Nursery Rhyme Olympics

Today marked the 2nd Annual Preschool Nursery Rhyme Olympics. I set up 7 stations around the room, this way the preschoolers can wander through each station with no time limits. This allows me to float around the room and interact with parents and give instructions, as well as ways of incorporating sneaky math into some of our activities.



Station 1: Humpty Dumpty puzzles
       I used the printable from I Heart Crafty Things and made 4 copies. I color coded the back with marker, and had the kids find match the colors first and then complete the puzzle.

Station 2: Baa Baa Black Sheep wool matching
        I took 4 small white boxes and taped a piece of construction paper to the lid. I brought out a handful of pom poms and let the kids match the pom poms to the color of the box. Once they were finished matching, they could take them out, count them by color and set the game up for the next person.

Station 3: Jack and Jill pail toss
       Rolled up blue socks become water drops to throw into an empty pail.

Station 4: Help Peter Piper pick a peck of pickled peppers
       Walk from one end of the room to the other with green pom poms balanced on a small shovel. I asked kids to guess how many pom poms they could carry each trip and how many trips they would need to carry all of the pom poms.

Station 5: Help Little Bo Peep match up her sheep
       I found a free clip art template and colored in our sheep. I also added shapes and patterns to some of the cards to make them more difficult to match. There were 10 sheep to match.


Station 6: Jump over a candlestick like Jack.
       Toilet paper tubes and gift wrap tubes became candles in this movement activity, like the one from AllKids Network. I asked the participants how tall they thought the candlestick was and we estimated how high they could jump. I left a ruler near this station so the kids could measure the height of the candlestick.


Station 7: Three Little Kitten have lost their mittens craft
       I found the cutest cat craft from Krokotak and let the kids color their cat with crayons. I pre-cut all of the shapes before the program, but left the tail in a single piece so that the kids can work on cutting skills.


Inspiration for this program came from Hubbards Cupboard and So Tomorrow.

*Note: I don't know if it was because I chose to do the program on a Sunday afternoon, or if it was because we are in the middle of a deep freeze in Northern Ohio, but only 2 families came to the program this year. Last year attendance was 13.