Girls and Boys Come Out to Play Lyrics
The moon is as bright as day, so leave your supper and come outside. Girls and Boys Come Out to Play is an old invitation to a moonlit street game, with pudding at the end.
Girls and Boys Come Out to Play
Girls and boys, come out to play,
The moon doth shine as bright as day;
Leave your supper, and leave your sleep,
And come with your playfellows into the street.
Come with a whoop, come with a call,
Come with a good will or not at all.
Up the ladder and down the wall,
A half-penny roll will serve us all.
You find milk, and I'll find flour,
And we'll have a pudding in half an hour.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/girls-and-boys-come-out-to-play/
- Type
- Action Songs, Mother Goose
- Tune
- Traditional
- Best for ages
- 3 to 8 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| Girls and boys, come out to play | Wave everyone over to join the circle. |
| The moon doth shine as bright as day | Make a big circle with your arms over your head. |
| Come with a whoop, come with a call | Cup your hands and give a loud whoop. |
| Up the ladder and down the wall | Climb up with your hands, then slide them down. |
What Does Girls and Boys Come Out to Play Mean?
It is a call to play. The moon is full and bright, so children are told to leave their supper and their beds and come into the street. Everyone is welcome, as long as they come in a good mood: "with a good will or not at all".
The end turns into a shared feast. A half-penny roll was a small, cheap bread roll, and if one child brings milk and another brings flour, together they can make a pudding.
History and Origin
Before street lights, a full moon was the one time a village street was bright enough to play in after dark, and many old games were played by moonlight. The rhyme is in the 1810 edition of Gammer Gurton's Garland and in Halliwell's collections of the 1840s. The version here, from The Real Mother Goose (1916), keeps the longer ending with the pudding.
Learning Activities
- Moon watch: check a calendar for the next full moon and go outside together to see how bright it really is.
- Calling game: one child stands apart and calls the first two lines. Everyone else runs to join them before the end of the rhyme.
- Make the pudding: mix milk and flour (with an adult) and talk about what else a pudding needs.
- Old and new: ask a grandparent what games they played outside as a child.