Say, Say, My Playmate – Come out and Patty Cake with Me!
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Hand clap games are a great way to develop oral language, spatial awareness, eye-hand coordination, and social skills. When children patty cake with a friend, they also exercise the brain by crossing the midline.
Start simple by just clapping hands and then tapping with a partner’s hands in the air. As easy as this looks to you, it takes a lot of coordination and practice for little ones. Once children have mastered the clap and tap, you can have them clap and cross tap.
There are many skills children can reinforce as they patty cake.
Click here to watch my grandson and I doing some of these patty cake chants and activities.
Miss Mary Mack
Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack
All dressed in black, black, black (Children clap and
With silver buttons, buttons, buttons tap right hands. Clap
Up and down her back, back, back. and tap left hands.)
She asked her mother, mother, mother
For fifty cents, cents, cents
To see the elephants, elephants, elephants
Jump the fence, fence, fence.
They jumped so high, high, high
They touched the sky, sky, sky
And they never came back, back, back
Til’ the 4th of July, ly, ly.
Say, Say My Playmate
Say, say, my playmate,
Come out and play with me. (Clap hands alternating
And bring your dollies three tapping right and left palms
Climb up my apple tree. with your partner.)
Slide down my rain barrel
And through my cellar door
And we’ll be jolly friends forever more.
Say, say, oh, playmate.
I cannot play with you.
My dolly has the flu,
The mumps and measles, too.
I have no rain barrel.
I have no cellar door,
But we’ll be jolly friends forever more, more, more.
When Billy Was One
Cross (Cross arms over your chest.)
Down (Pat thighs.)
When (Clap own hands.)
Billy (Clap right hand to partner and then left hand to partner.)
Was ONE, (Continue patty caking to the beat.)
He learned to
Jump and run.
Run, olly, olly,
Run, olly, olly,
Half past one.
Two…tie his shoe.
Three…climb a tree
Four ...shut the door
Five...swim and dive
Six...pick up sticks
Seven...look to heaven
Eight...roller skate
Nine...sing so fine
Ten...start again
Eleven...count to seven
Twelve...ring the bell
Have You Ever in Your Long Legged Life?
Have you ever, ever, ever, (Slap thighs, clap hands, and then tap right palms
In your long legged life and left palms.)
Seen a long legged sailor (Open up palms wide on the word ‘long.’)
With his long legged wife?
Additional verses:
Short legged sailor (Put palms close to each other.)
Knock kneed sailor (Bend knees in.)
Bow legged sailor (Bend knees out)
Double Double
Double, double, this, this. (Make fists and tap on the word “double.”
Double, double, that, that. Touch fronts of palms on the word “this.”
Double this, double that. Touch backs of palms on the word “that.”)
Double, double, this and that.
Faster…
Practice compound words with this hand chant.