Writing with

Nursery Rhymes

Kathryn Bigelow

Westwood Elementary

Friendswood ISD

Special Education K-3

WHY use Nursery Rhymes?Nursery rhymes have a strong sense of story

structure.

“Children’s exposure to fairy stories, tales, and nursery rhymes resulted inawareness of story structure which was evident in thought-provoking short stories with intertextual references.”

Janet Evans, “The True Story of Insy Winsy by A. Spider”, 2002

WHY use Nursery Rhymes?

Nursery rhymes are fun, repetitive, and non-threatening.

“Exploring rhymes in games, poetry, and songs are enjoyableWays to provide knowledge and skills that can later help children Become successful readers and writers.”

Elaine Danielson, “The Importance of Nursery Rhymes”, 2000

Using nursery rhymes as a literature base, represents a non-threateningApproach to help students with reading and writing.

Beth Neiderman and Jean Kuhn, “Star Light, Star Bright: Whole-Language Activities with Nursery Rhymes”,1993

Lesson : Using characters/objects within a nursery rhyme to

express a thought or perspective

Consider sharing before the lesson :

•variety of styles or versions of nursery rhymes

•books that tell the same story from different sidesEx. The Original Three Little Pigs and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs

• books that intertwine more than one story with anotherEx. A Wolf at the Door! By Nick Ward and The

Web Files by Margie Palatini

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Center Ideas:*Listening Center

-tapes with Nursery Rhymes

*Language/Reading Center-puzzles-sequencing

*Poetry/Writing Center

-copy the nursery rhyme and illustrate

*Drama or Dramatic Play

-post nursery rhyme(s) and have students act it out

-have puppets or felt activities for the students to use to retell or make up their own versions of nursery rhymes

Adapting to Your StudentsYounger Students

•May have a nursery rhyme with some words missing that they can fill-in

Humpty Dumpty ________ on a ___________.Humpty Dumpty had a great ______________.All the king’s _________ and all the king’s ______Couldn’t ____________ Humpty together again.

Older Students

•Could have students adapt a nursery rhyme to the present time

•Have groups of students write a version of a Nursery rhyme as a character/object within the same rhyme, the students willthen together they will make a skit using everyone’s thoughts. Write it into play format, and then perform for the wholeclass.

Integrating Nursery Rhymes to ALL Subject

AreasMath

*Use nursery rhymes to write word problems

Ex. Little Miss Muffet had 2 gallons of curds and whey. She decided that she was going to share with the three bears. How many cups will she be able to get?

The cow jumped over the moon three times. Each time it took him three minutes. It took the dish and and the spoon five minutes to run away. All this started at 2:00 PM. What time did this nursery rhyme finish?

Science/Social StudiesNow and Then-

Rub-a-dub-dubJack and Jill

*locate the history/orgin of the nursery rhymes

Journalism

*write newspaper leads,articles, etc. from nursery rhymes

Art*use the illustrators of nursery different rhymes different styles to discuss technique, etc.

Nursery Rhyme Websites

www.atozteacherstuff.comwww.enchantedlearning.comwww.abcteach.com/directory/basics/nursery_rhymeswww.hubbardscupboard.org/nursery_rhyme_activities.htmlwww.kinderkorner.com/names2.html#nurserywww.squiglysplayhouse.com

Lists of Nursery Rhymeswww.downingm.freeserv.co.ukhttp://nurseryrhymes.allinfoabout.com/list.html

BibliographyTeacher Resources and Articles

Janet Evans: “The True Story of Insy Winsy by A. Spider”

Beth Neiderman and Jean Kuhn: Star Light, Star Bright: Whole-LanguageActivities with Nursery Rhymes

Elaine Danielson: The Importance of Nursery Rhymes

Iris McClellan Tiedt: Teaching with Picture Books in the Middle School

Sequencing published by Evan –Moor ISBN1-55799-662-8

Nursery Rhyme Mini-Book Plays published by Scholastic ISBN 0-439-35530-3

Bibliography cont.• Amoroso, Lisa. Old Mother Hubbard and Her Dog

• Dalton, Anne. This is the Way• Fujikawa, Gyo. Original Mother Goose• Halpern, Shari. Little Robin Redbreast• Johnson, David. Old Mother Hubbard A Nursery Rhyme• Jones, Carol. Hickory Dickory Dock and other Nursery Rhymes• Lawson, Carol. Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear• Manson, Christopher. A Farmyard Song An Old Rhyme with New Pictures• Peppe’, Rodney. The House that Jack Built• Trapani, Iza. Baa Baa Black Sheep• Trapani, Iza. I’m a Little Teapot• Trapani, Iza. The Itsy Bitsy Spider• Reid, Alastair and Kerrigan, Anthony. Mother Goose in Spanish• Scieszka, Jon. The True Story of the Three Little Pigs!• Scott, Steve. Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear• Spier, Peter. London Bridge is Falling Down!• Ward, Nick. A Wolf at the Door!• Whatley, Bruce. My First Nursery Rhymes• Wyndham, Robert and Young, Ed. Chinese Mother Goose Rhymes• Yolen, Jane. Street Rhymes Around the World