Nursery Rhymes | Rhyme Time Fun: EYFS/Early Years activities, Displays and ideas

Sing, clap, and rhyme your way to learning with our fantastic 'Nursery Rhymes' collection! On this page, children will delight in the rhythm, repetition, and joy of classic rhymes, building crucial language and early literacy skills. You'll discover a treasure trove of resources for a wide variety of beloved nursery rhymes, including 'Bingo', 'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes', 'Dingle Dangle Scarecrow', 'Old Macdonald', 'Jack and Jill', and many more! Enhance your lessons with colourful nursery rhyme words posters, engage children with sequence cards to help them understand story order, and spark creativity with delightful illustration activities. Our resources are designed to bring these timeless tales to life, fostering memory, phonetic awareness, and a love for words. Let the rhyming adventures begin! 🎶🎤 storytelling!

Please scroll down to browse our Nursery Rhyme activity ideas, printable educational materials, planning inspiration, display resources and much more! If you’re looking for Preschool, Nursery, Childminder, Reception, SEND or Home Education resources for 0-7 year olds, you’ve come to the right place! Our interactive and engaging EYFS and KS1 learning resources are lovingly made (including original hand drawn images) by early years teaching and learning experts; a husband and wife team. We hope it helps! 😊

Please note that both Editable (docx file) and non-editable (pdf file) versions are available for all Nursery Rhyme topic resources. (Editable files require Microsoft Word to work at optimum level and Non-Editable files require a pdf viewer.)

‘Nursery Rhyme’ Themed Eyfs & KS1 Resources | Teaching & Learning Materials

Get ready to be inspired! We hope you enjoy browsing our selection of fun and engaging printables, all created by the Little Owls Resources team—featuring our own original hand-drawn images. Have fun exploring! 😊

Click on the thumbnail images below for further details…

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Once I Caught a Fish Alive / Big Ship Sails / Bingo / Dingle Dangle Scarecrow / Down in the Jungle / Five Currant Buns / Five Little Speckled Frogs / (If You’re) Happy and you know it / Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes / Hey Diddle Diddle / Hickory Dickory Dock / Incy Wincy Spider / Jack and Jill / Old Macdonald / Pussycat Pussycat / Round and Round the Garden / Row, Row, Row Your Boat / Sleeping Bunnies / The Wheels on the Bus / Twinkle Twinkle Little Star / Nursery Rhyme Mixes

Click on the thumbnail images below for further details…

• 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Once I caught a Fish Alive

• BIG SHIP SAILS

• B-I-N-G-O

• Dingle Dangle Scarecrow

• Down in the Jungle

• Five Currant Buns

• Five little speckled frogs

• (If You’re) Happy and you Know it

• Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

• Hey diddle diddle

• Hickory Dickory Dock

• Incy Wincy/Itsy Bitsy Spider

• Jack and Jill

• Old Macdonald

• Pussycat pussycat

• Round and Round the garden

• Row, Row, ROw Your Boat

• Sleeping bunnies

• The wheels on the bus

• Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Nursery rhyme mix

Related Special Dates

World Nursery Rhyme Week

World Nursery Rhyme Week is an annual event celebrated in November, specifically from Monday to Friday of the second full week of November. This global initiative, founded by Music Bugs, aims to celebrate the importance of nursery rhymes in early childhood development. Each year, five specific nursery rhymes are chosen to be the focus of the week, providing a common theme for participants worldwide.

The main educational thrust of World Nursery Rhyme Week is to highlight the critical role nursery rhymes play in supporting early literacy, language development, and foundational skills in young children. Far more than just simple songs, nursery rhymes are powerful tools that aid:

• Phonological Awareness: The ability to hear and manipulate the sounds in spoken words (rhyming, alliteration, syllable counting), which is a key predictor of reading success.

• Vocabulary Development: Introducing new words and concepts in a memorable context.

• Memory and Recall: Encouraging children to remember patterns, sequences, and words.

• Numeracy Skills: Through counting rhymes, sequencing, and pattern recognition.

• Physical Development: Incorporating actions and movements helps with gross and fine motor skills.

• Social and Emotional Development: Fostering a sense of community, turn-taking, and emotional expression.

• Cultural Connection: Passing down traditional rhymes that connect generations.

Activities for EYFS and KS1 Practitioners and Parents:

Here are some engaging and age-appropriate activities to celebrate World Nursery Rhyme Week, focusing on its educational benefits:

• Daily Rhyme Focus: Each day, choose one of the official five nursery rhymes for the week (or your own favourites). Sing it, recite it, act it out, and explore it in different ways.

• Action Rhymes and Movement: For rhymes like "Incy Wincy Spider," "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," or "Ring a Ring o' Roses," encourage children to perform the associated actions. This boosts gross motor skills and makes the rhyme more memorable.

• Rhyme Bag/Box: Put props or pictures related to a specific nursery rhyme in a bag or box. Pull them out one by one and encourage children to guess the rhyme, then sing or recite it together. For "Old MacDonald," include toy animals; for "Hickory Dickory Dock," a toy mouse and a clock.

• Rhyme Role Play: Provide simple costumes or props for children to act out a nursery rhyme. For example, a crown for "Little Bo Peep," a spider for "Little Miss Muffet." This encourages imaginative play, language use, and understanding of the rhyme's narrative.

• Rhyme Sorting/Matching: For KS1, print out lines from different nursery rhymes and ask children to sequence them correctly or match rhyming words. For EYFS, simply match pictures to the characters or objects in the rhymes.

• Creative Rhyme Extension:

  • Draw Your Favourite Rhyme: Ask children to draw a picture of their favourite part of a nursery rhyme.

  • Make a Rhyme Character Craft: Create simple crafts based on characters (e.g., a paper plate Humpty Dumpty, cotton wool sheep for Baa Baa Black Sheep).

  • Change a Word: For older EYFS/KS1, try changing one word in a well-known rhyme and see if it still makes sense (e.g., "Mary had a little cat"). This explores phonological awareness and creativity.

• Musical Exploration: Use simple musical instruments (shakers, drums, bells) to accompany the rhymes. Experiment with different tempos and volumes.

• Rhyme Time Storytelling: Gather several nursery rhymes and tell them as a continuous story, weaving them together with simple transitions.

• Rhyme Scavenger Hunt: Hide pictures of characters or objects from various nursery rhymes around the room/garden. Children find them and then have to sing/recite the rhyme associated with each picture.

• Benefits Discussion (Age-Appropriate): For KS1, have a simple discussion about why nursery rhymes are important – "They help us learn new words!" "They make us good at rhyming!" "They help us remember things!"

Official World Nursery Rhyme Week Website: For more information, this year's official five nursery rhymes, and free resources, please visit the official World Nursery Rhyme Week website: www.worldnurseryrhymeweek.com

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