A Copper Down a Crack Lyrics
A copper has gone down a crack, and twenty men and their wives dig with sticks and picks and pocket knives to get it back. It is a tiny loss with a huge rescue.
A Copper Down a Crack
Jingle, jingle, Jack,
A copper down a crack.
Twenty men and all their wives,
With sticks and picks and pocket knives,
Digging for their very lives
To get the copper back.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/a-copper-down-a-crack/
- Type
- Poems for Children
- Written by
- Leroy F. Jackson
- Tune
- Chanted briskly, with a rattle on the Jingle, jingle, Jack
- Best for ages
- 3 to 7 years
What Does A Copper Down a Crack Mean?
A copper is a small coin, such as a penny, so called because it is made of copper metal. The coin has slipped into a crack in the floor or the ground, and the rhyme makes a very big fuss about it. Twenty men and all their wives turn up with tools, and they are "digging for their very lives", an exaggeration that means digging as hard as they can. The joke is the difference in size: one small coin and a whole crowd.
The sounds do a lot of work. Jingle sounds like a coin, and the lines rhyme in a rattle: Jack with crack and back, and wives, knives and lives together.
History and Origin
The rhyme is by Leroy F. Jackson, whose book of rhymes for children is dated 1918.
Learning Activities
- Coin hunt: hide a toy coin under a cushion and let the child search, saying the rhyme as they look.
- Count the diggers: draw twenty stick people with their wives and count them in twos.
- Tap the rhymes: clap on every rhyming word, crack and back, wives, knives and lives.
- How would you rescue it: ask what a sensible way to get a coin out of a crack would be, such as asking a grown-up for help.