Chants and rhymes

In school playgrounds and in the streets, clapping and skipping chants and rhymes have rung out over the ages and are still heard in playgrounds of today. For learning, chants and rhymes were important for aiding memory, engaging students, developing language skills and preserving culture.

Skipping rhymes

Skipping with long ropes was very popular in school playgrounds of the late 1950s to 1970s, particularly amongst girls. A child held each end of the rope to turn it and a group of children would line up to wait their turn to jump in the turning rope. Sometimes the group would all skip in the rope together.

The rhymes directed the rhythm of the jumping and the run into and out of the turning rope. For example, ‘Down the Murray-Darling if you miss a beat you’re out’ is four jumps over the rope then running out on the word ‘out’. The challenge was for the next person to enter the rope when the previous person exited so that the jumps continued without missing a beat. Down the Murray-Darling’ is an Australian version of the original rhyme ‘Down the Mississippi’.

Down the Murray-Darling… Down the Murray-Darling if you miss a beat you’re out!

Old skipping rhymes can give us a glimpse into the daily lives of the past. ‘Penny on the water’ uses the pre-decimal currency of pennies, tuppences and threepences.

Penny on the water … Penny on the water Tuppence on the sea Threepence on the railway – out goes she.

In ‘Granny in the kitchen’, granny is in the warm kitchen probably doing the mending of holes in socks and missing buttons. Kitchens of the past had a table which was the main gathering and workspace of the house. Many people rented their houses and were evicted if late with their rent, hence the bogeyman – landlord – kicking granny out.

Granny in the kitchen Granny in the kitchen Doing a bit of stitchin’ Along comes a bogeyman And kicks her out! Bogeyman in the kitchen Doing a bit of stitching Along comes Granny And kicks him out!

Girls skipping with a long skipping rope at Wallsend South Public School, 1957. Source – SLNSW, Home and Away – 29350. In copyright. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales. Courtesy copyright holder. (Cropped)

Some skipping rhymes had a count at the end. This is where the skipping rope was turned fast and the skipper jumped one jump for every rope turn. This was sometimes called ‘peppers’. The count was the number of jumps the child could stay jumping the rope.

Cinderella dressed in pink Cinderella dressed in pink Went downstairs to the kitchen sink The kitchen sink was full of ink How many mouthfuls did she drink? 1, 2, 3, 4 …

Postman’s knock Early in the morning, about eight o’clock What should I hear but the postman’s knock. Up jumps(name)  to open the door How many letters did they find on the floor? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 …

Sometimes the count was the alphabet for each skip as in ‘Tell me the name of your sweetheart’. When the person stopped jumping they had to say a name starting with the letter they stopped at, such as P for Peter – the sweetheart.

Tell me the name of your sweetheart Black-currant, red-currant, raspberry tart Tell me the name of your sweetheart. A, B, C, D, E, F …

Synchronised hand-clapping rhymes

Often clapped in pairs, and more challenging in fours, hand-clapping rhymes can provide an historical narrative of lives and events of the time. For instance, ‘Ahem’ gives us a glimpse into a time before whooping cough vaccines and an idea of attitudes towards newly invented margarine which was seen as the poor person’s alternative to butter. It was invented by a French chemist in 1869 and was pale and runny and not the yellow spread we use today.

Children in the playground of Bombala Public School playing clapping chants and small circle games, 1890. Source – MHNSW NRS-15051-1-4-[231] (cropped).

Ahem Ahem, ahem, my mother has gone to church. She said I’m not to play with you Because you’re in the dirt. It isn’t because you’re dirty It isn’t because you’re clean It’s because you’ve got the whooping cough And eat margarine!

‘Pounds, shillings and pence’, like ‘Penny on the water’ refers to pre-decimal currency, with imperial currency used in Australia until 14 February 1966. One shilling was 12 pennies – pence. One pound was 20 shillings.

Pounds, shillings and pence Pounds, shillings and pence The horse jumped over the fence The fence gave way, and the man had to pay Pounds, shillings and pence. Pounds, shillings and pence The cow jumped over the fence Hitched its tale on a rusty nail Pounds, shillings and pence.

The lines of clapping rhymes were often simple and complicated clapping patterns could be invented by children. Sometimes the rhymes got faster and faster such as in ‘A sailor went to sea’ with the challenge of going faster and faster without missing a word or beat.

Bread and jam Mary had bread and jam Marmalade and treacle A bit for me and a bit for you And a bit for all the people.

A sailor went to sea A sailor went to sea, sea, sea To see what he could see, see, see But all that he could see, see, see Was the bottom of the deep blue sea, sea, sea.

Circle games

From the ‘new era’ of education in 1905, when infants classes were taught separately, circle games were used in learning to improve gross motor co-ordination. It was believed that developing gross motor skills positively influenced fine motor skills used in handwriting.

This photograph taken at Blackfriars School in 1916 by the NSW Department of Education is titled ‘running position’. It is likely the children are moving around the circle to a rhyme or clapped rhythm. Source – MHNSW NRS-4481-3-[7/15900]-M4887 Out of copyright (cropped).

Some circle games were chasing games such as ‘Drop the hanky’, very similar to ‘Duck duck goose’ today. ‘Drop the hanky’ is from a time when children always came to school with a handkerchief in their pocket, before tissues were invented. It was also a time when letters in the mail were the main form of communication.

To play, children sit in a circle. One child skips around outside of circle with a handkerchief and secretly drops it behind a seated child. When that child realizes they pick up the hanky and try to tag the child who dropped it before they get back to their spot.

Drop the hanky I wrote a letter to my mother On the way I dropped it Someone must have picked it up And put it in their pocket. It wasn’t me, it wasn’t you It wasn’t Father Christmas Someone must have picked it up And put it in their pocket.

Sometimes the origins of a rhyme are lost as with the action rhyme ‘The grand old duke of York’, an English children’s rhyme. There is debate on the duke it refers to, however, the ‘ten thousand men’ are an army of soldiers.

To play it, the children form a circle, ideally holding hands. They march around clockwise to the rhythm of the rhyme. The children raise their hands for ‘top of the hill’ then lower them for ‘down again’. They raise their arms for ‘up’, lower them for ‘down’ and hold them out straight at waist height for ‘halfway up’.

Grand old duke of York There was once a king of York Who had ten thousand men He marched them up to the top of a hill And led them down again, And when they were up they were up And when they were down they were down, And when they were only half way up They were neither up nor down.

Banner image – children in the playground at South Arm Public School, circa 1959. South Arm was a small school in the Northern Rivers region of NSW operating 1871 to 1967. The school building pictured is a replica of North Ryde Public School’s first schoolroom. Photograph of South Arm Public School (2025-90 Inspector Falkenmire Collection)

Further reading

Douglas, Norman. 1916. London Street Games. [online] Available at: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/74350