Turn the magical tale of Humpty Dumpty into a fun-filled art project for preschoolers. After reading the nursery rhyme, discuss the main character with the class. Prepare construction paper "eggs" by cutting ovals out of white paper. Give each child an oval egg and ask the class to cut or tear the shape in half. Provide the children with a solid 8 by 10 inch piece of paper and a selection of small paper shapes such as rectangles, squares, circles and more. Ask the kids to put Humpty Dumpty back together on the blank paper using a glue stick. Have them add arms, legs and clothing by gluing the other paper shapes to the oval egg. Use markers, crayons or colored pencils to add details such as facial features.
Help the children in your class better understand the conventions of print, sequence and the narrative structure by creating your own class nursery rhyme book. Read a variety of favorite rhymes from "Little Miss Muffet" to "Little Bo-Peep." Ask the class to name the main characters as well as what happened in the beginning, middle and end. The brief nature of the nursery rhyme structure will help younger children to identify these different components. Choose one nursery rhyme to make into your own class book. Hold a class vote to include all children in the decision-making process. Break the kids up into four groups, and assign each group either the cover, beginning, middle or end of the story. Use large pieces of construction paper or posterboard to make a pictorial depiction of the story with crayons or markers. Once each group finishes, you can bind the book together by punching holes along the left side of the pages and sewing together with colorful ribbon.
Use the famed nursery rhyme "The Cow Jumped Over the Moon" to improve gross motor abilities and physical development by setting up a themed obstacle course. This game is a effective way to get kids up and active, while using their creativity and imagination. Ask the class to help design and make items from the story. Use posterboard or paper mache to craft a moon, giant cup, spoon, cat with a fiddle and other characters from the story. Set the child-created characters up across the classroom in a sequence that matches the story. Ask the children to play the part of the cow, and help them to craft animal suits out of cut large paper shopping bags and black and white tempera paints. Start at the moon, asking the children to jump over, moving on to the rest of the story obstacles for an energetic game.