10 Ways to Make Nursery Rhymes More Fun!

Once again, I'm sharing homeschool solutions for the preschool years over at pambarnhill.com.

Today's post looks at all the ways nursery rhymes benefit your toddler or preschooler!

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It's a new month, which means I'm over at Pam Barnhill's site again sharing homeschool solutions for the preschool years.

This time, I've written a post on TheBenefits of Nursery Rhymes on Preschool Development. 

Once I've convinced you that nursery rhymes are the secret weapon to your child's learning success, come back to this list of simple ways to use them with your little learner.


I don't know about you, but sometimes something familiar can be really uninspiring. Reading nursery rhymes might bore you to tears, but you have to remember that these fabulous sing-songy treasures are still new for your child!

Mother Goose lines are beneficial all on their own, but they provide a multitude of opportunities for wonderful word play, as well: 

1. Fill in the blank (this can be written or oral, do it for rhyming words)
2. Rhyme word hunt (have your child point out all the words that rhyme in the verse)
3. Choose a rhyming word from the story and then come up with as many words that rhyme with it as possible.
4. Create actions to go along with the rhyme.

   

   Jumping over candles for "Jack Be Nimble."

5. Clap the beat of the rhyme.
6. Have your child play "word detective" (say the wrong word and see if they can figure out the error).
7. Watch fun videos of popular nursery rhymes.
8. Write each line of a rhyme onto a sentence strip and have your child put them into the correct order.

   

   Even pre-readers can do this - just use different-colored sentence strips (or write with different colors on each one) and read them out to your child.

9. Write each word onto an index card and have your child put the entire nursery rhyme together, like a puzzle.
10. Draw or make crafts to match the rhyme.

    

    What better accompaniment to a reading of "Itsy Bitsy Spider" than a great spider hat?

Looking for more great ideas, including all the activities pictured here? Click on over to this Latticed Learning, End of Year Fun post!

Want a great collection of nursery rhymes in one handy book? Try adding one (or more!) of these fabulous tomes to your home library:

The Arnold Lobel Book of Mother Goose

My Wonderful Nursery Rhyme Collection

Richard Scarry's Best Mother Goose Ever

Mary Engelbreit's Mother Goose

The Real Mother Goose

My Bookhouse: In the Nursery, Vol. 1

Also, did you know you can read many classic nursery rhymes online? Find some here and here.

And don't forget to click on over to my The Benefits of Nursery Rhymes on Preschool Development post on Pam's site to learn why making these classic ditties a part of your child's day are so important!

Are you a fan of nursery rhymes, or do they seem outdated to you? I'd love to hear!  Either leave a comment below or email me at lisahealy (at) outlook (dot) com.

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