What are your children’s favourite nursery rhymes? While many people associate nursery rhymes with the Mother Goose collection, any children’s rhyme or song can be considered a nursery rhyme! These playful verses lay the groundwork for children to explore repetition, rhythm, and patterns — key concepts in both mathematics and computational thinking. Many rhymes also introduce number concepts, such as counting, sequencing, and comparison.
Nursery Rhyme Week (10-14 Nov) is the perfect time to celebrate timeless nursery rhymes that have delighted generations of children — and to explore how they can be powerful tools for early STEM learning. Read on for engaging STEM activities inspired by famous nursery rhymes.
Join Little Scientists’ Facebook group “Early STEM Educators Network” to share your favourite nursery rhymes and STEM ideas with educators all over Australia.
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
🎶 “Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are…”
This nursery rhyme can be a great source of inspiration for exploring STEM concepts such as lights and shapes. Here are some ideas:
🌠 Observe the night sky with your children. Do all stars look the same? What shapes or movements can your children see? Invite your children to document their observations by painting or photographing the night sky.
🪩 Encourage your children to recreate starry skies using everyday materials, such as reflective aluminium foil and torches. What creative designs can they come up with?
💫 Compare how stars are depicted in books and media. Are stars really shaped like diamonds or five-pointed figures? Invite your children to draw, build, or sculpt different shapes of stars.
🔎 “Twinkle Twinkle” is the perfect launchpad for an inquiry-based STEM project!
Ask your children what they think stars are and encourage them to share their ideas and hypotheses. Some prompting questions you can ask:
- Do stars move or stay still?
- Do stars need food or water?
- Where do stars go in the daytime?
- Why do stars twinkle?
Use their responses as a springboard for further exploration. (To learn about why stars twinkle, watch this Play School Science Time episode.)
Humpty Dumpty
🎶 “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall…”
This nursery rhyme is another great song to support children’s understanding of engineering, design, and physics. For example, our 2022 Early STEM Education Awards Winner from Queensland, Glass House Early Education Centre, co-developed their inquiry-based STEM project: “Can we save Humpty?”. This involved the children experimenting with different ways to prevent an egg from cracking after a fall. Here are ideas and questions inspired by this project:
🥚 What are some ways to save Humpty (an egg) from cracking after a fall? Encourage your children to share and document their ideas.
🔨 Can your children design a protective device or structure? You can provide everyday materials such as mats, fabric, and blocks for them to explore.
🧠 Encourage your children to test, revise, and improve their designs through trial and error. Do some materials work better than others to prevent the egg from cracking?
Rock-a-Bye Baby
🎶 “Rock-a-bye baby, on the treetop…”
This rhyme poses an engaging design challenge: Can your children create a bed that won’t fall from a tree? You can provide a materials buffet of everyday items for the children to explore.
Materials buffet ideas:
🛏️ Old cardbox boxes
🛏️ Tape and glue
🛏️ Fabric, such as old sweaters and scarves
🛏️ Wooden blocks
Instructions:
- Discuss what makes a bed safe. Does it have to be soft? Can it move or should it be stable?
- Invite the children to explore the materials buffet. What shapes, textures, and colours can help to improve the safety of the bed?
- Encourage the children to build their own bed prototypes!
- Have the children test their designs by placing the beds in a tree and seeing if they fall. Encourage them to revise and redesign their prototypes to improve their safety.
️ Incy Wincy Spider
🎶 “Incy Wincy spider climbed up the water spout…”
This rhyme opens up a world of physical, hands-on exploration and problem-solving opportunities for young children. You can prompt them to think about the following:
- How hard is it to climb up a surface when there’s water sliding down it?
- What are ways to help Incy Wincy spider climb up the water spout without sliding down?
- You can also take your children to a local park and engage in climbing activities, including the monkey bars. What helps them avoid falling down?
🚰 Make your own water spout using tubes and funnels. Have the children re-enact the rhyme by placing a toy (to represent Incy Wincy) at the top of a tube.
- What happens when they let go of the toy?
- What happens when the tube is slick with water?
Nursery rhymes are more than just fun — they’re a gateway to curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking. By integrating STEM explorations into these familiar verses, educators can create rich learning experiences that resonate with young children. For more musical maths and patterns explorations, check out our online music & maths blog!
Develop your STEM skills with pedagogy-based STEM PD:
- Browse our in-person STEM workshops.
- Browse our online STEM workshops.
- Browse our online STEM Hours.
- Book an in-service workshop for your team.
- Book a STEM Family Workshop for your families.
