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This there. It's a bird, isn't it?
Is it a duck?
Certainly no, it's not a duck. What is it?
It's a goose, but do you know that this is a particular goose?
Look at it again. Do you know what goose it is?
Good look. You see her shawl and her apron and her bonnet?
Yes, this is no ordinary goose at all. It's mother goose.
And did you notice what books Kathy and Tuffy are looking at?
They're looking at mother goose books.
Do you know that no one knows exactly why we think of mother goose as a goose?
In fact, not everyone does think of mother goose as a goose.
There are some people who imagine that mother goose was an old woman
who rode on the back of a goose. And those people who think that that's what mother goose was
imagine that she looked something like this.
You see the old woman riding on the back of a goose?
The man who first wrote mother goose stories and had them put in a book
imagined that mother goose looked like this.
Now these are children that she's telling stories to.
Do those children look as children do today?
They look more like grown-ups, don't they? Children long ago dressed like that.
There are some people who think that the first mother goose was really a queen whose name was Berta.
Berta was called the goose footed queen because she was born with a badly misshapen foot.
Her foot looked almost like a goose's foot.
And the king was very much ashamed of his handicapped queen,
which was a very wrong way for a king or for anyone to feel, wasn't it?
But the queen knew this and so she spent a great deal of time out in the palace grounds with geese
and with children and telling stories to children.
And the people who think that queen Berta was the first mother goose,
was the mother, real mother goose, imagine that she looked like this.
You see her there with her crown and the children around?
Then there are other people who think that mother goose was really a goose girl
Years ago in villages they would have a girl who would, they would hire to tend the geese
so that they didn't get away.
And she had lots of time on her hands because this wasn't a particularly difficult job,
so she did have time to read stories and tell stories to children.
And people who think that that's the real mother goose, imagine that mother goose looks something like this.
How many Americans think that the real mother goose was born in Boston, Massachusetts over 200 years ago?
Now whether or not this story is true, it's an interesting story.
And some day, if you go to Boston, Massachusetts, you might like to go to the place to see where Elizabeth Goose was buried.
Let me tell you the story about the American mother goose.
Elizabeth Goose, Elizabeth was her first name, Goose was her last name, was a grandmother who had seven grandchildren.
And she loved to sing songs to her grandchildren.
In fact, she spent the better part of every single day singing songs to the grandchildren.
Now the children's father, Thomas Fleet, was his name.
Just didn't like this at all, he couldn't get his work done.
When every tried to think or concentrate here was grandmother goose singing songs.
And he vowed he was going to get even with her. Did you know what he did?
He wrote down all of these songs that grandmother goose had sung to the children, and he put them in a book.
And on the cover of that book, he didn't put a picture of grandmother goose.
Instead, he put a picture of a goose with its mouth wide open, and the title of the book was mother goose's melodies.
And he printed several of these books and put them in his window, shop window.
And when people came by, they laughed. Do you know why?
Because they knew that Thomas Fleet was making fun of the children's grandmother.
And they knew that she sang a lot and that this made him angry.
Now if this story is true, it really was a cruel trick to play on a grandmother, wasn't it?
Now none of the books that Thomas Fleet was supposed to have written can be found,
but perhaps this is the way the cover of that book looked with a real goose with its mouth wide open.
So you can see there are very many ideas of what mother goose really looked like and who she really was.
And we probably will never know exactly which one of these is true.
But one thing we do know is that people all over the world know mother goose and know many mother goose stories.
There are many mother goose books.
I wonder though, if any of you have ever seen a mother goose book like this, this is called the immense book of mother goose.
What does immense mean?
Do you think that we could say that a skyscraper is an immense building?
Or do you think that we could say an elephant is an immense animal?
What does immense mean?
Large, big, yes.
So is this an immense book of mother goose?
I think that's a very good name for it.
Now what do you think we're going to find in the immense book of mother goose?
Well one thing I know because it's such a large book, it would take us several days to read all of it.
So we're just going to have to sample from it today.
Should we open it and see what we're going to find in the immense book of mother goose?
You look at this picture and listen to the melody.
Well you come into my parlor, send the spider to the fly.
It is the prettiest parlor that ever you did fly.
So songs are a part of mother goose aren't they?
And the name of this song is the spider and the fly.
Do you think that's all that's going to be in the immense mother goose book just songs?
Should we open it and turn another page and see?
Do you see anything familiar here?
Look at it carefully.
Do you know the story of Little Red Riding Hood?
Do you think that this is a picture of Little Red Riding Hood?
How can you tell?
There's your basket and there's your foot.
And how, what do you see here?
The wolf.
Yes.
So stories too are a part of mother goose aren't they?
I wonder what else we're going to find in this book.
Should we look?
I think I know what this is.
I think this is a nonsense verse.
You'll listen to it and see if you agree with me.
We're all in the dumps where diamonds are trumped.
The kittens are gone to St. Paul.
The babies are bit, the wounds in a fit, and the houses are built without walls.
Do you think that is a nonsense verse?
Who ever heard of a house without a wall?
Would you like to live in one?
So, nonsense verses are another part of mother goose.
Let's turn the page and see what else we can find in here.
Oh, this is something you've seen before, haven't you?
I imagine all of you have alphabet books.
Say this rhyme with me if you know it.
A, B, C, tumbled down, D.
The cats in the cupboard and cats in me.
Did you know that alphabet verses are part of mother goose?
Yes, they are.
Alright, should we go to the next page and see what we can find?
What do you think this is?
Give you a hint.
You know what these are, don't you?
They are numbers.
Did you think that counting verses were part of mother goose?
Why don't you count along with me and perhaps you even know that's the counting rhyme and you can say it with me?
One, he loves me.
Two, he don't.
Three, he'll have me.
Four, he won't.
Five, he would if he could.
Six, but he can't.
Seven, so he won't.
So, counting rhymes are another part of mother goose.
Should we turn the page?
What else are we going to find?
Oh, look at this baby.
What do you think he's doing?
You've probably guessed his patticaking.
If you're a patticake with babies, I bet you all do.
Another infant amusement that you might do with a baby is one like this.
Do you know Ring the Bell? Watch while I do it.
Ring the Bell, knock at the door, draw the latch, and walk in.
Now, would you like to try to do that infant amusement with yourself?
This is the kind of thing you'll want to play with with a baby, not with other children your own age, but let's try it.
Ring the Bell, knock at the door, draw the latch, walk in.
So, infant amusement are another part of mother goose, aren't they?
Let's see what we have on this page.
Oh, this is a part of mother goose that babies love, and I think most other people do too.
Do you know what it is? It's a lullaby, isn't it?
Why don't you sing this lullaby with me, and can you imagine that you're singing this to a real baby you might even like to rock the baby?
Let's sing it.
Hush up by baby on the tree town,
when the wind blows, the cradle will rock,
when the ball breaks, the cradle will fall,
and down will come baby, cradle and go.
That's a lovely lullaby, isn't it?
What else do you think is part of mother goose? Let's turn the page.
This is a taunt, you listen to it.
Cross patch, draw the latch, sit by the fire and spin,
take a cup and drink it up and call your neighbor in.
And taunts are another part of mother goose.
A taunt that you might be more familiar with is Georgie Porgy putting in pie,
kissed the girls and made them cry.
That's a taunt too, and it's another part of mother goose.
Well, I wonder what this is.
I think I know, do you?
I think it's a game, should we sing it?
London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down.
London Bridge is falling down, my fair lady.
I like that game, don't you?
So the games are one more part of mother goose.
Do you want me to turn another page and see what else we can find?
I bet you cannot do this, I bet you can't.
Do you know what this is?
This is a tongue twister, you listen to it.
How much wood would a wood chuck chuck of a wood chuck good chuck wood?
He would chuck as much wood as a wood chuck of a wood chuck good chuck wood.
Can you say that?
As fast as I did, it's difficult, it's called a tongue twister.
Will you try it with me?
Alright, here we go.
How much wood would a wood chuck chuck of a wood chuck wood chuck wood?
He would chuck as much wood as a wood chuck chuck of a wood chuck wood chuck wood chuck wood.
Did you do it?
Good.
Alright, and that was our last page in our immense book of mother goose.
So let's close it up.
Did you think that mother goose contained all of these things?
Not probably.
You haven't seen a book like this, but there are many, many other books of mother goose
that you'd like to read.
I wonder if you have any of these in your classroom or at your home?
This is Marguerite D'Angelo's book of nursery and mother goose rhymes.
And this contains many of those that we just saw in the immense mother goose,
Jack and Jill, Mary Heaven, little lamb, many of those.
And here's another one.
Our old nursery rhymes.
And this one is made up of, this is a song book.
And we know we found out that songs are a part of mother goose, didn't we?
This is a lovely mother goose book which is illustrated by L. Leslie Brooke.
And it's called Ring of Roses and has lovely illustrations.
This little book is an old, old book illustrated by Kate Greenaway.
And many of the verses are not exactly the way you know them.
They're changed just a little bit.
Here's one, an interesting one, the pogo stepmother goose.
Did you know they had such a thing?
Remember we found out that stories are a part of mother goose?
And this is the house that Jack built.
This is a lovely one in a pumpkin shell which is illustrated by Joan Englund.
You perhaps have read some other books by Joan Englund.
This is a mother goose book I know that you'd like.
This is mother goose rhiddle rhymes.
And much of it is done in picture writing.
So it's easier for you to read.
And here we have tongue tangler.
And just like how much wood would a wood chuck chuck?
We call them tongue twisters but it's the same thing.
Do you remember that we said that children, people all over the world like mother goose?
Here's nursery friends from France.
And here's a mother goose.
What is this one?
ABC we said this was part of mother goose didn't we?
And here are stories written by Perot who is the first person to put mother goose stories
into book form for children.
And here are some little books that you can buy for a penny mother goose friends.
And here's one I think that you children are familiar with.
A tall book of mother goose.
Now with all of these many mother goose books and there are many many more that we don't have here,
I wonder do you imagine that everyone who has illustrated drawn pictures in these books
imagines that the mother goose characters look exactly alike?
Do you think Humpty Dumpty for example looks the same in every single one of these books?
I wonder do you think Humpty Dumpty looks like this?
Or do you imagine that Humpty Dumpty looks more like that?
Do you like this picture of Humpty Dumpty better?
Is that how you think he looks?
Or do you imagine Humpty Dumpty is looking like that?
Well now we have found out something haven't we?
That not everyone pictures Humpty Dumpty or the other mother goose characters is looking the same way.
You know I think you might like to all color or paint a picture of Humpty Dumpty
the way you think he looks as you imagine him.
I wonder how many different of ideas of Humpty Dumpty you'll get from your group.
Alright we found that out that the illustrations are different haven't we?
And what else have we found out?
We have found out that mother goose contains many many things.
There are many categories in mother goose aren't they?
Can you name some of them quickly?
There were tongue twisters and riddles and songs and lullabies and stories.
There were many categories weren't there many more than probably were even in our immense mother goose book.
And then we found out something else about mother goose.
What was it?
We found out that no one knows exactly who the real mother goose was
and no one knows exactly what the real mother goose looks like.
So what you'll have to do is just decide which one of these versions
which one of these ideas you want to believe and then you believe that one.
Just as I'm going to have to decide which one of the versions I want to believe and that's the one I'll believe
because even adults like mother goose.
Now we've learned a great deal about mother goose we've talked a lot about mother goose today
and there's one more thing I want you to think about.
I wonder do you think that there's a father goose?
And if you do, do you think he's a little bit like mother goose?
Goodbye mother goose.
Kindergarten is designed under the supervision of Professor David C. Davis,
University of Wisconsin School of Education.
Your teacher has been Ruth Mark.
Production by WHA Television for the Wisconsin School of the Air.