Nursery Rhyme Learning Center: Little Miss Muffet
Little Miss Muffet Learning Center Props
Tuffet
Spider
Spider web
Dress up clothes
Bowl
Spoon
To Make a Little Miss Muffet’s Tuffet you will need:
Popcorn Tin
Fabric scraps
Quilt batting
Hot glue gun
Glue sticks
Ribbon
To make Miss Muffet’s tuffet measure the distance around the tin and cut a piece of fabric to these dimensions. Cover the outside of the tin with a plain fabric and hot glue the edges. Leave Ã?¾ inch around the rim of the tin bare. Don’t worry this will be hidden by the cover fabric. If you cover all the way to the rim, the cover will not fit back onto the tuffet. Believe me, I speak from experience here.
Trace the cover on a sheet of quilt batting. Cut this the same size as the cover. Hot glue the batting to the top of the cover. You may need more than one layer, depending on the thickness of your batting. This will form the cushion for Little Miss Muffet’s tuffet.
Choose a coordinating or contrasting material to cover the top of the tin. Simply trace the cover on the wrong side of fabric and add four inches all the way around. Cut with pinking shears. Center the fabric you have chosen over the top of Miss Muffet’s tuffet, covering the quilt batting so that 4 inches overlap the sides. Run a strip of hot glue around the outside rim of the cover and press the material down. Hold firmly for a few seconds. Repeat until the entire rim is covered. You will now have a ruffled edge around the top that will conceal the bare edges on the tin. Replace the cover.
To attach a ribbon, simply measure the distance around the rim and allow several inches for a bow. Run hot glue along the outside of the fabric and attach the ribbon. Tie into a bow.
Congratulations, you have created a cushioned tuffet for Little Miss Muffet that will delight any child in your classroom. As an added bonus, you can also use the tuffet as storage for all your nursery rhyme props for your nursery rhyme unit.
To Make the Spider
The Body: I used some scrap black velvet fabric for the spider, but any fabric will do. Simply cut a circle of fabric eight inches in diameter for the body. With a running stitch, stitch all the way around the outside edge of the circle. Pull to gather the circle and fill with fiberfill. Pull tightly until there is only a small hole in the center of the circle. Stitch closed. Shape with fingers.
The Head: Cut a 4 inch circle out of the same material and follow the same procedure. This is the head. Sew the head to the body and add some wiggly eyes.
The Legs: Next cut 24 strips of fabric �½ inch by six inches. Braid three strips together to make each leg. I used pinking shears to cut the strips to create a hairy effect. Sew the strips to the body.
Assemble
Attach a 2 foot length of string or yarn to the spider and tie to a dowel. Students hold the dowel and lower the spider to sit beside Little Miss Muffet. You could, of course, use construction paper to create a spider, but a fabric spider will last for years and can also be used with the nursery rhyme “Itsy Bitsy Spider”.
Bowl and Spoon
Provide a colorful plastic bowl and spoon for Miss Muffet to eat her Curds and Whey.
Spider Web
For a spider web, I use an old web that I purchased at Halloween time. You could, however draw a large web on poster board and attach it to the wall in the learning center.
Dress up Clothes
Provide a variety of dress up clothes for Little Miss Muffet including a big bow for the hair. An old pair of women’s dress shoes is always a nice touch.
Teaching Suggestions
Not only will this serve as an excellent learning center for center time, it also makes a great dramatic play area in a quiet corner of the classroom. Encourage students to explore this learning center by providing a basket full of props and an enlarged version of the rhyme Little Miss Muffet. Provide opportunities for each child to practice being little Miss Muffet and/or the spider.
Teaching the verses of Little Miss Muffet to students ahead of time will enhance their experience in the center.
If you have the musical version of the rhyme, make this available in your learning center for children to listen to again and again.
Serving curds and whey (cottage cheese) for children to sample is a wonderful way to reinforce the vocabulary in the nursery rhyme.
Nursery Rhyme Learning Centers appeal to kids and provide them with many opportunities to re-enact the rhyme. Posting the rhyme encourages letter and word recognition; but most of all, nursery rhyme learning centers are just plain fun. This Little Miss Muffet learning center is sure to please even the most reluctant learners in your classroom. After all who can resist a dangly old spider that frightens little girls away?
