Nursery Rhymes Series Part 1: We have decided to do a series of activity and crafts articles to help you and your toddler make the most of the Nursery Rhymes we all know and love. Here we are looking at two that refer to spiders: Incy Wincy Spider and Little Miss Muffet.

October and November are the perfect time of year to think about spiders!
Even children who are usually afraid of these creepy crawly bugs are thrilled by pictures and stories about spiders. Here are lots of fabulous ideas to keep you busy!

 INCY WINCY SPIDER

“Itsy Bitsy Spider” (also known as “Incy Wincy Spider”) is a popular nursery rhyme that tells us the adventures of a spider as it climbs up, and down and up again the “waterspout” of a gutter system (or, alternatively, the spout of a teapot). There are  hand actions which mimic the events in the song. The most commonly referenced first published version was in 1962.

Incy Wincy spider went* up the water spout. Down came the rain, and washed the spider out. *Out came the sun, and dried up all the rain And Incy Wincy spider went* up the spout again.

  * Alternative line goes: Down came the rain and washed poor Incy out!

*Some versions have climbed or crawled instead of went.

LITTLE MISS MUFFET

The rhyme first appeared in print in 1805, in a book titled Songs for the Nursery.

Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet, Eating her curds and whey; Along came a spider, Who sat down beside her  and frightened Miss Muffet away.

Spidery things to make and do:

• All sorts of WEBS: Spaghetti Spiderwebs, Woven Paper Plate webs, Blow Paint Spiderwebs, Marble rolling Spiderwebs, Glittery Spider webs, Puffy Webs…
• Spidery things to eat: Spider Suckers, Bread spiders…
• All sorts of SPIDERS: Handprint spider, Thumbprint Spiders,Paper Plate spiders, Egg Carton Spiders…
• Spider Headbands
• Sing I’m a Little Spider, The Spider’s in the Web…
• Read these great spidery themed books:
  Ms. Spider’s Series, Anansi the Spider, The Lady and the Spider, Spiders Everywhere (a counting story) The Very Busy Spider , Dream Weaver, Be Nice to Spiders, The Little Buggers, Like Jake and Me.
• Look at real spiders in books or on the internet;  find out about their habitats and diets.
• Catch a real spider and take a close look at it. Release it afterwards.
• Look out for webs when you are out walking. Look closely at the patterns and shapes in them.

Carla

I am a preschool and primary school teacher and mum to 3 children. I have been involved in education since 1997 and have trained in a variety of educational specialist areas. It is with this expertise that I write articles to help parents and educators provide quality learning experiences for the children in their care.