Mother Goose Day (May 1st)

 

      May 1st is National Mother Goose Day, a holiday I wished I'd known about when I was teaching toddlers.  I've always known, and celebrated with my classes, Dr. Seuss' birthday.  If I had known there was a national day to celebrate all the fantastic rhymes by Mother Goose, I'd be able to make a whole lesson out of it!  I've done nursery rhymes as a monthly theme, but having it in May and adding in a little more about Mother Goose would have made the lesson even better in my opinion.
     There are lots of rhymes that most children hear often, that are written by Mother Goose.  Rhymes such as:  Baa Baa Black Sheep, Hey Diddle Diddle, Hickory Dickory Dock, Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, Little Miss Muffet, One Two Buckle My Shoe, Patty Cake Patty Cake, Rock a bye Baby, Three Blind Mice, and more.

     Each day could be dedicated to a different rhyme with all sorts of activities.

Art

• painting eggs for Humpty Dumpty
• decorate a cake with lots of different art supplies for Patty Cake
• create a tree with sponge paint for Rock a Bye Baby
• make a bonnet out of paper and pretend to be Mother Goose
• Use cotton balls and glue and make a lamb for Mary Had a Little Lamb

Sensory

• putting wool in the sensory table to explore Baa Baa Black Sheep
• put water in the table for Three Men In A Tub (and you can talk about sink and float)
• put cottage cheese in the sensory table to explore for Little Miss Muffet
• let the children experience breaking eggs in the table for Humpty Dumpty

Cooking

• making eggs for Humpty Dumpty
• have curds and way for Little Miss Muffet (cottage cheese)
• make a cake or cupcakes for Patty Cake
• make muffins for Do You Know The Muffin Man

Language Development

• any of these stories can be made into a felt board activity, to see the rhyme in action
• make puppets and let the children act out the rhymes as they are being read
• sing the rhymes during clean up times, snack times, circle times, while in line, or anytime during the day.  
• clap to the rhythm of the rhymes

Large Motor skills

• act like a goose and waddle, act like a sheep and crawl around, act like Jack and Jill and roll down a hill, act like blind mice (but with your eyes open) and run

     This is just a small list of things you can do for a Mother Goose month.  There are a multitude of other activities that can be done with toddlers for this theme.  

     When I first started writing this post, it was just to inform everyone of it being National Mother Goose Day.  It then turned into the beginning of a rough draft for a lesson plan.  I guess you just can't take the teacher out of me!