Pop Goes The Weasel nursery rhyme for kids is a traditional English and American song. It has been performed as a country dance, nursery rhyme, and singing game since the mid-19th century. It is commonly found in Jack-in-the-box toys and even ice cream trucks. The song is honoured annually on June 14 as National Pop Goes the Weasel Day.
Teach your kids Pop Goes The Weasel poem with these lyrics given below:
Lyrics Of The Rhyme Pop Goes The Weasel in English
Half a pound of tuppenny rice,
Half a pound of treacle.
That’s the way the money goes,
Pop! goes the weasel.
Up and down the City road,
In and out the Eagle,
That’s the way the money goes,
Pop! goes the weasel.
All around the Mulberry Bush,
The monkey chased the weasel.
The monkey stopped to pull up his sock,
Pop! goes the weasel.
Half a pound of tuppenny rice,
Half a pound of treacle.
Mix it up and make it nice,
Pop! goes the weasel.
What Will Your Child Learn From Pop Goes The Weasel?
Pop Goes The Weasel is a musical song that kids would enjoy listening. The rhythmic beat of the song makes it soothing for babies and toddlers to keep them occupied and interested in the song.
Children will learn a lot through this song, especially some old English words that are not commonly used in day-to-day life. Through this rhyme, they would be exposed to those concepts too. For instance, the word “Tuppeny” is a colloquial slang word for rice pudding that costs two pennies.
Theme Of The Rhyme Pop Goes The Weasel
The rhyme Pop Goes The Weasel is a bit complex to understand as it includes several traditional phrases as well as metaphorical and symbolic words. For instance, the main phrase of the rhyme “Pop Goes The Weasel” is interpreted as selling off a coat at a pawn shop. The direct words don’t seem to be related to pawning a coat in any way, however, if you break down the words and the significance behind the, can conclude that the word ‘weasel’ has been shortened from ‘weasel and stoat’ which means coat.
The word ‘Pop’ too was a slang term used to pawn off some belongings.
Further, there are terms in the rhyme such as ‘City road’ which in context may refer to a well-known pawn shop located at ‘City Road’ in olden Britain.
‘Eagle’ in the rhyme may refer to a popular pub by the name of Eagle Tavern, which happened to be located on City Road too.
Delving into these interpretations, you can make out the theme of the song Pop Goes The Weasel. The rhyme talks about the various expenses that one faces in daily life. The first stanza talks about food items like rice and treacle, which was known to be a downright poor man’s food. And for buying these items for half a pound each, one had to go pawn off a coat.
The next stanza talks about going to a pub, perhaps to wash off one’s woes. But that too, bears a considerable expense, for which one had to pawn off a coat.
The third stanza too talks about excessive drinking with slangs ‘Monkey’ referring to a king of jug of alcohol. In this paragraph, the person pulls up his socks to take charge of the situation, however, the money had depleted, and selling some clothes to earn money was the only solution.
The rhyme talks about the circle of poverty and how the money quickly goes away in various expenditures in a day of a poor person’s life.
Rhyming Scheme Of Pop Goes The Weasel
The rhyming pattern in the poem Pop Goes The Weasel is ABCD EBCD FBCD
Words That Your Child Will Learn From Pop Goes The Weasel
Children will learn several new words from this rhyme. Some of these new words may be confusing for them at first, as the rhyme is full of slang, jargons and old English words that may not be in use anymore.
Song simpler words that you can teach your child through this rhyme are:
- Pound
- Rice
- Treacle
- Money
- Weasel
- Road
- Eagle
- Mulberry
- Bush
- Monkey
- Socks
Suggested Activities
The best method of learning English nursery rhymes is through fun games and activities. Here are some activities that you can perform with your child to make them understand this rhyme better.
1. Where Does The Money Go?
- The rhyme Pop Goes The Weasel talks about various expenses in day-to-day life. This is a good chance to teach your kids all about money and budgeting.
- Ask them to list out various things they require to buy during the day.
- You too can make a similar list of your expenditures to demonstrate.
- Now, you can make this more interesting by making up your verses of this rhyme!
- Learn how to do that in the next activity!
2. Create Your Own Verses To Follow
- Now that your child has listed out a few expenses that they face daily, they can write it down in form of phrases or sentences.
- Just like the original song, it is okay if the words don’t rhyme.
- Write the first sentence introducing the expense.
- In the next sentence, elaborate on why the expenditure becomes necessary.
- Follow this with the common lines of the poem, “That’s the way the money goes, Pop goes the weasel”.
- For instance, you may find yourself making up the following lines –
“Half a buck for the Taxi ride
On the way to the school and back
That’s the way the money goes,
Pop goes the weasel!”“Two hundred for a movie ticket
With family on the weekend
That’s the way the money goes
Pop goes the weasel”
FAQs
1. At what age can my child learn the rhyme Pop Goes The Weasel?
Ans. The song Pop Goes The Weasel is complex for toddlers to understand, however the musical rhyme can prove effective as a soothing mechanism while trying to keep them occupied or calming them down.
2. Why is National Pop Goes the Weasel Day celebrated?
Ans. National Pop Goes The Weasel Day is observed on June 14. It is not often that you see a day dedicated to celebrate a particular nursery rhyme, however this special day honours the rhyme Pop Goes The Weasel, which has been around for almost 300 years now. This day commemorates the era in which the song was set, giving us a throwback to childhood memories as well a reminder of the comment on the social-economic scenario during that era and the poverty that people had to face.
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