Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Turn Around

Nearly every line of this rhyme is an instruction. The teddy bear turns around, touches the ground, shows a shoe, goes upstairs, says prayers and turns out the light. That chain lets children hear a cue and respond immediately, whether they act as the bear themselves or move a toy through the sequence.

An index to the journals Hoosier Folklore Bulletin (1942–45) and Hoosier Folklore (1946–50), compiled at Indiana University, lists “Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around” among children’s rhyme first lines, with entries from 1943, 1944, 1948 and 1949. A 1969 collection preserves longer sequences of movement commands. These references establish circulation by the 1940s and later expansion, but they do not supply one lyric author or a proven country of origin. The page therefore avoids claiming that a collector, performer or later publisher wrote the traditional action rhyme.

The commands can be performed in place, which is the simplest version for a young group. A teddy can also stand in for the child, especially for the “upstairs” and bedtime lines. More experienced jumpers may combine selected actions with a turning rope, but the rhyme does not require that extra difficulty to work as a listening-and-movement game.