The wee hours
Carolyn Price
Wednesday, May 9, 2001
Enjoy two well-loved traditional rhymes relating to houses by dramatising them with simple movements, as Carolyn Price explains Bed time
Bed time
Share the rhyme and dramatise it.
Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town,
Upstairs and downstairs in his nightgown,
Rapping at the windows, crying through the locks:
'Are all the children in their beds, it's past eight o'clock?'
Planned learning intentionTo develop self-confidence and fluency in speech Adult:child ratio 1:6
Resources
Pictures of day and night scenes clock dressing gown pyjamas slippers night-cap candle-stick candle, clock
Step by step
* Ask the children to sit in a circle and look at the pictures of daytime and night-time scenes.
* Discuss what time the children normally go to bed and let them take turns to set the hands on the clock face to their bedtime.
* Discuss what they wear in bed.
* Share the rhyme and then repeat it, with the children taking turns to dress up as Wee Willie Winkie and run around calling, 'Are all the children in their beds, it's past eight o'clock.'
Extension ideas
* Make collage pictures of the children in bed. Ask the children to draw, colour and cut out a picture of themselves on A5 card and draw a picture of a big bed on A4 card. Provide the children with a selection of collage fabrics. What should they put on the bed to make it cosy and comfortable? Pillows? A duvet? A blanket? Let the children choose fabrics and glue them on to the bed, leaving a space under the top cover in which they can slot the cut-out figure of themselves. Ask the children to write their name and draw a clock with the face showing their bedtime on it.
* Make a Wee Willie Winkie puppet to dramatise the rhyme. Give each of the children an A5 piece of paper with two child-sized finger holes at one end. Help the children to draw Wee Willie Winkie on the card and add features, a candlestick and flame. Glue on fabric for his nightcap and nightgown. Encourage the children to push their first and second fingers through the holes to be Wee Willie Winkie's legs. Build stairs with the construction kits for the puppet to run up and down.
* Develop the children's understanding of light and also of past and present lighting by looking at electric lights, candles and a torch. Use phrases such as 'in the old days, before electric lights were invented'. How are candles still used today - for decoration, in a power failure, to give a nice aroma? Teach that candlelight is a fire and, therefore, it can be dangerous.
* Talk about night-time routines. Do they always clean their teeth? What else do they do? Make sure that there are plenty of doll's clothes and blankets in the home corner for role play, putting the dolls to bed.
Knock, knock
Use the rhyme to develop children's vocabulary.
Knock at the door,
Tap on the forehead
Peep in,
Open eyes wide
Ring the bell,
Pull an earlobe
Lift the latch,
Touch the tip of the nose
And walk in.
Open the mouth
Planned learning intention
To learn vocabulary for parts of the body and of a building Adult:child ratio 1:6
Resources
Pictures of a person and a house
Step by step
* Display the pictures side by side at the children's level, and say the rhyme.
* Explain the actions that accompany the rhyme.
* Match the parts of the house with the parts of the body used in the rhyme.
* Let children take turns to do the actions and say a line or all of the rhyme.
Extension ideas
* Give each child a mirror and encourage them to watch themselves saying and performing the rhyme.
* Go on a walk to observe different kinds of houses and flats. How many windows have they? Can the children see the doorbells? Back at the nursery, draw the outline of a house on A4 card and add the features in the rhyme. Discuss shapes such as the rectangular door, square window and circular bell. Cover each feature of the house with flaps, encouraging the children to estimate the size and shape of flaps needed. Ask the children to colour in their houses and flaps and add details. Repeat the rhyme together. Under which flap do you write each line of the rhyme? An adult should write the line as the children dictate.
* Encourage the children to read out the rhyme from their 2D houses.
