Toddler Activities: Humpty Dumpty Sat on a Wall

By Deborah Pace Rowley

Nursery rhymes and simple songs are fun to teach to toddlers. They love the bouncy rhythm and simple rhymes and the repetitive practice is great for their growing literacy and memory skills. This fun game uses the nursery rhyme of Humpty Dumpty but instead of just reciting it, your toddler can act it out.  I made three different sizes of Humpty Dumpty to work on the concepts of big, medium and little as well.

All you need are items that you can find around the house. First cut a piece of white paper into three strips.

The largest strip is 11 inches long. The medium strip is 8 inches long and the little strip is 6 inches long. Then loop the ends together and tape them to form three circles. These are your eggs.

Next draw a simple face on each egg.

Finally you can create the wall. I used an old UPS box with a piece of paper taped to it. On the paper I drew some bricks. Just a plain box would work fine if you don't want to draw the wall.

Round up a soft ball and you are ready to play.

Set up the largest egg on the wall and recite the nursery rhyme together. When you come to part about Humpty Dumpty taking a great fall, have your toddler push the egg off the wall. For an added challenge, an older toddler could throw a ball and try to knock the egg off the wall. You might need to hang on to the wall or the wall will come tumbling down too.

As you continue to play, you can add in the other eggs. Say to your child, "This time I want you to knock down the little egg" or "This time I want you to knock down the medium sized egg."

Repeat as often as desired and soon your child will be able to recite the poem and knock down the correct sized egg all on her own. Here is the poem if you are a little rusty on your Mother Goose!

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.