Explore the Main Characters in Nursery Rhymes

When exploring stories with our littlest learners, one of the first story elements we teach is characters! Some characters are more important to the story than others; some drop in and out of the story, whereas others seem to be the centre of everyone’s attention (including that of the reader!) These are what we like to call the “main characters.”

This set of worksheets has been designed to help your students identify the main character in a variety of well-known nursery rhymes. For each nursery rhyme, the students are required to:

1. Read the nursery rhyme.
2. Circle the name of the main character.
3. Draw the main character.
4. Write the main character’s name.
5. Answer three questions about the rhyme by coloring and circling the correct answer from the options provided.

The nursery rhymes contained in this worksheet pack are:

• Little Miss Muffet
• Little Bo Peep
• Humpty Dumpty
• Three Little Kittens
• Five Speckled Frogs
• Itsy Bitsy Spider

Answers for each worksheet are also provided in the download.

Extending This Story Characters Activity

This resource provides a great introduction to main characters, but it can also be used as a springboard for further investigation of story characters.

For example, why not use this resource as a segway into a discussion about character traits? As you read each rhyme, engage in a discussion about the main character (once it has been identified). Have the students name some of the character’s internal (inside) and external (outside) traits. For example:

• Little Miss Muffet is the main character.
• Miss Muffet is a little girl.
• Miss Muffet is scared because the spider frightened her.

Download to Explore Story Characters

Use the dropdown menu next to the Download button to access the PDF or Google Slides version of this resource.

As this resource includes answer sheets, we recommend printing one copy of the entire file, then removing the worksheet pages for photocopying.

For sustainability purposes, please consider making double-sided copies of the worksheets. 

This resource was created by Lisamarie Del Valle, a teacher in Florida and a Teach Starter collaborator.

Click below for more time-saving resources for teaching story elements!

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