Kishan emailed me requesting a poem about cleanliness.
Here are some rhymes and poems I found that are generally about cleanliness, keeping clean or washing up…
First, here’s a traditional nursery rhyme that mentions having a clean face:
The Clock
There’s a neat little clock,
In the schoolroom it stands,
And it points to the time
With its two little hands.And may we, like the clock,
Keep a face clean and bright,
With hands ever ready
To do what is right.
This next rhyme is about washing feet:
Marguerite
Marguerite, go wash your feet;
The board of health is ‘cross the street.
Here’s a song you can sing when washing up or brushing teeth:
This is the Way We Wash our Hands
(To the tune of Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush)This is the way we wash our hands
Wash our hands, wash our hands,
This is the way we wash our hands
In the afternoon (or “To keep us very healthy”)
(You can continue with washing other body parts or substitute the line “This is the way we brush our teeth”.)
Here’s a song about washing away germs:
GERMS!
Wash your face and hands with soap,
Wash them every day!
Keeping clean by using soap
Will help keep germs away
Finally, below you’ll find an old poem called Cleanliness by Charles and Mary Lamb from around 1874. First I’ve given a shortened version that I found and after that you’ll find the full, longer version of it:
Cleanliness
All-endearing cleanliness,
Virtue next to godliness,
Easiest, cheapest, needfull’st duty,
To the body health and beauty;
Who that’s human would refuse it,
When a little water does it?
Here’s the longer version:
Cleanliness
Come, my little Robert, near-
Fie! what filthy hands are here!
Who, that e’er could understand
The rare structure of a hand,
With its branching fingers fine,
Work itself of hands divine,
Strong, yet delicately knit,
For ten thousand uses fit,
Overlaid with so clear skin
You may see the blood within,-
Who this hand would choose to cover
With a crust of dirt all over,
Till it look’d in hue and shape
Like the forefoot of an ape!
Man or boy that works or plays
In the fields or the highways,
May, without offence or hurt,
From the soil contract a dirt
Which the next clear spring or river
Washes out and out for ever-
But to cherish stains impure,
Soil deliberate to endure,
On the skin to fix a stain
Till it works into the grain,
Argues a degenerate mind,
Sordid, slothful, ill-inclined,
Wanting in that self-respect
Which does virtue best protect.
All-endearing cleanliness,
Virtue next to godliness,
Easiest, cheapest, needfull’st duty,
To the body health and beauty;
Who that’s human would refuse it,
When a little water does it?
If you know of any songs, rhymes, poems, or sayings about cleanliness or washing up, please let us know about them in the comments below.
Thanks!
Mama Lisa
This article was posted on Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 at 10:14 pm and is filed under American Kids Songs, Australia, Canada, Children's Songs, Cleanliness, Countries & Cultures, English, English Children's Songs, English Nursery Rhymes, Health and Safety, Languages, Nursery Rhymes, Poems, Poems about Cleanliness, Poetry, Proverbs, Quotes, Rhymes by Theme, Songs about Washing Up, Songs by Theme, Teaching, United Kingdom, USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
June 12th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Here’s a very old rhyme I found about being washed and about being dirty (it’s hard to imagine someone writing it nowadays):
BEING WASHED.
” WHAT ! cry, little Boy, when you’re washed !
To be sure,” said Mamma, “you’re in joke !”
Then Edward looked up much ashamed,
And was quiet as soon as she spoke.
“Why, would you be dirty,” said she,
” And keep filthy clothes on to wear ?
Who’d kiss my dear Boy’s pretty face ;
Or love him, or like to come near ?
Be washed then, and made a nice child.”
And offering her hand, as she stood,
He kissed her, and smiled at his Nurse,
And promised them both he’d be good.
June 24th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
My personal favorite is “The Goops” by, I think, Burgess Meredith.
“The Goops, they lick their fingers,
The Goops, they lick their knives.
They spill their broth on the tablecloth,
They lead disgusting lives.
The Goops, they talk while eating,
And loud and fast they chew.
And this is why I’m glad that I am not a Goop —
Are you?”
That second stanza veers away from cleanliness, I admit, but we always enjoyed reciting it when I was a child. Our family method involved dropping our voices about an octave on “disgusting.”
June 25th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Thanks for pointing that out! Cool poem! I checked and it looks like it was written by Gelett Burgess and published in 1900.
-Mama Lisa
June 25th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Here’s another Goop poem about Acting Uncleanly…
PERCIVAL B. SLOOP
Acting Uncleanly
Just look at
Percival B. Sloop,
A most unpleasant
sort of Goop;
He pokes his fingers
in his nose
And wipes his hands
upon his clothes;
He does a lot
of things that you,
I know, would never,
never do!
June 25th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
At Project Gutenberg you can find THE GOOP DIRECTORY
OF Juvenile Offenders Famous for their Misdeeds and Serving as a Salutary Example for all Virtuous Children.
It has Goop poems for all sorts of good behaviors one might want to teach children.
(From the link above you can either download it or go to Gutenberg’s online version of the book.)
June 25th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Here’s another poem about cleanliness:
GOOP! GOOP! GOOP!
Goop! Goop! Goop!
I wish you’d wash your face!
Goop! Goop! Goop!
Your hands are a disgrace!
Goop! Goop! Goop!
Put things back in their place!
I wish you were polite,
Instead of a
Goop! Goop! Goop!
This one comes from another Goop book that’s at Project Gutenberg called MORE GOOPS and How Not to Be Them: A Manual of Manners for Impolite Infants.
August 4th, 2008 at 9:24 am
i have no comments but this poem i remember is bits of paper-
Bits of paper, Bits of paper
lying on the floor, lying on the floor
pick them up, pick them up……………………………………
please if you remember please reply
May 21st, 2009 at 9:16 am
Hey, thanks for the help with the rhymes! Here is a song I found this week:
Wash, wash, wash, your hands play our handy game rub and scrub, scrub and rub germs go down the drain HEY! Wash, Wash, Wash your hands play our handy game rub and scrub, scrub and rub dirt goes down the drain HEY! (on the melody of “row, row, row your boat…gently down the stream…)
May 21st, 2009 at 9:19 am
Lisa, I’m urgently also looking for stories. (summaries will do.)
The five themes are:
1. Washing hands
2. Brushing teeth/anything about dental care
3. Wiping of noses
4. Washing of the whole body
5. Toilet/ potty-training routine
Please help?!?
May 21st, 2009 at 4:44 pm
There’s an online book called Oh, What a Mess by Hans Wilhelm. about a pig family that learns to clean their home and themselves.
May 21st, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Here’s another poem I found called Washing and Dressing:
Ah! why will my dear little girl be so cross,
And cry, and look sulky and pout?
To lose her sweet smile is a terrible loss,
I can’t even kiss her without.
You say you don’t like to be washed and be drest
But would you be dirty and foul?
Come, drive that long sob from your dear little breast,
And clear your sweet face from its scowl.
If the water is cold, and the comb hurts your head,
And the soap has got into your eye,
Will the water grow warmer for all that you’ve said?
And what good will it do you to cry?
It is not to tease you, and hurt you, my sweet,
But only for kindness and care,
That I wash you and dress you, and make you look neat,
And comb out your tanglesome hair.
I don’t mind the trouble, if you would not cry,
But pay me for all with a kiss;
That’s right, take the towel and wipe your wet eye;
I thought you’d be good after this.
September 28th, 2009 at 8:20 am
Dear Lisa, the story link that you hv given above is really good….but can u help me with some short story …say about a few lines….?
Specifically on the topic…I keep my body clean…
thanks
November 13th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Here’s a strange one…
Dirty Jim
There was one little Jim,
‘Tis reported of him,
And must be to his lasting disgrace,
That he never was seen
With hands at all clean,
Nor yet ever clean was his face.
His friends were much hurt
To see so much dirt,
And often they made him quite clean;
But all was in vain,
He got dirty again,
And not at all fit to be seen.
It gave him no pain
To hear them complain,
Nor his own dirty clothes to survey;
His indolent mind
No pleasure could find
In tidy and wholesome array.
The idle and bad,
Like this little lad,
May love dirty ways, to be sure;
But good boys are seen,
To be decent and clean,
Although they are ever so poor.
Jane Taylor (1783-1824)
November 30th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Hi! Can someone help with some poems on any of the following topics
1) Punctuality
2) Obedience
3) Tidiness
This is for my 5 year old daughter.
Thanks!!
January 25th, 2010 at 3:49 pm
Hey I am looking for songs or rhymes that have to do with teaching young children personal space- any resources would be welcome!
Thanks!
February 2nd, 2010 at 10:32 am
I just came across this saying:
Have a place for everything and everything in its place.
A little on topic.
September 3rd, 2010 at 10:36 pm
Hi! Love the poems..
Could you please write me a poem about
Keeping our hands clean…
It’s for my little sister..Thanks..
September 3rd, 2010 at 10:36 pm
When could i get the poem??
September 20th, 2010 at 1:41 am
hey can u guys help me with poems on “my clean hands”
November 1st, 2010 at 3:03 am
there a song Ihad learnt and forgotten it goes like this”we got to have clean hands(cllap clap) we got to have clean hands(clap calp). the reason why i sing this song is we want a land that clean and strong that why we have to have clean clean hands.
does any one know more
July 27th, 2011 at 12:15 am
hi! can you make me a poem about the value of cleanliness? i really need it for my project
January 4th, 2012 at 8:35 am
could you please tell me a poem on “keeping your room clean”.
January 4th, 2012 at 11:50 am
Here’s a Goop poem about keeping your room neat…
Esau Pound – Leaving Things Around
When you’re finished
with your play,
Do you put
your toys away?
Do you put
away your hat,
And your coat,
and things like that?
Or, are you
like Esau Pound?
He’s the Goop
who leaves things ’round!
Anyone else know of any neatness poems?
January 14th, 2012 at 11:06 am
Here’s a short little poem about washing hands:
Mother says, and of course she knows.
That clean hands and face.
Make me fresh as a rose.
March 12th, 2012 at 3:42 am
For sharing kitchens:
(I just made this up so bare with me. Also used one of the one liners mentioned above)
have a place for everything and everything in its place
you found the kitchen neat dont leave it a disgrace
when you done on the counter, the stove and the floor
wipe up all your crumbs, your oils, and spills galore
April 1st, 2012 at 3:28 pm
Here’s some more oldies….
I updated this one it was so old-fashioned:
Good Health Song
Tune “Twinkle Little Star.”
Healthly children everywhere,
Exercise and breathe fresh air,
Soap and water we have seen,
They keep hands and faces clean.
Healthy children often smile,
As they stop to rest a while,
Learning each day as they should,
To take time to eat pure food.
Healthy children bow to you,
We are very happy too,
See the tooth brush on parade,
Of the germs we’re not afraid.
Healthy children all in turn,
Say we have so much to learn,
To stay healthy is the best plan,
And we all know that we can.
Healthly children everywhere,
Exercise and breathe fresh air.
*****
Song to the tune of Oh Dear! What Can the Matter Be?
I Oh dear, what is the remedy,
Oh dear, what is the remedy,
Oh dear, what is the remedy,
Children so careless are we,
We promised to brush all our teeth every morning,
We promised to brush all our teeth every morning,
We promised to brush all our teeth every morning,
We’re very forgetful you see.
2 Oh dear, what shall become of us,
Oh dear, what shall become of us,
Oh dear, what shall become of us,
Poor health will folllow we know,
To take frequent baths now we all have had warning,
To take frequent baths now we all have had warning.
To take frequent baths now we all have had warning,
We’ll not longer be careless as can be.
*****
Towels and soap, where there’s life there’s hope,
That children will keep clean.
Towels and soap, where there’s life there’s hope,
To try for Good Health we mean.
*****
Little tooth brushes clean and new.
We can never stand abuse,
But were made for daily use.
June 7th, 2012 at 1:26 pm
Kindly send me asong,apoem n askit about cleanliness for aproject work thanx
June 9th, 2012 at 8:04 am
I am so fed up with people going to toilet and Not washing their hands,
so I am busy with hanging rymhes and pictures in our little toilet to encourage people to wash their hands.
since there is no sink in the toilet room visitors have to come to the kitchen and ask if they can wash their hands, which i really appreciate.
Can any of you provide a rhyme which contains something as;
Water, soap and fresh towel … ask in the kitchen
Free of charge!
I know it doesn’t sound good,
but since English is not my mothertongue, rhyming is rather difficult that is why i am asking your help
December 9th, 2012 at 12:34 pm
kindly help me i need skit on soap and cleanlness age 4yrs for our project in class.
June 15th, 2013 at 4:04 pm
I’m looking for the little quip that has the words “if it’s dirty clean it up”, “if it’s full, empty it”…etc. There are two are three more lines in this. I need to post a sign in my house that tells all the rules!
June 15th, 2013 at 4:16 pm
I found these online:
“If it’s dirty, clean it up. Don’t wait until later, do it now. It makes for a more peaceful house.”
Or
“If something is broke; try to fix it….if it’s dirty; clean it up…if it’s in the wrong place; put it back where it belongs.”
Anyone else?
June 15th, 2013 at 5:57 pm
This is close, but not it. It is 4 or 5 lines in the meter of lines I’ve written.
June 18th, 2013 at 5:13 am
Really all the poems are very useful…
could u pls help me with some skit or debate on the topic cleanliness …..for 4th std students assembly program .. pls help me
thanks
July 11th, 2013 at 11:44 am
Cleanliness cleanliness
It is next to godliness
Keeping our earth clean
Is our duty, and has ever been.
Throw the litter in dustbin
Avoid using polythene
Do not throw garbage in water
No matter whatever.
Keeping our earth clean
Is our duty, and has ever been.
September 24th, 2013 at 10:54 am
Clean clean clean the house ,
Get the mess all gone
And when ur done
With all ur chores
Ull have a happy home!
Just made it up… May work may not.. lol
To : row row row ur boat.
September 24th, 2013 at 11:09 am
Thanks for sharing!
October 9th, 2013 at 2:43 am
My mother created this concept when I was a child of “The Cleaning Fairy.” I started doing this with my kids and saw the huge results and benefits of it. I started sharing it with my friends and neighbors…and they all use it in their homes as well… their kids’ rooms are a non-issue now.
I wrote this concept into a storybook for my kids to have and to be able to share this fun cleaning trick with other moms (www.cleaningfairybook.com) as it is SO much more fun than nagging and IT WORKS! :)
Here is a little sample of the beginning of story rhyme:
A room full of toys
in disarray
showed careless chaos
and signs of decay.
A tired mommy
sat down to cry;
she’d tried coaxing and bribing
and giving “the eye.”
She’d threatened and yelled
’till her voice would boom,
begging her children
to pick up their room.
Finally exhausted
she let out a sigh,
familiar to ears
of the fairy nearby.
This fairy arrived
when she heard Mommy’s cries,
and then climbed up her knee
to look in her eyes.
The fairy’s eyes glistened
as she gave a warm smile,
and revealed a secret
that’s been proven worthwhile…
July 21st, 2014 at 11:22 am
thanks for nice and very awesome poem
September 25th, 2014 at 8:35 am
“If you sprinkle where you tinkle, please be neat and wipe the seat.”
October 8th, 2014 at 4:01 pm
i need a poem on cleanliness related with recycle, reuse and reduse. Even with the word eco-friendly. pls help me.
October 8th, 2014 at 4:04 pm
There are some recycling poems and songs here.
October 17th, 2014 at 11:26 am
Can anybody tell me a good poem on clean and green environment for my 5 year old kid.
November 13th, 2014 at 4:06 pm
thanks for the songs. they were of great help
November 14th, 2014 at 2:08 pm
i need sum gud small poem on cleaning toilets for class 5th. its a competition going to held all ovr country
November 16th, 2014 at 5:33 pm
Could I please get a poem or essay on ‘Self Cleanliness’
Thanks
November 18th, 2014 at 1:17 pm
Loved the poems…..but could you tell one short poem on clean toilet….its for my little sister:) thanx
November 18th, 2014 at 1:34 pm
This might not be what you have in mind – but I thought I’d post it because sometimes you see the saying here in the US:
“If you sprinkle when you tinkle
be a sweetie and wipe the seatie.”
November 18th, 2014 at 1:35 pm
When you work try to enjoy it,
Even when you scrub the toilet.
November 18th, 2014 at 1:38 pm
Here’s a song about cleaning up that’s sung to the tune of Frère Jacques:
Bits of Paper,
Bits of Paper,
Lying on the floor,
Lying on the floor,
Make the place untidy,
Make the place untidy,
Pick them up,
Pick them up.
December 17th, 2014 at 2:18 pm
Is there a polite poem about keeping a work place kitchen clean without too much offense?