How do you help your students engage with not so exciting content?

One of our first units in our knowledge block is nursery rhymes and fables. How can I make learning about these more interactive for my students? I am planning on having them create a "knowledge notebook" where they get a copy of the nursery rhyme and can illustrate it and are able to revisit it. I am also going to use AI to have my students interview some of the nursery rhyme characters (Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, etc.) to ask them about their actions. Are there other ideas you might have that I could try?

As a Kindergarten teacher, I guide my students through a calendar routine everyday that includes the date, the weather, counting how many days we have been in school and singing songs about the days of the week and the months of the year. Is there anything else that you do that has been helpful to review or introduce your students to skills that could be added in this time?