What Time Is It Mr Crocodile

Getting Started With What Time Is It Mr Crocodile

This is one of those nursery rhymes that's deceptively simple. The tune is straightforward, the words repeat, and kids memorize it fast. But if you're actually using it for a classroom activity, a story time event, or even just learning the choreography, there are a few practical things most people figure out the hard way. I've run this song at preschools, camps, and family gatherings for years. The basic version goes like this: the singer pretends to be a crocodile showing their teeth while doing the hand motions. "Open your mouth, how do you do? Tell me mr crocodile, what time is it?" The clock hands come in as the answer, starting at 12 and counting up through the hours. That's the standard structure. Anything beyond that depends on what you're trying to do with it.

What Time Is It Mr Crocodile Lyrics and Structure

The full song cycles through the hours. I usually see it go from 12 all the way to 10 or 11 o'clock before it repeats or ends. The hand motions are part of the whole thing. One hand represents the hour hand and the other is the minute hand. Kids hold their arms out and make the clock shape for each hour. The crocodile mouth comes from clapping hands together at the wrist and opening the thumb area like a jaw. Here's the thing nobody tells you upfront. The rhythm and tempo matter more than you'd think. If you go too slow, kids lose interest. If you go too fast, they can't keep up with the hand motions and the whole thing falls apart. A moderate pace where you enunciate clearly is usually the sweet spot. My recommendation is to practice it at about 90 to 100 beats per minute. That gives enough space for the movement without dragging. I once tried running this with a group of four year olds who had zero exposure to reading time. They got confused between the hour and minute hands and ended up making random shapes instead of the actual clock positions. What worked was giving each child two different colored wristbands, one blue and one red. I told them the blue hand always goes first and the red hand follows. It took maybe five minutes to reorient them. The colors made it concrete instead of abstract.

Another issue comes up when the group is large. Say you have twenty kids or more. The song works best when everyone can see the leader doing the motions. In a big room, the kids in the back lose the visual cue and start freestyling. The fix is simple. Move the leader against a wall so there's only one direction the group has to face. You don't need fancy equipment. Just room positioning does the trick.

Hand Motions and Physical Setup

The motions are actually two separate gestures you layer together. First is the crocodile mouth. Both hands come up, thumbs together, fingers spread wide, then clap shut and open again. Second is the clock face. One arm points up for 12, then rotates to show each hour. You can teach these separately if the kids are struggling. Start with just the crocodile clap for a minute until the motion sticks. Then add the clock arm rotation on top. Trying to teach both at once usually just confuses everyone. For younger children under three, the clock rotation is developmentally tough. Their shoulder joints aren't coordinated enough for precise angular positioning yet. Skip the clock hands entirely and just do the crocodile mouth with the hours spoken. You still get the vocabulary and the counting practice without the frustration. It's not the full version but it keeps them engaged and it doesn't waste time. One edge case I ran into recently involved a child who used sign language. The standard hand motions didn't map cleanly onto ASL or the signing system they use at home. I spent about ten minutes working out a compromise where the crocodile mouth became a modified handshape and the clock rotation was adapted to work within their signing range. It wasn't perfect but it included them without derailing the group activity. You don't have to overthink this. Just pay attention and adjust if someone is clearly being left out.

Teaching the Hour Concepts Through the Song

Beyond the song itself, this is actually a decent tool for introducing early time concepts. The repetition of the hours in order helps kids build a mental sequence. They start recognizing that 12 comes first, then 1, then 2, and so on. I usually pair it with a large paper plate clock afterward. Each child gets a plate with movable hands and we go through the song one more time while they physically set the clock on their plate to match whatever hour I call out. This hands-on follow-up usually takes about seven to ten minutes depending on the group size. It cements the connection between the sung sequence and the actual visual representation of time. Without that second step, most kids remember the song but not what the hour positions actually look like on a real clock face. If you're looking for a download link or a printable version of the lyrics and motion guide, the song is public domain so there's plenty of free material out there. Search for "What Time Is It Mr Crocodile pdf" and you'll find worksheets, lyric sheets, and some animated versions that walk through the motions step by step. I've used a few different ones over the years. The best ones are the ones that include both the lyrics and a visual breakdown of each hand position because they save you from having to demonstrate everything yourself.

There's no reason this shouldn't work unless you're pushing it past its limits. It's a short song, it's repetitive, and it has built in movement. That's about as functional as early childhood activity design gets. If you need something longer or more complex, you're better off moving on to a different game altogether. This one does what it does. It's reliable for that purpose and nothing more.