Little Arabella Miller

"Little Arabella Miller" is a popular English nursery rhyme often sung in pre-schools. Most references to the song do not attribute a writer but Ann Eliott has been previously cited as a composer.[1][2] It is also an action song, sung to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".[3]

Lyrics

The rhyme has just one verse but there are several variants which focus on the description of the caterpillar (furry, fuzzy, woolly), and on the family members mentioned in the rhyme (mother, brother, grandmother, baby brother).

A version sung in England:

Little Arabella Miller
Found a furry caterpillar
First it climbed upon her mother
Then upon her baby brother
"Ugh" said Arabella Miller
"Take away that caterpillar!"

Other versions:

Little Arabella Miller
Had a fuzzy caterpillar
First it crawled upon her brother
Then upon her dear grandmother
Gran said, "Arabella Miller,
How I love your caterpillar."[3]

Little Arabella Miller
Had a fuzzy caterpillar.
First it climbed upon her mother,
Then upon her baby brother.
They said, " Arabella Miller,
Put away your caterpillar!"[4]

Little Arabella Miller
Found a hairy caterpillar,
First it crawled upon her mother,
Then upon her baby brother.
All said, "Arabella Miller,
Take away that caterpillar!"

Actions

Little Arabella Miller
Had a fuzzy caterpillar
(Tickle palm with two fingers)
First it crawled up on her mother
(Walk fingers up left arm)
Then upon her baby brother
(Walk fingers up right arm)
They said, "Arabella Miller!
(Walk fingers up over head)
Put away your caterpillar!"
(hide hands behind back)

[3]

Another variation on the action song:

Little Arabella Miller
Found a wooly caterpillar (wiggle one finger)
First it crawled upon her mother (tickle mom)
Then upon her baby brother (tickle a friend)
Take away that caterpillar!" (shake finger)[5]

gollark: It's very unlikely that after just 8ish years of deep learning people hit upon the optimal way to do anything ever.
gollark: Since lack of memory is most noticeable when it doesn't have fairly fixed information to work off.
gollark: You can also probably simplify the issue by just biasing it against saying "I" and "me" and such.
gollark: And most readers probably aren't checking because it's slow and annoying.
gollark: They probably need to be consistent with the last page at most.

References
  1. http://museumvictoria.com.au/pages/2085/Bugs-bugs-bugs-Rhymes-Music.pdf Archived 2008-08-23 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. http://www.abc.net.au/children/play/grownup/prognote/series158.htm
  3. KIDiddles Song Lyrics - Arabella Miller
  4. Page 172
  5. Perry Public Library Archived 2008-06-06 at the Wayback Machine
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