How to Write Nursery Rhymes

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A traditional nursery rhyme is a short rhyming poem often written for children. For useful tips on how to choose a great topic, compose the rhyme, and ensure your formatting is correct, read on!

Finding a Topic

• Your or your child's favorite animal, such as a snake or a lion.
• One of your own pets. It would be easier for your child to imagine it.
• A made-up an animal, such as a purple elephant with tiny bird wings.
• A mythical creature, such as a dragon, griffon, or unicorn.

• For example, you may write about a character named Max, who likes to run fast down the street. Or you may write about a character named Claire who finds herself trapped in a cave.
• Think ahead to your rhyme scheme and be prepared to change your character's name, if needed.

• Alternatively, you could imagine what might happen if the object came to life. What would the object do or say?
• For example, you may choose your favorite stuffed animal or your favorite truck and write about it in the nursery rhyme.

• For example, you may take a nursery rhyme like “Little Miss Muffet” and change it to a rhyme about "Big Mr. Muffin" or "Small Miss Bloom."

• “Hickory Dickory Dock”
• “Little Miss Muffet”
• “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”
• “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep”

Creating a Draft

• For example, you may write a nursery rhyme where your pet snake gets out of its cage and roams around the house, only to scare your mother in the kitchen.

• You can also try a rhyme scheme like AABCCB, where the first two lines and the fourth and fifth lines of the poem rhyme. The second line and the last line will also rhyme.
• For example, the nursery rhyme “Little Miss Muffet” follows an AABCCB rhyme scheme: “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.”

• For example, you may use repetition like, “Red chili peppers, hot, hot, hot," or "Max runs, runs, runs."

• For example, you may use alliteration like “my snake Sara sure likes to slink, slink, slink," or "Madame Maple met a mammoth."

• For example, you may write a nursery rhyme like, “One, two/Sky so blue/Three, four/The birds want more/Five, six/Watch clouds drift/Seven, eight/The moon is late.”

• For example, you may write, “My brother Max/He sure is fast/Runs far from home/Meets a hungry eel/Looking for a meal/Wasn’t long before Max ran back home.”

• If your story is too long, create a collection of rhymes, each being 4-7 lines long. They should all have a beginning, middle, and end, but can tell a longer story when put together.

Polishing the Nursery Rhyme

Read the nursery rhyme aloud. Once you have completed a draft of the nursery rhyme, read it aloud several times. Listen to how it sounds. Notice if it rhymes properly and rolls off your tongue easily. Check that it has a simple story that is easy to follow and understand. [6] X Research source

• Since this is a nursery rhyme, consider reading it to a baby. If it makes your baby feel happy or calm, you're doing a good job.

• Once you have revised the nursery rhyme, read it aloud for a final time to ensure it flows well and sounds good.

Community Q&A

I really want to improve in my mathematics class because it’s very hard to focus when my teacher's explaining a certain topic or a solution to a problem. How can I become better and focus more on math and grades in general?

Try to make the lesson interesting to yourself. If you like doodling, doodle what your teacher says and revise at home.

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1. ↑https://www.poetry4kids.com/news/how-to-write-a-traditional-nursery-rhyme/
2. ↑https://www.poetry4kids.com/news/how-to-write-a-traditional-nursery-rhyme/
3. ↑https://www.poetry4kids.com/news/how-to-write-a-traditional-nursery-rhyme/
4. ↑https://www.theguardian.com/education/gallery/2009/oct/02/nursery-rhymes-top-ten
5. ↑https://penandthepad.com/write-nursery-rhymes-2189553.html
6. ↑https://www.poetry4kids.com/news/how-to-write-a-traditional-nursery-rhyme/

About This Article

This article was co-authored by wikiHow Staff. Our trained team of editors and researchers validate articles for accuracy and comprehensiveness. wikiHow's Content Management Team carefully monitors the work from our editorial staff to ensure that each article is backed by trusted research and meets our high quality standards. This article has been viewed 130,572 times.

If you’d like to write your own nursery rhyme, start by choosing a character based on your favorite animal or a special toy. If you like snakes, for example, come up with a couple of simple lines, such as, “Jake the snake/ really loves to shake.” Then, write about something that happens to Jake using techniques like repetition (“Jake loves to slink, slink slink”) to add rhythm and flow. Additionally, don’t be afraid to add silly or strange details, such as “Jake ran from a hungry eel/ Looking for a meal,” to make your rhyme fun to read aloud for the reader. To learn more, including how to create a different version of an existing nursery rhyme, read on!

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