Matching Nursery Rhyme Icebreaker
Nursery rhyme themed games can make a great icebreaker by pairing up people who might not otherwise get to know eachother. Give everyone a name tag on which you have written one of a pair of nursery rhyme characters.
Here are some pairing ideas to consider:
- Cat/Fiddle and Dish/Spoon
- Miss Muffet/Spider
- Mary/Little Lamb
- Humpty Dumpty/Kings Horses
- Jack/Candlestick
- Mouse/Clock
Nursery Rhyme Balloon Game
An alternative way of using nursery rhymes in a baby shower is to play the nursery rhyme balloon game. Prepare for this game by writing nursery rhymes out on slips of paper - one line on each paper. Each nursery rhyme should have two lines from it.
For example, you might write "Mary, Mary, quite contrary - How does your garden grow?" on one of a pair of papers. Then you'd write "With bluebells and cockleshells and pretty maids all in a row." on the second paper.
Put each slip of paper into a separate balloon and then blow them up and tie them. To play the game let each person select a balloon, pop it to get the paper out, and then try to find their "match". Someone else in the room will have the matching paper! When they two people find eachother they raise their hands in the air and the first hands up, wins!
Active Nursery Rhyme Games
With a more active crowd you can play active nursery rhyme games like Charades or Pictionary using nursery rhyme characters. How fun would it be to see someone trying to make a room full of ladies guess "Humpty Dumpty" by acting it out?
The basic rules of charades is to divide into two teams. Each team alternates turns. One member from the first team chooses a card with a character, name or nursery rhyme song on it and must make her team guess that word by actions alone - no sounds. Usually you set a time limit on how long the team has to guess correctly. Once everyone has had a turn, the team with the most points wins!
Pictionary or a 'Win, Lose or Draw' style baby shower game works in a similar way because no one can talk or use sounds to get their team to guess the answer. Instead of using body motion to communicate, however, the person must draw. Use a large white board or pad of paper on an easel so everyone can see! Same rules - the team with the most correct guesses, wins!
