Looking for the best collection of Nursery Rhymes for preschool? Check out our favorites!
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BOOK LIST: NURSERY RHYMES
Teaching nursery rhymes is one of my favorite parts of being a preschool and kindergarten teacher!
Nursery rhymes allow kids to explore language in a fun way while also encouraging the development of sequencing skills, rhyming skills, and other phonological awareness skills.
Whether you’re reading to your own kids at home or students in your classroom, there are so many awesome nursery rhymes to choose from!
Keep reading to check out some of our favorite nursery rhyme collections. Plus there’s a link to download a freebies & a great nursery rhyme snack idea, too!
If you’re looking for nursery rhyme learning activities, check out this post!
NURSERY RHYMES BOOKS FOR PRESCHOOL
The McElderry Book of Mother Goose: This collection of nursery rhymes has over 55 rhymes to choose from. The illustrations are simple and clear, and the rhymes range from classics to less-known rhymes. There are definitely some I would skip, though…some of the rhymes are a little too intense for my taste!
My Very First Mother Goose: This is the first of two books illustrated by Rosemary Wells on our list. This book has over 60 rhymes, ranging from well-known rhymes like Little Boy Blue to more obscure rhymes like If I Had a Donkey That Wouldn’t Go.
Here Comes Mother Goose: This is the second book illustrated by Rosemary Wells, with another 60 rhymes! There are so many to choose from, so it’ll be easy to find what you’re looking for when preparing for your nursery rhyme theme.
Mother Goose’s Classic Nursery Rhymes: I like this book because it is taller than the others. The pages are 9 x 12, which makes this a great choice for reading aloud to a class. There are well over 100 rhymes with full-color pages, plus the illustrations are very engaging.
Over the Hills and Far Away: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes: This book is so interesting because each nursery rhyme is illustrated by a different artist with their own unique style. Some of the illustrators include Eric Carle (Brown Bear, Brown Bear), Lucy Cousins (the Maisey Mouse series), and Axel Scheffler (The Gruffalo). There are classic English nursery rhymes like Little Miss Muffet, but there are also nursery rhymes from different cultures, such as African rhymes, Chinese rhymes, Inuit rhymes, and more!
The Real Dada Mother Goose: If you’re a fan of Jon Scieszka (author of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and The Stinky Cheese Man), you’re going to love this one! It’s best for older learners because of the humor involved. Each rhyme starts out with the original, but then Scieszka changes it to add humor and craziness to it, which kids will love!
A Children’s Treasury of Mother Goose: This is a collection of 21 nursery rhymes, and each nursery rhymes’ illustrations are textured. So when you touch the page, you can feel the outlines of the images. This is a great collection for younger learners who would benefit from that tactile engagement. The pages are also made of a sturdy material so little hands can’t rip them (but it’s not quite as thick as a board book).
Read to Your Baby Every Day: 30 Classic Nursery Rhymes: What I love most about this book is the unique design of the illustrations. Each nursery rhyme has its own page, and the illustrations for each rhyme were made with needle & thread! They are pictures of embroidered images, which gives each page more visual interest.
Mary Engelbreit’s Mother Goose: This is the collection we own and love! It has 100 nursery rhymes with big, colorful illustrations. There’s also an index in the back so you can easily find the rhyme you’re looking for.
NURSERY RHYMES SNACK
Are you reading The Itsy Bitsy Spider or Little Miss Muffet during your nursery rhymes theme? Then you definitely need to make these Spider Oreos! All you need are Oreos, pretzel sticks, and yellow m&ms. Yum!
NUMBER CARD FREEBIE
As you’re working on Nursery Rhymes activities with your little one, make sure you include some counting practice! For example, when reciting the Itsy Bitsy Spider, you can have your little one count the number of legs on the spider and tell you the number is 8. Then they can find the 8 card and practice counting the dots, writing the number, and figuring out how many more they need to get to 10 (that’s a great way to build the foundation for addition later on!)
This activity (along with all of our freebies!) can be downloaded from the Free Activity Library. If you’re already a member of our email community, you can click HERE to head to the Free Activity Library, enter your password (it’s on your most current email from me), and download your copy!
If you’d like to join our email community & receive the password as my way of saying THANK YOU for joining, you can click HERE to subscribe. Once you enter your information, the password will be emailed to you within minutes.
NURSERY RHYMES MATH & LITERACY PRINTABLES
I hope this book list helped you fill-in your Nursery Rhymes lesson plans for your preschool classroom or homeschool. If you want an entire pack of printable math & literacy centers for this theme, check out my Nursery Rhymes Preschool Activity Pack.
SHARE YOUR FAVORITES
Do you have any favorite collections of nursery rhymes for preschool? I’d love to hear about them & add them to our list! Comment below or head over to Instagram [@littleslovelearningblog] and share there!
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Looking for other books lists for preschool and kindergarten? Click HERE to check them out!
Happy Learning!
