nursery rhymes Archives - JDaniel4s Mom

LEGO Braille Alphabet – Three Blind Mice STEM Activity

June 17, 2017 By Deirdre

I was reading about a set of Braille bricks created for literacy and inclusion for blind children. That got me thinking about how our children might like exploring the Braille alphabet with traditional LEGO. While they could explore all the letters individually, but it might be fun to try to create words with LEGO. That leads me to think of a book or poem that children could read or hear about something or someone that was blind. After hearing that story or poem, they could build words based on the book. The Three Blind Mice was what I came up with. Why? The three blind mice would not be able to read about themselves in a traditional book. They would need the Braille alphabet.

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Your children are probably familiar with the story of the three blind mice. If they aren’t you may want to read it to them from a nursery rhyme collection like The Real Mother Goose. Your children may think it is a little gross. They may not like that the mice lose their tails.

LEGO Braille Alphabet

Putting the Alphabet Together

You will first need to gather together a number of 1×1, 1×2, and 1×3 bricks. They will be all your children will need to create most Braille letters. If you plan on having them create letters with the letters q or g, you will need to gather 2×2 blocks too. A 16×16 base plate will be needed to place your letters on.

Then you will need to print out a copy of the Braille alphabet along with the Three Blind Mice printable for your children to use.

Getting the Activity Started

Your children will need to build the words three blind mice with LEGO. If you are using a base plate larger than the one we used, your children may be able to construct the words on one line. If you are using one the same size as ours, they will need to use three rows with one space between each letter and row.

Before they start building, they will need to use the Braille alphabet to fill in word dots on the Three Blind Mice printable. It will help them know where to place to bricks on the base plate.

Once they have their words on paper, they are ready to build.

Beyond the Three Blind Mice

After building the words three blind mice, they will probably want to create more words. I have created a printable you use for random words your children come up with. The link shared above for the Braille alphabet has wonderful printables that share words in themes for your children to use.

If you like this LEGO activity, here are some more LEGO activities your children will enjoy!

Rainbow Hexbug Track

How long will your boat float?

Counting Syllables with LEGO Bricks

Over in the Meadow LEGO Creations and Book

STEM Engineering- Houses for the Three Little Pigs

Rub a Dub Dub 3 Objects Sink or Float in a Tub

April 26, 2017 By Deirdre

This STEM activity explores the Rub a Dub Dub nursery rhyme them with objects that you can find at home. Rather than floating in a tub or float these objects were dropped into a large tub of water.

Why aren’t the objects floating on raft or boat? We found that when we only put three of each of the objects into a plastic bowl they all floated.

Rub a Dub Dub Sink and Float Activity

You can put the Rub a Dub Dub activity out for your children to explore on their own. You can have them do a guided discovery where you provide guidance and ask questions as they test out each object.

Using the Experiment Recording Sheet

Regardless of what you decide to do, you can use the Rub a Dub Dub 3 Objects in a Tub recording sheet to display the results of this experiment. Your children can write or draw each of the objects that they experiment with. Then they can predict if each set of objects will sink or float by circling the word yes or no.

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After testing out each set of objects, children will need to circle whether the object sank or floated. If you would like, you can have them use a dot markers. Children can place a dot over the word sink or float.

Rub a Dub Dub Activity

You will need to gather five set of objects for your children to explore. A few objects will need to float and a few will need to sink. We used rocks, blocks, MegaBloks, erasers, and farmanimals

Children will drop in one of each type of objects at a time. The first drop is the test. The second is the confirmation. The third is to try a fun way to drop it.

If you like this science activity, here are some more wonderful experiments we have done.

You Can Make Water Flow
How to Make Things Sink
Make a Boat with Recycled Materials
STEM Activities-How to Make a Balloon Boat
How Long will a LEGO Boat Float?

Little Miss Muffet Coding Activity for Preschoolers

April 25, 2017 By Deirdre

Little Miss Muffet is great nursery rhyme to use to teach young children how to code. Children will just have a simple rhyme to repeat and sequence on the. While many of you have loved my Gruffalo and Very Hungry Caterpillar coding sheets, they have coding grids with more pictures and spaces. The Little Miss Muffet Coding Activity has fewer spaces. The spaces one the grid are also much larger.

How to Code Little Miss Muffet

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Before you start this coding activity, you will want to read the Little Miss Muffet to your children. While many of them will probably have heard it some may not have.

You will also want to explain to your kids that they will be creating an algorithm. (They will love getting to learn a new big word.) The definition I use for an algorithm with my students is that is a series of steps needed to complete a task. This coding activity lets them create the steps they need to get from the beginning to the end of Little Miss Muffet.

Before Your Code

You may want to have your children retell the nursery rhyme these Little Miss Muffet Sequencing Cards before you start coding. Your children can identify the graphics on each of the cards. Then they can place them in order.

Hint: There are three different versions of the sequencing cards. You can print whichever version of the cards that you like. I have included a black and white version that would be simple to photocopy a set for each of your kids.

Coding Activity

Children will start in the bottom left-hand corner. They will need to draw up arrows in the boxes between the words and picture of the tuffet or stool.

Then they will decide if they need to draw arrows that will go up, down, left or right to get to Little Miss Muffet eating her curds and whey. If they say that two more up arrows are needed, they will be right.

Next, they will need to decide what direction they will need to go to get to the spider. Some children will need to use their arms or hands to figure on what direction to go.) Then they will draw the right arrow.

The next picture they need to draw arrows to the spider sitting beside her. Children will need to draw down arrows in the boxes leading up to the spider sitting beside her.

Finally, children could draw two down arrows and then an arrow pointing to the right. They could draw an arrow to the right of the picture and two down arrows. You can tell your children that there is sometimes more than one way to complete an algorithm.

If you like this nursery rhyme activity, here are some more:

Little Jack Horner Craft

Nursery Rhyme Sequencing

Bingo Cards with Nursery Rhymes

Little Jack Horner Paper Plate Pie Craft

April 24, 2017 By Deirdre

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Have you ever wondered what was in Little Jack Horner’s Christmas pie? I decided to search for Little Jack Horner’s Christmas pie and find out. What a found was the background story behind the Little Jack Horner. It turns out Jack’s real name was Tom Horner. According to some Tom was sent to London by an abbot with a pie filled with the deeds to several properties to give to Henry VIII. On his way to London Tom snuck a plum property out of the pie for himself. Others say he paid for the land manor himself and the legend is untrue. If you want to learn more about nursery rhymes Pop Goes the Weasel: The Secret Meanings of Nursery Rhymes is a good book to explore.

Little Jack Horner’s Plum Pie Craft

Let me walk you through the directions on how to make a Little Jack Horner’s paper plate craft. If you come up with different ways you want to do each step with your children, please let me know what you end up doing. You can post a picture of your pie on my Facebook page.

Supplies

Paper Plate
Brown Construction Paper
Purple Construction Paper
Brown Lunch Sack
Scissors
Glue

Getting the Paper Parts Cut Out

You will need to start by tracing the hand of your child or having them trace their own hand. Then cut the hand out.

Next, you or your children will need to trace 12 circles onto the purple paper. If you have a plastic egg handy, your children can use half of it to trace the circles.

The brown construction paper will then need to be cut into strips or really long rectangles. Strips that are about 2 inches wide are great!

Putting the Pie Together

Now that everything has been cut out it is time to put Little Jack Horner’s pie together. The purple circles will need to be glued down first. Set one of the circles aside to use later.

Then the brown strips will be glued vertically and then horizontally across the plate. They will give the pie a criss-cross design.

Finally, the hand will need to glued near the edge of the plate. Your children then will glue the circle that was set aside to the thumb. It will represent the plum that was pulled out of the pie.

This post is a part of the Virtual Book Club’s celebration of nursery rhymes. Here are some more great nursery rhyme activities:

Mary Had a Little Lamb Alphabet Puzzles
Hickory Dickory Dock Clock Play
Humpty Dumpty Egg Sensory Bin
Rainstorm Art Project (Rain, Rain Go Away)
I’m A Little Teapot Pour Painting
5 Little Ducks
Nursery Rhyme Olympics

Preschool Activities- Shape Sheep

January 16, 2015 By Deirdre

This shape sheep craft is one of those preschool activities that opens the door to explore shapes and gives you a cute end product. It would be great for a farm unit, The Year of the Sheep,a nursery rhyme unit or Easter.

In fact I think it would one of those preschool activities that would be fun to do after reading or singing the following rhymes:

Mary Had Little Lamb

Mary had a little lamb,
His fleece was white as snow,
And everywhere that Mary went,
The lamb was sure to go.

He followed her to school one day,
Which was against the rule,
It made the children laugh and play
To see a lamb at school.

And so the teacher turned it out,
But still it lingered near,
And waited patiently about,
Till Mary did appear.

“Why does the lamb love Mary so?”
The eager children cry.
“Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know.”
The teacher did reply.

Baa, Baa, Black Sheep

Baa, baa, black sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes, sir, yes, sir,Three bags full;
One for the master,
And one for the dame,
And one for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.

What do you need to put the shape sheep together?

Shape pieces:

White circles
Long black rectangles
Black trapezoids
Small black circles
Large white ovals
Small white ovals
Small black squares

Non- Shape pieces:

Small white almond shapes (For the sheep’s ears)

Small pink almond shapes (For the sheep’s ears)

Putting the Sheep Together:

There are several approaches that can be taken when setting up preschool activities.

You can create a sample of what the final product might look like.
You can give each child a set of the shapes that could be used to create a shape sheep and leave it up to their imagination.
You could place the materials in a central spot and have children select what they will need to create a shape sheep.

There really isn’t a right or wrong way for this activity to be done. You know your children and how they best like to approach preschool activities and crafts. I tend to let my son see a final product and he tends to end up with a final product that looks very different from the sample. We end with two great crafts in the end that reflect our personalities!