Nursery rhyme collections are often among the first books children read.
Some of the first stories many children learn are Mother Goose nursery rhymes. The colorful characters and whimsical tales found in these rhymes inspire the imagination. There are several crafts that let children explore the ideas and stories of these familiar rhymes, allowing them to express their own creativity.
Coloring Pages
Coloring pages allow even the youngest children to express their own styles by coloring in pre-drawn black and white images with markers, paint or crayons. There are many coloring books and free online printouts that contain depictions of nursery rhyme characters and scenes (see "Resources"). Students can color and decorate these images to showcase their own vision of popular Mother Goose characters. They can even go beyond coloring by cutting and gluing paper pop-outs and adding glitter to embellish the image.
Mary's Little Lamb
One of the most popular Mother Goose characters is Mary's little lamb. Kids can craft their own models of a lamb using simple household items. Attach four pipe cleaner legs to an empty toilet paper roll to create the base for this craft, then attach cotton balls for the fleece and felt for the face of a handmade lamb. Add googly eyes and a paper bow tie for extra personality. The resulting lamb has fleece as white as snow -- and as soft as cotton.
Old Lady's Shoe
Some nursery rhymes truly stretch the imagination, such as that of the little old woman who lived in a shoe. While real shoes are too small for people, kids can have fun crafting their own vision of what such a piece of real estate would look like. Kids cut out the shape of a shoe from construction paper, then draw and paste decorations to show just what the little old lady's shoe would look like in real life. Kids can use anything from plastic toys to brightly-colored paints to make a "soleful" home for the little old lady.
Finger Puppets
Let kids put on a puppet show of their favorite nursery rhymes by having them create custom finger puppets. Cut paper finger puppets with holes for the kids' fingers from sturdy card stock, then decorate the puppets to look like characters from Mother Goose nursery rhymes. The shapes can be as simple as an oval for Humpty Dumpty or as complicated as human shapes like Jack and Jill. Kids can then put on a finger puppet show or simply play with their new nursery rhyme friends.
Tags: Mother Goose, nursery rhymes, look like, express their, finger puppets, Goose characters, Goose nursery