Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush Lyrics
Walk in a ring, then stop and act out a chore. Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush turns everyday routines like washing hands into a game small children ask to repeat.
Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush
Here we go round the mulberry bush,
The mulberry bush, the mulberry bush,
Here we go round the mulberry bush.
On a cold and frosty morning.
More verses
This is the way we wash our hands,
Wash our hands, wash our hands,
This is the way we wash our hands,
On a cold and frosty morning.
This is the way we wash our clothes.
Wash our clothes, wash our clothes,
This is the way we wash our clothes,
On a cold and frosty morning.
This is the way we go to school,
Go to school, go to school,
This is the way we go to school,
On a cold and frosty morning.
This is the way we come out of school,
Come out of school, come out of school,
This is the way we come out of school,
On a cold and frosty morning.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/here-we-go-round-the-mulberry-bush/
- Type
- Action Songs
- First published
- 1840s
- Tune
- Traditional
- Best for ages
- 2 to 6 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| Here we go round the mulberry bush | Hold hands in a circle and walk or skip around. |
| On a cold and frosty morning | Stop and hug yourself, shivering. |
| This is the way we wash our hands | Rub your hands together as if washing them. |
| This is the way we wash our clothes | Scrub pretend clothes up and down. |
| This is the way we go to school | March on the spot with a pretend school bag. |
What Does Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush Mean?
The song is a game of pretend: after each walk around the "bush", children mime a daily task. It works well for teaching routines, and you can invent new verses for anything, such as brushing teeth or putting on shoes.
A well known local story says it began with women prisoners at Wakefield prison in England walking around a mulberry tree in the exercise yard. It is a nice story, but it cannot be confirmed.
History and Origin
The song was recorded by the collector James Orchard Halliwell in the 1840s as a children's game. Similar circle songs, sometimes around a bramble bush instead of a mulberry bush, were played across Britain and America in the 1800s.
Learning Activities
- Routine song: make up verses for your own morning routine: brush our teeth, comb our hair, eat our breakfast.
- Leader game: take turns choosing the action for the next verse.
- Real mulberries: look at pictures of mulberry trees and berries.