So let’s have a little fun today… below is the original Pig Latin Musical Video, followed by the lyrics translated from Pig Latin into English, and then, if you’re really hooked, you can watch the video with the Pig Latin lyrics on the screen. It is sort of mesmerizing.

But first, here are the rules of Pig Latin…

Take the first letter off the beginning of each word and add it to the end of the word. Then put “ay” after that. So, the word “tomorrow” becomes “omorrow-tay”. If the first two letters of the word are two consonants making one sound, (like “st”, “sp”, “tr”, etc.) both letters get moved to the end of the word. Thus, “star” becomes “ar-stay”.

Enjoy the show!

Translated Lyrics…

Do you speak pig latin?
if you speak pig latin then you’re cool like me!
I love to mess with people cause I am dumb
I speak pig latin every day and you should too! x 2
I believe everybody has brains
I also believe only half get used
I may say that I am dumb, I am
but don’t think I don’t use my own brains, cause I do
are you ready to test your mind with Mr. Safety
REVERSE
RIDDLE*
Do you speak pig latin?

*If you can’t figure out the riddle (in the second part of the lyrics)… it’s not in the lyrics above… it’s a riddle… If you can’t figure it out yourself, you can pause the second video (below) at 1 minute 29 seconds for the answer.

aveHay unFay!

amaMay isaLay

(I’m going to make all the changes to the words in bold below to help you learn how to create the secret languages.)

In Pig Latin, you create a secret language – that adults don’t understand unless they played the games themselves. You do it by taking the first letter off the beginning of each word and add it to the end of the word. Then put “ay” after that. So, the word “tomorrow” becomes “omorrow-tay“. If the first two letters of the word are two consonants making one sound, (like “st”, “sp”, “tr”, etc.) both letters get moved to the end of the word. Thus, “star” becomes “ar-stay“.

There are different ways to play Jeringonza depending on the country. The most common way is to add a “P” after each vowel in a word, and then after the “P” you repeat the vowel again. So “Chile” would become “Chi-pi-le-pe“.

In Puerto Rico, you add “chi” before each syllable of the word. So the word “gato” (cat) becomes chi-ga-chi-to. Say it out loud. It’s very rhythmic!

In Brazil, the game is called Língua do Pê (P language). It’s rules are like the “P” rules for Spanish above – you add a “P” after each vowel in a word, and then after the “P” you repeat the vowel again. So “carro” (car) becomes “car-pa-ro-po“.

In Italy, the game is called Alfabeto Farfallino (Farfallino Alphabet) – because you add “F” to words making them sound like the word “farfallino”. Actually, the rules are again like the “P” rules for Spanish above – but with an “F” instead: The most common way is to add a “F” after each vowel in a word, and then after the “F” you repeat the vowel again. So, “luna” becomes “lu-fu-na-fa“.

Have fun having secret conversations!

Please, feel free to share your word games with us in the comments below.

Cheers!

Mama Lisa

Apples, Peaches, Pears and Plums

Apples, Peaches, Pears and Plums,
Tell me when your birthday comes?

January, February, March, April,
May, June, July, August, September,
October, November, December?

Some people only chant the first 2 lines and then another person will answer with their birthday.

This is also a jump rope rhyme. Two kids hold a long jump rope and swing it around in a circle. They chant the rhyme. You jump in on your birthday month. Then the girls start counting 1, 2, 3, etc. until they reach the number of the day you were born on. Then you jump out.

The other way to play the jump rope game is to skip the numbers. You still jump “in” when your birthday month is called. The other kids then repeat the rhyme and you jump “out” when you hear your birthday month the second time around.

Enjoy!

Mama Lisa

We used my husband’s iPhone to guide us on our adventure. We knew there were a couple of geocaches in a nearby park. So we headed there.

My husband had previously downloaded a geocaching app for his iPhone called Geocaching.com Intro. At the park, the app finds the closest geocache and guides you to it.

The app found a geogache for us to find. The girls took turns with the iPhone pointing the direction on a compass.

Eventually you usually go off the path. (If they were on the path, people who didn’t know about the game might take them.) Then you follow the directions until you (hopefully) find the cache. The two we found today were in small plastic tubs. You’re supposed to sign the log that you find inside the tub. There are also trinkets inside the tub. You’re supposed to leave a trinket and you can take a trinket in return. We made sure all the girls had trinkets to exchange.

It was a lot of fun!

We had tried this last weekend in a more public park and never found the geocaches. Our theory is that people who didn’t know how the game might have found the caches because it was a more public place and took them. The game seems to work better in larger parks with more vegetation.

If you have a regular GPS system you can go to geocache.com and type in the zip code for the area you are going to. Then you can find different geocaches nearby. Pick one and find hints for finding it. I think it will give you the final coordinates too. You’ll need to sign up and read all about it!

Have fun!

Mama Lisa

Anna Banana
Plays the piana.
All she can play
Is the Star Spangled Banner.
Anna Banana split.

“Hannah Banana”, on the other hand, is a hand clapping rhyme. What’s interesting to me is that “Anna” switched to “Hannah”. We have two theories about why this might have happened. The first is simply is that “Hannah” is now a more popular name in the US than “Anna”. Children on the playground may have heard “Anna” as “Hannah” since the names sound so similar, and switched it. Our other theory is that “Hannah Banana” is somewhat close to “Hannah Montana”, the popular character from the children’s TV show. Children may have switched the rhyme to “Hannah Banana” based on that similarity. We may never know for sure why there’s now a version of “Anna Banana” called “Hannah Banana”, but it’s interesting to speculate.

Here’s the new rhyme “Hannah Banana”, with instructions for playing it and an mp3 of Marisa chanting it…

MP3 of Hannah Banana

Hannah Banana
Plays the piana
All she could play
Is split she’s an idiot.
(Repeat)

Istructions for Hand Clapping Game:

1st 3 lines of Rhyme:

1. Clap your own hands
2. Clap your partner’s hand diagonally
3. Clap your own hands
4. Clap your partner’s other hand diagonally
5. Repeat 1 – 4

Last line of Rhyme: Move feet out (like a little split).

Keep repeating the rhyme – each time moving feet out more on the last line – whoever falls over first loses.

Many thanks to Marisa for teaching me this rhyme and for chanting it for us!

Enjoy!

Mama Lisa Banana

“Hide the Matzoh” can also be part of a larger tradition called Afrikoman.  Here are some details:  In a traditional Seder (Passover meal), there are three whole matzos placed on the Passover table and covered with a cloth napkin.  Before the Seder begins, the middle matzo is broken in half.  The smaller piece is placed back on the plate and the larger one is wrapped and hidden (if there are kids at the Seder).  This piece – the larger piece of the middle matzo – is called the “Afrikoman”.

After the matzo has been found by the children, and the Seder meal has been eaten, the guests eat the Afrikoman. 

Some families have a different tradition where the children "steal" the Afrikoman and then hold it for ransom.  The adults then have to give money or a gift to the children to get it back!

Traditionally, the Afrikoman is supposed to be the last thing that’s eaten of the day and it should be eaten before midnight.

Chad Gadyo is a traditional Passover song – you can click the link for the lyrics, a translation, midi and score.  You can hear one version of it below…

Happy Passover!

Mama Lisa

John Archer, of the site New Zealand Folk Song, wrote me, “Girl Guides and Girl Scouts all over the world learn the Maori stick tossing song ‘E Papa Waiari’.” According to his site, this is a stick game which are called “Tï Räkau”. These games consist of “the rhythmic throwing and catching of sticks from person to person.”

Here are the lyrics to “E Papä Waiari” in Maori, followed by an English translation and two YouTube videos of the game and song…

E Papä Waiari

1. E papä Waiari, taku nei mahi
Taku nei mahi, he tuku roimata

Chorus:

Ë aue, ka mate au; E hine hoki mai rä
Ë aue, ka mate au; E hine hoki mai rä

2. Mäku e kaute öhïkoitanga
Mäku e kaute öhïkoitanga

Chorus

O Elder Waiari

1. O elder Waiari my habit has been
My habit has been to shed tears

Chorus:
Alas I will die; oh girl, return to me
Alas I will die; oh girl, return to me

2. I will count your footsteps
I will count your footsteps

Chorus

I like this video because you can clearly hear the lyrics…

This video has slow parts, so you can learn how to play the stick game (though it gets silly at times):

Here are more Maori Stick Games/Dances:

Enjoy!

Mama Lisa

I am looking for games that children in Belgium play for a project. Does anyone know any? Thanks

If anyone can help out, please comment below.

Thanks in advance!

Mama Lisa

Hi

On this web page Rimogremser.dk there are several Danish kids songs with midi files.

Thanks for a good a good web-site ;)

Best regards

Richard

Thanks for the recommendation Richard. The site is nice! It has cool line drawings to go with most of the songs and tunes – though no English translations.

I picked one of the songs on the site that’s in the public domain (possibly 100 years+ old) and tried my hand at translating it. Below you’ll find the lyrics in Danish, the illustration from the site, a link to the midi and my translation…

Når vi sejler op og ned

Når vi sejler op og ned,
ser vi fisken svømme.
Ære, være, du er min.
Lise, Lise, hvor vi elsker dig.

Når vi sejler op og ned,
ser vi fisken svømme.
Ære, være, du er min
Michael, Michael, hvor vi hader dig.

Midi of Når vi sejler op og ned

Rough English Translation:

When we sail up and down,
We see the fish swim.
Glory, be, you are mine,
Lisa, Lisa, we love you.

When we sail up and down,
We see the fish swim.
Glory, be, you are mine,
Michael, Michael, we hate you.

I welcome improvements to my translation!

I searched around some more and found another nice Danish site called Dansk Folkemindesamling (the link here is for the kids song section of the site). This one had a different version of the same song (also in Danish only). This one also had a Quicktime recording of children singing it. It’s where I learned that the song goes back to at least 1900. It’s a circle game. One goes “swimming” under the “circles” raised arms. At the end of each verse one joins the circle. One joins them to walk around so that together they form a chain which gets longer and longer.

Here’s the second version of the song…

1 Når vi sejler op og ned
så ser vi fisken svømme
ære være vi er her
for Mia, Mia hvem elsker du?

2 Når vi sejler op og ned
så ser vi fisken svømme
ære være vi er her
for Per, Per hvem elsker du?

3 Når vi sejler op og ned
så ser vi fisken svømme
ære være vi er her
for Ebbe, Ebbe hvem elsker du?

This version is friendlier. Here’s the English translation I came up with:

1 When we sail up and down,
We see the fish swim.
We are honored to be here
For Mia, Mia, who loves you?

2 When we sail up and down,
We see the fish swim.
We are honored to be here
For Per, Per, Who loves you?

3 When we sail up and down,
We see the fish swim.
We are honored to be here
For Ebbe, Ebbe, Who loves you?

Once again, I welcome improvements to my translation!

Mama Lisa’s World also has some Danish kids songs with English, French and Spanish translations and midis. We always welcome more songs if anyone would like to contribute any and also if anyone would like to sing any for us… Feel free to comment below or email me!

Mama Lisa

Here’s LisaMarie’s email…

Hi

I was hoping you could help. I’m training to be a teacher and for my music assessment I have to discuss a piece of music and have chosen to look at Obwisana but was wondering if you could tell me where I could obtain a free version of the traditional song.

Yours
LisaMarie Sheppard

Here are the lyrics to Obwisana:

Obwisana

Obwisana sa nana
Obwisana sa
Obwisana sa nana
Obwisana sa.

English Translation of Obwisana:

The rock has crushed my hand, grandma
The rock has crushed my hand.
The rock has crushed my hand, grandma,
The rock has crushed my hand.

Here are two YouTube renditions of Obwisana. The first video is an expanded version of the song that includes other lyrics…

The second version includes lots of sound effects and beats…

Obwisana is a circle game. Kids sit in a circle while singing ob-wi-sa-na and they pass around a rock. Each kid taps the rock on the ground and passes it to the next kid. The taps make a beat at each syllable of the song.

Susan Arnold wrote me:

“I know this song as an Akan song from Ghana. ‘Obo asi me nsa, nana, obo asi me nsa’ which is sung in a circle by children. The Akan place great importance on co-operation and this circle game can’t be played without that and a high degree of accuracy when placing the stone, especially as it gets faster and faster and more intricate with 2 stones tapped together or going round in the opposite direction.”

Here is an Obwisana Score.

You can visit our Obwisana song page for a midi tune and for Spanish and French translations!

I hope this all helps you LisaMarie!

Mama Lisa

PS If anyone knows more about the extended lyrics to this song, please let us know about it in the comments below. Thanks in advance!