African American Folk Song · Circle Game · Grades 1–4
A Tisket A Tasket lyrics, the guessing game and chase game, and a complete teaching guide for grades 1–4. Fa solfège, glissando, green and yellow basket. A Library of Congress folk song — and a perfect Valentine's Day activity.
Full lyrics
Two ways to play
A seated game where the teacher closes their eyes while a child secretly selects a letter-stealer. The teacher guesses who took the letter on "it's you." There's a specific pitfall with this version that makes the game break down if you're not watching for it — Deborah shows exactly how to prevent it.
A circle chase game where the walker taps children on "it's you" and the fourth is chased. There are two variations, plus a key modification that turns a potentially punitive outcome into something students look forward to. Both are demonstrated in the full teaching video.
About this song
A Tisket A Tasket is an African American folk song recorded in the Library of Congress Lomax collection in 1939. The song is almost entirely do-based pentatonic — which makes it accessible to sing and easy to stay in tune — except for fa, which appears and makes this one of the best songs in the repertoire for introducing that pitch. The rest of the song is pentatonic and contained within one octave, so fa stands out clearly.
The glissando — a sliding between notes — can be pointed out and named using this song. Students naturally slide their voices in certain passages, and drawing attention to that slide opens a conversation about glissando as a vocal and instrumental technique. The cello and trombone are particularly good instruments for a visual demonstration, but a piano or xylophone glissando works too.
"Teaching the song first ensures that the kids know the song well, so it's easier and more automatic for them to sing it when you play the chase game. Often children are so caught up in the game that they forget to sing."
— Deborah Skydell Pasternack, The Singing ClassroomThe Valentine's Day connection is natural — a letter to my love, dropped on the way. The basket, the letter, the mystery of who picked it up. This song is a lovely Valentine's Day game that doesn't feel forced or commercial, and works across grades 1–4.
For classes where a running chase game isn't practical, the seated guessing game is equally engaging and works in any space. The two versions give you flexibility for any classroom situation.
Common questions
The lyrics are: "A-tisket, a-tasket, a green and yellow basket / I wrote a letter to my love and on the way I dropped it / I dropped it, I dropped it, yes, on the way I dropped it / Someone of you has picked it up and put it in your pocket / It's you, it's you, it's you, it's you!" The song is accompanied by a green and yellow basket and a pretend sealed letter addressed "to my love."
Two versions: the guessing game (better for smaller spaces) has the teacher sit with eyes closed while a selected child secretly points to a letter-stealer, who takes the dropped letter. The teacher guesses on "it's you" — one guess per "you." The chase game has one child walk around a circle, tapping four children on "it's you" — the fourth chases the walker around the circle. If sitting in the center feels punitive, sit with the child and do a patty-cake clap together. Always teach the song well before introducing either game.
A Tisket A Tasket is otherwise entirely do-based pentatonic and contained in one octave — which makes fa, when it appears, stand out clearly by contrast. Students are already singing fa in a natural, musical context before you ever point to it. When you do isolate it (after the class knows the song well), the recognition is immediate. The song is particularly good for fa because the surrounding pentatonic context makes the half-step tension of fa audible and memorable.
A glissando is a rapid slide from one pitch to another, passing through all the notes in between. Students naturally slide their voices in certain passages of A Tisket A Tasket, and pointing to that slide introduces the term and concept in a musical context. For an instrument demonstration, the cello and trombone are ideal — the cello bow can slide along the string, and the trombone slide is literally designed for this. A piano or xylophone glissando (running fingers or a mallet across adjacent notes) also demonstrates the concept clearly.
More circle games & letter songs
The classic guessing game — one child hides an object, one guesses. A natural companion to A Tisket A Tasket.
See teaching guide →African American lullaby from the same Library of Congress collection. Do pentatonic, name learning.
See teaching guide →Another accusation circle game. Call and response, steady beat, swing time. Same energy as A Tisket A Tasket.
See teaching guide →The real problem
Every teacher knows this feeling. You find a song, try it on Monday, and something goes sideways — the kids don't engage, you're not sure how to introduce it, the lesson loses momentum. It's not that the song was wrong. You just didn't have a clear picture of how it actually goes.
That's what makes The Singing Classroom different. Every song in the library — including this one — has a full video of Deborah teaching it with real students. You don't have to guess how to introduce it, how to structure the activity, or how to handle the tricky moments. You watch it. Then you teach it.
150+ songs. Every one demonstrated. No more hoping it works — you already know it will.
One subscription gives you the complete Singing Classroom library — 150+ folk songs and singing games, every one with Deborah’s full video demonstration, teaching guide, and animated game instructions. A Tisket A Tasket is just one of the songs waiting for you.
$19.95/month · $219.95/year
7-day free trial · access everything from day one
Start Your Free 7-Day Trial →7-day free trial · Cancel anytime