Explore: Counting Rhymes

"choosing songs" a.k.a. Counting rhymes Selection Rhymes at the BBC's project h2g2 Counting rhymes and other songs for counting in traditional music from

Examples of English-language rhymes have been found going back to at least the 17th century. Like most folklore, skipping rhymes tend to be found in many

Multiple-word rhymes (a phrase that rhymes with a word, known as a phrasal or mosaic rhyme), self-rhymes (adding a prefix to a word and counting it as a rhyme of

counting-out rhyme, used to select a person in games such as tag, or for selecting various other things. It is one of a large group of similar rhymes

Henry Carrington Bolton, The Counting-Out Rhymes of Children (New York, 1888), p.92 J. O. Halliwell, The Nursery Rhymes of England (London, 1842), p.132

Opies further divided nursery rhymes into a number of groups, including Amusements (including action songs) Counting rhymes Lullabies Riddles Playground

century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes. From the mid-16th century nursery rhymes began to be recorded in English

"Tinker, Tailor" is a counting game, nursery rhyme and fortune telling song traditionally played in England, that can be used to count cherry stones, buttons

numerous nursery rhyme collections. These include: James Orchard Halliwell's Nursery Rhymes of England (1842), Edward Rimbault's Nursery Rhymes (1846), and

other, quite different, rhymes, both in the UK and in other European countries. The popularity of particular counting-out rhyme wordings has varied over