Friday Fun with Nursery Rhymes

This Friday’s rhyme is:

There Was a Crooked Man

There was a crooked man, and (stoop over)

He walked a crooked mile (walk in zig zags)

He found a crooked sixpence (pretend to pick something up off the ground)

Beside a crooked stile;

He bought a crooked cat, which (act like you are holding and stroking a cat)

Caught a crooked mouse (pretend to catch a mouse)

And they all lived together

In a little crooked house. (put your arms in a trianlge to form a house)

Friday Fun with Nursery Rhymes

Toddlers enjoy anything that has a beat and is repeated often enough for them to know what is coming next. This is why nursery rhymes are always popular. Add another layer of fun, by adding actions. Our first nursery rhyme is:

Two Little Blackbirds

Two little blackbirds sitting on a hill, (have your toddler sit with you)

One named Jack and one named Jill. (point to your child when you say one name and yourself when you say the next name)

Fly away Jack, fly away Jill, (show your child how to flap their arms like they are flying, and move to opposite ends of the room)

Come again Jack, come again Jill. (walk back toward each other and give your toddler a hug)

Basket Toss and Empty

At around fifteen months, most toddlers become extremely fascinated with filling and emptying containers. This is a fine motor skill that will lead to other developments such as learning to put shapes in a shape box and stacking blocks. Even toddler much older than 15 months still love doing this, and this activity is usually a big hit.

You will need an empty laundry basket and some socks folded together and rolled into a ball. Show your toddler how to throw them into the basket and then when all of them are in the basket, how to turn the basket over and dump them out.

This activity also helps a toddler gain better arm movement skills. Usually between 15 months and 2 years old toddler have much better leg coordination than hand and arm coordination and it is often frustrating for them.

Additional Activities

If your toddler is anything like mine, after throwing the socks in the basket and dumping them out for about 20 minutes, he realized that he could put himself in the basket. He put all the socks in the basket then sat in the basket and threw the socks out of the basket.

Push the basket

Show your toddler that they can put items in the basket and push it around. You can set up a game where you place similar items in different rooms, such as a stuffed animal. Then tell your child to find them all and put them in the basket. It may be a bit frustrating for them at first but with your help they’ll quickly catch on and enjoy playing this kind of “hide and seek” game.

Food Strings

This fun activity teaches dexterity and is just plain fun for most toddlers because it also involves foods they love. Tape a piece of yarn or a shoelace to your child’s high chair, then give them items to string on. If you have a younger toddler it is probably best to start with something like pretzels which have a larger hole to put the string through. As they get older or more experienced you can try things like fruit loops, cheerios, and other similar items.

Fun in a Box

A cardboard box presents a whole world of opportunities. If you don’t have any large boxes, ask around at a few local businesses, many are more than willing to get rid of a couple, and you’ll have an activity that will keep your toddler busy for hours.

Here are a few different ways a box can be turned into fun:

Tunnel

Leave both ends open and let your little one crawl through it.

Fort/house

Cut a door in one side and a window. My son had fun for hours open and closing the door and looking out the window. With a box house you can also teach your child some etiquette. I taught my son that when a door is shut it is polite to knock and ask to come in. He enjoyed taking turns being outside the house and knocking and then being inside the house and answering the door. We also worked on saying hello (he has goodbye down).

Puppet Show Stage

Cut the box along one corner and open it up so that it stays up on end. Cut a large whole in the center for the puppets. Aiden (my son) enjoyed using different items as puppets. If your toddler is younger, they may not be able to set up a story with the puppets, but they will enjoy turning on music and making the puppets dance. You can also do favorite nursery rhymes with the puppets and games like peek-a-boo.

Art Easel

Cut the box along one corner and then fold it over another side so that it looks like a triangle. Set the box on the floor, poke a whole in each of the top corners of the box and slip yarn through and tie the ends so that the yarn doesn’t fall through the holes in the box. Use clothespins, paper clips or file clips to hold up a piece of paper. Let your toddler draw. You will need to watch them closely because art products may be non-toxic, but it still isn’t a good idea to let them chew on them.

Pillow Playground

Toddlers love to climb, jump and roll around. They have just learned many of these skills and it is great fun to be able to try them out. If its cold outside or rainy and you can’t let them run around outside or go to the park for an outlet, toddlers will often climb on furniture and can end up getting hurt.

Instead, put a bunch of pillows on the floor and let them crawl over them and play in them. It kept my son happy at play for nearly an hour and a half and that’s a long time for a 19 month old.

Variations:

Spread pillows out and help your toddler step over them.

Ocean in a Bag

Toddlers love tactile stimulation. That’s why sandboxes, bathtime and squishing their food is so much fun. So why not let them squish something besides their peas? Get a ziploc bag and put in some blue hair gel, add some glitter and a very small amount of water. Cover the top with some packing tape so that they don’t get it open. My son plays with his ocean in a bag in his high chair while I get dinner ready. It seems that there is no end to his delight at watching it squish back and forth.

Variation:

Put a few small round beads in the bag. Then they will have something to watch move around as they squeeze the “water”.

Sorting

Toddlers love to investigate new and interesting objects and sort them. An egg carton is a perfect way to let them sort items. Offer interesting objects like cotton balls, uncooked pasta, marbles and buttons. If your child still likes to put things in his mouth offer larger items. Sorting helps a child learn fine motor skills and helps them understand concepts of similar and different.

Variations:

Show your child how to use a pair of tongs to pick up cotton balls and put them in the egg carton.

Count the items as your child puts them in the egg carton see if he will at least point at them with you or count with you.

Spill the Beans Activity

This activity is not recommended for youngsters who still like to put things in their mouths, but if your child has passed that stage you should have no problems.

You’ll need a plastic container that is shallow and a bag of beans. I used pinto beans. Pour the beans into the container, put your child in their high chair or at a child size table and let them play. Offer items such as spoons, bowls and cups so that they can fill and pour.

This activity helps a toddler learn rules of gravity, the concepts of full and empty, and light and heavy. It also teaches cause and effect and helps a child gain certain motor skills like learning how to scoop and pour. Many preschools have something similar but they are usually filled with water or sand. If it is a nice day outside filling a container with water and letting your toddler play is another great activity that teaches many of the same skills.

Giant Blocks

You can easily turn cereal and cracker boxes into giant blocks by covering them with some contact paper with a pattern on it. My favorite sized box is a kleenex box. I just cut a bit of another box big enough to cover the hole where the tissues came out and then cover the whole thing with contact paper.

Your toddler will have a great time building with them, and knocking his huge towers over. Blocks are some of the best educational toys. A study done as recently as 2007 by the Seattle Children’s Hospital Research Institute found that children who play with blocks averaged scores 15% higher on lanquage tests (a good indicator of cognitive development) than their peers who did not play with blocks. Children who engage in this type of play may also have better impulse control and longer attention spans.

Here are a few alternative ways to play with these blocks.

Go bowling!

Set the blocks up on end, and give your toddler a bouncy ball. Show them how to roll it toward the blocks and knock them over. It may take a few times of you showing them how to do it, but once they get the hang of it they’ll have a blast.

Bombs Away!

Set the blocks on end and let your toddler drop the ball into them. My son loves doing this, he even makes crashing sounds as the blocks fall over. Try and get your toddler to set the blocks back up himself. It might be a bit frustrating at first, but they’ll catch on quickly.

Alligator

Set the blocks out on the floor at various intervals show your toddler that he should step over them. He may need your help by holding a hand so he can keep his balance the first few times. As he gains more coordination he should be able to step over the blocks on his own.