Did You Ever See a Lassie Lyrics
One child stands in the middle of the ring and invents a movement. Everyone else has to copy it. Did You Ever See a Lassie is a follow-the-leader game set to music, and it works with any number of children from about three upward.
Did You Ever See a Lassie
Did you ever see a lassie, a lassie, a lassie,
Did you ever see a lassie do this way and that?
Do this way and that way, and this way and that way.
Did you ever see a lassie do this way and that?
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/did-you-ever-see-a-lassie/
- Type
- Action Songs
- Tune
- Traditional (O du lieber Augustin)
- Best for ages
- 3 to 7 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| Did you ever see a lassie, a lassie, a lassie | Hold hands in a circle and walk around. |
| do this way and that? | Stop. The child in the middle shows a movement: waving, hopping, stirring a pot. |
| Do this way and that way, and this way and that way | Everyone copies the movement, facing the middle. |
| Did you ever see a lassie do this way and that? | Keep copying to the end, then the leader picks the next child. |
What Does Did You Ever See a Lassie Mean?
A lassie is a Scottish word for a girl, and a laddie is a boy. The song asks the circle whether they have ever seen a girl move "this way and that", and then the whole group tries it. When a boy is in the middle, children usually sing "Did you ever see a laddie" instead.
History and Origin
The tune is much older than the words. It is the melody of O du lieber Augustin, a Viennese folk song, and English-speaking kindergartens were singing the lassie words to it by the early 1900s. The version above comes from The Song Play Book (1917), a collection of singing games compiled by Mary A. Wollaston for New York schools. The book suggests movements "of the household, of the farm", such as sweeping and scrubbing, which is still a good place to start.
Learning Activities
- Jobs around the house: the leader mimes sweeping, washing, stirring or hanging out laundry. It gives shy children an easy idea.
- Animal round: every leader has to be an animal: a frog hop, an elephant trunk, a flapping bird.
- Mirror pairs: for two players, sit face to face and take turns being the lassie or laddie.