How to Host Your Own Nursery Rhyme Olympics

Nursery Rhymes can be a popular theme for hosting a playdate with friends. You can even plan a special nursery rhyme event with your child’s preschool or host your own Tot School .

Here are 10 Fun ways to get creative with your favorite nursery rhyme.

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This week’s theme for the Weekly Virtual Book Club for Kids in Nursery Rhymes. Do you have a favorite Rhyme? 

This Nursery Rhyme Book Set below is one of my favorites to have around the house. I pull them whenever we have little ones visiting our house too. Nursery Rhymes are something very familiar to small children and help them feel comfortable in new environments. They would be perfect to set out for our Nursery Rhyme Olympic Stations too!

Are you ready to see how I set up the Nursery Rhyme Olympics up for our guests for Tot School? 

Big Book of Nursery Rhymes by Felicity Brooks

Nursery Rhyme Activity Stations for Kids

One of my favorite things to teach preschoolers and Kindergarten students is Nursery Rhymes. Many of them already have memorized them from their childhood but at this age they begin to understand how text is and they now think they can read the whole nursery rhyme all by themselves. It’s quite adorable!  

Plus reading nursery rhymes really does help them learn to read and understand rhyming words.

I’ve put together 9 of our favorite nursery rhymes with coordinating activities to go along with them. You could do them on your own this week or you could invite friends over to rotate around to each station.

Host a Nursery Rhyme Tot School Playdate with friends!

You could even offer to help organize a Nursery Rhyme Olympic Day at school with your child’s teacher. Most of these activities are designed for outdoor play and water play so they’d be perfect for a water day with friends or your class.

Here are some ideas to do your own living room Olympics too!

The Itsy Bitsy Spider Activity

• Spider Web Balancing – Can you build a spider web? Using sidewalk chalk create a spider web on the ground.  To play the game challenge your child to walk around the web on the lines.  A great way to practice balancing, so don’t fall off the web!
• Spider Snack – Create your own lunchtime Spider Snack with your child and friends by making Spider Ball Meatballs!  
• Spider Jars– Make Your Own Spider Sensory Bottle

The Itsy Bitsy Spider by Iza Trapani

Little Miss Muffet Activity

• Spider Crawl!  Can you climb on your hands and legs in the spider crawl position with your tummy up from the Tuffet to Little Miss Muffet?  Children race to see who can get there the fastest.
• Pretend Spider – Surprise your little guests with a Moving Spider like this one that we made or pull out your Halloween decoration, I bet you have a big spider.

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star by Jerry Pinkney

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Activity

• Star Toss – Cut our Star Shaped Sponges and have your child pick them up from a bucket filled with water and toss them into a large bucket. A great way to practice those gross motor skills and eye-hand coordination.
• Star Banner – Create a special shiny Star Banner inspired by Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Hickory Dickory Dock Activity

• Mouse Race Put on your Mouse Headband and see how fast you can race around the clock.  Make a clock out of a large box.
• Number Fun – See how fast you can put the numbers in order on the face of a clock!
• Rock Clock – Create a Rock Clock to work on learning how to tell time!
• Clock Race – Build your own Box Clock with boxes and roll a dice to see how many times you need to run around the tall box clock!
• Count Mice – Create your own Number Mice for number fun with this printable.

After the Fall (How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again) by Dan Santat

Humpty Dumpty Activity

• Egg Puzzle – Create your own Egg Puzzle! Make a large paper egg and decorate with crayons, markers, watercolors or stickers and then carefully cut it into to sections to create a puzzle.
• Egg Spoon Race – Host your Own Egg Spoon Race.  

I’m a Little Teapot

I’m a Little Teapot Activity

• Teapot Race!  How fast can you fill up your tea cup?  Create a large scale tea cup using a bucket and host a water relay race with a plastic tea pot racing to fill it up as fast as you can.
• Paint a Teapot. You can create your own paper tea pot with watercolors or you can even paint your own pottery tea pot.
• Nursery Rhyme Tea Party – Perhaps after the Olympics you can host your own Tea Party with friends with these tea party ideas the kids can make.

Hey Diddle Diddle Activity

• Moon Race – Grab a plastic dish and tape a spoon to it and race around the moon. We used this inflatable glow in the dark moon.
• Cow Jump. Create your own cow headband to wear for this activity and lay down a large moon on the ground for a child to jump over!

Nursery Rhymes (Kate Toms Series)

Little Bo Peep Activity

• Find the Sheep.  Create several sheep to make a scavenger hunt for your child.  Hide them around the area and challenge them to find them.  You could add a little bonnet to make the game match Little Bo Peer in the story.
• Cottonball Sheep.  Using cottonballs and a sheep outline have your child make their own sheet to go with the story.

Rain, Rain, Go Away by Caroline Jayne Church

Rain Rain Go Away Activity

• Rain Writing – You can start off with this Let’s Make Rain Pre-Writing Activity.
• Drip, Drip, Drop – Play the Game Drip Drip Drop with your child and friends.
• Rain Drop Art – Using watercolors, paint a few sheets of paper and then cut out raindrop shapes to create a raindrop mobile to hang the nursery rhyme from.

One of my favorite things that I used Teaching in my Kindergarten classroom were these Nursery Rhymes Posters. I’ve now brought them home and they sit on our easel where the kids can look at them and read through. 

Carson Dellosa Nursery Rhymes Posters 

I looked and saw that they are still available on Amazon. So worth the price of $12, you can use again and again and perhaps use as your set up a Tot School with your friends or gift to your child’s preschool.

NURSERY RHYME THEMED ACTIVITIES FROM OUR CO-HOSTS!

Five Little Ducks Counting and Story Retelling Activity – To Be A Kid Again
Hickory Dickory Dock Clock Play- Teach Beside Me
Humpty Dumpty Egg Sensory Bin – My Storytime Corner
Rainstorm Art Project (Rain, Rain Go Away) – Preschool Powol Packets
I’m A Little Teapot Pour Painting- Toddler Approved 
Itsy Bitsy Spider Printable Book -Growing Book by Book
Three Little Pigs Fine Motor Craft – Views From a Step Stool
5 Little Ducks – Mama Smiles
Nursery Rhyme Olympics – The Educators’ Spin On It  { That’s here! }
Little Jack Horner Paper Plate Pie Craft – JDaniel4’s Moms 

You may also enjoy these activities with your child…