I’ll say this right up front, I can’t remember where I found this fun idea! If it’s your genius at work, please let me know so that I can give you credit. There is so much research in the story time world about the importance of nursery rhymes and singing to early literacy skills. And as I said, I saw this idea somewhere and finally decided to create my own nursery rhyme cube for my fall story times. This was very easy to make – an empty “square” tissue box, some paper to cover it up, heavy duty tape, and six nursery rhymes you know well and want to teach to young children. I just used some brown craft paper – we ordered a HUGE roll that we use for just about everything right now. And you can use packing tape or book tape to keep everything wrapped up and sturdy. My co-worker and I decided on six nursery rhymes that can also be sung, just as a way to focus the cube, but you can literally choose and rhymes you want. The six nursery rhymes are: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star Baa, Baa Black Sheep I’m a Little Teapot Mary Had a Little Lamb Pat-a-Cake Row, Row, Row Your Boat We just used some clip art from the Internet and Microsoft Word and I think it looks great. I’m contemplating actually typing up each rhyme’s name as a way to encourage letter recognition and pre-reading skills, but didn’t think about it until after I had taped on all of the clipart. Oops! We’re working our way through another tissue box, which I think will also be turned into a nursery rhyme cube, unless we find another amazing use for it!