"Oranges and lemons", say the bells of St. Clement's
"You owe me five farthings", say the bells of St. Martin's
"When will you pay me?" say the bells of Old Bailey
"When I grow rich", say the bells of Shoreditch
"When will that be?" say the bells of Stepney
"I do not know", says the great bell of Bow
Here comes a candle to light you to bed
And here comes a chopper to chop off your head!
Chip chop, cherry chop, the last man's dead!
Tonight when I was picking up the kids from ballet, I got the "oranges and lemons" bit stuck in my head...but only remember snatches of the rest. It totally bugged me. So I got home and good old Wikipedia was there with all of it and the history of it and all. So I showed the kids how to do it after dinner. I thought they'd think it was silly and old fashioned, but they COULDN'T GET ENOUGH!!! They thought it was hysterical (pretty silly with 2 children and a dog going through the "bridge"). Makes me think of all those fantastic parlour games that we used to play-"hide the thimble" is the only one I remember. Please share any that you know-or any books you know of with parlour games in them. I think we could all do with going back to some of those simple games.
Pass the parcel (needs a bit of prep), Postman's Knock, The Farmer's in the Dell, Spin the Bottle - that's all I can think of at present. Good fun though. Funny, I was thinking of Oranges and Lemons the other day - though of course I drive past hundreds of them everyday.
ReplyDeleteMaggie XXXX
oh, and musical chairs, and statues, and stuck in the mud. I bet Jane Brocket knows thousands of them.
ReplyDeleteXXXX again
cool, I love those old rhymes. Some of them are trippy!
ReplyDeleteI seem to remember that you have the copies of the three Coles Picture Books, perhaps not the official name but you know the ones I mean...chockablock with all that sort of stuff, and Aussie to boot
ReplyDeletelove
Dad
Okay, here goes with a list as long as my arm:
ReplyDeleteDuck, Duck, Goose
Oats and Beans and Barley Grow
Fruit Salad
Who Stole the Cookies
Lucy Lockett
I wrote a letter
Punchinello
The Hokey Pokey
There was a Princess Long Ago
Here we go round the Mulberry Bush
Follow me to clapping land
I'm not afraid of the clapping monster
What's the time Mr Wolf
In and Out the Dusty Windows
Knees Up Mother Brown
Man from Mars
Crocodile, Crocodile
We're going to Kentucky
The Big Ship Sails on the Alley, Alley-O
The Captain's Daughter
Running to the Corner
We walk and we stop
I play at least one of these games each day with my Kindy/Pre-Primary classes. We always end up rolling around laughing and out of breath!
oh cool George. I just saw that Wendy commented! She is sooo cool! She is married to my cousin Jonathon who is like my brother! They live in WA.
ReplyDeleteoh and that was CHels signed in on Mum's computer! WE are in Launceston for the weekend.
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