The Work-bag Lyrics
A speaker offers a child a piece of rag and promises to turn it into a clever bag, not a make-believe one. The bag will hold a needle-book and a pair of scissors, so that the child never has to hunt up and down asking where the scissors are, but knows they are in the work-bag.
The Work-bag
Come here, I've got a piece of rag,
To make you quite a pretty bag;
Not make believe - no, no, you'll see
The clever bag that it shall be.
And when 'tis done, I'll show you what
A handsome present I have got:
A needle-book, and scissors too,
Right earnest ones, and all for you.
And then, you know, you'll keep them in it,
So that you need not lose a minute,
In hunting up and down to say,
"Where can my scissors be to-day?"
"Pray, somebody, do try and look,
To find my thread and needle-book;"
No, no, but - "I know where they are.
They're in my little work-bag there."
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/the-work-bag/
- Type
- Poems for Children
- Tune
- Bright and bustling, with a sing-song voice for the muddled hunt in the third verse
- Best for ages
- 4 to 8 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| To make you quite a pretty bag; | Hold out both hands as if holding a piece of cloth and fold it over. |
| They're in my little work-bag there. | Point to a bag or basket with a proud face. |
What Does The Work-bag Mean?
The poem is a small lesson in keeping things in their place. A work-bag is a bag for sewing things, and a needle-book is a small book of cloth pages for keeping needles. Both are real: the speaker says not make believe and calls the scissors right earnest ones, which means real and meant for use.
The third and fourth verses give the point. Without a bag the child would be hunting up and down and calling out for the scissors or the thread. With the bag, the answer is ready: I know where they are. The poem does not scold. It shows a problem and a tidy answer, and the answer is a pretty thing to own.
History and Origin
This verse is printed in the London edition of 1831, the twenty-third, of Rhymes for the Nursery.
Learning Activities
- Choose a home: pick a bag, box or basket for the child's craft things and decide together what lives in it.
- Where can it be?: hide a pencil in the room, let the child hunt, then put it into the bag and show how quick it is to find.
- Felt needle-book: with an adult doing the sewing, cut two pieces of felt and fold them like a book for pins and buttons.
- Big beads: thread large beads on a shoelace and keep them in a small bag when finished.