WELCOME BACK. MOTHER GOOSE HAS JUST WRITTEN A NEW NURSERY RHYME, AND WE ARE GOING TO BE THE FIRST ONES TO HEAR IT. ELMO: BOY, ELMO WONDERS WHAT IT'’’S GONNA BE ABOUT. ABBY: OH, YOU'’’LL SEE.

Well, such is the case for the heart-racing, albeit brief nursery rhyme “Jack Be Nimble,” which “roving reporter” Kermit the Frog showcases below in a segment for Sesame Street.

After a lifetime of studying old texts, the Opies concluded that most nursery rhymes are fragments of ballads or folk songs, ancient customs and rituals, street cries or mummers' plays.

1. They introduce kids to new words “Nursery rhymes introduce children to new words and ideas that they might not encounter elsewhere at this stage of their development,” says Clare.

The British Library holds this 1744 book of nursery rhymes, Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book, which was sold in London and is the oldest surviving published collection in the genre.