Rachel

Rachel is a Mother Goose Club producer and former teacher based in Las Vegas, Nevada. She enjoys hosting celebrations for all ages centered around crafts and activities. Rachel is excited to share her favorite things with you, and hopes to inspire your family to get creative!

Happy Easter, everyone! As a Mother Goose Club producer, I can’t help but be inspired by the colorful characters, stripes and playful designs I spend so much time with every day, and so – I decided to do a MGC themed Easter basket this year! The designs work almost too well on an egg shape. I hope your family will enjoy my take on an MGC Easter basket and get inspired to create some MGC Easter eggs of your own! I’ve included a few tips and tricks below. Share your designs on social media using #mothergooseclub!

• Allow hard boiled eggs to cool and make sure they feel dry.
• I’ve found that Crayola crayons work best for egg dyeing projects – the wax sticks to the egg unlike some crayon brands I’ve tried.
• Set a towel down for kids to color on (pressing onto the table can break the egg).
• Dye will not stick to the crayon wax, so color where you want color and decide what color you want the white space to be.

• I purchased a Paas set and followed their recipe for vinegar, water and color tablets – you can supplement with food coloring and other containers to mix colors for variety.
• Test your colors – drop a plain white egg in each color and use a spoon to lift the egg out every few seconds to see how the color develops so you get the desired shade each time you dye (i.e. a sky blue will be ready before ocean blue).
• Dip and dye (with your egg carton or a plate with paper towel over it handy when they’re done)!

• I filled this basket with some bubble wrap and a plastic shopping bag, then covered it in paper grass and arranged the eggs.
• I made a jester hat for Humpty Dumpty with construction paper, crayons and scissors, then attached with hot glue.
• I made the Johnny Johnny monster’s ears by wrapping a corner of pink construction paper around the tip of a crayon, hot glued it closed, colored the stripes with purple crayon and hot glued each ear in place.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

View on YouTube!

Getting preschoolers ready for reading has tons of developmental benefits, but it can also be challenging. Mother Goose Club is dedicated to preparing parents for this challenge by breaking down the process and explaining tools and strategies that work. One of the best tools for getting preschoolers ready for reading is nursery rhymes.

Nursery rhymes prepare children for reading by introducing vocabulary, teaching story structure, developing phonemic awareness (the ability to hear the different sounds that make words) and fostering parent-child relationships.

Vocabulary

Through memorization, children can learn new words, even if they don’t fully understand the meaning yet. Later on, if they encounter the word in a new context, they will have the context of the nursery rhyme to draw from and compare against. Tongue twisters like “Peter Piper” and “How Many Seashells” introduce new vocabulary and offer opportunities to practice pronunciation using challenging, but fun, themes.

Story Structure

By introducing simple cause-and-effect stories, nursery rhymes develop imagination and prepare children for reading comprehension. Classics such as “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and “Humpty Dumpty” are two great examples of story-based rhymes. Introducing stories through simple rhymes helps prepare kids for longer and more challenging stories and books.

Phonemic Awareness

We admit that some nursery rhymes just sound silly, but even the silliest songs introduce language patterns, inflection, tone and volume. Perhaps most importantly, rhymes allow children to hear how letters and word endings can sound the same. Children who understand these patters will be more prepared for learning to read. Catchy and repetitive music helps form habits of memorization that will become an essential part of a child’s language development and readiness to read.

Parent-Child Relationships

Finally, nursery rhymes present a valuable opportunity to bond with children through playful and imaginative activities. One of the most important parts of learning anything new is applying what was learned to real life. Through a simple conversation, an outing, a craft or other activity, children deepen their understanding. When children see adults valuing time spent with nursery rhymes, they’ll learn to value that time as well. We hope that our collection of nursery rhymes will inspire you and the children in your life to dance, sing and play along with us!

Mother Goose Club offers an enormous library that includes videos, streamable songs, sheet music lyrics and printable coloring pages – all excellent tools to help your child prepare to read at any age. You can also check out the Mother Goose Club App, available on the App Store and Google Play, for exclusive books, videos and games.

Happy rhyming!

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

View on YouTube!

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again.

Humpty Dumpty counted to ten.
Humpty Dumpty waited and then,
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Glued Humpty Dumpty together again.

They put Humpty into his bed.
Humpty Dumpty rested his head.
They gave him some soup and crackers and then
Humpty Dumpty felt better again.

Humpty Dumpty stood up once more.
Humpty Dumpty didn’t feel sore.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Were happy Humpty felt better again.

Humpty Dumpty got really fit.
Humpty Dumpty, he just wouldn’t quit.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Helped Humpty Dumpty get stronger again.

Humpty Dumpty got some new gear.
Humpty Dumpty has nothing to fear.
He ate good food and exercised too,
Got back on the wall and said, “Yahoo!”

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty, he didn’t fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men,
They cheered for Humpty Dumpty again.
They cheered for Humpty Dumpty again.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

View on YouTube!

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

View on YouTube!

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

View on YouTube!