This song was featured on an American Folklife Center LP, Play and Dance Songs and Tunes. The liner notes describe: "The players in couples walk around in a ring, clapping hands on the second and fourth stanzas. The odd player in the center, who is squatting as the game begins, rises as bid and makes a motion of some sort, like a dance." The encircled players may wish to mimic the leaderin the third or fourth stanza.
This song organically invites primary source analysis because we're essentially asking the students to "discuss" what kind of motions the children may have made, and this "discussion" includes other children listening and summarizing the statement of the volunteer. All this generating and sharing of ideas is happening nonverbally. (Yay for differentiated learning modalities!)