Smiling Girls, Rosy Boys Lyrics
A street seller calls to the children with a tray of treats: monkeys made of gingerbread and sugar horses painted red. Four lines that sound like a fair day.
Smiling Girls, Rosy Boys
Smiling girls, rosy boys,
Come and buy my little toys;
Monkeys made of gingerbread,
And sugar horses painted red.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/smiling-girls-rosy-boys/
- Type
- Mother Goose
- Tune
- Chanted street cry
- Best for ages
- 2 to 7 years
What Does Smiling Girls, Rosy Boys Mean?
The seller is calling out to children to come and buy. The "toys" are sweets shaped like toys: gingerbread monkeys, a spiced biscuit cut into animal shapes, and horses made of hard sugar, colored red. Children could play with them for a while, and then eat them.
History and Origin
The rhyme comes from The Little Mother Goose (1912). Gingerbread figures and sugar animals were sold at fairs and markets for centuries, and sellers had their own short cries to attract customers, like the one in Hot Cross Buns.
Learning Activities
- Bake shapes: cut gingerbread or cookie dough into animal shapes together.
- Street cry: make up your own seller's call for something you would sell.
- Toy fair: set up a pretend stall with toys and play money.