This nursery rhyme craft is based on the classic nursery rhyme, “There was and Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe”. We had a blast building fine motor skills with this kids craft. It’s a great way to work on shoe tying, too!
We are starting off the nursery rhyme craft and activity series with a timeless nursery rhyme…There was an old woman who lived in a shoe. This is one of our favorite nursery rhymes to recite, although to be honest, in our house we love them all! When we visit the library, we usually hit up the nursery rhyme shelf and come home with a book or two about nursery rhymes.
Nursery Rhyme Craft
There is just something wonderful about reciting nursery rhymes. The repetition of rhythm and rhyme teach kids about language, memory, and literacy. They are fun to say over and over again. And with this repetition, comes self-confidence in the child. The timeless quality of nursery rhymes brings together generations of storytelling. There is much to discover about how nursery rhymes help with learning, including pitch, imagination, sequencing, and phonics.
We recited “There was an Old Woman who lived in a shoe” and made a boot craft to explore the rhyme. There was an old woman Who lived in a shoe. She had so many children She didn’t know what to do. She gave them some broth And a big slice of bread, Kissed them all soundly And sent them to bed. (We went with the Mother Goose version)
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Shoe Tying Craft
This craft doubles as a shoe tying craft, too. Kids can build so many skills by making this craft, that are so important for shoe tying, including:
- Bilateral Coordination
- Lacing a shoe
- Pincer Grasp
- Eye-hand coordination
- Tying a bow
The best thing about this shoe tying craft is that kids will leave with a sense of accomplishment, allowing them to feel self-confidence with shoe tying.
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe craft
We started with a few supplies to make our nursery rhyme craft:
blue foam craft sheet
red yarn
colored card stock
marker
yellow circle label stickers
glue
hole punch
Start by drawing a large boot shape on the craft foam sheet. Draw dots with the marker for the lacing holes.
Older kids can cut out the boot shape. Crafting foam is a great material to snip with scissors and provides a different resistance when cutting.
Use the hole punch to punch the lacing holes. We started with a kid friendly hole punch, but it didn’t work very well on the craft foam material. The old fashioned hole punch worked better.
Snip a long length of yarn. Clearly Little Guy needs a little work on his scissor grasp. 😉 He was being silly with cutting the yarn.
Here is a guide to scissor skills, including the bilateral coordination needed for shoe tying AND cutting with scissors.
Tape one end of the red yarn to the back side of the boot. Get the kids lacing away on the boot. This is a fantastic fine motor task for little fingers. Tripod grasp, bilateral hand coordination, motor planning, eye-hand coordination…lacing is great for preschoolers!
This boot alone would make a very cute fine motor craft. But it needs a little something extra for our nursery rhyme.
We made a little old woman and many children on the boot. Baby Girl loved sticking the yellow circle label stickers onto the boot. These would be the faces.
Next, we cut our colored card stock into triangles and rectangles for the bodies. More fine motor work with the snipping card stock. A bit of glue holds these shapes in place. Be sure to talk about shapes and colors with your preschooler while doing this part.
Baby Girl used a marker and drew faces on each person. Working in a small defined area is a great way to further develop pre-handwriting skills drawing and pencil control.
She then drew arms and legs for the old woman and children.
How cute is this nursery rhyme craft? It brings the rhyme to life with imagination and creativity. Baby Girl wanted to introduce a duck to the woman and children.
Be sure to stop back tomorrow and the rest of this week and next week for the rest of the nursery rhyme series. You can find them all of our nursery rhyme crafts here.
This isn’t our first nursery rhyme craft. Check out our This Little Piggy Went to the Market craft:
