Mother Goose Day by Jean Warren

MOTHER GOOSE DAY

MOTHER GOOSE DAY QUICK STARTS

	Read Nursery Rhymes.
	Use counters while reciting “One, Two Buckle My Shoe”.
	Clap to the rhythm of “Pease Porridge Hot”.
	Waddle like Mother Goose.
	Flap your wings like Mother Goose.
	Go on a (paper) bone hunt after reciting “Old Mother Hubbard”.
	Make star puppets and sing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”.
	Make pea soup after reciting “Pease Porridge Hot”
	Make curds and whey after reciting “Little Miss Muffet”.
	Make sequence cards for Nursery Rhymes that tell a story.

MOTHER GOOSE ART

MOTHER GOOSE BONNETS
Celebrate Mother Goose by having your children make Mother Goose bonnets.

	Take an inexpensive plain paper plate and cut a slit into the center part and remove the center of the plate.
	Give the rim of the plate to your child to decorate with marking pens.
	Then using a hole punch, punch a hole in the rim on both sides of the slit.
	Tie thin strips of ribbon onto each hole.
	Pull the rim open and place it on your child’s head, tying it on with the ribbons.

FUZZY LAMBS
Introduce the rhyme “Mary Had A Little Lamb” by having your children make lambs.

	Cut out lamb shapes from heavy white paper for your children.
	Set out some white cotton balls and some glue.
	Have children cover the body part of their lamb with glue, and then place cotton balls on to cover.
	Use a thin black marker to add facial features.
Extension: Add craft stick handles to turn the sheep into sheep puppets. Variation: Glue black yarn sections to shape to make a black sheep for celebrating “Baa, Baa Black Sheep”.

HEART ART
Celebrate “The Queen of Hearts” with heart art. Select one of the following:

	Set out small pieces of red paper for your children to cut out heart shapes.
	Let your children glue red paper hearts onto larger heart shaped paper.
	Give your child a heart stamp and some red ink for stamping red hearts on paper.
	Give your child heart stickers to place on a blank greeting card.

BLACK SPIDER PUPPETS
Introduce “Little Miss Muffet” or “Eensy Weensy Spider” with these small finger puppets.

	Give your children 2” squares out of black paper.
	Have them cut slits along the bottom half of the square.
	Wrap the square snugly around the tip of one of your children’s fingers and tape it securely near the top.
	Have him bend the cut slits up to resemble spider legs.
	Repeat with all children.
	Use puppets when reciting spider rhymes.

MOTHER GOOSE GAMES

MUFFIN TOSS GAME
Here is a simple game to play while introducing “The Muffin Man”.

Set out a six cup muffin tin and four cotton balls.

Have your children take turns tossing the cotton balls into the muffin tins.

Have children count how many landed in the tins.

MITTEN MATCH UP
Follow-up reciting “The Three Little Kittens” with a fun mitten matching game.

	Cut out six pairs of paper mittens, each set a different color.
	Mix up the pairs and set out all 12 mittens.
	Let your children take turns matching up the six sets of colored mittens.

EMPTY –FULL BAGS
Here is a fun game to play after reciting “Baa, Baa Black Sheep”.

	Take two lunch bags and fill one with cotton balls.
	Leave the second bag empty but puff it out.
	Roll down the tops of both bags.
	Let your children take turns guessing which bag is “full” vs. “empty”.
	Mix up the bags after each child’s turn.

BONE SEARCH
Here is a follow-up game after reading “Old Mother Hubbard”.

	Cut out 6” bone shapes from heavy paper, one per child.
	Hide the bones in your room in easy to find locations.
	Tell your children to pretend that they are dogs.
	Have dogs hunt for a bone.
	Repeat game after every dog has found a bone, if interest lasts.

MOVEMENT FUN
Here are some fun movement activities to do for a Mother Goose unit.

	Crawl around like spiders – for Little Miss Muffet or Eensy Weensy Spider.
	Jump over candles – for Jack Be Nimble.
	Find different ways to go “Around The Mulberry Bush” such as; walk, run, skip,etc.
	Pretend to be flowers growing in Mary, Mary Quite Contray’s Garden.
	Roll down a small hill like Jack & Jill.

MOTHER GOOSE LANGUAGE

COMPARE MOTHER GOOSE BOOKS

	Set out two – four different Mother Goose Books.
	Have your children compare the rhymes and pictures.
	Help children discover which book is the oldest and which one the newest.
	Have children decide which edition they prefer.

MOTHER GOOSE DRAMATICS

	Provide costumes for your children to act out Nursery Rhyme characters.
	Prepare mini productions of rhymes that tell stories.

MOTHER GOOSE RIDDLES
Here are some riddles for your children to solve.

I went to school.
My lamb followed me. (Mary)

We went to the well.
We fell down the hill. (Jack & Jill)

I’m nimble and quick.
I jumped over a candlestick. (Jack)

I sat on a wall.
I broke when I fell off the wall. (Humpty Dumpty)

I blow my horn to call the sheep.
I fell asleep under the haystack. (Little Boy Blue)

COOPERATIVE RHYMES
Here is an activity that everyone can get involved in.

	Start a nursery rhyme. Say the first line.
	Then stop for a second and see if someone can fill in the second line.
	Then say the third line and pause again.
	Continue this way to the end of the rhyme.
	Continue with other rhymes as long as interest lasts.

MOTHER GOOSE MUSIC

Mother Goose Songs
Many Mother Goose Rhymes have been put to music over the years. Sing the following Mother Goose Songs with your children.

MOTHER GOOSE SCIENCE

Here are some suggestions for discovery type activities.

	Study pulleys, like one that Jack used to pull the water bucket up and down.
	Plant a spring flower garden like “Mary, Mary Quite Contrary”.
	Experiment with things that sink vs. float, like the “Three Men In A Tub”.
	Learn about stars while learning “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”.
	Make Muffins for “Do You Know The Muffin Man”.

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