Explore Rhyme and Rhythm with “Jack Be Nimble”

Jack be nimble,
Jack be quick,
Jack jump over the candlestick.

When it comes to nursery rhymes, “Jack Be Nimble” must be one of the shortest and simplest ones around! Don’t let the rhyme’s simplicity fool you, though – this rhyme punches above its weight when it comes to teaching our youngest learners about sound!

Use this simple one-page “Jack Be Nimble” poster to introduce concepts such as rhythm, rhyme and syllabification to your students. It displays the complete rhyme in a child-friendly font, making it accessible for early readers to follow along. It also uses underlining to denote the rhyming pair of “quick” and “candlestick”.

Use “Jack Be Nimble” for Phonological Awareness

Developing students’ phonological awareness is vital in the early years of formal schooling. Here are some ways you can use this simple resource to help your students develop these valuable skills:

• Onset and Rime – Use words from the rhyme to build word families using onset and rime, e.g. Jack, back, crack, sack, and so on.
• Syllables – Explore syllabification by clapping out the syllables in each of the words as you recite the rhyme together.
• Manipulating Sounds – Choose some words from the rhyme, then have students manipulate the words by changing the beginning and ending sounds. 

Download The “Jack Be Nimble” Nursery Rhyme

Use the Download button to access the easy-print colour PDF.

Project the poster on your interactive whiteboard or print it for your classroom display board. If you intend to display the poster, we recommend enlarging it for enhanced readability.

More Resources for Developing Phonological Awareness

Teach Starter has a wide range of teacher-created, curriculum-aligned resources to support you in teaching phonological awareness concepts to your students. Click below to explore our offering!

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