The Tutor Lyrics
A tutor who plays the flute tries to teach two young players to toot. The two pupils ask a clever question: is it harder to toot, or to tutor two tooters to toot?
The Tutor
A tutor who tooted the flute
Tried to teach two young tooters to toot.
Said the two to the tutor,
"Is it harder to toot, or
To tutor two tooters to toot?"
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/the-tutor/
- Type
- Poems for Children
- Written by
- Carolyn Wells
- Tune
- Quick and clear, building speed on the toot words and slowing for the question
- Best for ages
- 5 to 9 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| A tutor who tooted the flute | Hold an imaginary flute to your lips and wiggle your fingers. |
| To tutor two tooters to toot? | Hold up two fingers, then point to your own lips. |
What Does The Tutor Mean?
A tutor is a teacher who works with just one or two pupils. Here the tutor plays the flute and is teaching two young tooters, which is the poem's word for people learning to toot on a flute. The pupils' question at the end is the joke: they ask which job is harder, tooting or teaching two tooters to toot.
The poem is a limerick: five lines, with the first, second and last lines rhyming (flute, toot, toot) and the short third and fourth lines rhyming with each other. The fourth line has a trick, since it ends on the little word or, so that tutor and toot, or rhyme when it is read aloud. Counting the words that start with toot, there are six in the five lines, and the word tutor comes three times, so it is a very good one for saying fast.
History and Origin
Carolyn Wells's The Jingle Book has a copyright date of 1899 and was reprinted in November 1899 and in June 1901. The book is a collection of short comic verses, and this limerick is in it.
Learning Activities
- Say it slowly, then fast: say the five lines once slowly, once at normal speed, then as fast as clear speech allows.
- Count the toots: clap each time a toot word comes up and see if the claps reach six.
- Make a flute: blow across the top of a clean empty bottle or a paper-roll tube and toot.
- Answer the question: ask the child whether it is harder to toot or to teach tooting, and why.