As far as I could remember, Humpty Dumpty has always been one of those poems that are taught in the very early childhood. Most people associate the character as an egg, however, there are few different stories of what does this main character actually should portray. This poem is found as a rhyme and was first seen in printer form and became famous through Lewis Carroll’s book, ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’ where this beloved character is seen in the form of an egg.
The Origin of Word
Humpty was actually nickname used to describe in the 15th century a short and rather large, clumsy person in England before Mother Goose and other similar books became popular ways to teach poems to our children. However, since the poem is a rhyme taught to children, the funny image of the giant egg in the wall aids to get interested in the children and ensure the rhyme will enrich and support spoken language. Thus the actual historical value of the name or word origin becomes less known.
Teaching the poem for children
The current form of the poem that was well made famous by Mother Goose books.
The children have easy to learn it through the rhyming and since it is the short and simple poem. Also nowadays there are so many different Youtube videos available for preschoolers that many have already heard this rhyme. One option to teach the poem better is to have printer photos of poem parts, ask children to color and cut them. After this children set the images in order. The last part will be the recitation of the poem and memorizing rhyme through photos.
The other option is to ask children to draw images of the poem and then explain their pictures. This way children will use their own imagination how the main character looks like and class can have the gallery of many images that show how different ways each child imagine the poem and each character.
One way to teach children the poem and show also introduce multicultural aspect is to show or read the poem in another language. ( Again this century this is an easy task since all you need to do is to type in Youtube the name of the poem and language you prefer to hear it with!)
Finally, it is also a good idea to build scene as group work- maybe build the wall, horses, and hero of the poem together so that the children not only learn about the poem but social skills and teamwork.
Special Notes of The Poem
There is something wonderful of this poem, maybe it is the simplicity similar how people like to have the lovable loser in Peanuts, Charlie Brown– the clumsy main character has been loved centuries all over the world. You can find so many translations from Hindi, Punjabi to even Finnish ( by the way Finnish people call him Lilleri Lalleri).
It seems that this undaunted, yet clumsy fellow, will always be a great way to introduce poetry for the little children.