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Author
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Comment
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Carrie
Unregistered User
(3/5/03 10:13:43 am)
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children games and nursery rhymes
Hello all. I've been sorting though my Mother Goose and thinking of childhood and the games we all once played. I read a short story -- I cannot remember who by -- in which the author wrote about adults trying to find that lost world, that place that only children know and discover through chants and play. Does anyone know of the story? I'll have to go back-- I think it was in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science fiction -- or in one of Terri and Ellen's anthologies of the "Years Best".
What rhymes do you remember? Which ones grabbed you and ocassionaly play in your head and why and when does this occur? For me -- it's Hickory Dickory Dock, Little Jack Horner, Red Rover Red Rover, Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater, Little Miss Mary the campfire song -- "Make new friends but keep the old, some are silver and the others gold" -- what does that mean anyway? Oh and then my favorite -- Rain rain go away, come again another day. Word magic. Jane -- help! I am betting you have quite a bit of insight on this.
As children do we think we have power over an object by naming it? And why do children follow rhythmic chants -- jump rope, clapping games and the like? Does anyone remember the schoolyard clapping chant (I can't recall the beginning, but it's about bringing summer in -- almost a hastening sort of spell) -- "...no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks..."
And those of you with children -- do you see your children or your grandchildren playing the games you did? Or variations of old games? Or are they altogether new?
Any comments or memories would be greatly appreciated. This is something I'd really like to explore and I need your input to pull it together.
Thanks.
Carrie Miner
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GailS
Unregistered User
(3/5/03 12:04:53 pm)
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Pencils And Books
I assume you’re not looking for the Alice Cooper version of “School’s Out”, which also includes “no more pencils, etc.” On a serious note, the two versions I know are as follows:
No more pencils,
No more books,
No more teachers’ dirty looks,
Throw the pencils in the well,
Tell the teachers go to hell.
No more pencils,
No more books,
No more teachers’ dirty looks,
When the teacher rings the bell,
Drop your books and run like hell.
Since I went to Catholic school, we usually left off the last word.
GailS
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BlackHolly
Registered User
(3/5/03 4:36:28 pm)
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memories of nursery rhymes
A close friend of mine had a child not too long ago and trying to come up with things to sing to him made me really think about how few nursery rhymes I remember. The only three that stayed with me were "Are you sleeping/Brother John/The morning bells are ringing/Ding Dang Dong" which I also remember in French, but will not butcher by trying to spell. That, the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and the first couple verses of "Hush Now Baby" were all that seemed to stay with me.
Also, at my sister's funeral, I recalled all of "You are my
sunshine" for some inexplicable reason.
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Heidi
Anne Heiner
ezOP
(3/5/03 4:55:04 pm)
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Re: memories of nursery rhymes
Carrie,
In my experience, yes, the children are singing the same songs at the preschool ages because that is what their parents remember and what we librarians, teachers, parents etc. teach them. I present three storytimes a week and the best participation, listening, learning, and overall enthusiam comes with the songs and rhymes. The parents remember the songs with joy and the kids sing them with glee. I tend to use the same songs for two months to insure learning. Then I change to new songs to make sure they get some variation. Some of the favorites this year--the ones they want to sing over and over and over again--are Five Little Speckled Frogs, Five Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Little Bunny Foo Foo, and the Five Monkeys and the Alligator. One of the surefire ways to make sure they love the songs is if actions are involved and if the tune is catchy. The inherent violence in many of them does not turn off the parents or the kids. The one and only complaint I have had in the last two years is that the hand motions for teasing the alligator was rude--it involved waving your hands by your ears which the grandmother did not want her grandchildren to learn.
Now as for the older kids, they appear to be more sophisticated and not as interested in the same songs I learned. Of course, I am in the middle of LA so it could just be the local culture, too. But the kids are more interested in jokes and such, not the songs.
By the way, my notebook is filled with songs. One of the best resources on the net for lyrics to many of the standards is www.kididdles.com in their Musical Mouseum.
Heidi
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Heidi
Anne Heiner
ezOP
(3/6/03 1:57:23 pm)
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Re: memories of nursery rhymes
Another note from the trenches, Carrie,
One of the other children's librarians in the system started presenting regular preschool storytimes this year. He didn't want to use the same old familiar "primitive" songs and started out trying to incorporate more complex songs and "higher" music. After many complaints and low participation, he has had to start using some of the old favorites to please the crowds. All of the storytimes in our system average 60-90 parents and kids, so the consensus is pretty large that the old children's standards are still wanted and taught to the newest generations.
Heidi
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Laura
McCaffrey
Registered User
(3/6/03 5:10:56 pm)
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Re: memories of nursery rhymes
Another note from the trenches:
I work in a small rural school library. I also do nursery rhymes during weekly story hours. Some kids know the rhymes already, others have never heard them before. (Though they know the Disney cartoon movies and lots of TV programs backward and forward. But I digress.) They love to sing and act things out. The school and the classes are quite small so we have lots of space to act out Five Little Monkeys, Hickory Dickory Dock etc.
(We also "plowed out" the library while reading Katie and the Big Snow. Just had to mention it since it was such fun.)
The nursery songs I remember best from childhood are Bobby Shaftoe (sp?) and My Bonny Lies Over the Ocean. My mother used to sing those to us, and so I sing them to my daughters. I also remember Are You Sleeping Brother John. In French and English, of course.
LauraMc
Edited by: Laura McCaffrey at: 3/6/03 5:12:22 pm
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Maria
Cecile
Registered User
(3/7/03 7:58:05 am)
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Nursery Rhymes
I came upon this nursery rhyme site while researching a story. Here are more than a few of our traditional favorites!
www.zelo.com/family/nursery/index.asp
Maria C.
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Maria
Cecile
Registered User
(3/7/03 10:55:04 am)
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A memory
I distinctly remember a little girl in my first grade class coming completely unglued when she stepped on a crack in the pavement on our playground. She had heard "step on a crack, break your mother's back" and was convinced she had injured her mom. Our teacher had to take her to the office to call her mother to prove that everything was OK.
A few weeks ago, walking home from my bus, I heard my two little neighbor boys chanting the same words to a little girl, who was crying, and trying to run home without hitting any of the cracks in the sidewalk.
Maria C.
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Jess
Unregistered User
(3/7/03 2:55:41 pm)
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children's games and nursery rhymes
I love these! We all love "this little piggy". It always results in tickles and laughter. My boys like "3 blind mice" - we say it faster and faster until you can barely recognize the words! - "the lion and the unicorn" and "There was a crooked man". I remember liking the one about The Lady from Banbury Cross", "Jack and Jill", and "To bed, to bed said sleepy head", but my favorite (and not a Mother Goose) was "It's raining, it's pouring." We all like the tongue twisters like Peter Piper. In fact, I can remember precisely when I first could say that one.
Favorite games were "London Bridge" and "Cinderella
lost her fella" - remember that one. Then, there were all the
elimination games like "One Potato", "How many doctors
did it take" (I don't remember the rest), something with a
tiger, and one with "doctor, lawyer, Indian chief." I
liked those because I figured out how to position myself to the
advantage - I was bad.
Interestingly, we all had our least favorites too. My one sister hated the one about the little girl with "the curl on her forhead" because when she was bad my grandmother would recite that one and pull at my sister's curls. I disliked the days of the week one because my sister was "born on the Sabbath day", but I had "far to go." I guess the rhyme was right though. lol
Nursery rhymes are tons of fun. We like to try to guess the origins and see how close we actually are, although it is sometimes impossible to tell for sure.
There are some good websites on nursery rhymes. One at penn.edu I believe. I will check and get back to on that.
Jess
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Jess
Unregistered User
(3/7/03 3:02:15 pm)
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as always
I reread some of the entries - are we talking nursery songs or rhymes or both. We sing "Twinkle, twinkle" and "Hush little baby" - with a dog named "lucky" like ours however, virtually every night. Then there are "Sleep my love", the song from Humperdink's "Hansel and Gretel" about the guardian angels, "yellow bird" a Mills brother's song, "Go to sleepy little baby", "You are my sunshine" - Blackholly, my mother sang that one to me too - "Sweetest little (name of child) everybody knows", "Michael row your boat ashore", "Irish lullaby", etc., etc. With three boys, ten years and many snuggles, we have created quite a repitoire of songs. Many I haven't included here.
I think every child should be sung to multiple times a day!
Jess
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Nalo
Registered User
(3/7/03 6:21:12 pm)
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Re: as always
I tend to remember whole nursery rhymes, but particular snippets also stay with me and seem particularly magical, if vague:
With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,
And she shall have music wherever she goes.
And there's a Caribbean nursery rhyme that's haunted me for years, but I haven't yet figured out the story I want to write around it yet:
In a fine castle,
Do you hear, my sissie-o?
Ours is the prettiest,
Do you hear, my sissie-o?
We want one of them,
Do you hear, my sissie-o?
Which one do you want?
Do you hear, my sissie-o?
The rhyme is sung by two groups of children holding hands in two rings, with each group alternating verses. They get into haggling, all in rhyme, over which person they want from the other group, and what gift they will give her if s/he comes. That's where the children get to invent. There's much giggling over disgusting gifts that the group comes up with, with the other group responding in song, "That don't suit her, do you hear, my sissie-o?". When the supplicant group tires of it, they start offering appealing gifts until the other group agrees to send one of their number over, sings him or her a farewell, and the song starts again.
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Jess
Unregistered User
(3/8/03 8:34:23 pm)
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Banbury Cross
Nalo,
I think this is the complete rhyme:
Ride a @#%$ horse to Banbury Cross,
To see a fine lady ride on a white horse.
With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,
She shall have music wherever she goes.
I never get it quite straight, but always like the idea of music
from bells following the lady around. :)
Jess
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Jess
Unregistered User
(3/8/03 8:35:47 pm)
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the edit function
didn't like one of the words in the original poem "cockhorse".
Let's see if I can get it to print this way. :D
Jess
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