Songs are great for children for many reasons. Here are my favourite counting songs for young children.
A lovely simple song using your fingers and good for counting up. Start with your thumb then as you count up show 2,3,4 5 fingers. I move my fingers in time with the pulse too so “friends” are kind of dancing.
A counting up song. Although this song is a little complicated for young children to sing it is a great song! It has great rhyming, children can perform the animal actions if they like and obviously each verse is counting up – 1,2,3 etc I only use up to three just because it is quite long and I have puppets to match one frog,, 2 fish and 3 birds.
Two little blackbirds (Dicky birds)
This is a very old and favourite rhyme. Stick a sticker on your each of your first fingers and hold both hands out in front. When they fly away move your finger to your ear and as you bring your hand back down again swap fingers to your middle finger (the bird has gone!). Or you can just hide them behind your back – children love that!
Two little blackbirds sitting on a wall
One called Peter, one called Paul
Fly away Peter, fly away Paul
Come back Peter, come back Paul.
Or the original (Pagan) version
Two little birds sitting on a hill
One named Jack, one named Jill
Fly away Jack, Fly away Jill
Come back Jack, come back Jill.
Two teddies on a trampoline
I came across this song in a book called Voice Play by Alison Street & Linda Bance. I love it because out comes my parachute and loads of teddies. I have done this counting up and back down putting teddies on and taking them off the parachute. I have done this in multiples of two as well as the song suggests. The children love bouncing them on the parachute and can see a visual of teddies being added and taken away.
Three little birds
This is a massive favourite with children. Not only does it cover some counting but it also introduces whisper and loud voices. The children love saying “cheap, cheap, cheap” in their loud voices!
Three little birds all fast asleep
One little bird says “cheap, cheap, cheap”
Down came mummy with a big fat crumb
And the third little bird said “yum, yum, yum”
(repeat with two and then one asleep)
You can hold three fingers and curl then over your hand to go to sleep. Mummy bird is your other hand swooping down and feeding the bird which has woken up.
Four little flowers
Some rhymes often surprise me but its how you say them that makes children interested. I love this rhyme because I can be silly. At the end of the rhyme I use a very high voice for my pleading flowers and then I do an enormous blow – children love doing that!
Four little flowers hiding in the snow
Out came the sun and one began to grow
Along came the wind and what did flowers say:
“Please Mister Wind, don’t blow me away!”
Five little mice
Most kids love this rhyme unless of course you have very sensitive children who don’t like their mice being eaten by the pussy cat!
Five little mice came out to play
Gathering crumbs along the way
Out came pussycat big and black
And four little mice went scurrying back.
You can say this as a finger rhyme or use puppets. I actually give five mice out and the children like to move them into the middle of our circle as if they are running. My cat puppet then comes out and gets them one by one until there are none. You could use as many mice as you like of course but again be aware of how long it takes! If I have more than 5 children I repeat the rhyme again bigger groups let children have a turn next time. Repetition is incredibly important!
5 fat sausages
Five fat sausages sizzling in a pan (z)
All of a sudden one went bang (z)
This is a counting down rhyme. Its easy to start with five as you can use your hand but you could also count down from ten or any number.
Where I have written (z) marks a musical rest in the rhyme so I make sure I am clapping on the rest rather than on the word “bang” and I blow after the word “pan”. You could choose other actions like a popping sound with your mouth or let the children think of an action.
Five little snowmen
Five little snowmen knocking at my door
One melts away and now there are four.
Four little snowmen sitting down to tea
One melts away and now there are three
Three little snowmen polishing their shoe
One melts away and now there are two
Two little snowmen lying in the sun
One melts away and now there is one
One little snowman standing all alone
He melts away and now there are none
Another counting down rhyme.
I like this rhyme as you can pause at the end of each second line and let the children jump in with the answer. The fact that it rhymes with each of the numbers is great for helping little memories.
There are of course tonnes of other counting rhymes like:
Five little Peas
Skip one window
Ten in the bed
One potato, two potato
Two, four, six, eight
These are some of my favourites. What are yours? Comment below and let me know!
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