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12 Nursery Rhyme-Themed Ideas To Get Kids Dancing, Baking, Creating And Playing

Learn as you sing this summer with Judith Harries' dozen delightful ideas

Judith Harries
by Judith Harries
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From pyjama party games to water races, there’s loads your nursery setting can offer children this summer.

Here, Judith Harries has broken down a selection of activities into related areas for you to pick your favourites, or even use the entire list.

‘Girls and Boys’

1. Dancing circles Sing the rhyme together. Outside, make circles of all the girls and all the boys, then count them. Which is the bigger number? Put the smaller circle inside the bigger circle.

Sing the first two lines and ask the inner circle to move clockwise and the outer circle anticlockwise. Then reverse for the next two lines. Stop and have the circles face each other, curtseying/bowing on the words ‘good will’. Mime climbing a ladder and ‘jump’ down the wall. Extend arms to ‘serve’, reach hands to the sky (milk), touch toes (flour), and spin round to finish.

2. Halfpenny pudding

  • Make some bread and milk pudding.
  • Tear 8 slices of stale bread into pieces and place in a 20cm square tin.
  • Drizzle with 2 tbsps of melted butter/margarine, then scatter a cup of mixed dried fruit.
  • Mix 4 beaten eggs with 2 cups of milk and add half a cup of brown sugar and 1 tsp of mixed spice.
  • Beat, then pour over the bread and butter.
  • Gently push down the mixture with wooden spoons until the bread is covered.
  • Bake in a preheated oven at Gas 4/175C for 45 mins.
  • Cut up and share!

3. Pyjama party games Invite children to come to the setting in their pyjamas, slippers and dressing gowns for a pyjama party by moonlight. Provide sleeping bags, pillows, cushions and soft toys. Play nighttime music such as Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and make a collection of bedtime stories.

Share hot chocolate and your halfpenny pudding. Try quiet games such as ‘Sleeping Lions’ or ‘Chinese Whispers’. Ask 10 children to lie down under a duvet and play ‘There were 10 in the bed’.

Go on a torchlight hunt looking for treasures beginning with the letter ‘p’.

‘The Queen of Hearts’

4. Royal drama Learn the rhyme together. Talk about the dramatic events that unfold. Show the children the corresponding royal cards from a pack and explain that ‘knave’ is another name for the ‘Jack’ but has become known as someone who is dishonest!

Act out the rhyme. Choose a Queen, Knave and King, or go in role as one of the characters. Share their ideas. Talk about how to re-enact the crime and the punishment. Sort children into groups of three, let them select their roles using the cards and take turns to act out the rhyme.

5. Jam tarts Make jam tarts for snack. Use ready-made pastry or have a go at making some shortcrust pastry with a small group of children. Let them use pastry cutters to cut out circles and place in a 12-hole tart tin.

Fill with a spoon of strawberry or raspberry jam. If there’s pastry left over, cut out small star or heart shapes and pop on top of the tarts like lids.

Bake at Gas 5/190C for 15 mins. Leave to cool before eating.

Use a plate of tarts as a prop in the Royal drama (see above).

6. A deck of cards Ask the children to sort the deck into the four different suits. Give each suit of cards to a child and ask them to see how quickly they can put the cards in order starting with the Ace as one. Explain that the highest cards are the Jack, Queen and King, in that order.

Try a race. Who can sort them fastest?

Try matching games working in ones or twos, such as finding matching sets of four cards, face up or pairing the cards by memory, face down.

Then shuffle all the cards and challenge a partner to a game of Snap.

‘Jack & Jill’

7. Water races Recite the rhyme and explain that the ‘pail’ Jack and Jill go to fetch is another word for a bucket.

Go outside on a sunny day, divide the children into teams and show them how to work as a relay.

Place a full bucket of water at the start of the race and an empty one at the end. Give each team an empty cup and explain that they must take it in turns to fill the cup, run the length of the track and pour their cup of water into the empty bucket.

The winning team can be decided by the biggest volume of water collected after each team member has completed the task or within a time limit.

8. Tray play Fill the water tray with different-sized containers, including buckets, cups, spoons, funnels, and tubes. Encourage the children to have fun pouring, measuring, estimating and counting.

Add a set of balance scales that children can hang containers on each side. Let them explore filling each side of the balance scales with water until one side goes up or down or balances.

Ask them to record how many cups of water they pour into each side on a white board. If they use the same number of cups will the sides balance? What happens if the cups are different sizes?

9. Rhyme writers Learn the rhyme by heart. Show the children the rhyme written down with some key words missing. Can they fill in the gaps with the right words? Challenge them to change the words introducing new names, actions and consequences. Provide a writing frame with the key words missing and work in small groups to write a new rhyme, eg __ and __, went ___, to fetch _______.

‘Here is the Beehive’

10. Finger rhyme dance Show children the actions that accompany this rhyme: Here is the beehive [hands clasped together], but where are the bees?[Look puzzled.] Hidden away where nobody sees. Soon they come creeping out of the hive, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. [Steeple the thumb and fingers as you count] Buzzz! [Wiggle fingers in the air.]

Change the rhyme into a dance. Listen to ‘The Flight of the Bumblebee’. Ask the children to huddle together into a hive. Can they stay still/quiet? When they hear the music, ask them to creep out and find a space to stand. On your signal they can run around the room, weaving in and out of each other, buzzing as they go!

11. Helpful flowers Explain how planting flowers helps bees to survive. Provide each child with a sunflower seed and a small pot. Show them how to fill the pot with compost and push the seed into the soil.

Remind them to water the plant regularly and put all the pots by the window so they can feel the sun. Compare the plants’ height and record using drawings and photos. Who can grow the tallest? Encourage children to take their flowers home and, if possible, plant them outside for the bees.

12. Honey bee sandwiches Talk about bees making honey. Look at a honeycomb. Taste some honey. Read Winnie-the-Pooh and the Wrong Bees by AA Milne.

These will also encourage children to coordinate and move confidently (PD). Mathematical ideas are developed using ‘A deck of cards’ and writing skills practised in ‘Rhyme writers’. Finding out about bees and caring for the environment (UW) are encouraged by ‘Helpful flowers’. Acting out dramatic versions of the rhymes as in ‘Royal drama’ will develop Expressive Arts and Design.


Tip

Organise a summer garden party to raise funds; let the children share the rhymes they’ve learned and show off the drama and dances. Share bread pudding, jam tarts and honey sandwiches with the guests!


Judith Harries is an author and teacher of music and drama, with experience of working with children aged nine months to 11 years.

Let children make honey sandwiches using white and brown bread. Cut different-sized circle shapes out of the sandwiches. Arrange them in a line, alternating white and brown to make stripes, and start with small circles, then bigger and finally smaller to create the bee’s body. Place a white roll at the end for the head and use cut-off crusts for legs and antennae.


Songs for sunny days

These rhymes all have a summer flavour and will be enjoyed by children and their families as they try activities that use all the ELGs. There are lots of opportunities here to work together as a group (PSED) in cooking activities such as ‘Halfpenny pudding’ and ‘Honey bee sandwiches’, and take turns in ‘Dancing circles’ and ‘Water races’.

These will also encourage children to coordinate and move confidently (PD). Mathematical ideas are developed using ‘A deck of cards’ and writing skills practised in ‘Rhyme writers’. Finding out about bees and caring for the environment (UW) are encouraged by ‘Helpful flowers’. Acting out dramatic versions of the rhymes as in ‘Royal drama’ will develop Expressive Arts and Design.


Tip

Organise a summer garden party to raise funds; let the children share the rhymes they’ve learned and show off the drama and dances. Share bread pudding, jam tarts and honey sandwiches with the guests!


Judith Harries is an author and teacher of music and drama, with experience of working with children aged nine months to 11 years.

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