Intery, Mintery Lyrics
Who has to be "it"? Stand in a circle, point around the ring one word at a time, and whoever is left on "out" is safe. Intery, Mintery has been settling that question for generations.
Intery, Mintery
Intery, mintery, cutery corn,
Apple seed and apple thorn;
Wire, brier, limber-lock,
Five geese in a flock,
Sit and sing by a spring,
O-u-t, and in again.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/intery-mintery/
- Type
- Counting Rhymes
- Tune
- Chanted rhyme
- Best for ages
- 4 to 10 years
What Does Intery, Mintery Mean?
Most of the words mean nothing, and that is the point. Counting-out rhymes need a strong beat and sounds that are fun to say, not a story. A few real words slip in: apple seed, apple thorn, a brier (a thorny bush) and five geese in a flock. The last line spells out O-U-T, one letter per child, so the count always ends cleanly.
History and Origin
Rhymes like "Intery, mintery, cutery corn" turn up in many old collections on both sides of the Atlantic. Henry Carrington Bolton gathered hundreds of counting-out rhymes in the 1880s and noticed how often the same nonsense syllables reappear in different countries. This version is from The Real Mother Goose (1916).
Learning Activities
- Pick who's it: point at a different child on each word. The one you land on with the last letter is out of the count.
- Spell it out: slow down on O-U-T and let the children say each letter with you.