Learning rhymes is one of the best pre-reading activities you can do with your child. Repetition, repetition, repetition is how we learn them. Boring you say? Not if you are having fun. We had a great time playing games to go along with the rhymes, acting out rhymes, and making rhyme crafts. We also use different voices (soft, loud, squeaky, deep, etc.) to practice rhymes and keep it interesting. No matter what way you do it, you're sure to have fun!
In this collage, we worked on
Twinkle, Twinkle by sorting colored stars onto pipe cleaners and matching star cards. We sorted spider shape cards, matched spider cards onto stool pictures, and played an "up the water spout" game for
Little Miss Muffet and
Isty Bitsy Spider. We also played a "spider in, spider out" game where kids spun a spinner and had to put plastic spiders in their box card or take it out based on the spinner. It was fun pretending to make alphabet soup with magnetic letters. Poor
Humpty Dumpty was put back together again many times with band aids and silly puzzles. We had a great time making a giant pie with pom poms and tweezers for
Little Jack Horner and
Simple Simon.
In this collage, we played with plastic men and boats (and some other fun toys) and sudsy water for Rub A Dub Dub. Plastic spiders were washed out the spout with a spout made out of an old soda bottle and PVC pipe. Many Humpties were balanced on a wall. We got to make our sheep fluffy with a simple addition game using cotton balls for Baa, Baa Black Sheep & Little Bo Peep. Old Mother Hubbard's dog was very happy with all the bones we had for weighing. Old King Cole was thrilled with all of the jewels kids put on his crown. We made Hot Cross Buns with playdough and pipecleaner crosses. Jack Be Nimble was very proud how kids could match the different sizes of candle sticks. The Three Bears also got dressed nice and warmly. We also played a Nursery Rhyme Lotto game with all of the famous rhymes.
Hickory Dickory Dock the mouse went up and down the clock with a magnet wand under the paper to help him move. The dog from
Mother Hubbard also found his bone thanks to the magnet wand too. We made birthday cakes with colored playdough and colored peg "candles". We got to blow them out and sing
Happy Birthday a hundred times! Doggie was fed more bones with tweezers.
Humpty made a return appearance as we had to move him across the wall without falling using a magnet wand.
Gingerbread Men were made by matching the shapes on his buttons. We found alphabet letters hiding in a rice bottle. When we found all the letters, we sang the
Alphabet Song. We played a Candyland type game with Nursery Rhyme characters, put characters together with the items they need for their rhyme (such as
Old Mother Hubbard and her children needed a shoe).
Phew! That was a lot of fun. There were many other games not even on here, such as lacing different shoe cards (ballerina slippers, cowboy boots, sneakers, etc.) or putting cotton into number bags for
Baa Baa Black Sheep. Look at how interesting rhymes can be!
