How the Magpie Made Porridge

Story

How the Magpie Made Porridge is a Polish finger-play nursery rhyme with actions, similar to This Little Piggy. The adult touches each of the child’s fingers or toes and tells them about how each little magpie ate their porridge, and it usually then ends with tickles.

Why we choose it

A nursery rhyme that is very popular in Poland and other eastern European countries.

Where it came from

Versions of it appear in many Eastern European languages. Most involve tickles and fingers and toes play. A Latvian variant has a mouse stirring the porridge with her tail, and in the Czech version the smallest mouse finds there isn’t enough left so he runs to the pantry for sugar cones instead. They end in similar ways, but the Polish version often ends with the last little magpie literally losing its head.

Associated stories

Porridge features in many children’s stories. The Magic Porridge Pot and Goldilocks are two of the best known. The Porridge of Knowledge (Archie Kimpton and Kate Hindley, 2015) and Who’s Been Sleeping in my Porridge? (Colin McNaughton, 2000) are more contemporary stories. Magpies also frequently appear in stories and nursery rhymes, probably most famously in One for Sorrow, Two for Joy.