Many nursery rhymes are put to music, and children love singing nursery rhymes. Start off by seating the children in a circle, and teaching them the words. For example, if you sing "Mary Had a Little Lamb," sing the first line, and let the children sing it back to you. Do this with each line. After the children hear the whole song, sing it together. Sometimes, it takes four or five times singing it before the children remember the song. If the song has hand movements, slowly incorporate the movements, and let the students mock you. This activity helps with cooperative learning, memorization, motor skills and movement.
Create a nursery rhyme learning center. Put up pictures of characters from nursery rhymes, and add puzzles, books, coloring sheets and recorded nursery rhymes for the students. Put plain paper and crayons in the center, and let students illustrate their favorite nursery rhymes, or let the student add themselves to the nursery rhyme. These activities help with memorization, sequencing and hand-eye coordination.
Cut characters, scenes and objects out of felt. As you read the nursery rhyme, place the characters and objects on a prepared felt board as they appear in the nursery rhymes. Let the children add the characters and objects to the felt board, so they get more interested. This activity helps in the development of hand-eye coordination and spatial placement.
Have a nursery rhyme puppet show. Let the children create paper bag puppets of their favorite nursery rhyme characters. Characters like Little Miss Muffet, Old Mother Hubbard, Three Blind Mice, spiders and bears work well. Then let students make props for the puppet show out of scrap construction paper. Break the students up into groups, and let each group put on a show for the rest of the children. This activity assists in the development of cooperative learning and listening skills.