Kellie Dimmette

RE 5100

Lesson 1: Nursery Rhyme-“Hey Diddle, Diddle”

Grade Level: Kindergarten

Materials Needed:

  • Large copy of nursery rhyme “Hey Diddle, Diddle
  • Small copy of the poem for each child
  • Construction paper, scissors, glue

Focus & Review:

Ask students the following questions to get them focused on the poem:

  • Have you ever seen a cat playing a fiddle?
  • Have you ever seen a cow jump over the moon?
  • Have you ever seen a little dog laugh?
  • Have you ever seen a dish run away with a spoon?

Explain to students that today you are going to read a nursery rhyme where all those things happen.

Objective:

  • Students will read a nursery rhyme repeatedly to become familiar with print.
  • Students will also observe beginning sounds and make connections with thesounds heard in the nursery rhyme to sounds around them.

Teacher Input:

Write the rhyme on chart paper or use a store bought copy of the rhyme in large print so all students in the class can see the words. Read the title to the students and ask if anyone has heard it before. Point to the words as you read them and invite the students to join in.

Echo-read the poem by reading a line, then having the class repeat it. Once the class is familiar with the rhyme, practice chanting it together. Have students clap their hands or play simple instruments to experience the beat and rhythm of the poem.

Play with beginning sounds. Read the words fiddle, diddle, moon, and spoon. Challenge them to find other words with the same beginning sounds in the rhyme and objects in the classroom whose names begin with the sounds. Ask students to identify which words begin with the sp in the rhyme. Challenge students to think of five more words that begin with sp.

Independent Practice:

Make a poetry book by having each child glue a copy of the rhyme onto a piece of construction paper.

Guided Practice:

Have children practice reading the new poem to a partner. Partners should be instructed to help each other decode unknown words. Partners can also practice echo reading and chanting the poem together.

Independent Practice:

Send home the poem with children and instruct them to read the poem to their parents, an adult, or other sibling for homework. Tell students to practice reading it to at least two different people if possible.

Closure:

Bring the class together to read the poem in unison.

Lesson 2: Nursery Rhyme-“Hey Diddle, Diddle”

Grade Level: Kindergarten

Materials Needed:

  • Large copy of nursery rhyme “Hey Diddle, Diddle
  • Book: And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel
  • 3x5 index cards

Focus & Review:

Have the group chant the poem written on large paper. Point to the words in print as the children read.

Objective:

Students will learn how to connect reading with print. Students will also create a story using what they have learned in the discussions about the poem and a story about the poem.

Teacher Input:

Use different color marker to write each line of the rhyme on a sentence strip. Have the children match the strips to the lines in the printed rhyme. The children can then try putting the strips in the correct order.

Read And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel. In this story, the characters of the rhyme discover that the dish and spoon haven’t come back, so they search for them. They use map skills and unique talents to search for their friends and meet many fairy-tale creatures along the way. As you read invite students to participate in the search for clues.

Guided Practice:

Using 3x5 index cards write out each word on a separate card. Make enough cards for all students to have one. Some children may have the same word. As you read the rhyme again have students hold up their card with their word is read. Observe to make sure students are holding up the same card as you are pointing to on the chart.

Independent Practice:

Have students in create a story about the rhyme. Ask students to propose answers to the following question:

  • Why is the cat playing music?
  • Why is the dog laughing?
  • Is the cow really jumping over the moon?
  • How can a dish run away with a spoon?

Have students write their own story using invented spelling. Then illustrate.

Closure:

Read the rhyme once again to children. Leave out some words and try to have students fill in the word as you point to it on the chart.

Lesson 3: Nursery Rhyme-“Hey Diddle, Diddle”

Grade Level: Kindergarten

Materials Needed:

  • Copy of word sort cards for each student
  • Copy of reproducible characters for each student
  • Crayons, markers, colored pencils, paint, glitter, ribbons, and other craft materials to decorate mobile

Objective:

Students will manipulate word cards to make words in the nursery rhyme by matching initial consonant sounds to endings.

Students will use artwork to connect the nursery rhyme with the characters.

Focus and Review:

Cover up some of the predictable words in the nursery rhyme. As you read the rhyme aloud have students predict what they think the word is, then uncover the word and have students to check their predictions.

Teacher Input:

Have each student cut a copy of their word sort cards into individual cards. Using enlarged cards show children how to make words by combining the initial consonant with the word ending. Write the created words on the board.

Guided Practice:

Allow students to work with partners to make words using their individual cards.

Independent Practice:

Students will make a mobile with rhyme characters to connect the nursery rhyme with illustrations. Give each student a copy of the reproducible characters. Allow students to decorate the characters with crayons, markers, colored pencils, paint, glitter, ribbons, and other craft materials. Have students cut out the characters. Tell students to fold along middle lines to match the fronts and backs of patterns and glue together. Once dry, have students punch one hole in the top of the moon pattern. Let students use string, ribbon, or yarn to hand the cow above the moon shape and the cat, dog, and dish and spoon characters from the bottom of the moon shape. Attach lengths of string, ribbon, or yarn to the tops of the cows and hang the mobiles.

Closure:

Students will share the stories they wrote in Lesson 2 with a small group.

Resources:

Flikkema, Elizabeth. Learning With Mother Goose. Greensboro, NC: Carson-Dellosa Publishing Company, 2004.

Neiderman & Khum. Star Light, Star Bright: Whole-Language Activities with Nursery Rhymes. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1993.

Hey Diddle, Diddle Chart. Minneapolis, MN: A Paramount Communications Company, 1990.

Carlisle, Jody, Cook, Carole, & Moffett, Glenda. Classroom Nursery Rhymes Activity Kit. West Nyack, New York: The Center for Applied Research in Education, Inc., 1983.