Little Girl, Little Girl, Where Have You Been? Lyrics
A little girl has been picking roses for the Queen, and the Queen has paid her back with a diamond as big as her shoe. It is a short rhyme about a big imagination.
Little Girl, Little Girl, Where Have You Been?
Little girl, little girl, where have you been?
Gathering roses to give to the Queen.
Little girl, little girl, what gave she you?
She gave me a diamond as big as my shoe.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/little-girl-little-girl/
- Type
- Mother Goose
- Tune
- Spoken rhyme
- Best for ages
- 2 to 7 years
What Does Little Girl, Little Girl, Where Have You Been? Mean?
Someone asks the girl where she has been, and she says she has been gathering roses for the Queen. Asked what the Queen gave her, she answers: a diamond as big as her shoe. Nobody believes the diamond is real, and that is the fun of it. It is the kind of grand story a child tells after a day of make-believe.
History and Origin
Walter Jerrold printed the rhyme in The Big Book of Nursery Rhymes (1903). It follows the same pattern as Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, where the cat has been to London to visit the Queen, and both use a question and answer to build a tiny story.
Learning Activities
- Where have you been? ask your child the question and let them invent where they went and what they were given.
- Flower gift: pick a few flowers or draw roses to give someone special.
- How big? put a shoe on the table and talk about what a diamond that size would look like.