I had a little brother. His name was Tiny Tim. I put him in the bathtub To teach him how to swim. He drank all the water. He ate all the soap. He died last night With a bubble in his throat. Jump-rope rhymes, chanted to maintain the rhythm of the game, have other, equally entertaining uses: You can dispatch bothersome younger siblings instantly—and temporarily. You can learn the name of your boyfriend through the magic words "Ice cream soda, Delaware Punch, Tell me the initials of my honey-bunch." You can perform the series of tasks set forth in "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, turn around" and find out who, really, is the most nimble. You can even, with impunity, "conk your teacher on the bean with a rotten tangerine. " This collection of over six hundred jump-rope rhymes, originally published in 1969, is an introduction into the world of children—their attitudes, their concerns, their humor. Like other children's folklore, the rhymes are both richly inventive and innocently derivative, ranging from on-the-spot improvisations to old standards like "Bluebells, cockleshells," with a generous sprinkling of borrowings from other play activities—nursery rhymes, counting-out rhymes, and taunts. Even adult attitudes of the time are appropriated, but expressed with the artless candor of the child: Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Catch Castro by the toe. If he hollers make him say "I surrender, U.S.A." Though aware that children's play serves social and psychological functions, folklorists had long neglected analytical study of children's lore because primary data was not available in organized form. Roger Abraham's Dictionary has provided such a bibliographical tool for one category of children's lore and a model for future compendia in other areas. The alphabetically arranged rhymes are accompanied by notes on sources, provenience, variants, and connection with other play activities.

This book presents a unique annotated collection of some 2000 playground games, rhymes, and wordplay of London children. It charts continuity and development in childlore at a time of major social and cultural change and offers a detailed snapshot of changes in the traditions and language of young people. Topics include: starting a game; counting-out rhymes; games (without songs); singing and chanting games; clapping, skipping, and ball bouncing games; school rhymes and parodies; teasing and taunting; traditional belief and practice; traditional wordplay; and a concluding miscellany. Recorded mainly in the 1980s by primary schoolteacher Nigel Kelsey, transcribed verbatim from the children’s own words, and accompanied by extensive commentaries and annotation, the book sets a wealth of new information in the wider historical and contemporary context of existing studies in Britain, Ireland, and other parts of the English-speaking world. This valuable new resource will open new avenues for research and be of particular interest to folklorists and linguists, as well as to those working across the full spectrum of social, cultural, and educational studies.

Notes and Sources to Folk Songs of the Catskills, also published by the State University of New York Press, is the companion volume to Folk Songs of the Catskills. It contains extensive reference notes that exemplify and support detailed citations in the commentary preceding each song. The book also includes a comprehensive list of sources, including books, broadsides or pocket songsters, disc recordings, music publications, periodicals, tape archives, and other miscellaneous material, as well as information on variants, adaptations, comments or references, texts, and tunes. These notes are designed to provide succinct reference information.

From conkers to marbles, from British Bulldog to tag, not forgetting 'one potato, two potato' and 'eeny, meeny, miny, mo', The Lore of the Playground looks at the games children have enjoyed, the rhymes they have chanted and the rituals and traditions they have observed over the past hundred years and more. Each generation, it emerges, has had its own favourites - hoops and tops in the 1930s, clapping games more recently. Some pastimes, such as skipping, have proved remarkably resilient, their complicated rules carefully handed down from one class to the next. Many are now the stuff of distant memory. And some traditions have proved to be strongly regional, loved by children in one part of the country, unknown to those elsewhere. All are brilliantly and meticulously recorded by Steve Roud, who has drawn on interviews with hundreds of people aged from 8 to 80 to create a fascinating picture of all our childhoods.

"Teachers' bulletin", vol. 4- issued as part of v. 23, no. 9-

In this new edition of their groundbreaking Kodály Today, Mícheál Houlahan and Philip Tacka offer an expertly-researched, thorough, and -- most importantly -- practical approach to transforming curriculum goals into tangible, achievable musical objectives and effective lesson plans. Their model -- grounded in the latest research in music perception and cognition -- outlines the concrete practices behind constructing effective teaching portfolios, selecting engaging music repertoire for the classroom, and teaching musicianship skills successfully to elementary students of all degrees of proficiency. Addressing the most important questions in creating and teaching Kodály-based programs, Houlahan and Tacka write through a practical lens, presenting a clear picture of how the teaching and learning processes go hand-in-hand. Their innovative approach was designed through a close, six-year collaboration between music instructors and researchers, and offers teachers an easily-followed, step-by-step roadmap for developing students' musical understanding and metacognition skills. A comprehensive resource in the realm of elementary music education, this book is a valuable reference for all in-service music educators, music supervisors, and students and instructors in music education.