6 Free Printable Nursery Rhymes to Share With Young Children
Enjoy these nursery rhymes with babies and children. Help them discover rhyming words and gain phonemic awareness. Our free printable nursery rhymes are perfect for home and school.
A substantial part of my work is with young children. I have found printable nursery rhymes very beneficial. If they have enjoyed wordplay and stories at home, children are often somewhat familiar with the rhymes, they enjoy the rhyming and repetition and they welcome the opportunity to create a “book” of nursery rhymes and “read” text. “Reading” along while repeating a familiar rhyme, is an opportunity to practice directional tracking by sliding a finger along the familiar words (from left to right, top to bottom).
For children who are new to English, learning nursery rhymes also introduces characters that they will encounter again and again and the rhythm of English.
Nursery rhymes introduce many literary devices: repetition (Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star; Polly, Put the Kettle On), onomatopoeia (Baa Baa Black sheep; This Little Pig; Old King Cole; Ding, Dong, Bell), alliteration (Little Boy Blue; Sing a Song O’Sixpence; Goosie, Goosie, Gander; Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater; Wee Willie Winkie) and imagery (Humpty Dumpty, Little Miss Muffet).
Nursery rhymes also introduce rich vocabulary. Jack and Jill introduces fetch, pail, crown and tumbling. These are probably not words that are used in everyday conversation so, just by sharing and talking about nursery rhymes, a child’s vocabulary is expanded.
Another key benefit of enjoying nursery rhymes with young children is the boost it will give to their phonemic awareness. We want young children to notice that words are made up of sounds. Hearing rhyming (diddle/fiddle, star/far, horn/corn) and alliteration (Boy blue, Grey Geese, Simple Simon, Tommy Tucker)
Prior to creating my own printable nursery rhymes, I often visited Webbing Into Literacy and used A Rhyme a Week.
The Storytime Standouts printable nursery rhymes can be used to create a nursery rhyme booklet and/or as learning activities.
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Hey Diddle Diddle
Traditional English nursery rhyme that includes repetition, rhyming and imagery.
Humpty Dumpty
Traditional English-language nursery rhyme. Usually includes an anthropomorphic (possessing human traits, emotions) egg.
Jack and Jill
Traditional English-language nursery rhyme. Includes alliteration and rhyming.
Little Boy Blue
Traditional English-language nursery rhyme featuring alliteration and rhyming.
Sing a Song of Mother Goose illustrated by Barbara Reid Nursery Rhyme Picture Book published by Scholastic Trade
If you are interested in nursery rhyme books, I can personally recommend Barbara Reid’s Sing a Song of Mother Goose. Ms Reid is renowned for her marvellous plasticine artwork. Sing a Song of Mother Goose features beautiful, bold illustrations of fourteen well-known nursery rhymes. A lovely gift for a new baby, it is available as a board book, paperback and in a hardcover gift edition.
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Hey Diddle Diddle
