo Peep” close their eyes while someone hides the sheep. The class can recite the rhyme while the student waits. Students can give hints such as “hot” and “cold” or other clues about where to find the sheep. “Bo Peep” must gather their flock and collect them. Keep repeating until everyone has a turn to find the sheep.
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Little Bo Peep Nursery Rhyme
$3.50Nursery Rhymes are a quick way for emergent readers to practice Concept of Word, rhyming, and many other important skills. The activities in this set focus on the nursery rhyme “Little Bo Peep”.
Hey Diddle Diddle
Dish and Spoon Painting
Bring some variation to the art center with this fun nursery rhyme activity! Play some fiddle music while students paint. Encourage them to move their brushes to the music. Want to make it more interesting? Use spoons (the dish ran away with the spoon) as paintbrushes!
Moon Jumping
Students can practice “moon jumping” like the cow for a fun gross motor activity. Cow costume is “udderly” optional, of course. Make it musical by adding “Rocketship Run” by Laurie Berkner or a similar song to the activity. Encourage students to jump high, far, soft, low, and any other variations they can think of!
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Hey Diddle Diddle Nursery Rhyme
$3.50Nursery Rhymes are a quick way for emergent readers to practice Concept of Word, rhyming, and many other important skills. The activities in this set focus on “Hey Diddle Diddle” and are included in the comprehensive Nursery Rhyme Circle Time Unit.
Hickory Dickory Dock
Interactive Bulletin Board Nursery Rhyme Activities
Bulletin boards don’t have to be “display only!” This interactive bulletin board covers number matching, counting, telling time, rhyming, and reading and doesn’t need to take up even an inch of precious floor space! And, as a bonus, it’s a beautiful decoration for the classroom. Read more about this bulletin board here!
Mouse and Cheese Matching Game
This rhyming game is a great way to practice ending sounds! Each tiny mouse pairs up with a cheese wedge that rhymes. Pictures on the cards help non-readers practice the concept too!
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Hickory Dickory Dock Nursery Rhyme
$3.50Nursery Rhymes are a quick way for emergent readers to practice Concept of Word, rhyming, and many other important skills. The activities in this set focus on “Hickory Dickory Dock” and are included in the comprehensive Nursery Rhyme Circle Time Unit.
It includes 5 Circle Time Lessons:
1. Retelling poster with action cards
2. Telling Time concentration game
3. Rhyming Puzzles
4. Mouse Shapes folder game
Humpty Dumpty
Humpty Dumpty is a favorite nursery rhyme, and there is an entire post of nursery rhyme activities for this rhyme right here!
Egg Math
Another fun Humpty Dumpty activity is perfect for independent math review. Simple puzzles help students self-check their answers while matching ten frames to numerals.
Wiggly Spider Activities
Little Miss Muffet and the Itsy Bitsy Spider are great for units on insects, nursery rhymes, and even Halloween. These two activities are simple to set up and keep students engaged and learning!
Spider Sensory Bin
Give those fine motor muscles a workout in the sensory table! Dollar store tongs, bowls, and small plastic spiders work with any dry sensory bin material! Students pinch, scoop and wiggle the tiny spiders into the bowls.
Watercolor Spiders
Supplies needed:
- Liquid watercolors
- black crayons
- pre-cut spiders (or students can make their own!)
First, demonstrate how to draw the web on the paper by making concentric circles with lines coming from the center. Students use liquid watercolors to paint a beautiful rainbow web. When the paper has dried, attach a pre-cut spider, or one that the students create on their own!
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Jack and Jill
While this isn’t exactly the type of “crown” Jack broke when he had his notorious spill down the hill, students love decorating their own blingy headwear! Peeling the small gems and drawing on the crowns provides fun fine motor practice!
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Jack and Jill Nursery Rhyme
$3.50Nursery Rhymes are a quick way for emergent readers to practice Concept of Word, rhyming, and many other important skills. The activities in this set focus on “Jack and Jill” and are included in the comprehensive Nursery Rhyme Circle Time Unit.
It includes 5 Circle Time Lessons:
1. Retelling poster with word replacement activity
2. Silly Rhyming verses – rhyming practice
3. Pre-Writing lines – tracing
4. Beginning Sound Sort – letter J
Jack be Nimble
From falling down a hill to jumping over candlesticks, Jack sure gets into some shenanigans! Students engage their gross motor skills by jumping over a plastic candlestick. Do it while reciting the rhyme to make it ‘stick!”
Quick and Slow
Practice early reading skills and the concept of opposites with this pocket chart activity. First, introduce the words “quick” and “slow.” Next, review the pictures of things like a snail, a turtle, a cheetah, and a jet plane. Using the pocket chart, students “read” each sentence and decide if it should end with the word “quick” or the word “slow.”
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Jack Be Nimble Nursery Rhyme
$3.50Nursery Rhymes are a quick way for emergent readers to practice Concept of Word, rhyming, and many other important skills. The activities in this set focus on “Jack Be Nimble” and are included in the comprehensive Nursery Rhyme Circle Time Unit.
More Nursery Rhyme Activities
Looking for more nursery rhyme activities?
These nursery rhyme books are some classics and some newer favorites!
These two bundles of nursery rhymes each have ten mini-units loaded with even more activities, centers, and nursery rhyme fun!
Bundle 1 – The original ten units contain:
- 1, 2, Buckle My Shoe
- Baa Baa Black Sheep
- Hey Diddle Diddle
- Hickory Dickory Dock
- Humpty Dumpty
- Itsy Bitsy Spider
- Jack and Jill
- Jack be Nimble
- Little Miss Muffett
- Mary Had a Little Lamb
Bundle 2 – The second bundle has ten new mini-units to explore!
- I’m a Little Teapot
- Little Bo Peep
- Little Boy Blue
- London Bridge
- Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary
- Pat-a-Cake
- Row, Row, Row Your Boat
- Star Light, Star Bright
- Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
- There was a Little Turtle
