Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

And

Ring Around the Rosies

 

Level: TBD

Aims: Exposure to English culture, develop dictionary skills, vocabulary development

Grammar: No grammar aims here.

Time: 30 minutes

Materials: Photocopies of the rhymes, dictionary

 

Introduction This activity introduces two traditional English children’s rhymes. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star is traditionally recited when you see the first star at night. Traditionally, you make a wish; you “wish upon the star.” Ring Around the Rosies is an English girl’s rhyme. This is traditionally recited by girls in a circle holding hands, skipping together clockwise and counterclockwise. At “we all fall down,” the girls fall to the ground. Ring Around the Rosies is still recited by English-speaking girls to this day.

What’s interesting about Ring Around the Rosies is that its meaning has been lost in time. The poem dates to the European Dark Ages and the plague, called “the Black Death.” The plague killed appalling numbers and severely depopulated Europe. Europeans had no conception of quarantine or sanitation at the time, and the actual cause of the Black Death was unknown. The only thing they could do was burn the bodies. English girls would recite Ring Around the Rosies primarily because they were afraid of dying (“we all fall down”)…! However, this macabre gloss has been lost in time; if you asked an English girl the meaning of the poem, she would be unable to tell you.

The students will be given photocopies of the Text of the Rhymes. Using the Text of the Rhymes with Notes, go through the text. Follow this with the Discussion Questions.

 

 

Text of the Rhymes

 

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

 

Twinkle, twinkle, little star

How I wonder what you are

I wish I may, I wish I might

Have the wish I wished tonight.

 

 

Ring Around the Rosies

 

Ring around the rosies

Pocket full of posies

Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!

 

 

 

Text of the Rhymes with Notes

 

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

 

  • Discuss how you traditionally “wish upon a star”. In English culture we also often wish upon falling stars (comets, etc.).

 

Twinkle, twinkle, little star

  • Dictionary lookup: “twinkle”

How I wonder what you are

  • Point out the rhyme: star/are

I wish I may, I wish I might

Have the wish I wished tonight.

  • Point out the rhyme: might/tonight
  • Point out the assonance: wish/wished. Say: “This is pretty to an English ear.”
  • Ask the students: “What do the last two lines mean?”

 

 

Ring Around the Rosies

 

  • Discuss how English girls play at skipping in a circle to this rhyme. Have the class play ring-around-the-rosies.

 

Ring around the rosies

  • Ask the class: “What does this mean?” Discuss “ring” as a verb.
  • Dictionary lookup: “rose.” Rosies à roses. Discuss the diminutive (eg, pup/puppy)

Pocket full of posies

  • Dictionary lookup: “posy”
  • Point out the rhyme: rosie/posie. Say: “This is pretty to an English ear.”

Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!

  • Ask the students: “What does this mean?” Discuss the origins of the poem.

 

 

Questions for Discussion

    1. Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star is part of an English tradition to “wish upon a star”. In English culture we also often wish upon falling stars (comets, etc.). Is there anything like this in Korean culture?
    2. Ring Around the Rosies come from the European Dark Ages and was recited by girls because of the plague, called “the Black Death.” Why do you think they played this game?
    3. English girls still play Ring Around the Rosies but most of them don’t know the meaning of the poem. Why do you think English girls still play this game? Why do you think they have forgotten its meaning, about the plague?