The Bear Went Over the Mountain Lyrics
A singing game from Michigan, printed in 1920: the bear climbs the mountain to see what he can see, and all he sees is the other side of the mountain. The printing marks the first two lines of each verse to be sung three times.
The Bear Went Over the Mountain
The bear went over the mountain
The bear went over the mountain
The bear went over the mountain
To see what he could see.
To see what he could see.
To see what he could see.
The bear went over the mountain
To see what he could see.
The other side of the mountain
The other side of the mountain
The other side of the mountain
Was all that he could see.
Was all that he could see.
Was all that he could see.
The other side of the mountain
Was all that he could see.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/the-bear-went-over-the-mountain/
- Type
- Action Songs
- Tune
- Sung steadily, with the repeated lines getting a little louder each time
- Best for ages
- 2 to 7 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| The bear went over the mountain | March on the spot with heavy bear steps. |
| To see what he could see | Shade the eyes with one hand and look all around. |
| The other side of the mountain | Turn all the way round once, still marching. |
| Was all that he could see | Open both hands and shrug. |
What Does The Bear Went Over the Mountain Mean?
The whole song is one small joke. The bear climbs a mountain because he wants to see something new, and when he gets to the top, what he finds is the other side of the mountain. After all that climbing there is nothing extra to see: just more mountain.
That is why the repeats work so well. The 1920 printing marks the first two lines of each verse to be sung three times each, so the journey takes a long time before the verse closes. Then the last two lines come once, as the answer. The first verse is the going and the second is the finding, so the song is a question and its reply.
History and Origin
The song is the first game in an article called Some Play-Party Games in Michigan by Emelyn E. Gardner, in the Journal of American Folk-Lore for April to June 1920. A play-party game is a party game in which the players sing their own music as they move, in place of a band. Gardner says these games were still popular in the small towns of Michigan, including towns where the local churches had a strong prejudice against dancing.
Most of the versions in her article were collected from students in freshman composition classes at the Michigan State Normal College in the autumns of 1914 and 1915, and the tunes were collected by Miss Mary O. Sleeper of Detroit. This version of the bear was given by Helen Chappell, of Eaton Rapids. Gardner does not describe the moves for this game, so the motions on this page are ideas, not a record of how it was played.
The words are exactly as printed, with the repeats marked in the 1920 text written out in full so the lines appear three times.
Learning Activities
- Climb and look: walk up an imaginary mountain with big steps, then stop at the top on 'the other side' and look around.
- Louder each time: sing the repeated line three times, quietly, then louder, then as loud as a bear.
- Draw the other side: draw a mountain and then the view from the far side, and talk about what the bear might have hoped to see.
- Question and answer: let one child sing the question lines and a second child answer.