Toddler Activities: Hey Diddle Diddle Matching Game

By: Deborah Pace Rowley

Previously I had shared a game you could play with the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty. You can find that past post here.

This post involves a fun activity to use with the nursery rhyme "Hey Diddle Diddle." This nursery rhyme is fun because it pairs objects in fun and surprising ways. One important skill for toddlers and preschoolers to learn is what things go together. This game helps toddlers match things that belong together, both in the nursery rhyme and in life. Print out our free printables for Hey Diddle Diddle below.

Hey Diddle Diddle Printables

Then simply cut them apart and have your toddler and/or preschooler pick out the correct objects as you recite the rhyme together. The first page of images are for the traditional rhyme. Then we made up our own verses to include even more matching fun. Laminate the pieces if you want to use them again.

Here is the Traditional Rhyme with images listed in bold:

Hey Diddle Diddle
The Cat and the Fiddle
The Cow Jumped Over the Moon
The Little Dog Laughed (Dog/Laughing Face)
To See Such Sport
And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon!

Here is our original verse 2 with accompanying images:

Hey Diddle Dee
A Boy Climbed a Tree
A Little Ghost Shouted out Boo!
The Green Frog Jumped (Sitting Frog/ Jumping Frog)
To See Such Sport
And the Sock Ran Away with the Shoe!

Here is verse 3 with the images that go with it:

Hey Diddle Dum
A Baby Sucked His Thumb
Big Kids Built a Castle in the Sand
The Brown Horse Kicked (Horse/ Kicking Horse Silhouette)
To See Such Sport
And the Mitten Ran Away with the Hand

Note: *All of the images are courtesy of the Open Clip Art Library. Thank you very much to all the talented artists who share their work on the web.

Enjoy matching pairs together with your child. You may even want to make up a verse of your own!


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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.

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