I love making books with my son! To further enrich our Egg-speriment STEAM Egg-stravaganza, my son and I created a hilarious little Humpty Dumpty rhyming book that you can make too!
This simple activity is fun to make with your child and helps them develop their rhyming skills. Plus, when you’re done, you’ll have a cute little book to re-read over and over again – a great way to help your child learn to read!
This post includes Amazon Affiliate links. Please see Disclosure for more details.
The Importance of Rhyming Activities for Young Children
As a teacher and librarian, I know that learning how to create rhymes is so important for young children. It helps them identify and discriminate sounds that are the same and different – a listening skill that is critical for reading success. Down the road, it also helps support effective spelling as your child develops a mental “store” of sound families that follow the same spelling pattern.
And learning to rhyme is fun! We like to play rhyming games in the car when driving, or when waiting in the grocery store line. As young as age 2, kids can start to learn to create rhymes to a word you give them.
Try saying a simple word like “ball” and then give your child a few examples of words that rhyme with it. Soon your kiddo will be coming up with examples of his/her own.
Using a make-believe word for rhyming games is fun too. For example, try asking your child to give you rhymes for “shoosh” – whoosh, boosh, koosh, doosh (oops!). Just don’t try the “uck” family, or…..Oh – you’ll figure it out just like I did!
Building Interest in Humpty Dumpty
Before making your own Humpty Dumpty book, you may want to familiarize your child with the classic rhyme first. There are lots of great picture book versions of Humpty Dumpty out there, but here is my favourite.
It’s colourful and spreads the rhyme out over several pages with matching illustrations. It even adds an extra chapter where bunny friends come to help fix Humpty!
How To Create the Humpty Dumpty Rhyming Book
Materials:
- 3 or 4 pieces of white cardstock, cut in half
- a permanent marker
- coloured yarn or cord to tie the book pages together
- single hole punch
Step 1: Prepare the Pages
Cut the sheets of cardstock in half so you have 6 to 8 pages. Punch 2 or 3 holes in one end of each page and secure the pages into a booklet with string or cord.
Step 2: Create a Title Page
Write a title on the front and include your child’s name in the title! They will love this!
Be silly and draw a funny picture of Humpty Dumpty on the front with your child. You don’t have to be an artist You can clearly see that I’m certainly not!. Your child will still love him! Be sure to add the authors!
Step 3: Begin the Pattern Pages
On the first inside page, write the typical Humpty Dumpty starting line and draw a silly picture to go with it.
On page 2, write a starter sentence changing what Humpty is doing (e.g. HD sat on a tree, HD fell in a puddle, etc.)
Step 4: Get Your Child Involved!
Then, get your child to help you finish the rhyme! My son was able to help me finish most of the sentences.
The funniest one was him finishing “Humpty Dumpty sat on a ____________ by filling in “Mom” and then rhyming it gleefully with “bum!” I was hoping for “thumb”, but that’s not what came out! In our defense, we have been working on potty learning!
You can draw the pictures yourself – or let your little one draw. The more your child participates in creating the rhymes and drawings, the more they will want to read this book again later.
You don’t need to worry about perfection, just relax and have fun with this!
Step 5: Complete an Author’s Page
Remember to create a back page featuring your child. My son really likes seeing a photo of himself as the “author” on the back of his creations!
Step 6: Read over and over again!
Enjoy reading your book together multiple times with your child. It’s amazing how kids never tire of reading books that they helped to create. This repetition is terrific for reinforcing their early reading and listening skills.
You may even want to continue the fun by having a Humpty Dumpty puppet which allows your child to act out your funny rhymes!
Extending the Learning
After making their own Humpty Dumpty book, your child may now be interested in reading more about Humpty. Here are a few of my favourite Humpty themed books.
Both are funny and engaging with great illustrations and give a new take on the further adventures of Humpty!
Hope this has shown you how easy it is to make a book with your little one! Lots of fun and guaranteed to be a favourite for a long time!
Have you made books with your child? Or do you have any ideas for creating books? I’d love to hear them! Leave a comment below!
To find even more fun and educational activities as well as positive parenting tips, follow me on Facebook and Twitter.
Cheers,
To find other great ideas for helping your child develop their Language – follow my Pinterest board at:
Follow One Time Through’s board Early Reading Activities on Pinterest.
This is so fun! What a great idea! Sara
Thanks so much qumusicadmin! Thanks for dropping by!