Feature nursery rhyme crafts that engage your students without being too complex. Preschool kids range in age from 2 to 4 years old, so some simple coloring projects may work best for younger kids, while cutting and pasting activities suit older children in the class. Give the kids an option and choose crafts based on their skill level. Your students may enjoy making a nursery rhyme collage featuring their favorite rhymes such as “Mary had a Little Lamb” or “Humpty Dumpty sat on a Wall.” Paper bag puppet crafts also work well for preschool-age children. Help them cut out features of their favorite characters and glue the face and other attributes on the exterior of a brown paper bag. Most preschool kids can paint, so incorporate a few painting crafts into your lessons also.
Teach preschool kids about nursery rhymes by reading stories that include various rhymes throughout the book. Some kids may know classic nursery rhymes already if their parents read to them at home. Act out certain parts of the story or encourage the kids to create their own skits based on what they remember from the books. They can dress up like characters and have fun imitating them. Choose books such as “My Very First Mother Goose” by Iona Archibald Opie, or “The Lucy Cousins Book of Nursery Rhymes” by Lucy Cousins.
Inspire the children to get active by singing and dancing to nursery rhyme songs. The kids can use tambourines and other instruments to make noise or just use their voices to belt out melodies. Feature their favorite rhymes such as “Little Boy Blue” and “The Three Little Pigs.” Help the kids with the words by singing along with them, clapping your hands and playing the guitar. You can feature these activities indoors or take the kids outside on the grass, if the weather permits.
Many preschool kids love food, especially sweet treats, so why not reward good behavior with a few nursery rhyme cooking or food activities. Make cookies and bring them to school so the kids can decorate them with faces to match nursery rhyme characters. They can use white frosting to draw a little lamb and use pink to make a pig. If the kids like cupcakes more than cookies, you can feature this same type of decorating activity with cupcakes. The children can also decorate hard-boiled eggs with cream cheese, olives, shredded carrots and other tiny chopped foods to create a Humpty Dumpty face on the egg.