Mother Goose crafts are inspired by the Mother Goose rhymes. Such rhymes include, “Little Miss Muffet,” “Jack and Jill,” and “Little Jack Horner,” just to name a few. These rhymes are usually introduced by parents or teachers, to children at a very young age. Mother Goose’s rhymes have been used not only to entertain and stimulate the imagination, but also to help to educate children by promoting literacy and language skills by using easy to remember and even musical rhymes. Mother Goose crafts are commonly used in conjunction with teaching children the rhymes because it helps them to commit these rhymes to memory and also to enhance other motor skills in the process.
Mother Goose crafts range in all difficulty levels. There is bound to be some activity that you can do with your own children no matter their ages. Simple activities such as coloring provide a good base for making more involved crafts such as collage pieces and crafts with moving or three-dimensional elements. For example, in the Mother Goose tale of the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, you can start by having the child trace or draw the profile of one of his shoes. Color this shoe outline as if it were a house that an Old Woman and her many children could live in. Now, to add more complexity to it, use an old shoe lace and string it through the shoe where the laces should be. Now glue or tape the shoe to a larger piece of paper and color in the backyard or a scene with all of the characters in the rhyme.
Mother goose crafts can be used to teach various subjects such as music and science. In the rhyme of Little Boy Blue, he plays a horn. It is simple to make a horn at home, simply take an empty paper towel roll and some wax paper. Attach the wax paper to one end of the horn buy using a rubber band to hold it in place. Now cut a few holes along the length of the tube (so that it looks like a very primitive flute). While humming into the tube, cover and un-cover the holes to make different sounds. For a more scientific twist on traditional Mother Goose crafts, the rhyme of Mary Mary Quite Contrary can teach kids a great deal about botany. For example, you can have a number of lessons about gardening while showing your children a garden that you may have in your very yard. Or you may want to take the experiment inside. Although Mary planted flowers you can create a really neat rooting experiment using a carrot or a potato. All that you need to do is place a carrot or a potato in a cup of water so that the root sides are submerged in the water and the upper half of the vegetable is not. You can use toothpicks to help you position the potato in the cup so that it does not all sink to the bottom. Make sure that you maintain at least a half-full watered cup and you will see how the roots will begin to grow out of the bottom of the vegetable and shoots will begin to form on the top.
Mother Goose crafts can also be used as a fun group or class activity. For example, you can keep with the theme of Humpty Dumpty and create a craft out of paper mache that can them be used as a piñata. Building it is easy, all that you do is take a balloon and blow it up to about the size that you want your piñata. Using newspaper strips and paper mache glue (even watered down Elmer’s glue will work) begin dipping the strips in the glue and evenly covering the balloon. Let the “egg” dry overnight and then pop the balloon inside by making a small hole. Decorate the piñata like Humpty Dumpty and fill with party favors and treats. Encourage the children to hit the piñata or for younger children simply place Humpty on a wall (just like the rhyme). Once the piñata is broken and the children have gotten their treats. Encourage them to use whatever they think is best to “Put Humpty Dumpty together again.”
