There Was a Crooked Man Lyrics
A crooked man walks a crooked mile, finds a crooked sixpence, buys a crooked cat, and they all live together in a little crooked house. Nothing in this rhyme is straight, and that is the fun.
There Was a Crooked Man
There was a crooked man, and he went a crooked mile,
He found a crooked sixpence beside a crooked stile;
He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,
And they all lived together in a little crooked house.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/there-was-a-crooked-man/
- Type
- Mother Goose, Animal Rhymes
- Tune
- Traditional
- Best for ages
- 2 to 7 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| There was a crooked man, and he went a crooked mile | Walk in a zigzag, bent over like the crooked man. |
| He found a crooked sixpence beside a crooked stile | Bend down and pick up a pretend coin. |
| He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse | Pounce with cat paws. |
| And they all lived together in a little crooked house | Make a lopsided roof with your arms. |
What Does There Was a Crooked Man Mean?
"Crooked" means bent or not straight. A stile is a set of steps for climbing over a fence or wall in the countryside, and a sixpence was a small British coin. The rhyme is a happy picture of a whole crooked little world where everything, even the house, is wonky.
Some people link it to a Scottish general in the 1600s, but that idea was suggested long after the rhyme was first written down.
History and Origin
The rhyme was collected by James Orchard Halliwell in the 1840s and has been a Mother Goose standard ever since. Illustrators love it because they can draw everything, from the path to the cat, bent out of shape.
Learning Activities
- Crooked drawing: draw the crooked house, the crooked cat and the crooked man with wiggly lines.
- Straight or crooked: sort sticks, pencils and toys into straight and crooked piles.
- Zigzag walk: walk a "crooked mile" across the garden or room.