Nursery Rhymes can be wonderful springboards for all kinds of Language Arts activities. The following activities are designed to give middle school students practice with the aspects of purpose, voice, and audience in their writing.

Directions:

1. Select a nursery rhyme, such as "Sing a Song of Sixpence."

   Sing a song of sixpence,
   a pocket full of rye;
   Four and twenty blackbirds,
   Baked in a pie.

   When the pie was opened,
   The birds began to sing;
   Wasn't that a dainty dish,
   To set before the king?

   The king was in the counting house,
   Counting out his money;
   The queen was in the parlor,
   Eating bread and honey.

   The maid was in the garden,
   Hanging out the clothes;
   When along came a blackbird,
   And snipped off her nose.

   
   
2. Brainstorm a list of characters in the rhyme and a list of places and things.
3. From these lists, develop writing assignments similar to the following:
   
   
   • Imagine that you are the royal cook. Write an article for Kingly Gourmet cooking magazine about your magic blackbird pie. Your purpose is to reveal the secret of the blackbirds in the pie.
   • Imagine you are the queen. Write an entry for your diary about the day's happenings.
   • Imagine you are the court doctor. Write a medical report about the treatment you performed for the maid who had her nosed snipped off by the blackbird. Your purpose is to explain the condition of thepatient when she was brought to you and the what you did to help her.
   • Imagine that you are the king. Write a memo to the royal treasurer about the shrinking gold reserves in the royal treasury. Your purpose is to learn where the money has gone.
   • You are the royal treasurer. Write a reply to the king's memo.
   • Imagine that you are one of the blackbirds in the pie. Write a letter to a fellow blackbird in which you explain what you went through in being baked in a pie and then released.
   • Imagine you are one of the blackbirds in the pie. Write a letter to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals complaining of the treatment you and your fellow blackbirds have received in the kingdom.

Enjoy developing assignments for other nursery rhymes. You might even want some of your more creative students to develop writing assignments based on nursery rhymes that they can share with their fellow classmates.