Sing
a song of
Sixpence
Sing a song of Sixpence, probably one fo the too famialr to sing kids songs! It seems the merry tone of this song doesn't fit its lyrics?! If you can't remember or don't know how to sing this song, go to the official BBC Education page and let it shows you how to sing this merry song !
While
singing this song, kids can play as follows (based on the game suggested in
'Kiddles Song of the Day Sheet Music':
Group
children into two sets of equal numbers. Have one set join hands and form a
circle, the others in the center of the ring, in crouching position. Start singing
and having fun:
Sing a song
of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye;
(Children
in circle skip to the left while singing)
Four and twenty blackbirds,
Baked in a pie.
(Children
in circle skip to the right,
then stretch arms up toward center to form the pie.)
When the pie
was opened,
The birds began to sing;
(Children
in circle bring arms back down to waist level,
then children in center of ring begin to 'chirp' and 'tweet')
Was not that
a dainty dish,
To set before the king ?
(Children
in circle skip to the left;
children in center flutter about like birds.)
The
king was in his counting-house,
Counting out his money;
(Children in circle
walk backward
four steps then pretend to count money;
children in center keep fluttering like birds)
The queen was in the parlour,
Eating bread and honey.
(Children in circle
walk forward four steps,
kneel and pretend to eat; Children in center keep fluttering like birds)
The maid was
in the garden,
Hanging out the clothes,
(Children in circle
pretend to pick up clothes,
then turn outward and hang them up.)
Along came a blackbird,
And snapped off her house.
(Children
in center flutter to, and run around,
those in the circle, one bird to one child, each snapping
off a nose. Those in the circle kneel and the birds each
hold up one finger to represent the nose.)
Repeat, with the children changing positions.
As it feel
upon the ground
'Twas spied by Jenny Wren,
Who took a stick of sealing wax
And suck it on again.
As they saw
the nose stuck on
The maids cried out 'Hooray!'
Till someone said, 'But it is suck
The topsy-turvy way !'
They took
her to the King
Who just replied, 'What stuff!
"Tis better far put on that way.
So nice for taking stuff !'
They bought
a pound of Lundyfoot
And threw it in her face.
She sneezed 'Achool !' which twisted it
Into its proper place.
More about this rhyme:
(1)
About the Broken Nose Maid:
Very oftern, the rhyme ends after the balckbird snapped off the maid's nose.
The continuation of how the maid's nose is fixed was told by Mrs. Moria Newell's
mother's mother, who came from Ayrshie. Jenny Wren was also the heroine in the
version Randolph Caldecott illustrated in 1880. It was told that the maid's
nose was replaced, albeit imperfectly, wiht the aid of sealing wax. Lundyfoot
was a brand of snuff which, so it is said, would make a man snort and snuffle
if he took too much. It was named after Lundy Foot, a Dublin tobaconist, whose
address is given in the Dublin Directory, 1776, as 8 Essex Bridge (I think this
place was once mentioned in 'Earl Cain' too, remember?!)
(2)
About the King and the Blackbird :
This
rhyme may be related to Henry VIII and his 24 monasteries away from the Monks
of the Catholic Church after the reformation. The Monks are the "black
birds" and the deeds to the monasteries were supposedly placed inside a
pie and given to King Henry - Cooks
could tell if a pie was done by its sounds of crackling and singing--much like
that of a black bird. <
all these contents in point 2 are all extracted from another site about this
rhyme >
(3) Learn More about The Story Behind !
(4) More
and More about this rhyme
It
seems that many implications, projections, explainations laid in this rhyme?
For example, one said that the 24 Black Birds mean the 24 hours, whereas the
King is the Son andthe Queen is the Moon, etc. , etc.