My Maid Mary Lyrics
A busy morning on an old farm. Mary works in the dairy and spins, while the singer goes out to hoe the fields and cut the corn.
My Maid Mary
My maid Mary she minds the dairy,
While I go a-hoeing and mowing each morn;
Gaily run the reel and the little spinning wheel,
While I am singing and mowing my corn.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/my-maid-mary/
- Type
- Mother Goose
- Tune
- Spoken rhyme
- Best for ages
- 3 to 8 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| My maid Mary she minds the dairy | Pretend to churn butter in a tall churn. |
| While I go a-hoeing and mowing each morn | Swing your arms low like cutting grass with a scythe. |
| Gaily run the reel and the little spinning wheel | Turn your hand in a circle like a spinning wheel. |
What Does My Maid Mary Mean?
The dairy is the room or building where milk is kept and made into butter and cheese. Hoeing is loosening the soil around crops, and mowing is cutting grass or grain. The reel and the spinning wheel were used to spin wool or flax into thread, a job done at home before factories.
History and Origin
The rhyme comes from the days when a family farm did almost everything itself: milk, butter, cloth and grain. It is printed in The Real Mother Goose (1916), and similar verses appear in older English collections. Its steady rhythm sounds like the work it describes.
Learning Activities
- Farm jobs: list the jobs in the rhyme and talk about which ones machines do now.
- Act it out: one child is Mary in the dairy, another goes out mowing.
- Spinning: twist a little cotton wool between your fingers to see how thread is made.