Little Tommy Tittlemouse Lyrics
Tommy Tittlemouse has one of the best names in the whole of Mother Goose, and a small secret: the fish he catches come from other people's ditches.
Little Tommy Tittlemouse
Little Tommy Tittlemouse
Lived in a little house;
He caught fishes
In other men's ditches.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/little-tommy-tittlemouse/
- Type
- Mother Goose
- Tune
- Spoken rhyme
- Best for ages
- 1 to 5 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| Little Tommy Tittlemouse | Wiggle one finger like a tiny mouse. |
| Lived in a little house | Put your hands together over your head to make a roof. |
| He caught fishes | Cast an imaginary fishing line. |
| In other men's ditches | Look left and right, as if checking nobody is watching. |
What Does Little Tommy Tittlemouse Mean?
Tommy is a small person, or perhaps a mouse-sized one, who lives in a little house. He goes fishing, but he fishes in ditches that belong to other people. Ditches in the countryside were often full of water and small fish, and fishing in someone else's was a cheeky thing to do.
With young children you can leave it as a funny detail. With older ones it is an easy way into a talk about asking before you take.
History and Origin
The rhyme appears in Halliwell's collections of the 1840s and in nearly every Mother Goose book since. The unusual surname turns up again in Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse (1910), about a very tidy wood mouse who keeps having to chase visitors out of her home.
Learning Activities
- Name game: make up rhyming names for toys: Teddy Tittlebear, Dolly Dittledoll.
- Paper fish: cut out paper fish with paper clips on their noses and "fish" for them with a magnet on a string.
- Read on: pair it with Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse for a longer story.