Nursery Rhyme Decorations

Use a sheep motif to decorate for "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

Children love to hear nursery rhymes. They teach rhyming skills, and many offer moral lessons. Because many of the rhymes include animals and other items that children enjoy, creating nursery rhyme decorations works well for children's rooms and other play areas. You can also use these ideas in the classroom.

Humpty Dumpty

Use basic craft supplies to create a Humpty Dumpty theme. On one end of the wall, stack toy red bricks. These are available at toy stores and are made of sturdy cardboard. To make it a permanent decoration, glue the bricks to the wall, or leave them unattached so that children can play with them. On top of the bricks, place Humpty. Make Humpty by gluing papier-mache over a latex balloon, painting him white and drawing his face. You could also create a cardboard cutout Humpty and paint the cardboard white and add a face. To teach the nursery rhyme, change the scenery week by week to follow the rhyme. For instance, during the first week, Humpty should just sit on the wall. The second week, have a broken Humpty ready to lie on the floor. On the third week, have cutouts of horses and men coming to Humpty's rescue.

Lambs

"Baa Baa Black Sheep" and "Mary Had a Little Lamb" are popular children's nursery rhymes. To make a sheep-friendly room, glue picket fence posts around the walls. Painting them white or light blue goes well with a lamb theme. Place a lamb's wool rug in the center of the room, and purchase novelty shepherd's staffs and use them as posts for the bed. To mimic lamb's wool on the walls, sponge-paint with white in a border.

Little Miss Muffet

Create a children's reading area that is focused on Little Miss Muffet. Purchase several small ottomans to use as tuffets for children to sit on while they read or are read to. Have a large ottoman in the center of the room to hold books. Hang plastic spiders and cobwebs from the ceiling.

Nursery Rhyme Murals

Your nursery rhyme decoration can be as simple as a painted mural. Print out a picture of an animal or character that represents the nursery rhyme. Simple outline drawings work best. Create an overhead transparency by tracing the picture onto a sheet of transparency film. Set up the overhead projector near the wall you have chosen to display your mural. Move the projector forward and backward until you get the size you would like for your picture. Trace the outline with a pencil and use paints to finish the mural.

References

• Nicky's Nursery Rhymes: Print and Do
• Family Fun: Bedroom Mural