Nursery Rhymes For Preschoolers: Melodies and rhymes are a staple of the preschool and kindergarten study hall, and have been for ages. This rundown of counting rhymes and melodies incorporates a considerable lot of my undisputed top choices from my preschool study hall days, and I have likewise cherished singing at home with my own children since turning into a mum.
Nursery Rhymes For Preschoolers
- Humpty Dumpty
Everyone loves a Humpty Dumpty, and although the words don’t seem to make much sense at all, they all love dashing to pick him and ‘help’ to put him back together again.
- Row Row Row The Boat
Row Row Row The Boat is one of the first songs that toddlers play rowing too and fro with a partner, so it builds social skills and confidence too.
- Ring A Ring A Roses
Kids never seem to tire of singing Ring A Ring A Roses and dancing around, holding hands in a circle and then all falling down together at the end!
- Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
This is usually one of the first songs toddlers learn to sing. The simple repetitive melody has a small range and is easy to remember, and they’ll often hum and sing the melody mimicking the words well before they can talk. It’s always a firm favourite at bedtime when you can sing it while looking at the real stars!
The Wheels On The Bus is great for getting everyone to join in with the actions. You can keep it simple and have a regular bus full of the usual sort of passengers, or if you’re feeling adventurous, you can mix it up and have a special bus full of animals from the jungle!
- Incy Wincy Spider (Itsy-Bitsy)
Whether you call him Incy-Wincy or Itsy-Bitsy kids just love him! Toddlers will imitate the actions of the creepy crawly spider legs climbing up the spout well before they can talk. And once they are old enough to sing along, this is always a big favourite!
- Old MacDonald
Kids always love making animal noises, so Old MacDonald is the perfect choice for everyone to try out their best animal impersonations. And of course all that repetition is fantastic for speech development too!
- 5 Little Monkeys Jumping On The Bed
All toddlers love to bounce! So 5 Little Monkeys always goes down well and of course it’s good for counting too. You just need to make sure you don’t sing it at bed time, or you’ll never get them to settle down!
- This Is The Way The Lady Rides
This is another favourite bouncing song, but this time it’s sung sitting on an adult’s knee as if riding a pony. It’s a great way to introduce the contrasting tempos of the three different ponies. First, the dainty trot of the ladies horse, then the smart sprightly trot of the gentleman and then the fast, bouncy gallop of the Farmer, who falls down into a ditch – which is of course the highlight!
- 5 Little Ducks Went Swimming One Day
Five Little Ducks Went Swimming One Day is great for practicing numbers and introducing the concept of subtraction, counting down from 5 -1 as each little duck swims away. It’s also really cute to get the little ones to pretend to be ducklings waddling along wiggling their tail.
