lunes, 30 de septiembre de 2013

Ring O'Roses

About two weeks ago we saw different nursery rhymes. Particulary, I find very interesting the political meaning that they have hidden. Even if we saw their meanings a little bit in class, I was very curious about one in concret. If you see the picture above, then you should know about which one I am talking about. The thing is that I have been doing a little research and this is what I have found:

  • 1881The first version of Ring a Ring of Roses was recorded. When it appeared in Kate Greenway's edition of Mother Goose. It however, refferred to twenty six years before that in Ann S Stephen's novel The Old Homestead, which describes children playing this game in NY.
Ring-a-ring-a-roses, 
A pocket full of posies; 
Hush! hush! hush! hush!
We're all tumbled down.

  • 1833William Newel reported two versions in America, and one version claimed to be current in New Bedford, Massachussetts in 1790.
Ring a ring a Rosie, 
A bottle full of posie, 
All the girls in our town 
Ring for little Josie.

  • 1883All the versions were recorded in England which included the now familiar sneezing motif, for example:
A ring, a ring o' roses, 
A pocket full o'posies- 
Atch chew! atch chew!
  • 1892 Twelve version were listed by Alice Gomme. In that list there was included one like the version that currently is sung in Britain:
Ring a-ring o' roses, 
A pocketful of posies. 
a-tishoo!, a-tishoo!. 
We all fall down.

WHAT does it refer to?

The rhyme is referred to the black death. 

  • Ring a ring of roses:  buboes that were red as a rose and very big.
  • A pocket full a poses: people used to keep a poses herb in their pocket since it was believed that it would keep the plaque away.
  • A tissue a tissue: the symptoms they had.
  • We all fall down: the dying part of their lives.



Here, you can see a video  in which this song is beeing sung and  danced by four more classmates (Andrea Sáez, Rocío Martínez, Isabel Prior and Cristina Moneva) and me. We had to change the rhyme and also add some choral speaking. You can see in the video, how we mix the different types of choral speaking, such as antiphon, comulative or solo lines!

I think we can learn a lot from these kind of activities. Children love singing and dancing, and the thing is that they are learning a lot of things such as phonics or vocabulary while they are having a great time! Didn't we have a great time doing it? I hope you enjoy the video as much as I enjoyed the activity! 



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