Home >> Games & Cards >> Kids Games

Nursery Rhymes Activities for Toddlers

Many toddlers find nursery rhymes, such as ̶0;Humpty Dumpty̶1; and ̶0;Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,̶1; intriguing because they sound silly. Prepare a variety of nursery rhyme activities for your toddler at home or for a group of toddlers. In addition to the language lessons the nursery rhymes impart, crafts and games give the young children a hands-on experience while building basic motor skills.

Drawing Activities
- Give each toddler a sheet of paper and recite a nursery rhyme. Have the children draw a picture that goes with the nursery rhyme. For an extended version, have the children take two sheets of paper and place them on top of one another. Fold the sheets of paper in half to create a book. The children can make a book of drawings about the nursery rhyme. Other drawing activities include printing coloring pages of nursery rhymes for the toddlers to color. For a ̶0;Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star̶1; picture, have the children paint the star with glue and sprinkle the picture with yellow glitter for added decoration.
Craft Activities
- Toddlers can make easy puppets using characters from nursery rhymes. Print a picture of Humpty Dumpty and have the toddlers color the picture. Help them cut the picture out and glue it on a wood craft stick to create a stick puppet. Have children color a picture of a nursery rhyme character like Little Bo Peep. Help the toddlers cut the head apart from the body. Glue her head to the flap of a paper sack and her body to the bottom part of the sack. The toddlers can stick their hands in the sack to make a hand puppet.
Games
- Play a riddle game and award small prizes, such as stickers, for all correct answers to encourage participation. Read two or three nursery rhymes and ask questions about the rhymes. For example, if you read ̶0;Hey, Diddle, Diddle,̶1; you can ask the toddlers ̶0;What did the cow jump over?̶1; or ̶0;What jumped over the moon?̶1; The toddler who answers correctly wins a small prize. Alternatively, play this game in teams. Read a question and give each team one minute to answer the question. Hold up pictures of the nursery rhymes if the children have trouble guessing.
Action Activities
- Teach the toddlers actions to complete while chanting nursery rhymes. While singing ̶0;Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,̶1; have the toddlers draw stars with their fingers and move their fingers around in the air to represent twinkling. Ask the toddlers to sit in the floor and make a rowing motion when singing ̶0;Row Row Row Your Boat.̶1; ̶0;Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes̶1; is not a classic nursery rhyme but many toddlers will enjoy singing along to the rhyme while learning body parts.

Kids Games