World Nursery Rhyme & Song Week

18th November 2018

Let’s take a walk down memory lane and celebrate some great rhymes and songs from our childhood! 

This week (November 19th – 23rd) is World Nursery Rhyme & Song Week, so I have taken a walk down memory lane to recall all the wonderful rhymes, songs and poems from my childhood.  

As a child I enjoyed singing these rhymes, doing the actions and marvelling at the images they conjured up of a fantasy world. Now, as a teacher, I can appreciate that songs and rhymes are an excellent language learning tool.

So, have a look at some of mine and the other teachers’ favourites. What do you imagine when you read these?

Incy-Wincy Spider

Incy-Wincy spider climbed up the water spout,

Down came the rain and washed the spider out,

Up came the sun and dried up all the rain,

And Incy-Wincy spider climbed up the spout again.

This is probably one of my earliest memories; learning the song and its actions as a child. Even then I was struck by the fact that the spider was quite tenacious and didn’t give up, which is still quite an important lesson to learn.

Whether the weather

Whether the weather be fine,
Or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold,
Or whether the weather be hot,
We’ll weather the weather
Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not!

How fast can you say this rhyme? It’s quite tricky, isn’t it. Not only is it fun to say, I feel it has an important message: to be optimistic even in difficult situations.

The Conscience

With a conscience we’re able to see

Just how bad we’re permitted to be,

At the same time it’s true

That what’s wicked for you

Mightn’t be half so wicked for me.

This rhyme was written in 1917 by Anthony Euwer and forms part of a collection of short poems (limericks) all about different parts of the human body. The full collection is available to view for free online, named  “The Limeratomy”. Why not have a look at what he said about ‘The Face’ or ‘The Head’ and let us know what you think. Our Teacher Ewan learned ‘The Head’ rhyme off-by-heart as a child and found it really funny.

Hey Diddle-Diddle

Hey diddle-diddle, the cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon.
The little dog laughed to see such fun
And the dish ran away with the spoon!

This rhyme originates from the 16^th century and even though it appears to be a ‘nonsense’ poem, there has been a great deal of debate about its meaning for hundreds of years. Whatever the truth may be, our Teacher Andrew loved the fun imagery as a child. Not to mention, thanks to this rhyme we have the idiom ‘to be over the moon’ about something which means that you are extremely happy or delighted.

So, comment below and tell us all about some memorable rhymes from your childhood: which delighted you? or which best explain your culture?