Old Mother Goose Lyrics
Before she was the name on a thousand rhyme books, Mother Goose was a character in her own right: an old woman who flies through the sky on the back of a gander.
Old Mother Goose
Old Mother Goose, when
She wanted to wander,
Would ride through the air
On a very fine gander.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/old-mother-goose/
- Type
- Mother Goose, Animal Rhymes
- Tune
- Spoken rhyme
- Best for ages
- 2 to 7 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| Old Mother Goose, when she wanted to wander | Walk slowly around the room, looking this way and that. |
| Would ride through the air | Spread your arms wide like wings. |
| On a very fine gander | Flap your arms and glide in a big circle. |
What Does Old Mother Goose Mean?
A gander is a male goose. Whenever Mother Goose feels like traveling, she climbs on her gander and flies off through the sky. That is the whole rhyme, and it is one of the reasons picture books so often show her riding a large white bird.
History and Origin
Nobody knows who, if anyone, the real Mother Goose was. The name was used for collections of fairy tales in France in 1697, when Charles Perrault's book was sold as tales of "Mother Goose", and English publishers borrowed it for nursery rhyme books in the 1700s. This short rhyme is the opening of a much longer story poem about Mother Goose and her son Jack; the four lines here are the version printed in The Real Mother Goose (1916).
Learning Activities
- Goose ride: give your child a pillow "gander" to sit on and ask where Mother Goose should fly today.
- Goose or gander: teach the names: goose (female), gander (male), gosling (baby).
- Draw her: ask children to draw Mother Goose in the sky, then compare with the pictures in your rhyme books.