Activity

Have students sit in a circle. One student stands in a far away spot in the room - This student is the “finder.” While the class sings the song, another student will go around the circle pretending to drop an item in each students’ hands - This student is the “hider.” The “finder” will have 3 guesses to find where the hidden object.

Whoever had the hidden object becomes the finder, the finder becomes the hider, the hider returns to the circle.

My students have created normal mode and hard mode. Normal Mode is where the finder is allowed to watch the hider. Hard Mode is where the finder turns around or closes their eyes.

Varying Locations in the lyrics

I originally heard the location in the lyrics of this song with multiple locations, such as “one went to London.” I chose to write the version as “one went to Kingston” as respect to the country from which this song originated.

Social Learning

This is a great opportunity to talk about how other people have different perspectives and viewpoints. There will always be some students who say “its obvious who has the ring!” Point out that the person who is trying to find the ring can’t see the same things as they can. This connects with different areas of life - some people can ride bikes or swim while others haven’t learned how to yet.

There is a great, related XKCD comic: