Support your students as they build rhyme recognition and counting skills with our engaging Nursery Rhyme Count & Colour activity! This hands-on set of worksheets invites students to explore classic nursery rhymes by identifying, colouring, and counting words that rhyme with a target word from the verse. It’s a fantastic way to combine phonological awareness with basic counting practise in a familiar and fun context.

Each worksheet focuses on one popular nursery rhyme, with a rhyming word presented as the focus. Students examine the surrounding illustrations, identify which ones rhyme with the given word, colour those images, and count how many they find. This interactive task strengthens early literacy skills, particularly the ability to hear and recognise rhyme, while also reinforcing number recognition and one-to-one correspondence through counting.

Nursery Rhyme Count & Colour includes six different nursery rhymes, giving students multiple opportunities to practise in a format they’ll quickly grow comfortable with. As they complete more worksheets, they build fluency with the structure and confidence in identifying rhyming patterns. It’s a low-prep, high-impact activity that can be used in small group literacy sessions, literacy rotations, or as an independent follow-up to a rhyme lesson.

Key Learning Outcomes:

• ✅ Identify and recognise rhyming words in a familiar context
• ✅ Apply phonological awareness to visual prompts
• ✅ Develop counting skills through visual discrimination and one-to-one correspondence
• ✅ Build vocabulary and explore common word families
• ✅ Engage with nursery rhymes in a fun, interactive format

What’s Included:

• 6 worksheet pages featuring classic nursery rhymes:
• – Hey Diddle Diddle
• – Hickory Dickory Dock
• – Humpty Dumpty
• – Incy Wincy Spider
• – Row, Row, Row Your Boat
• – Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
• Available in all Australian state fonts and our basic fun font

Materials Needed:

• Printed worksheets (on paper or card)
• Pencils, crayons, or markers for colouring
• Optional: workbooks or scrap paper for extension tasks

How to Use:

1. Choose a worksheet that matches the rhyme your students are learning or reviewing.
2. Discuss the meaning of the rhyme and read it aloud together.
3. Introduce the target rhyming word and brainstorm additional rhyming words as a class.
4. Students look at the images on the page and colour the pictures that rhyme with the target word.
5. They count how many they found and record the total.
6. Optional: Students write the rhyming words on the back of the page or in their workbooks.

Ideas for Classroom Use:

• 💡 Use during a phonics or nursery rhyme unit to reinforce rhyming concepts.
• 💡 Include in literacy rotations for independent practise.
• 💡 Add to early finisher stations or morning tasks.
• 💡 Use the worksheets as informal assessment evidence for rhyme recognition and counting skills.
• 💡 Place in a relief teacher folder for a ready-to-go literacy activity.

Teacher Tips:

• 💛 Laminate the worksheets for reuse with whiteboard markers.
• 💛 Extend confident students by having them sort the rhyming words into word families.
• 💛 Create a class chart of favourite rhymes and collect rhyming words as a group.
• 💛 Use the images as oral language prompts – ask students to explain why each word rhymes or doesn’t rhyme.

Nursery Rhyme Count & Colour is a simple, effective, and playful way to combine rhyme, vocabulary, and early maths skills – perfect for building phonological awareness and counting confidence in young learners.