Word Families:
Many of the nursery rhymes contain common word families. You can use these rhymes to teach these letter combinations (and how they are spelled and spoken), having the students sound them out after memorizing the rhyme. For a list of some common word families and a list of the word families contained in some nursery rhymes, click here. You can study one word family a week. Students can use the Little Explorers Picture Dictionary to look for more words that belong to word families.

Scavenger Hunt:
In an Internet scavenger hunt, the students use the computer to find the answers to questions. For a Nursery Rhyme Scavenger Hunt, click here. This wonderful scavenger hunt was written by Karel Palmer, ESOL teacher, R.I.S.D. Academy, Richardson, TX, USA.

Related Activities:
As a related activity, have the children draw pictures about the rhymes or make simple paper, craft stick, or paper bag puppets of the main characters and objects mentioned in the rhymes. The children could then use their puppets while singing the rhyme to act out the rhyme while they sing it. Many rhymes are great for this, including Hickory Dickory Dock, Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, Little Miss Muffet, and many others.

Some rhymes (like "The Itsy Bitsy Spider") are great to read while using related finger motions.

Craft Stick Puppets:
To make a simple paper puppet, draw a picture of a character or object on paper (stiff paper like oak tag works a lot better than ordinary paper). Then cut the drawing along its edges and tape it to a craft (popsicle) stick.

Using Nursery Rhymes to Teach Other Concepts:

• You can use rhymes to help reinforce other preschool and kindergarten lessons. For example, Hickory Dickory Dock can be used in a unit about telling time. Make a simple cardboard clock with movable cardboard hands that the children can move along with the rhyme (since the time changes in each verse of the rhyme). Combining this with stick puppets can make a really nice lesson on telling time.
• The rhyme Ten Little Monkeys can be used in a unit on numbers. Make (or have the children make) ten paper monkeys, and they can put out the right number of monkeys for each verse of the rhyme. The rhyme One, Two, Three, Four, Five also works for this, using fish.
• The rhyme Monday's Child can be used as a supplement to teaching the days of the week.
• You can use rhymes to introduce the children to the idea that languages and customs change over time. Many of the words used in rhymes are slightly archaic but have modern-day equivalents. For example, in the rhyme Old Mother Hubbard, ask (or tell) the children what the modern equivalent of cupboard is (a cabinet). Also, the rhymes can introduce the children to some of the interesting differences in the ways we live now and how people lived long ago. For example, in the rhyme Rub-a-dub-dub, Three Men in a Tub, one of the men is a candle-stick maker. You can explain that long ago, people didn't have electricity or electric lights, and used candles for light. Jack and Jill are fetching water; this can start a discussion about where we get water now and how people used to go to wells for water and carry the water home. These rhymes can lead to a discussion about the many differences between now and then.

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