Nursery rhymes at the Natural History Museum

Nursery rhymes can be useful for developing a cross curricular approach too!!
Last week, while visiting the Natural History Museum, I found a new version of Itsy Bitsy (or Eensy Weensy) Spider in which the kids can learn to appreciate their beneficial role within a house environment.

Here you have the original version of the song (one of them)




And here the Natural History Museum's cover.

In case you cannot read it properly, here is the whole lyrics:

Insy-winsy spider didn't climb up the spout

She fell into the sink, now she can't climb out

If a thougtful person were to set this spider free

She would catch more household pests -and eat them eagerly.

Nellie the elephant

This is not an easy song, it has quite a few difficult words and structures and it might be a bit too long for children at the first grades. Nevertheless we can teach them the chorus (or the first two verses with the chorus) at the beginning and subsequently teach them one verse at a time, always providing a context. I like this song particularly for several reasons: First and foremost, it talks to the children about an animal that does not want to be chained or showed in a circus (which I think is an important lesson to learn). Secondly, the first two verses and the chorus are not too difficult if a good context is provided (mimics, silent drama, a video). Thirdly, it can be used year after year and when we achieve the point when children are not interested in nursery rhymes anymore, we can provide them with a punk cover by The Toy Dolls which many adults love and which was indeed a great hit during 84's christmas.

To Bombay
A travelling circus came
They brought an intelligent elephant
And Nellie was her name
One dark night
She slipped her iron chain
And off she ran to Hindustan
And was never seen again

Ooooooooooooo...

Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk
And said goodbye to the circus
Off she went with a trumpety-trump
Trump, trump, trump
Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk
And trundled back to the jungle
Off she went with a trumpety-trump
Trump, trump, trump

Night by night
She danced to the circus band
When Nellie was leading the big parade
She looked so proud and grand
No more tricks
For Nellie to perform
They taught her how to take a bow
And she took the crowd by storm

Ooooooooo

Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk
And said goodbye to the circus
Off she went with a trumpety-trump
Trump, trump, trump
Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk
And trundled back to the jungle
Off she went with a trumpety-trump
Trump, trump, trump

The head of the herd was calling
Far, far away
They met one night in the silver light
On the road to Mandalay
So Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk
And said goodbye to the circus
Off she went with a trumpety-trum
Trump, trump, trump

Ooooooooooooo...

Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk
And said goodbye to the circus
Off she went with a trumpety-trump
Trump, trump, trump
Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk
And trundled back to the jungle
Off she went with a trumpety-trump
Trump, trump, trump

Using the song:

Like I said before, I think a good way to introduce such a complex song will be to focus on the first two verses and the chorus. To start with we will listen to the song together with this video to provide some context. Subsequently we will listen again, but adding some mimics for the chorus (packing, saying good bye, the trumpety -trump etc.). We can finish by making a small dramatization in which the first two verses are performed.

In case we are working with older people, we can continue by playing after a few times the Toy Dolls cover in two different videos: one containing the lyrics and the official video.

Noah's Ark

Noah's Ark is ready to sail, but most animals run away last night. You have to find them as soon as possible. The team that finds them first will get a free ride in the Ark.


This is a really good post-activity to be used after a song or a story related to animals. It consists on writing animal names that the children may know (be careful to adapt it to their level so it is fun rather than frustrating) in small cards, divide them between two or more teams and allow them to describe the animals to their own team so they can guess which animal it is and go to the next. If somebody doesn't know the animal they have to describe they can skip their turn after placing that card in the last position.

This is an activity that can be adapted in many different ways:
-Normally you are not allowed to describe an animal by its sound or using not verbal language, however, this might be very recommendable when doing it with small children.
-If you do so, you might like to use pictures instead of cards with the names written on them (or both things).
-You might decide not to form teams in case you want to have a better control over the class as a whole.

-If the activity is based on description by verbal language a few posters that provide with the most essential vocabulary such as this one.

Sounds that the animals make

These are the sounds that the animals make

The Cat goes meow
The Cow goes moo
The Pig goes oink
The Rooster goes Cocka doodle doo

These are the sounds that the animals make

The Hen goes cackle
The Dog goes woof
The Turkey goes gobble
The Monkey goes whoop

These are the sounds that the animals make

The Mouse goes squeak
The Sheep goes baa
The Eagle screams eeeee
The Hyena laughs Ha-ha

These are the sounds that the animals make

The Rabbit goes drum
The Pigeon goes coo
The Elephant goes trump
The Wolf howls Awooooo

These are the sounds that the animals make

The Donkey goes He-haw
The Parrot goes talk Helloooo
The Crow goes Kaw
The Owl goes hoot

These are the sounds that the animals make

The Bear growls grr
The Snake goes hiss
The Horse goes neigh
The Bee goes buzz

These are the sounds that the animals make

The Tiger goes roar
The Sparrow goes chirp
The Frog goes ribbit
And the boy down the street goes buuurp

The song can be introduced verse by verse and some extra context may be provided with pictures or flashcards, although, as usual, there is a video that may be used for this purpose.