As a parent you probably remember your mom or dad reciting nursery rhymes to you. And you have probably taught your children those same nursery rhymes. That is one of the great things about nursery rhymes is that no matter what age we are the nursery rhymes are still the same as when we were kids. And the best part is that since the nursery rhymes have stayed the same throughout the ages so have some of the nursery rhyme activities, but there have also been new activities added to each of the nursery rhymes.
Here are some nursery rhyme activities through the ages..
Nursery Rhyme Charades:
•Divide the players up into two different teams.
•Next prepare a basket that has numerous strips of paper containing portions of nursery rhymes on them. You need to place the strips of paper with the nursery rhymes on them into the basket.
•The first team needs to pick somebody to draw a nursery rhyme from the basket.
•Once you have drawn the nursery rhyme you need to act it out by using your hands, body language, or facial expressions. You can not talk at all during this game.
•A person from your team must guess the correct nursery rhyme. You can also set time limits to make the game even more challenging.
•Each team takes turns drawing and acting out the nursery rhymes until all of the slips are done.
Lullabies:
Nursery rhymes at one time were sung to children to help get them to fall asleep or to help calm them down. In fact many nursery rhymes are still used for that purpose. So not all nursery rhyme activities require you to do certain activities.
A popular lullaby is “Rock-A-Bye-Baby”. This nursery lullaby can be sung with or without hand motions.
Words to Rock a Bye Baby:
Rock a bye baby in the treetop; When the wind blows the cradle will rock; When the bough breaks the cradle will fall; And down will come baby cradle and all
Counting Nursery rhymes:
There are many nursery rhymes that are designed to help teach young children how to count.
A popular counting nursery rhyme is “One, Two”.
With the “One, Two” nursery rhyme you can actually have the children act out the different parts to the nursery rhyme with various props.
Words to “One, Two”
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
Nursery rhymes sequences:
Another thing that is really popular with nursery rhymes is sequencing. Basically you can do this activity with any nursery rhyme, regardless of if it is a lullaby, counting nursery rhyme or something else.
•The first thing that you need to do is to create pictures that illustrate the nursery rhymes. Depending on what age the kids are you will want to do different numbers of pictures. For young children keep it simple but for older children you can more pictures. Basically the older the children the more pictures they need to put in the correct order.
•Next you are going to want to say the nursery rhyme with the children. If it is a new rhyme you are introducing you will want to review it a few times before letting the children do the activity.
•After reviewing the nursery rhyme have the children place the pictures in the correct order, which would be in the order that describes the nursery rhyme.
These are only a few of the various activities that you can do with nursery rhymes. There are many more to choose from and they include all sorts of topics. All you need to do to find the different nursery rhyme activities is to do a bit of research.
