Fun Nursery Rhymes Pocket Chart Activity

The academic year is getting long and some fun is in order for the end of the year.  It is a great time for review, but school has to be interesting to keep children engaged at this point!  So I was thinking about nursery rhymes because of a blog post I recently read about all the things they teach.  Sadly, many children today do not know these rhymes.  I wish all children could learn nursery rhymes!  Kindergarten and first grade teachers refer to words and sounds in the rhymes when teaching reading. Children who know the poems are ahead of other children.  Really!  Rhymes are that important.  They are also necessary for English Language Learners to develop reading skills.  


So, using my free PDF, and starting with regular nursery rhymes, children can choral read until they know the rhyme by heart.  First graders can probably read most of the words, while younger children memorize the lines and just say them orally (which is fine).

After that practice, one picture word at a time can be changed so the rhyme is more fun; here the cow jumps over a raccoon instead of the moon:

Finally several words can be changed, to make the children are laugh and enjoy the silly poem.  

Hey, Diddle diddle, 

The bat and the fiddle, 

the cow jumped over the room, 

the little hog laughed to see such a sport,

 and the fish ran away with the loon.

This activity can work in word work review in a fun way!

I have included word cards with all the short vowels, double oo, double medial letters, some sight words, and some words with letter blends.  Some of the words won't "fit" the poem, but we often read nonsense words to practice reading anyway.  Use as many cards as possible.  Independent writers might use the rest of the cards to write their own rhymes.  I included two writing frames for writers who are ready for those. 

 Here is the free PDF! 

The two nursery rhymes included are Hey, Diddle Diddle, and Hickory, Dickory Dock. Younger children may simply line up the picture cards in order (without the sentences) to show the sequence of the rhymes. The smaller cards may also be used for matching games such as Go Fish. At different reading levels, these materials may be used in a variety of ways. 

Happy reading, Carolyn from Wise Owl Factory