The traditional English nursery rhyme “This Old Man” is a popular counting song taught to children in pre-school or even at home. The song was first published in 1937 by the nursery rhymes collector Anne Gilchrist in the “Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society”, as she remembered hearing it as a child in the 1870s. A few years years before that, a new version of the song was also recorded in the “English Folk-Songs for Schools” collection published in 1906 by the Cecil Sharp and Sabine Baring-Gould.
Lyrics Of This Old Man Nursery Rhyme
This old man, he played one,
He played knick-knack on my thumb;
With a knick-knack paddywhack,
Give the dog a bone,
This old man came rolling home.
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This old man, he played two,
He played knick-knack on my shoe;
With a knick-knack paddywhack,
Give the dog a bone,
This old man came rolling home.
This old man, he played three,
He played knick-knack on my knee;
With a knick-knack paddywhack,
Give the dog a bone,
This old man came rolling home.
This old man, he played four,
He played knick-knack on my door;
With a knick-knack paddywhack,
Give the dog a bone,
This old man came rolling home.
This old man, he played five,
He played knick-knack on my hive;
With a knick-knack paddywhack,
Give the dog a bone,
This old man came rolling home.
This old man, he played six,
He played knick-knack on my sticks;
With a knick-knack paddywhack,
Give the dog a bone,
This old man came rolling home.
This old man, he played seven,
He played knick-knack up in heaven;
With a knick-knack paddywhack,
Give the dog a bone,
This old man came rolling home.
This old man, he played eight,
He played knick-knack on my gate;
With a knick-knack paddywhack,
Give the dog a bone,
This old man came rolling home.
This old man, he played nine,
He played knick-knack on my spine;
With a knick-knack paddywhack,
Give the dog a bone,
This old man came rolling home.
This old man, he played ten,
He played knick-knack once again;
With a knick-knack paddywhack,
Give the dog a bone,
This old man came rolling home.
Theme Of The Rhyme This Old Man
This Old Man is a catchy English song for kids. It is a classic counting song, used to teach children about numbers and their sequence in a fun and engaging way. In the first go, the lyrics seem to be unrelated, with the sole intention of bringing in counting and rhyming. However, if you pay close attention and read the phrases in the linguistic context, you will see an underlying story in it. In the ancient context of this rhyme, this song is about an old beggar who went door to door and played some tunes to earn some money. After his day’s collection, he would return back home in happy spirits. However, to make this song appropriate in the context of a nursery rhyme, this song can be explained to kids as the story of a man who works hard throughout the day and returns home “rolling”, i.e. happy with the day’s success.
What Will Your Child Learn From The Rhyme ‘This Old Man’
Children will enjoy singing this song and even staging performances on it. It is a long song however it is easy to memorise as the verses follow a numerical system. Children are taught this rhyme because it has several learning outcomes. Children will be able to learn and revise the numbers through this rhyme, which will make them adept at counting. This might be one of the first long song that they are introduced to. The number sequence will help them remember each verse, improving their memory and raising their confidence. The poem also teaches children about hard work and the joy of success.
Even if your child is still too young to delve deep into the meaning behind the song, encourage them to enjoy it with actions like tapping on their thumb, knee or spine when it is mentioned or pretending to play music with an imaginary instrument in their hand at the mention of knick-knack, and rolling their hands at the last verse. Learning these gestures will help your child visualise and imagine the meaning behind the words while working on their motor skills.
Rhyming Scheme Of ‘This Old Man’
You can observe a distinct rhyming pattern in the poem This Old Man. The base lines remain constant in every verse, with only the numbers and their corresponding rhyming words changing with each paragraph. The rhyming scheme can be defined as AABB, with the first two lines rhyming with each other. Set to a catchy tune, children will enjoy reciting it in its rhythming tune and melody.
Words That Your Child Will Learn From ‘This Old Man’
The purpose of nursery rhymes is to introduce children to new words and concepts, which they can imagine while enjoying the rhymes. In this particular rhyme, children will learn some commonly used words as well as some archaic or specific cultural words which they might not have heard in day to day life. Some words that you can encourage your child to pay close attention to are:
Old: You can teach your child about opposite words by drawing their attention to the word Old and introducing its opposite, Young. While performing actions on this song, they can enact an old person to create a visual memory of the word Old.
Knick-knack: This is a jargon used in olden times to denote tunes that were played with tools like spoons, sticks or simple tools and instruments. Children can be given a clearer understanding of this term by teaching them a gesture or air-drumming each time the phrase comes up in the rhyme.
Give A Dog A Bone: This is an expression in the English language which means to sympathise and help out someone by giving them what they need.
The number names: Most prominently, children will learn the number names from one through ten in this rhyme.
Rhyming words: Each number used in the song has its rhyming word in the next line of the verse, eg One-Thumb, Two-Shoe, Three-Knee and so on.
Sight Words: While these words can’t be represented in pictures, it becomes easy for children to learn sight words when they repeatedly occur in rhymes. Some sight words in this rhyme are This, He, On and With.
Body Parts: The mention of body parts in this rhyme, like Thumb, Knee and Spine makes learning about their body interesting for children. Guide them to show their thumb, or tap their knee every time the parts of their body are mentioned.
Common Objects: Children will learn by visualising various objects that are mentioned in the song to rhyme with the numbers, e.g. shoe, door, sticks and gate.
Suggested Activity
1. Performance Time! Teach your child some actions to go along with the song and prepare them for a fun performance. This will increase their confidence and will build a good foundation of the art.
2. Worksheets: Here’s a fun worksheet you can prepare for your child. Get some images depicting all the places where the old man “played knick-knack”, jumble them up in a random order and place them on a sheet. Now ask your child to draw the correct number of dots on each of these images, to match with the number the old man played.
3. Let’s roll: This is a fun activity which you can play with your child on weekends. Lay a clean carpet on the floor and ask your child to lie down on one end of it. Now teach them how to completely roll on the floor and reach all the way to the other end of the carpet- Let’s call that end the “home”. How, sing one verse of the rhyme and ask your child to roll all the way home by the time you complete the verse. This is a fun idea to keep your child active even when they’re indoors. With multiple children, you could even make it a race!
