Introducing Hickory Dickory Dock – Nursery Rhyme Printables!
Nursery rhymes have always been a part of my classroom curriculum. They are key to helping children develop so many skills – rhyming, fluency, vocabulary. While teaching kindergarten nursery rhymes often took a back seat to other directed curriculum or were a hodgepodge of what I could find. Since moving to pre-k I have been able to make Nursery Rhymes a more focused part of our curriculum. Because I believe strongly that predictable patterns allow children to focus on the actual learning I have designed a pattern for teaching Nursery Rhymes in my classroom.
Here’s what works for me
We focus on one Nursery Rhyme for two weeks. At the onset of a new Nursery Rhyme I send home the Nursery Rhyme Retell Pieces Note introducing our new Nursery Rhyme to families. I don’t make this part of my homework. It’s one way I engage my families without adding stressful requirements. It also informs families which version or how much of the Nursery Rhyme we are learning.
I use the Nursery Rhyme Readers, Counting Objects and Fill in the Missing Number Pages as morning work. But like everything on Milton & Prescott they can absolutely be adapted to individual needs.
During bathroom breaks, and those unavoidable transitions that require waiting I show a youtube video that goes along with our focus Nursery Rhyme. My students and I enjoy Little Baby Bum and they have most of the Nursery Rhymes I use in class.
I’m shareing our Hickory Dickory Dock – Nursery Rhyme Printables first for a very scientific reason…. its our next focus nursery rhyme in my pre-k class. Took a lot of thought didn’t it. I use every printable I post on Milton & Prescott or have used it. There are a few pieces specifically for kindergarten that I no longer use on a daily baisis because I’m in pre-k but I have used them all at some point. For that reason I post what’s up and coming in our classroom first. Keeping it simple.
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Enjoy!
Hickory Dickory Dock – Retell Pieces and Note
Hickory Dickory Dock – Student Readers
I have been using Beginning Sounds Circle Maps in my classroom since my district adopted Thinking Maps, so about…four or five years. I started with my kindergarten students and continued when I moved to pre-K. I use these Circle Maps during centers. In pre-K my aide does this work with my students. In Kindergarten I introduced it during whole group and then they completed the Circle Map independently.
During morning meeting, on the day we are going to do Circle Maps at centers, we make a large class circle map together. Not only is this fun but it gives me a quick assessment of my students. I can tell very quickly who understands the concept and who doesn’t by what items they call out. Depending on my class set up, and avaiable space and paper, I either use a white board or large sheet of paper with a Circle Map drawn on it. I make our group circle map look exactly like the one on their paper. Then taking a contrasting marker I draw and label the items my students call out. Our circle maps come out looking like this…
The set below includes all twenty-six letters. A Circle Map and picture page is included for each letter. The picture page prints two picture sets at once to help save on paper usage, very important to public ed teachers. Each picture set includes six pictures that match the focus letter and three that do not.
I use Circle Maps in conjunction with My Letter Books, Letter Dobber pages, Handwriting Pages, Letter Color By Codes and Letter Searches. All of these will eventually be posted on my blog, so keep checking back to find more free printables for your students.
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Enjoy!