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Birthday Chant and Jump Rope Rhyme – Apples, Peaches, Pears and Plums

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

My daughter and her friend Marisa taught me this birthday rhyme in the car the other day. They chant this in class to talk about birthdays and months of the year.

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

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Posted in American Nursery Rhymes, Countries & Cultures, England, English, Games, Jump Rope, Jump Rope Rhymes, Languages, Mama Lisa, Nursery Rhymes, USA | No Comments »

Lyrics to Anna Banana and Hannah Banana with an MP3

Friday, June 5th, 2009

A third grader named Marisa taught me a hand clapping rhyme called “Hannah Banana”. It comes from a jump rope rhyme called “Anna Banana”. The lyrics to “Anna Banana” are:

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

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Posted in American Kids Songs, Anna Banana, Children's Songs, Countries & Cultures, English, Games, Great Britain, Hand Clapping Rhymes, Hannah Banana, Holidays Around the World, Jump Rope, Jump Rope Rhymes, Languages, MP3 Recordings, Mama Lisa, Nursery Rhymes, Questions, Recordings of Nursery Rhymes, USA | 4 Comments »

One, Two, Buckle My Shoe: How High Can You Do?

Thursday, November 6th, 2008

Buckle My Shoe Illustration

In my last blog post, I gave a couple of variations of One, Two, Buckle My Shoe that go up to the number twenty. It’s rare that this rhyme goes past that. When it does, it seems to be to play it as a ball bouncing game… how high can you go bouncing the ball?

This whole search for different variations of the One, Two, Buckle My Shoe rhyme, was all inspired by an email I received from Fran. She wrote…

Lisa, We used to do this rhyme up to 40 when we were kids. Have you ever heard the second part? I am trying to find the parts I can’t remember. Thanks, Fran

As I mentioned in my last post, most people know One, Two, Buckle My Shoe up to 10. Some people know it up to 20. Most people don’t know it past that. I myself had a hard time finding versions beyond 20. After some research, the highest I was able to find was 30. Given Fran’s email, there seems to be a version of this rhyme that goes up to forty. Do you know any versions that go that high?

Below are the different versions I found that go higher than twenty…

First are two versions that go up to twenty-four. They’re from Southern California Jump-Rope Rhymes: A Study in Variants by Ray B. Browne (Western Folklore, Jan. 1955). The first one was “Given as a ball bouncing game”…

One, two,
Buckle my shoe.
Three, Four,
Open the door.
Five, Six,
Pick up sticks.
Seven, Eight,
Lay them straight.
Nine, Ten,
A big fat Hen.

Eleven, twelve,
Mind your self (or, roast ‘er well).
Thirteen, fourteen, maids are sporting.
Fifteen, sixteen, maids are kissing.
Seventeen, eighteen, maids are waiting.
Nineteen, twenty, maids are plenty.
Twenty-one, twenty-two,
If you love me as I love you
My knife can cut our love in two.
Twenty-three, twenty-four,
Mary at the kitchen door
Eating apples by the score.
One, two, three, four.

[Original Source: Nebraska: Sue Hall, "That Spring Perennial-Rope Jumping!" Recreation, XXXIV (March, 1941), 713-716. (verbal changes only, 11. 1-2)]

Here’s a variation Brown gave on the second verse:

Eleven, twelve, in the well.
Thirteen, fourteen, boys are courting.
Fifteen, sixteen, maids in the kitchen.
Seventeen, eighteen, maids in waiting.
Nineteen, twenty, my plate is empty
(and sometimes ends,…
Twenty-four, Mary’s at the cottage door
Eating grapes upon a plate,
Five, six, seven, eight.)

[Original Source: Paul G. Brewster, "Rope-Skipping, Counting-out, and other Rhymes of Children," SFQ, III (1939), 173-185. (verbal changes only, 11. 1-2)]

Western Folklore by California Folklore Society (1954) has the ending simply as:

Twenty-one, twenty-two,
If you love me as I love you
My knife can cut our love in two.

The book 10,000 reasons for everything; How to win; Why you lost; Folklore supporting our best superstitions (1998), by William Carroll, has the ending as:

Twenty-one, twenty-two,
That will do.

Beverly Flanigan, from the American Dialect Society, posted this: “I only know the 4-and-20 rhyme as the ending of ‘One, two, buckle my shoe’ which we chanted while trying to bounce a ball non-stop without grasping it or losing it (I can still do it!)”…

One, two, buckle my shoe
Three, four, shut the door
Five, six, pick up sticks
Seven, eight, lay them straight
Nine, ten, a big fat hen
Eleven, twelve, dig and delve
Thirteen, fourteen, maids a-courting
Fifteen, sixteen, maids a-kissing
Seventeen, eighteen, maids a-waiting
Nineteen, twenty, the larder is empty
Twenty-one, twenty-two, my old shoe,
Dressed in blue, died last night at half-past two,
Twenty-three, twenty-four, last night at half-past four,
Twenty-four burglars came up to my door;
I opened the door and let them in;
I knocked them down with a rolling pin!

Finally, here’s an incomplete version of the rhyme that goes up to thirty. It’s from The Counting-out Rhymes of Children by Henry Carrington Bolton (1888). Bolton wrote that it was “Used in Wrentham Mass as early as 1780″…

One, two, buckle my shoe

Three, four, open the door
Five six, pick up sticks
Seven, eight, lay them straight
Nine, ten, kill a fat hen
Eleven, twelve, bake it well
Thirteen, fourteen, go a courtin’
Fifteen, sixteen, go to milkin’
Seventeen, eighteen, do the bakin’
Nineteen, twenty, the mill is empty
Twenty-one, charge the gun
Twenty-two, the partridge flew
Twenty-three, she lit on a tree
Twenty-four, she lit down lower
Twenty-five*,
Twenty-six*,
Twenty-seven*,
Twenty-eight*,
Twenty-nine the game is mine,
Thirty make a kerchy.

*Asterisks denote portions forgotten by the aged contributor.

If anyone knows of any other versions of One, Two, Buckle My Shoe that go higher than twenty, please let us know about it in the comments below.

Thanks!

Mama Lisa

Illustration from “National Rhymes of the Nursery” (circa 1895), illustrated by Gordon Browne (with a little graphical editing by Lisa Yannucci).

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Posted in American Kids Songs, Australia, Australian Kids Songs, Ball Bouncing, Ball Bouncing Rhymes, British Children's Songs, Canada, Children's Songs, Countries & Cultures, England, English, English Children's Songs, English Nursery Rhymes, Games, Great Britain, Jump Rope, Jump Rope Rhymes, Languages, Nursery Rhymes, One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, Questions, Rhymes by Theme, USA | 4 Comments »

Cinderella Dressed in Yellow – Jump Rope Rhyme with Recording

Saturday, June 28th, 2008

Marisa taught me this jump rope rhyme below (many of you might know some version of it)…

Listen to Cinderella Dressed in Yellow – MP3

Cinderella Dressed in Yellow
Jump Rope Song

Cinderella
Dressed in yellow
Went to kiss a prince,
By mistake,
Kissed a snake.
How many doctors
Did it take,
Was it,
One!
Two!
Three!
Four!
Five…

Game Instructions

Jump rope while reciting the rhyme. When you get to the counting part, you jump on each number. If you miss, you stop. Whatever number you’re on, that’s the number of doctors Cinderella needs!

Please feel free to let us know about the version of the Cinderella rhyme that you know or other jump rope rhymes in the comments below.

-Mama Lisa

Thanks to Marisa for contributing and reciting this rhyme, and for explaining how to play the jump rope game!

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Posted in American Kids Songs, Children's Songs, Cinderella Dressed in Yellow, Countries & Cultures, English, English Nursery Rhymes, Games, Jump Rope, Jump Rope Rhymes, Languages, Nursery Rhymes, USA | 10 Comments »

Do You Know of Any Spanish Jump Rope Songs?

Saturday, February 10th, 2007

Anne-Marie wrote:

Hello,

My name is Anna-Marie. I am going to participate in a mission trip to the Dominican, and I was planning to bring some skipping ropes. Do you know any songs in Spanish that would go well with this activity? It’s for 5-7 year olds.

Thanks,

Anna-Marie

If anyone can help out with any Spanish Jump Rope songs, please comment below.

Thanks!

Lisa

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Posted in Argentina, Bolivia, Children's Songs, Costa Rica, Countries & Cultures, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Games, Jump Rope, Jump Rope Songs, Languages, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Questions, Songs by Theme, Spain, Spanish, Spanish Kids Songs | 15 Comments »

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Posts

Birthday Chant and Jump Rope Rhyme – Apples, Peaches, Pears and Plums

Lyrics to Anna Banana and Hannah Banana with an MP3

One, Two, Buckle My Shoe: How High Can You Do?

Cinderella Dressed in Yellow – Jump Rope Rhyme with Recording

Do You Know of Any Spanish Jump Rope Songs?