You put your right foot in,
You put your right foot out;
You put your right foot in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,

And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

You put your left foot in,
You put your left foot out;
You put your left foot in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,

And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

You put your right hand in,
You put your right hand out;
You put your right hand in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,

And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

You put your left hand in,
You put your left hand out;
You put your left hand in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,

And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

You put your right side in,
You put your right side out;
You put your right side in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,

And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

You put your left side in,
You put your left side out;
You put your left side in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,

And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

You put your nose in,
You put your nose out;
You put your nose in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,

And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

You put your tail in,
You put your tail out;
You put your tail in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,

And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

You put your head in,
You put your head out;
You put your head in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,

And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

You put your whole self in,
You put your whole self out;
You put your whole self in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,
And you turn yourself around.

That was painfully long. And that part about putting your tail in.. uhm. And you're putting all of this where, anyways? Insanity.

nursery rhyme

hokey pokey is also type of confectionary made with golden syrup and baking soda. There is a commercial hokey pokey (covered in chocolate) bar made in New Zealand. It is also a flavour of ice cream in New Zealand that has reached the status of a cultural icon. See Kiwiana.

Hokey Pokey ice cream is basically vanilla, but with small chunks of toffee through it. Not real hokey pokey though, because that dissolves in the ice cream and goes really yuck (personal experience after trying to make 'home made' hokey pokey ice cream). Watch out if you have fillings in your teeth! This ice cream can mean expensive dentist's bills.

Possibly it originated from the 17th Century as a mimicry of the Roman Catholic mass. With the priest lifting his arm (putting it in) and lowering it (taking it out) and then turning around and offering the the consecrated bread to the mass.

The term Hokey Cokey is a corruption (perhaps due to the fact that the non-latin speaking mass had no idea what what he was talking about) of Hoc est corpus: 'This is my body'. (which is what it's all about)

"knees bent" is a mimicry of genuflection,"arm stretch" is a mimicry of the priests outstretched and open arms, and "ra-ra-ra", is the priest warbling on in some unknown language

When it travelled to America, Cokey was replaced with Pokey possibly due to the popular "Hocus Pocus", which infered fooling around and trickery (in the 19th century).

From what I have been told. That is what it is all about.

Hokey Pokey is a New Zealand confectionery, very crunchy and brittle, a bit like edible golden pumice.

How to make hokey pokey:

We used to do this in science class all the time, to teach us about bicarbonate + acid reactions.

NaHCO₃ + H⁺ ⇒ Na⁺ + CO₂ + H₂O

That was the reaction we were to learn about. It was basically a thing we'd do last period on Friday when the teacher's in a good mood and too lazy to organise anything else.

Some recipes contain vinegar, but this one doesn't. It's taken straight out of my Year 9 science book. From past experience, I recommend checking the pans for left over oddments from past experiments before using them. Year 9 students are not usually adept at cleaning science equipment.

Keep in mind that the OSH department of New Zealand bans the consumption of food in science classrooms, in case harmful chemicals enter the body too.

Never stopped Mr Schuster, I can tell you that.

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons sugar (C₆H₁₂O₆)

2 tablespoons Chelsea Golden Syrup (more C₆H₁₂O₆, in liquid form; and H⁺)

1 teaspoon Bicarbonate of soda (NaHCO₃)

Bring the sugar and golden syrup to boil in a pot over a bunsen burner, constantly stirring.

Boil for 7 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat and add the baking soda.

Stir in quickly until it froths, and pour at once onto tin foil.

Break up and eat when cold.

It should change colour and puff up quite dramatically when you add the baking soda. If it doesn't, you end up with a yellow, toffee residue, perfectly edible, but not good for much except throwing at people.

You will be suprised by how much it puffs up. We've made and consumed vast quantities of this stuff in the past, not realising just how much this recipe makes. And eating that much sugar makes your tongue hurt, I can tell you that for sure.