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Preschool songs play a pivotal role in a child's development, transforming learning into an enjoyable and captivating experience. Whether through classroom activities or soothing lullabies, musical exposure significantly boosts children's growth from an early age.
Music, singing, and dancing are not only powerful educational tools but also a source of immense joy for preschoolers, who thrive on movement and sound. These activities enhance their understanding of bodily movements, expand their vocabulary, introduce basic numerical concepts, boost confidence, stimulate cognitive development, and foster social skills.
Read on for a list of the best preschool songs to incorporate into your classroom activities to teach your children important concepts.
Benefits of preschool songs
Integrating songs into a preschool curriculum offers a multitude of benefits that extend beyond simple enjoyment. With brightwheel's Experience Curriculum, it's easy to plan lessons that incorporate singing, music, and dancing. With this complete curriculum system, you'll get access to flexible lesson plans for baby, toddler, and preschool age groups and you can easily match lessons in the app to the monthly curriculum kits.
Below, we explore the various advantages of making songs a fundamental part of preschool learning.
Enhances memory and learning
Music and rhythm have a remarkable ability to enhance memory retention in children. Songs that incorporate educational themes—such as the alphabet, numbers, and colors—make it easier for preschoolers to remember complex information.
Promotes language development
Incorporating songs into the daily routine of a preschool curriculum greatly supports language development. Through repetitive listening and singing, children are exposed to a range of vocabulary and linguistic structures, facilitating their ability to comprehend and use new words. Rhythmic patterns in songs also help with pronunciation and intonation, which are critical components of language learning.
Encourages social skills
Singing together fosters a sense of unity and cooperation among young children. Group songs require listening to others, sharing, taking turns, and expressing ideas within a safe and structured environment.
Boosts emotional expression
Songs provide a unique outlet for children to express their emotions freely. Through music, children can externalize and process complex feelings, whether positive or negative. This creative means of dealing with emotions promotes emotional intelligence and self-regulation, crucial skills for overall well-being and development.
Songs for preschoolers by category
Research shows that a child’s brain development and music are closely linked. Therefore, exposing children to songs early will support their development. With brightwheel's daily scheduling feature, you can save time creating daily schedules by using custom templates that are easy to design, update, and communicate. By using a flexible schedule template you can add or remove activities based on changes in enrollment or staffing.
Naturally, children are more engaged and learn better through fun and play. Preschool songs can introduce new concepts to your classroom through things like rhyming lyrics and repetitive melodies. Below are some of the best preschool songs for children.
Action and movement preschool songs
Action and movement songs combine music and movement by encouraging children to move their bodies or “act out” the lyrics. These songs strengthen children’s memory, help develop fine and gross motor skills, enhance hand-eye coordination, and foster self-confidence. Furthermore, these songs also build your child’s concentration, listening, and balancing skills.
1. The Hokey Pokey
This is a popular preschool song that most children and teachers enjoy and is easy to follow. Have the children form a circle and slowly demonstrate how you’ll act out the song. Act out the lyrics as the song plays. You can also use toys to demonstrate this.
2. I'm a Little Teapot
Hold a cup or teapot and act out the song showing the handle, tipping it over, and pouring. This is an engaging movement song that will exercise your children’s gross and motor skills.
3. Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
This song allows children to dance and wiggle around with their favorite toys. Continue acting out the song and imitating the actions like jumping up, wiggling, and touching your nose.
Circle time songs
You can sing these songs as children gather in a circle to participate in a guided activity. These songs help children build language and social skills, remind them it’s time to gather together, and help calm them down.
4. Come to the Carpet
This song signals children to stop or wrap up whatever they’re doing and come to the carpet and sit. Repeat the verse several times so that children can sing along with you.
5. If You’re Happy and You Know It
Guide your children to do the actions in the song. For instance, if the song says, “clap your hands,” encourage them to clap their hands. Ensure you move at their pace. This is also a great transition song to use as you prepare for circle time.
6. The Farmer in the Dell
This preschool song will boost your children’s memory, vocabulary, and listening skills. As each verse builds upon the last, have children form a circle and sing along.
Welcome songs
Welcome preschool songs can be used to make children feel welcome and set a tone for the rest of the day. You can sing welcome songs as you begin the school day or after children have transitioned from one activity.
7. Hello Neighbor
This preschool song is a great way to start the day on a friendly note by having children interact with each other and greet their neighbors.
8. Hello, Hello! Can You Clap Your Hands?
This welcome song is perfect to start your day or calm your children as they warm their bodies. Children can also sing this song as they take breaks.
9. Good Morning Song
This is another fun welcome song to add to your morning routine. This pre-k song is easy to learn, fun, and will encourage your children to dance around as they prepare for the day.
Early math, numbers, and counting
Numbers and counting songs for preschoolers help them memorize the order of numbers. You can ask them to count up, for instance, from one to 10, or down, from 10 to one. These songs also help children grasp number concepts such as addition and subtraction.
10. Five Little Ducks
This song will help develop your preschoolers' cognitive and math skills. As you sing, use your fingers to show numbers like one, two, and three. You can also use pencils or straws to count out the numbers.
11. Five Little Speckled Frogs
For this song, grab green items to represent the speckled frogs as you sing the song. Repeat verses until there are no “speckled frogs” left.
12. One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
Sing this song as you use your fingers. For instance, if the song says one, point one finger, and continue up to 10. Then, start all over again from one. As you do this, show children numbers by writing them out or using your fingers or blocks.
13. Ten Green Bottles
With this song, you can incorporate bottles or plastic glasses to illustrate this concept better. Continue singing the verses from 10 down to one, and then start all over again.
Parts of the body songs
Your children will love these interactive songs. These will help improve motor skills, coordination, and help your child learn the names of their different body parts. These songs are also easy to demonstrate and follow along.
14. Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
Act out the song with the children and teach the names of different body parts.
15. My Hands
You can sing this song while standing or during circle time. Act out the song and do the actions as you sing along with your children. For instance, when the song says “my hands,” show children your hands and ask them to do the same.
Opposites preschool songs
Singing “opposites” songs help children understand specific concepts such as soft vs hard, high vs low, big vs small, and also helps them to compare two different things.
16. Open Shut Them
To make this song more fun, pick out one child and act out the song together. When you say “open,” the child says “shut.” When you say “big,” the child says “small”.
17. The Opposites Song
You can reinforce the concept of opposites in this song by pairing it with flash cards to illustrate the different examples in the song.
Weather and seasons songs
Preschool songs with a weather and seasons theme help children learn and understand how the four seasons change throughout the year and the different kinds of weather associated with each season. You can play these songs at the beginning or end of a particular season.
18. The Seasons Song
This song will help you teach children about different seasons. You can use flashcards to illustrate the different seasons further, such as the sun to represent summer or snow to show winter.
19. Autumn Leaves Are Falling Down
As you sing, dance, and jump forward and backward with your children, imitate leaves falling down and raking leaves with your hands. Give children paper leaves or real leaves to drop as you all sing the song.
20. How’s the Weather?
This simple song teaches children about the various types of weather—sunny, cloudy, rainy, or snowy!
21. Rain, Rain Go Away
This song is a great introduction to weather, especially rain! It will also help children practice the days of the week.
Values and virtues songs
It’s vital to teach children about the importance of good values, such as being polite, saying thank you, and being patient. One of the best ways to do that is through songs.
22. Please and Thank You Song
Introduce the concept of saying “please” and “thank you” to your classroom with this catchy tune.
23. The Respect Song
You can use this song to teach children about the value of respect. The lyrics discuss the importance of having respect for the people and things around you.
24. Thank You Song
This song will teach children the simple practice of being grateful for the things they have. Use this song to prompt children to think about the specific things in their life that they are thankful for.
Farm songs
If you incorporate a farm theme into your lesson plans, these farm songs will help reinforce lessons about raising animals or growing food.
25. Baa Baa Black Sheep
This song incorporates different colors and counting, with lyrics that are easy to sing along.
26. Hickety Pickety My Black Hen
This song teaches rhyming and numbers. As the children sing this song, have some prop “eggs” handy and help them count how many eggs are in the hay.
27. Old Macdonald Had a Farm
This classic song exposes children to the different animals found on a farm and their sounds.
Colors and shapes songs
Teaching shapes and colors to children is an important part of their cognitive development. Consider incorporating songs like this into your lesson plans, along with activities that reinforce colors and shapes.
28. What Color Am I Wearing?
This is the perfect song to teach children about different colors. If children are wearing a particular color mentioned in the song, point it out, and ask them to stand, or you can hold up different colored objects that correspond to the color in the song.
29. I Love Colors Song
This song reinforces colors of common items children are exposed to. Continue the lesson after this song by having children identify different colored items in your classroom. For example, you could ask, “Can you find something red?”
30. The Shapes Song
Pair this song with other activities, such as drawing shapes, building with blocks, or creating shapes with play dough.
Bottom line
Incorporating preschool songs into your curriculum significantly boosts children's learning and development. The vast array of songs available makes it simple to select tunes that complement classroom activities, captivating children's attention and enhancing the educational experience.
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