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How children's playground rhymes spread and change

Two playgrounds may know versions of a rhyme that differ by only a few words. The Opies collected children’s accounts and teachers’ letters to preserve this sort of everyday tradition. Those records can suggest routes of transmission, but similarity alone does not reveal a complete family tree.

3–7 min

Questions you could explore

  • How could you compare two recorded versions of a rhyme without assuming one must be the original?
  • What can dated collections reveal about transmission, and what would similarity alone leave uncertain?

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