The nursery rhyme “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe” has been used since 1805 to teach kids how to count. It is still used in preschool and kindergarten classes today. Use our one two buckle my shoe activities to teach your child to do more than just number sense and sequential counting.
These funny videos, exciting online interactive video games, colorful books, and our “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe” activity story cards will help them develop awareness of rhymes, gives them a sense of the dynamics of sound (loud/soft) and tempo (fast/slow).
Besides, it’s fun to move to the beat of the words.

This nursery rhyme first appeared in an 1805 children songs book called Songs for the Nursery, edited by Laura Pendleton McCartney, in London, England. Originally the song might describe a regular day of lace-makers who were traditional workers back then. Thanks to the Internet Archive the book is available to view online.
This lesson is part of the Scope and Sequence for “What Your Third Grader Needs to Know (Revised and Updated): Fundamentals of a Good Third-Grade Education” by E. D. Hirsch Jr. It is available in paperback, or Kindle. These are affiliate links.
You can print our list of nursery rhymes to learn and then cross them off as you teach them to your child.
LESSON OVERVIEW
Start by previewing your expectations about what students will learn. You can decide to do some or all of the “One, Two, Buckle my shoe” activities listed below.
- Develop awareness of rhymes.
- Express the dynamics of of sound (loud/soft) and tempo (fast/slow) of music
- Move to the beat, rhythm, and form of music
- Improvise movement to a song
- Learn number sense and sequential counting
LEARNING RESOURCES
Below you will find our collection of the very best videos, online games, books, and activities to learn this nursery rhyme. We also have collected free nursery rhymes downloads for you as well. Print out our lesson plan worksheet to keep track of what your child accomplished.
When your child has completed the activities be sure to sign his name at the bottom of the worksheet and date. This will look awesome in the end of year portfolio!
VIDEOS
ONLINE GAMES
- Click on the birthday candles and hear the numbers being counted. Then get 3 choices of what symbol matches that number.
- Order the numbers 1 – 10.
- Plant and count the flowers with Curious George.
BOOKS
- One, Two, Buckle My Shoe! by Jane Cabrera
- Move-Along Nursery Rhymes by by Laura Huliska-Beith (Illustrator), Rob Hefferan (Illustrator), Virginia Allyn (Illustrator) – Bonus materials at the back of each book help children develop important school-readiness skills, including counting, animal sounds, color recognition, critical thinking, and more.
- 101 Nursery Rhymes & Sing-Along Songs for Kids by Jennifer M Edwards
- The Real Mother Goose by Blanche Fisher Wright
- Mary Engelbreit’s Mother Goose: One Hundred Best-Loved Verses
ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES
Learning how to tie your shoes
Learn to tie shoes by following these directions that Understood.org put into a video. You can even get special shoelaces from Amazon using our affiliate link made just for early shoe tying learners.
Learning how to clap the beat in a rhyme
The “Little Baby Bum” song in the above video has a great beat to clap along, stomp, or knee-slap in time to the beat of the rhyme. This kind of movement is great for large motor skills. It is also fun to act out the song as you sing along. As you sing along with your kindergarten student hold up your fingers to show the numbers.
Then, have your child do the finger motions along with you. He may not understand the correlation at first. You are just introducing the concept for now. Later, ask him to get two books and bring them to you, hold up two fingers as you say this. When he brings them back hold each one up at a time and say, “This is one book, this is two books.”
Throughout the week point out similar items and count them out loud to your kid. Then watch the video again soon after to reinforce the idea of counting.
Try one, or all, of the activities on Reading Rockets Math & Literacy page using the “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe” poem. They have an activity for learning about numbers, sizes, volumes, and data analysis. Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the article for the free printable PDF. They have the article translated to Spanish!
Try these preschool activities from The Classroom.
CONCLUSION
Hearing and memorizing nursery rhymes is the first step to language development. The better language development is encouraged in a playful way the better the child learns to read. The best part about the nursery rhyme “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe” is that it also teaches numeracy.
Have fun singing and dancing with your child!

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This lesson is based on the scope and sequence in the book, “What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know (Revised and updated): Preparing Your Child for a Lifetime of Learning ” written by E.D. Hirsch Jr. which is available from Amazon.