Celebrate National Grilled Cheese Month with These Silly Rhymes
April is National Grilled Cheese Month! Why not invite a few of your favorite nursery rhyme characters to storytime to celebrate? Kids will love these silly variations on classic Mother Goose rhymes. Encourage creativity and writing skills by working with children to come up with their own crazy grilled cheese sandwich rhymes!
Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet,
eating a yummy grilled cheese.
Along came a spider
And sat down beside her
And said, “Could I have some, please?”
Old Mother Hubbard
went to the cupboard
to fetch her poor dog a grilled cheese.
He gobbled it up,
that hungry pup,
and shared the crumbs with the fleas!
Old King Cole
Was a hungry old soul,
And a hungry old soul was he.
He called for his bread,
And he called for his cheese,
And he called for his cooks three.
Each cook, he had a fine pan,
And a very fine pan had he;
Hiss-hiss, went the grilled cheese,
Hiss, went the grilled cheese,
Hiss, went the sandwiches three.
Oh, there’s none so rare,
As can compare
With old King Cole and his grilled cheeses three!
Nine Nifty Nursery Rhyme Activities
Nursery rhymes help children develop important pre-reading skills, such as phonemic awareness, and make language fun! Here are nine fun, interactive ideas to present nursery rhymes in storytimes:
1) Hey-diddle-diddle:
Read Over the Moon by Rachel Vail. (New York: Orchard, 1998.) This story is a clever twist on the classic nursery rhyme “Hey Diddle Diddle”. A frustrated director can’t get his cow to understand how to go OVER the moon. The story emphasizes prepositions in a fun way. After reading the story, make a large paper moon and have volunteers help you act out the various ways the cow interacts with the moon. Then, for a surprise, use the “Magic Door to Books” trick found in Carolyn Feller Bauer’s Leading Kids to Books Through Magic (American Library Association, 1996) to walk through your moon. Review the prepositions in the book at the end.
2) The Little Spider: A Nursery Rhyme from the Philippines:
Every culture around the world has nursery rhymes. Many of the themes of nursery rhymes are similar across different cultures. Share this rhyme from the Philippines with children and ask them if it reminds them of one that they know.
The little spider, the little spider (wiggle index finger)
Climbed up the branch (move index finger up opposite arm)
The rain came down (wiggle fingers down)
Pushed it away. (show spider falling)
The sun came up (hold arms in circle over head)
It dried the branch.
The little spider is always happy. (make index finger hop up arm again)
Learn how to share this rhyme using American Sign Language in this free video featuring Kathy MacMillan.
For more terrific nursery rhymes from around the world, see http://itsasmallworld.co.nz/index.php.
3) Hickory Dickory Dock:
Give each child two rhythm sticks and have them hold them like clock hands to show the time in each verse of the rhyme.
Hickory Dickory Dock,
the mouse ran up the clock,
the clock struck 1, the mouse ran down
Hickory Dickory Dock!
…the clock struck 2, the mouse said “Boo!”
…the clock struck 3, the mouse said, “Whee!”
…the clock struck 4, the mouse said, “More!”
…the clock struck 5, the mouse did the hand jive.
…the clock struck 6, the mouse did magic tricks,
…the clock struck 7, the mouse said, “This is heaven!”
…the clock struck 8, the mouse cried, “I’m late!”
…the clock struck 9, the mouse said, “Fine!”
…the clock struck 10, the mouse said, “Again!”
…the clock struck 11, the mouse said, “Still heaven!”
…the clock struck 12, the mouse said, “Swell!”
4) Little Miss Muffet:
Try a traditional nursery rhyme silly style! Alter the last words of the rhyme, making sure to act very seriously, as though you think these are the correct words. The kids will love correcting you!
Example:
Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet, eating her…macaroni and cheese
Along came a…dinosaur
And sat down beside her
And ask her to go to the library!
5) Jack Be Nimble:
Set an unlit candle in the middle of the floor. (A large pillar candle works well for this activity.) Recite the rhyme together, then invite the children to take turns coming for-ward and jumping over the candlestick as everyone says the rhyme, replacing “Jack” with each child’s name. This activity is popular with babies through preschool. (Parents can lift babies over the candlestick.)
_____ be nimble, _______ be quick.
Jack jump over the candlestick!
Learn how to share this rhyme using American Sign Language in this free video featuring Kathy MacMillan.
6) This Little Piggy:
Make this traditional rhyme interactive by having the children suggest new destinations and foods for the piggies. Write their suggestions on a board or flipchart, then have everyone recite the new rhymes together. This is a great tie-in for nursery rhyme, community helper or “in my town” storytimes.
Example:
This little piggy went to the zoo,
This little piggy stayed home.
This little piggy had ice cream,
And this little piggy had none.
And this little piggy went “Wee! Wee! Wee!” all the way home.
7) The Grand Old Duke of York:
Give each child a pair of rhythm sticks and tap out the rhythm of the song as you sing, moving the sticks up and down as the soldiers do.
The grand old Duke of York,
He had ten thousand men
He marched them up to the top of the hill,
And he marched them down again.
And when they were up, they were up,
And when they were down, they were down,
And when they were only half-way up,
They were neither up nor down.
8) Wee Willie Winkie:
In your baby program, pass out large pom-poms to the parents. Invite them to use the pom-poms as puppets to act out this classic nursery rhyme, making the pom-pom race up and down baby’s arms and tap gently on their foreheads:
Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town,
Upstairs and downstairs in his nightgown,
Tapping at the window and crying through the lock,
Are all the children in their beds, it’s past eight o’clock?
9) Jack and Jill:
This interactive craft is a great way to act out this favorite nursery rhyme.
- Print out the craft templates here.
- Cut a slit in the “Up the Hill” sheet along the dotted line.
- Color Jack and Jill, then cut them out.
- Glue Jack and Jill to the craft sticks.
- Poke the sticks through the slit in the worksheet to act out the rhyme!
Carpet Squares: Not Just for Sitting on Anymore
1) Surfboards:
Spice up a summertime or ocean-themed program by inviting the kids to climb aboard their carpet squares and surf along with your favorite Beach Boys tune!
2) Color Action Game:
If you have carpet squares of different colors, use them to play a color recognition action game. (If all your carpet squares are the same color, put processing dots of different colors in the corners.) Then sing the song below and invite the kids to perform the actions:
(to the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know It”)
If your carpet square is red, pat your head.
If your carpet square is red, pat your head.
If your carper square is red, then go ahead and show it.
If your carpet square is red, pat your head.
Blue…touch your shoe…
Yellow…wave to a fellow…
Brown…jump up and down…
White…curl up tight…
Green…do a forward lean…
Black…scratch your friend’s back…
Grey…shout “hooray!”
Any color…give a holler!…
3) Play a life-sized board game:
Set up a path of carpet squares around the room, randomly mixing up colors. (Again, if your carpet squares are all one color, mark the corners with different colored processing dots.) Designate a starting and ending square. Create cards of each color by cutting up pieces of construction paper (or put dots on index cards if you are using the dot method. If desired, mark some squares with pictures relating to your theme and make cards to match. (For example, a Fall storytime might include a pumpkin, apple, leaf, and tree.) Have the children line up at the starting square and then take turns drawing a card from the pile. If a child draws a red card, he or she goes to the first red square. If a child draws a picture card, he or she must go to that square, even if that means going backwards. Keep playing (reshuffling cards as needed) until everyone gets to the end.
Literacy variations:- Alphabet matching: Mark the squares with letters of the alphabet and make cards to match. (Or use a set of magnetic alphabet letters and have each child draw one out of a bag on his or her turn.) Be sure to ask the child to identify the letter and match it to the correct square.
- What’s that sound?: Mark the squares with letters of the alphabet as above, but make cards with simple words that begin with different letters of the alphabet. On each child’s turn, read a word aloud without showing it to the child, and see if the children can guess the first letter by sound. If they have trouble, show them the card and help them identify the first letter and its sound before moving to the correct square. (Make sure that the letters on your cards and squares are consistently uppercase or consistently lowercase to avoid confusion.)
- Big and Little Matching: Mark the squares with uppercase letters of the alphabet, and make cards showing the lowercase letters. The children must match the letters to find the correct square.
4) Make Your Own Flannelboard:
Give each child a carpet square and a set of simple felt shapes, and invite them to tell the story along with you as you use the large flannelboard. This is a great activity for baby storytimes, as it encourages one-on-one interaction between parent and child, and gives parents a useful model for storytelling with their little ones at home. A simple flannelboard story such “Dog’s Colorful Day”, based on the book by Emma Dodd, is ideal for this activity. (Download a free flannelboard pattern by artist Melanie Fitz here.)
For older children, consider using this activity with a tangram story. Tangrams, a traditional Chinese puzzle and storytelling form, are easy to make and can yield thousands of different shapes. Check out one of the books below for stories and instructions on how to make a tangram set:
- Grandfather Tang’s Story: A Tale Told With Tangrams by Ann Tompert. New York: Crown, 1990.
- Grandfather’s Shape Story by Brian Sargent. New York: Scholastic, 2007.
5) Lilypads:
Liven up a froggy storytime with this rhyme, performed on carpet square lilypads. Follow up by inviting the kids to hop from lilypad to lilypad around the room while you play a frog song such as “Jumping Frog” from Pretend by Hap Palmer (Freeport, NY: Educational Activities, Inc., 1998).
Lilypad Rhyme
I am a frog, lovely and green
I sit on my lilypad, calm and serene
Until a fly comes whizzing by
Then I LEAP in the air so high!
I stick out my tongue and SLURP.
Down goes the fly and out comes a burp.
I like being a frog, so I don’t think I’ll stop
Because it’s so much fun to hop!
There goes another fly, I really must dash.
I hop into the water with a great big SPLASH!
6) Tuffets:
Invite the kids to imagine that they are Miss Muffet sitting on her tuffet and act out the silly rhyme below.
Miss Muffet’s Tuffet
Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet
Eating her curds and whey
Along came a spider and sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Muffet away.
But she came back around and sat back down
And continued then to eat.
Her toes got cold, so she was told
To put the tuffet on her feet!
Miss Muffet was done, she’d eaten a ton
But she didn’t care.
The spider came back and jumped on her back
So she waved her tuffet in the air!
It started to rain, she said, “What a pain!
I don’t want my hair to get wet!”
So she lifted her hands like that, and made up a hat
She put the tuffet on her head!
The rain started to slow, and the spider had to go
So she said, “I’ll see you around!”
She put the tuffet on the floor, and then once more
She sat herself back down!
Storytime Stuff 