Notes

Here's a popular variation of "Hands on My Head" (many versions exist with minor variations):

My hand on my head,
What have I here?
This is my top-notcher,
My Mama dear,
Top-notcher, top-notcher,
Dickey, dickey doo,
That's what I learned in my school.
Boom! Boom!

*****

Kirsten wrote from Atlanta Georgia:

One of our friends grew up in a German-speaking church that sang this song at fun family gatherings, as shown below. With each body part, you'd put your hands on that part, and with each verse, as the list of parts grew ever longer, you'd have to point/touch faster and faster, with barely enough time to say the words.

Hands on mineself
Vas is das here?
Das is my [bread basket],
Mama, mama dear.
Bread basket, bread basket,
Inky, dinky doo
Das vat ve learned in da school
Ya, ya!

*****
Lawrence wrote:

I learned a different version from my three older sisters in the '50s:

Hands on my chest [cross hands on chest],
do-si-do here [uncross hands and put on shoulders],
do-si my head bumper my momma dear,
Head bumper, gully gully gully goo,
That's what I learned in the school-la.

Hands on my chest, do-si-do here,
Do-si my eye winker my momma dear,
Head bumper, eye winker,
gully, gully, gully, goo,
That's what I learned in the school-la.

Our facial names were head bumper, eye winker, eye blinker, nose dropper, mouth eater, chin chopper, and gully gully. I'm interested in the extra words of "gully goo," "do-si-do," and "school-la." I think we had names for the ears, but I can't remember what they were.

*****

Visit the Mama Lisa's World Blog to share your version of Hands on My Head or to read more about it!

Game Instructions

Point to each body part as you sing the song.

Nancy sent this recording with the note:

"Here's My Hand on My Head audio. You have a lyric up on the site but it differs from the one I know." You can find Nancy's version below:

My hand on my head,
What have I here?
This is my top-notcher
My mother dear,
Top-notcher, top-notcher,
Dicky, dicky, doo,
That's what I learned in my school
Boom, boom!

My hand on my brow,
What have I here?
This is my sweat-boxer
My mother dear,
Sweat-boxer, top-notcher,
Dicky, dicky, doo,
That's what I learned in my school
Boom, boom!

My hand on my eye,
What have I here?
This is my eye-blinker
My mother dear,
Eye-blinker, sweat-boxer, top-notcher,
Dicky, dicky, doo,
That's what I learned in my school
Boom, boom!

My hand on my nose,
What have I here?
This is my smell-sniffer
My mother dear,
Smell-sniffer, eye-blinker, sweat-boxer, top-notcher,
Dicky, dicky, doo,
That's what I learned in my school
Boom, boom!

Download

Many thanks to Nancy Membrez for singing this song for us and for showing us how to do the actions that go with the song in the YouTube video!

Thanks and Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Ann, Lawrence, Kirsten and Anna for helping with this song!