One Hen, Two Ducks

On Thursday we had the honor of hosting our second Head of School candidate at a morning meeting. It seemed a good idea to revive an old Summers-Knoll tradition - the whole school joining in with a not-so-simple say-and-repeat game called One Hen, Two Ducks. The kids love this game, they love the fun of the increasing levels of difficulty, they take pride in the long words even as they giggle at them, they enjoy the opportunity to engage their bodies in the response, and they feel involved in the common - if zany - goal of group recital.

Several of you have asked me for the text, so that you can try it at home. There are several different versions you can find on the internet. Some of them even have a 10 line that makes sense. I asked some of our children a long time ago (alumni at this point, out making the world a better place) if we should change to one of those versions. They said no, emphatically. They liked it the Summers-Knoll way. And so it is.

One hen.
One hen, two ducks.
One hen, two ducks, three squawking geese.
One hen, two ducks, three squawking geese, four Limerick oysters.
One hen, two ducks, three squawking geese, four Limerick oysters, five corpulent porpoises.
One hen, two ducks, three squawking geese, four Limerick oysters, five corpulent porpoises, six pairs       of Don Alvarzo's tweezers.
One hen, two ducks, three squawking geese, four Limerick oysters, five corpulent porpoises, six pairs       of Don Alvarzo's tweezers, seven Macedonians in full battle array.
One hen, two ducks, three squawking geese, four Limerick oysters, five corpulent porpoises, six pairs       of Don Alvarzo's tweezers, seven Macedonians in full battle array, eight brass monkeys from the        ancient sacred crypts of Egypt.
One hen, two ducks, three squawking geese, four Limerick oysters, five corpulent porpoises, six pairs       of Don Alvarzo's tweezers, seven Macedonians in full battle array, eight brass monkeys from the        ancient sacred crypts of Egypt, nine apathetic, sympathetic, poor pathetic old men on roller-                skates, with a marked propensity towards procrastination and sloth.
One hen, two ducks, three squawking geese, four Limerick oysters, five corpulent porpoises, six pairs       of Don Alvarzo's tweezers, seven Macedonians in full battle array, eight brass monkeys from the        ancient sacred crypts of Egypt, nine apathetic, sympathetic, poor pathetic old men on roller-                skates, with a marked propensity towards procrastination and sloth, ten lyrical, diabolical                     denizens of the deep, who quark with the queen and queen with the quorl and quorl with the               quizzle at the bottom of the deep blue sea all at the same time.

Enjoy!