Singing Games

Singing games combine songs, movement, and social interaction within a single complex and authentic learning experience. They can address much of the elementary music curriculum and are ideal for engaging children in multiple subjects all at once.

​Read more here about the benefits and applications of children's singing games. 

The games included on this website appear below in alphabetical order. Follow the links at the bottom of the page for more games. 

Bluebird

This song is a favorite, especially for younger children. For pre-school or kindergarten, it can be helpful to have multiple adults interspersed between the children. This game abounds with opportunities for personal creativity and expression. The children typically love being the-one-who-is-it. The game can work as a form of science and language arts integration, complemented by class research into different kinds of birds, their habitats, and how they fly.​

Button & the Key

This is one of the best singing games out there for close listening and community building. Children can disguise their voices (drama integration) to make the game more challenging. Also, stick with the script. It is part of the game, and it is polite to call someone by name and ask them a question in a complete sentence. As with other singing games, the aim is for the teacher to slowly fade into the background and let the children carry on without them. Chances are they will take this game and play it during recess. 

Cho-co-la-te

This hand game is a great way to explore four-syllable words. First, learn the pattern through imitation and then replace ch0-co-la-te with other four-syllable words. To further enhance creativity, develop new actions for the game. Let each pair of students share their actions and words with the class and let everyone else imitate. If there is an odd number of students, the teacher can participate with a student or three students could develop a way to play the game.

Down Down Baby

Children of all ages simply love this singing game. It can be taught by having them join in with the song. As they learn the song and game, the challenge comes by trying it faster and faster. For arts integration, replace the chant at the end ("Two big kids sitting on a fence...") with skip counting by a variety of multiples (starting with 2s or 5s and working up to more difficult ones) and see how far the students can make it as a class before messing up. 

Drunken Sailor

If you are uncomfortable singing "drunken" sailor, change it to something else and discuss adjectives. In addition to researching the origins and versions of this song, children can come up with additional verses. Seriously, what should we do with a drunken sailor? Tie him to the mast? Douse him with a bucket of water?  Maybe it could be "What shall we do with a noisy classroom?" There are multiple possibilities for language arts and social studies integration. Can you think of others? 

Four White Horses

 Four white horses is a challenging singing game from Trinidad and Tobago. It is ideal for upper grades. When I teach this game to fifth or sixth graders, they inevitably end up playing it at recess and before or after school. In some schools it has caught on until most of the children know it. It can be used effectively as a writing/story prompt. No one really knows for sure the meaning on the lyrics and there are a number of versions. You can even make up your own. Note: Most versions use "hey, hey, hey" instead of "ay, ay, ay."
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Green Sally

Green Sally is the third hand-clapping game in this series. After the students have learned all three, I invite them to choose a tune (including songs-that-teach) and come up with their own hand-clapping games. Kurt Hugo Schneider has recorded a variety of patty-cake covers on his youtube channel. I suggest starting children with folk songs or song-that-teach, but they might also be interested in creating their own patty-cake covers for popular songs. 

Head and Shoulders Baby

This singing game can be used to explore verbs and nouns to make up new verses. Traditionally "head and shoulders" is replaced with an action like "throw the ball," "kick the bucket," "drive the car," or "milk the cow." List on the board and discuss. For an additional integration, choose verbs and nouns that fit another subject. For example, a lesson on sustainability could include "sort the trash" and "ride the bus."  The chorus ("I ain't been to 'Frisco") could even be changed to reflect the topic. 

Hey, Hey, Look at Me

This is a simple game that younger children especially will want to play much longer than their teachers or parents. It is already integrated with drama and dance and can be extended to other subjects as well; it can be a way to explore a variety of subjects—freezing to represent characters in a book, types of animals, land forms, etc. It shouldn't be surprising how creative children can be with this. You might encourage them to, for the sake of safety and order, freeze with at least two points (feet, foot and hand) touching the floor.

Little Johnny Brown

This game will likely engage the imagination more than most. This is also one of my favorite tunes, by the way. There are a variety of versions for this game, but again, it is not imperative to find out or follow the "right" one. Do what works best for you and for the children you are teaching. You can also adapt the game to a wide variety of situations and needs. In the following lesson, I outline some language arts connections. 

Muffin Man

I have included Do You Know the Muffin Man in this series because I think it could work well as a song-that-teaches in the question and answer format demonstrated here. I have never tried it before; I'm just brainstorming the possibilities. The whole idea with this page is that teachers and parents will be able to creatively adapt the singing games to meet their own children's needs. Of course, as discussed above, much is gained musically, physically, and socially by simply playing the games, over and over, as they are.

Obwisana

This is an excellent demonstration of Obwisana and how to use it to teach music at various grade levels. It would make sense to play this same game with rocks. From what I can gather on the internet, it is from Ghana and means (roughly): The rock has crushed my hand, grandmother. The rock has crushed my hand (repeated). This game introduces, in this series, the genre of passing games. It is also okay to change the lyrics and/or the patterns in this game. 

Round Da Do Bop

This is a story song. "I was going to Kentucky; I was going to the fair. I met a señiorita with flowers in her hair." This circle game works well with older students, but can work for all ages. Divide the students into groups and have them come up with new stories to fit into the game. "I was going to (place); I was going to (event). I met a (person), with (objects) in her/his (location)." Then choose an action to replace "shake it": "(action) like a (simile) and (action) it (preposition) a (object)." Here's another version.

Sarasponda

This is a nonsense song. I teach it by first passing the rhythm sticks around, having the students hold them still and together until we are ready to begin. Then I have them mirror my movements to learn the entire sequence without the song. They we perform the sequence with the song. Finally, we pair up and practice. I have each pair figure out a way to exchange sticks on "a-doray-o." Like hand-clapping games, students can come up with stick patterns to in pairs or groups to accompany folk songs, popular songs, or songs-that-teach. 

Three in the Middle

This is a hilarious addition and subtraction game. It's somewhat dangerous and works best when clear rules are established (no breaking through—you have to sneak under, no bending down to block the people trying to get out of the circle—you can only step side to side, etc.). Although I have successfully played this as the only adult in the room, with the younger kids, it does help to have more adults. 

When I Was a Baby

This song is about the life cycle.  Change the words and actions to demonstrate the life cycle of something other than a person — a frog for example: "When I was an egg, an egg, an egg. When I was an egg, this is what I did. I went roll this-a-way, roll that-a-way, roll this-a-way and that's what I did. When I was a tadpole...  When I sprouted legs... When I was a froglet... When I was a frog..." and so forth. In the version in the video we tried to maintain the traditional wording, but it works as well with other dialects. 
More singing games are available on this youtube channel. Scroll past the ocarina tablature. You will also find lots of other channels and videos of singing games on youtube. 

A helpful and informative resource for children's singing games from around the world is the book and CD set, Roots and Branches, by Patricia Shehan Campbell and Ellen McCullough-Brabson. 

​See also the MamaLisa blog.