1. Writing with Nursery Rhymes Kathryn Bigelow Westwood Elementary Friendswood ISD Special Education K-3

2. WHY use Nursery Rhymes ? Nursery rhymes have a strong sense of story structure. “Children’s exposure to fairy stories, tales, and nursery rhymes resulted in awareness 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

3. WHY use Nursery Rhymes ? Nursery rhymes are fun, repetitive, and non- threatening. “Exploring rhymes in games, poetry, and songs are enjoyable Ways 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-threatening Approach to help students with reading and writing. Beth Neiderman and Jean Kuhn, “Star Light, Star Bright: Whole-Language Activities with Nursery Rhymes”,1993

4. Lesson : Using characters/objects within a nursery rhyme to express a thought or perspective

5. Consider sharing before the lesson : variety of styles or versions of nursery rhymes books that tell the same story from different sides Ex. The Original Three Little Pigs and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs books that intertwine more than one story with another Ex. A Wolf at the Door! By Nick Ward and The Web Files by Margie Palatini

7. 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

8. Adapting to Your Students Younger 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 will then together they will make a skit using everyone’s thoughts. Write it into play format, and then perform for the whole class.

9. Integrating Nursery Rhymes to ALL Subject Areas Math *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 Studies Now and Then- Rub-a-dub-dub Jack 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.

10. Nursery Rhyme Websites www.atozteacherstuff.com www.enchantedlearning.com www.abcteach.com/directory/basics/nursery_rhymes www.hubbardscupboard.org/nursery_rhyme_activities.html www.kinderkorner.com/names2.html#nursery www.squiglysplayhouse.com Lists of Nursery Rhymes www.downingm.freeserv.co.uk http://nurseryrhymes.allinfoabout.com/list.html

11. Bibliography Teacher Resources and Articles Janet Evans: “The True Story of Insy Winsy by A. Spider” Beth Neiderman and Jean Kuhn: Star Light, Star Bright: Whole-Language Activities 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

12. 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