Playground Song- United States

“Circle, Circle, Dot, Dot, Now I got my cootie shot”

John told me that he learned this when he was way young. He learned this in elementary school from his classmates. He said that they used to do this to protect themselves from the cooties that girls had. He said that while he was saying the song, he would get a pen and draw the action of the word. He would draw two circles and two dots. The dots represented the needle mark that shots left behind. He said that this give them immunity from the cooties.

I remember doing this in elementary school too. However, instead of drawing the circles and the dots, we would just use our finger to draw on ourselves. I remember thinking that this would protect us from the girls. I also remember another variation of the cootie shot. Instead of “dot, dot”; we would pinch ourselves. The pinch represented a stronger dosage of the cootie shot. So therefore we were immune and protect from the cooties for a much longer period of times. Other variations of the cooties shots were found online on the Wikipedia site.

“Circle circle, knife knife, Now I’ve got my shot for life.

Circle circle, Square, square. Now I have it everywhere. (Or “Now it will stay there.”)

Circle, circle, Line, line,  Now I have it all the time. (Or “Now I’m protected all the time.”)” [1]

Source

1) “Circle circle dot dot”. Wikipedia. 18 April 2008. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_Circle_Dot_Dot> 30 April 2008.