Polly Put The Kettle On: Musical Role Play

Kids just love having pretend tea parties and Polly Put The Kettle On is such a great favourite because it’s the perfect opportunity to get the dollies and tea set out for tea!

Polly Put the Kettle On Lyrics

Polly put the kettle on,

We’ll all have tea,

Suki take it off again,

They’ve all gone away

Polly Put the Kettle On Imaginative Role Play and Storytelling Activity

This song can just be sung while you are playing tea parties, or you can make a little dramatised play with props. For this you need two dollies and a robust little toy tea set (probably better not risk the best china!)

In order to make sense of the words to the song, it works well to make up a little story to set the scene.

Introduce your two dollies as Polly and Suki and explain that they live together in a big Doll’s house. While Polly is very hard working and conscientious with her housework, Suki get’s bored of doing the chores and decides to play a trick on Polly. Polly is really thirsty after a hard morning’s work, and so she decides to put the kettle on. She then goes off to finish her jobs while the kettle is boiling. Meanwhile Suki, who is hiding nearby, comes out and removes the kettle from the little stove and goes back to her hiding place.

When Polly comes back she is very confused and surprised, and replaces the kettle on the stove. This can be repeated several times while you sing the song and each time the children seem to think it’s funnier! Finally Polly has had enough, and decides that she must hide too, to see if who it is tricking her. This time she catches the culprit! At first she is rather cross, but Suki is very quick to apologize, and makes amends by insisting Polly puts her feet up while she brings her a nice cup of tea to make up for it.

It is a simple little story, but small children find it easy to grasp, and love the hiding and tricking elements. They are also very happy that at the end, Suki says sorry to Polly, and the dollies are still the best of friends!