Round and Round the Garden facts for kids
Quick facts for kids "Round and Round the Garden" |
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| Nursery rhyme | |
| Published | 1940s |
"Round and Round the Garden" is an English language nursery rhyme typically accompanied by a fingerplay. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19235.
Lyrics
The most common modern form of the poem/rhyme is:
- Round and round the garden
- Like a teddy bear;
- One step, two step,
- Tickle you under there!
Origins
The rhyme was first collected in Britain in the late 1940s. Since teddy bears did not come into vogue until the twentieth century it is unlikely to be any older than that in its current form, but Iona and Peter Opie speculated that it might be a version of an older rhyme, collected 1945-9, 'Round about there, went a little hare', with the lyrics:
- Round about there
- Sat a little hare
- The bow-wows came and chased him
- Right up there!
An Irish version goes:
- Round and round the racecourse
- Catch a little hare
- One step, two steps
- Thickly under there!
A South African version goes:
- Round and round the mulberry bush
- Like a teddy bear
- One step, two step
- Tickly under there!
A Scottish version goes:
- Round and round the garden
- Like a wee mouse
- Up the stair, up the stair
- And in the wee house
Accompanying actions
The nursery rhyme is accompanied by various actions, by the adult on the child or the child on the adult. The performer first lightly strokes his or her index finger in slow circles on the recipient's upturned palm, then with each "step", walks their index and middle finger up the arm, firstly to the elbow and then to the shoulder. Finally after a short pause before the "tickle", the performer launches a (not unexpected) tickle under the recipient's arm.
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