Save BIG on Bundles

There Was a Crooked Man Poetry Center – Nursery Rhyme Activities for 1st Grade

$5.00

There Was a Crooked Man Poetry Center provides standards-based fluency and rhyme practice through a familiar nursery rhyme. Students reread, sequence, and illustrate the poem using printable and digital options that reinforce phonological awareness and reading accuracy.

SHARE

This There Was a Crooked Man poetry center provides standards-based activities with popular nursery rhymes and classic children’s songs set to music. Perfect for literacy centers, this resource provides opportunities for students to develop fluency, identify rhyming patterns, and practice essential phonological awareness skills. Both print and digital formats are included, making it flexible and easy to use for your literacy plans.

Included in There was a Crooked Man Poetry Center

There Was a Crooked Man poetry center includes both printable and digital nursery rhyme activities, and gives teachers flexible options for whole group lessons, small group practice, or independent poetry centers.

There Was a Crooked Man Poetry Center

Printable Nursery Rhyme Activities

There Was a Crooked Man Poem (color & b&w): Full-page poem for whole group or independent practice.
There Was a Crooked Man Mini Book: A foldable 4-page version of the poem for students to keep and reread.
There Was a Crooked Man Poem Strips: Each line of the poem is printed in boxes for retelling practice, with a blank template included.
Fill-in-the-Blank Poem: Students use a word bank to complete the missing words.
Visualization Exercise: Students draw what they pictured in their minds after reading the poem.
Rhyming Page: Students practice phonological awareness by matching words from the poem with new rhyming words in a cut-and-paste activity.
QR Code Page: Students scan to watch the video of the poem set to music.

There Was a Crooked Man Poetry Center

Digital Nursery Rhyme Activities (Google Slides)

Video Access: Students watch and listen to the poem set to music.
Read the There Was a Crooked Man Poem: Digital version of the poem for fluency practice.
Rhyming Slides: Students drag and drop words to match rhymes from the poem, giving them interactive practice with rhyme recognition.
Fill-in-the-Blank: Students drag words from a word bank to complete missing parts of the poem, reinforcing comprehension and fluency.

Student Benefits

  • Builds fluency with repeated readings of familiar poems/songs
  • Strengthens rhyme recognition and phonological awareness
  • Supports independent learning at your poetry center
  • Provides multiple exposures to vocabulary and text patterns
  • Engages different learning styles with print & digital options

Science of Reading Aligned

Fluency is a key part of the Science of Reading because it connects word recognition to comprehension. When students can read smoothly and automatically, their attention shifts from decoding to understanding.

These poetry activities support fluency through repeated readings, rhythm, and phrasing practice, giving students multiple opportunities to hear, read, and perform familiar poems.

There Was a Crooked Man Poetry Center
There Was a Crooked Man Poetry Center

Why Teachers Love There Was a Crooked Man Poetry Center

  • Poetry activities are SOR and Standards-based
  • Nursery rhymes are easy to use in literacy centers
  • There is no prep required, just print or assign digitally
  • Many flexible formats which are perfect for whole group, small group, or independent practice
  • Engaging for students with music, movement, and interactive activities

Download There Was a Crooked Man poetry activities to build reading fluency, rhyme recognition, and phonological awareness in your first grade classroom.

Literacy Stations Library

Want all-access to Literacy Stations?

Find it Faster

Customers Review:

Literacy Stations
Library Card

Rated 5 out of 5

"I am so happy I signed up for the Literacy Stations Library Card! As a first-grade teacher, finding engaging and effective resources for my students can be a challenge, but this membership has been a game-changer."

Rated 5 out of 5

"The activities are fun, interactive, and align perfectly with the curriculum standards. I love how easy it is to incorporate them into my lesson plans, and my students have improved their spelling skills significantly since we started using these activities."