Teaching Word Work and Reading Comprehension through Nursery Rhymes!
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Teaching Word Work and Reading Comprehension through Nursery Rhymes
Nursery Rhymes play such an important role in a child’s language development. The repetition of rhymes help teach children patterns in language and how words work. I am SUPER excited to take some common nursery rhymes to a WHOLE NEW level! I will be using six familiar nursery rhymes to help my 1st grader work with words, comprehension, sight word recognition and fluency.
This Nursery Rhyme Bundle includes the following nursery rhymes:
*Humpty Dumpty
*Jack and Jill
*Mary Had a Little Lamb
*Little Bo Peep
*The Itsy Bitsy Spider
*Baa, Baa, Black Sheep
The pictures below will show pages included in the Jack and Jill packet.
The activities in the bundle are similar so that students can focus on building fluency, comprehension and working with different word families.
Jack and Jill personal poster
This is a great way to familiarize kids with the nursery rhyme and let them read it a few times.
Fill in the Missing Words:
Cut and paste the missing words into the correct boxes.
Jack and Jill traceable page
The traceable page is great for working with words, proper letter formation and spelling patterns.
Jack and Jill foldable mini-book
This 4 page foldable mini-book is also traceable.
Trace the words in the nursery rhyme.
Jack and Jill: Box up the Words
Students can use their personal posters or tracable mini-books to fill in the Box up the Words page.
The boxes are perfect for allowing kids to see spacing in letters and word to word correspondence.
Roll and Dab a Word Family!
Roll a die and dab a word in that word family.
For example, if you roll a 1 or a 2, dab an -ill word.
If you roll a 3 or 4, dab an -ell word.
If you roll a 5 or 6, dab an -ack family word.
The packet primarily work with word families in the nursery rhyme.
Spin a Sight Word
Use a paperclip and a pencil to spin a sight word from the nursery rhyme.
Spin and record the word. See which word makes it to 1st-5th place.
Race to the top! Fun and effective!!
Here is our paperclip spinner up close!
I colored them to make it a bit more fun.
Spin a Word I
Make a paperclip spinner and spin both spinners to make a word.
If the word is a real word, color the happy space.
If the word is not a real word, color the sad face.
This is such a FUN, hands-on way to work with words, both real and silly.
Spin a Word II
Spin the ending to make a word. This is also a great way to sound out words and make new words.
Again, students will color the happy or sad face for real or silly words.
Read and Glue Real or Silly Words
Cut and paste the words to the correct buckets.
The words in this packet work with word families from the Jack and Jill packet.
Seek and Find Rhyming Words
Seek and find the word that rhyme.
Record them in the correct columns.
Color by Word Family
Use the color code to color the picture. Kids LOVE to color and this is a great way to work on identifying word families and patterns in words.
Reading Comprehension: True or False
Did they read carefully and did they understand what they read?
This simple page will aid in students comprehension as they read the sentences to answer the comprehension questions. If the statement was false, we color the part of the sentence that makes it false.
For example:
Jack and Jen went up the hill. (false)
This task makes sure that students are reading carefully.
Read and Sequence: Jack and Jill
Cut and paste the pictures in the correct sequence.
Reading Comprehension Check
Students are required to read the simple nursery rhyme and answer the question in two ways:
1. Write a simple response. This method is far more effective than the fill in the bubble method.
2. Look back in the text to color code the answer. This activity is extremely helpful because it allows kids to look back in the text for the answers.
Color by the code:
Use the color code to color the picture.
This page will work with either word families or sight words.
Roll and Read for Fluency!
This fun, fast paced page will help work with fluency!
Roll a die and read the words in that word column. After you read the words in the column, check off a box. Continue playing until all rows have 3 checked off boxes. The game goes by fast and the fluency increases quickly!
Jack and Jill: Word Search
Find the words from the nursery rhyme in the word search.
Each packet also has a color version to hang up in the classroom:
We also have the nursery rhyme printed on sentence strips for our pocket chart…
Be sure to follow us on Instagram to see our packets in action.
You can purchase the packets individually here:
or SAVE 20% by purchasing the BUNDLE
Also, check out these other fun word work activities to build fluency and confidence in reading: Click Here.
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Annie Moffatt
Annie Moffatt is a former elementary school teacher and homeschool mom with a passion for helping young learners thrive. With a background in early education and a heart for making learning fun, Annie designs engaging, low-prep resources that build confidence and success in the classroom. Her hands-on, kid-friendly approach has supported thousands of teachers and parents around the world in creating joyful learning experiences for their students.
Here's a couple of game ideas you can do with the strips!
On a table, you can use the strips as a puzzle, having the kids put the nursery rhyme in order.
When using the pocket chart, be the person putting the strips in place and make an occasional mistake, you'll get a lot of giggles when the kids correct you!
thank you for the great ideas!