Incorporating Nursery Rhymes into Early Childhood Games

[Image Description: There are four pink pig footprints on rectangular lighter pink papers stapled on light orange bulletin board paper with rainbow bulletin borders. On each paper, "went to the market" is written in black marker with a black line above it pointing to the big toe print, "stayed at home" is written in black marker with a black line above it pointing to the index toe print, "had roast beef" is written in black marker with a black line above it pointing to the middle toe print, "had none" is written in black marker with a black line above it pointing to the fourth toe print, and "went wee wee wee wee all the way home" is written in black marker with a black line above it pointing to the pinky toe print. "this little piggy" is written in pink marker in cursive writing at the top of each paper. These footprint crafts represent the This Little Piggy nursery rhyme.]

Originally posted on July 25, 2020 on Facebook Notes on my Facebook page

For my Children's Literature course that I took in my third to last semester at Bucks County Community College, I had to write an essay about incorporating nursery rhymes into games for young children. As a toddler teacher, I know about how to do this all too well since I am constantly doing these Early Childhood Education activities with my toddler class at circle time to keep them engaged. Since I have used Baby Sign Language in the activities and early childhood youth of all abilities can participate in these activities, I thought that it would be a good idea to upload my essay as a blog post like I always do with many of my other relevant essays for school.

CONTENT WARNING: I would like to mention that this blog post is written for educational purposes only and not intended to provide any professional services.

Nursery rhymes have been one of young children's most common favorite things and a big part of the Early Childhood Education (ECE) field for many years before the twentieth century. Nursery rhymes are interactive folktales that tell a story through singing. The parts of the nursery rhyme that tell the story include many children's common interests. Most of these nursery rhymes are about animals, which is a common interest in all early childhood age groups, especially toddlers. Nursery rhymes are also often incorporated into educational activities to keep young children engaged to help them learn. Five Little Speckled Frogs, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Five Little Ducks can be incorporated into games in a variety of ways.

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There are multiple ways that the nursery rhyme Five Little Speckled Frogs can be incorporated into ECE games. Two of the most common educational activities that nursery rhymes are incorporated into are language development and movement activities. Movement songs are activities with specific creative moves that involve using fine motor skills and gross motor skills to represent certain parts of songs or things. To make Five Little Speckled Frogs a movement song, the instructor could tell the children to show the same amount of fingers to match the numbers sang in the song and use the baby signs for "frog(s)", "sit", and "eating." To say "frog(s)" in Baby Sign Language, a person needs to put one fist under their chin and repetitive pop the index and middle finger out in a V shape. To sign "sit", a person needs to repetitively push down with one hand. The baby sign for "eat" is pretending to food in one's mouth with their hand. The instructor should demonstrate the signs and movements to the children for visual learning. In addition, the children should be encouraged to follow the same dance moves and come up with their own to the best of their ability. Encouraging the children to come up with their own dance moves promotes independence, creativity, and confidence. For another movement game, the instructor could use objects as visuals when singing the song with the children. They could start out with five toy frogs placed in front of the children and pull them away when the number of frogs decreases in the song. This visual activity for this song also makes a great Math Education activity to teach counting and subtraction to young toddlers and up.

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Another song that can be made into a movement song for young children is The Itsy Bitsy Spider. In the beginning of the song, the children can form their hands into a spider moving up to represent it crawling and going "up the water spout." Then, they can sign "rain" to represent the rain falling down following pushing their hands away from their sides to represent "washing the spider out." Next, they can spread their hands in the air to sign "sun" for "out came the sun" following waving their hands in front of them to represent "dry out all of the rain." Lastly, the children can be instructed to repeat the same motion with their hands that represents a spider at the end of the song. In addition, the children should be encouraged to follow the same dance moves and come up with their own to the best of their ability.

Another nursery rhyme about animals that can be incorporated into multiple educational activities for children is Five Little Ducks. A lot of baby signs can be used when using it as a movement song. As a movement song, the children can sign the numbers in the songs by showing the same amount of fingers, sign "ducks", and sign "mama." To sign "ducks", they need to put one of their pointer and middle fingers on the same hand together out in front of their mouth, then open and close their fingers and thumb a few times to represent the beak of a duck. To sign "mama", they would need to repetitively tap one of their thumbs on their chin. The instructor would need to demonstrate the movements in this movement song activity too to accommodate visual learning. The children should be encouraged to follow the same dance moves and come up with their own to the best of their ability in this movement song activity too along with all other movement songs. The instructor could use visuals when singing these nursery rhymes with the children. As another educational game, the instructor and the children could start out with five toy ducks placed in front of the children and pull them away when the number of ducks decrease in the song. This visual activity for this song also makes another great math readiness activity to teach counting and subtraction to young toddlers and up.

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1. Five Little Speckled Frogs

Five little speckled frogs were sitting on a log

Eating the most delicious bugs,

Glub, glub!

One jumped into the pool,

Where it was nice and cool,

Now there were four little speckled frogs,

Glub, glub!

Four little speckled frogs were sitting on a log

Eating the most delicious bugs,

Glub, glub!

One jumped into the pool,

Where it was nice and cool,

Now there were three little speckled frogs,

Glub, glub!

Three little speckled frogs were sitting on a log

Eating the most delicious bugs,

Glub, glub!

One jumped into the pool,

Where it was nice and cool,

Now there were two little speckled frogs,

Glub, glub!

Two little speckled frogs were sitting on a log,

Eating the most delicious bugs,

Glub, glub!

One jumped into the pool,

Where it was nice and cool,

Now there was one little speckled frog,

Glub, glub!

One little speckled frog was sitting on a log,

Eating the most delicious bugs,

Glub, glub!

One jumped into the pool,

Where it was nice and cool,

Now there were no little speckled frogs,

Glub, glub!

2. The Itsy Bitsy Spider

The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout,

Down came the rain, and washed the spider out,

Out came the sun and dried out all of the rain,

And the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again.

3. Five Little Ducks

Five little ducks went out to play,