Round and Round the Garden

The most common modern form of the poem/rhyme is:

Round and round the garden

Like a teddy bear;

One step, two step,

Tickle you under there! [1]

The rhyme was first collected in Britain in the late 1940s. Since teddy bears did not come into vogue until the twentieth century it is unlikely to be any older than that in its current form, but Iona and Peter Opie speculated that it might be a version of an older rhyme, collected 1945-9, 'Round about there, went a little hare',[1] with the lyrics:

Round about there

Sat a little hare

The bow-wows came and chased him

Right up there![1]

An Irish version goes:

Round and round the racecourse

Catch a little hare

One step, two steps

Thickly under there!

A South African version goes:

Round and round the mulberry bush

Like a teddy bear

One step, two step

Tickly under there!

A Scottish version goes:

Round and round the garden

Like a wee mouse

Up the stair, up the stair

And in the wee house

The nursery rhyme is accompanied by various actions, by the adult on the child or the child on the adult. The performer first lightly strokes his or her index finger in slow circles on the recipient's upturned palm, then with each "step", walks their index and middle finger up the arm, firstly to the elbow and then to the shoulder. Finally after a short pause before the "tickle", the performer launches a (not unexpected) tickle under the recipient's arm.[1]

• Communication, language and literacy: Round and round the garden from The National Strategies TeachFind website