Nursery Rhyme Theatre

from 36 months · 30-40 min · Gross motor

What you need

Line the soft toys up on the sofa as the audience and pile two or three cushions on the floor as the stage.
Say Humpty Dumpty together while your child sits on the cushion wall, then slides off onto the floor on "had a great fall".
Do Jack and Jill next: carry the bucket up the cushion hill and roll down the other side together.
Let them pick the next rhyme and tell you what to do in it. Take a bow after each one.

Acting a rhyme out gives every line a move, so the words and the beat are carried in their whole body.

Whole rhymes: Saying a rhyme from start to finish while acting it holds the words together.
Big movements: Climbing, rolling and sliding onto soft cushions, each on its cue.
Being in a show: Bowing to an audience, even a teddy one, is standing up in front of others.

Notice them saying the next line before you, because they know which move comes next.

Keep the cushion wall low and the floor around it clear, and do the rolling on a rug or carpet.

Easier: stick to one rhyme they know well and do it three times, a bit faster each time

Harder: act out a rhyme without the words and let them guess which one it is, then swap