Nursery Rhymes Listening Games

As you're winding down your unit on nursery rhymes/Mother Goose, consider throwing in these fun listening games from Christie at Childhood 101. It will help your kiddos learn to listen attentively {an important skill for social interaction as well as learning!}, differentiate sounds, and review the many wonderful rhymes studied during the unit! [NOTE: While you can certainly use it at other times throughout the unit, your kiddos are likely to be more familiar with the classic rhymes near the end and thus have a better chance spotting the differences/helping create new rhymes!]

Listening for Mix-ups

Begin by having your students listen as you recite classic rhymes that have had their rhyming words all mixed up {with odd words that sound similar thrown in here and there}. For instance,

Dumpty Humpty sat on a fall.

Dumpty Humpty had a great wall.

All the king's nurses and all the king's again,

Couldn't put Humpty together men.

Invite them to pull out a piece of paper and place a check mark on it each time they hear a mistake/mix-up. Discuss as a class how the mix-ups may have made the rhyme difficult to understand {and not make sense!}, then go line by line, counting and fixing the various mistakes.

Listening For & Creating New Rhymes

Next, have your students listen and attempt to catch the rhyming pairs that have been replaced as you recite 'well known' rhymes. Christie offers two great examples to use, adapting Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Baa Baa Black Sheep for the exercise. After a couple rounds, invite your students to help you adapt other classic nursery rhymes. Be sure to copy these down, creating a cute emergent reader booklet for your kiddos to decorate and have as a keepsake at the end of the unit. It might also be fun to keep a version of the adapted nursery rhymes in your classroom library for students in later years to enjoy.