Whether you grew up with Schoolhouse Rock, Sesame Street, the Electric Company, Romper Room or Raffi, chances are good that you can still sing a counting song that you learned way back then. Ah, there are some really great songs from those days and many a Schoolhouse Rock version is being used to teach “skip counting” in classrooms today.

Music holds a powerful place in our brain—and singing utilizes the brain’s language and music areas. When children are actively listening to music, multiple areas in their brains are lighting up!  Combining music with movement is a powerful tool that we can use daily to reinforce math concepts. The more senses we involve, the more learning takes place. What’s in your body sticks in your brain!

We use songs to work on vocabulary, memory and repetition. This week, the children at our center have begged to sing the song “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” over and over again. It’s so fun to watch the different levels of coordination, anticipation and expectations as children of different ages and abilities participate in this activity. The beauty of this song is that everybody loves it. Everyone feels successful and happy, regardless of their developmental level. It always seems to be developmentally appropriate because…it’s a song!

Songs can be the easy, fun and social-emotional pillars for the children in our care. When we share counting songs such as “This Old Man” or “Five Green and Speckled Frogs,” we are introducing counting and numbers and math concepts such as removing one from a group. The repetition and rhythm in these songs make it easy for very young children to remember the name and sequence of number patterns. As they learn to anticipate these patterns and sequences of events or objects, children are building early math skills that they will need in the years to come.

We also use songs to tell stories and to ease into transitions or new activities, such as pickup time and naptime. At nap time, each child gets to choose a book that we will read as a group. The songbooks make an appearance weekly. I am quite certain that the children all think that they can “read” “The Wheels on the Bus” or “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on a Bed” as they sing the songs along with me. Another daily favorite is “Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear,” which—ironically—I can remember singing back in kindergarten, accompanied by Mrs. Smith and her piano. 

This is the way we wash our hands, wash our hands, wash our hands…

Using songs in your daily routines can help you meet the math standards for early childhood education. Keep it light, easy and age-appropriate! Sing loud, sing often, sing off-key! The children don’t care. That won’t be what they remember. They will remember the words to the song, which will lay a strong foundation for their future math learning. Perhaps that’s what Schoolhouse Rock had in mind. A strong “rock” foundation! 

Interested in using songs to lay the foundation for later math learning? Take a look at some of my favorite music and movement books:

Inch by Inch: The Garden Song by David Mallett (HarperCollins, 1997)

Five Little Ducks by Raffi (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 1999)

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes by Annie Kubler (Childs Play Intl. Ltd., 2002)

Mother Goose’s Action Rhymes by Axel Scheffler (Pan MacMillan, 2017)

Where is Thumbkin? Where is Thumbkin?

Here I am. Here I am.

How are you today, sir? Very well, I thank you.

Run away. Run away.

Ah, kindergarten with Mrs.Smith. I assumed that all kindergarten teachers had a piano and worked on fingerplays and nursery rhymes with a group of children hiding Thumbkin behind their backs. Every day, I gleefully recited nursery rhymes and fingerplays with my friends on the carpet. 

Today, I am a wee bit worried that—as we rush to get our children “ready for kindergarten”—nursery rhymes have fallen off of our radar. In our age of political correctness, these outdated collections of songs and rhymes have been all but forgotten. Yet, nursery rhymes are enjoyable and important tools for the development of pre-literacy and pre-math skills. Rhyme, rhythm and repetition can be used to draw children into a great book or song—and the repetition of words is the first step to recognizing patterns in math.

Let’s go back to kindergarten with Mrs. Smith for a moment. When she asked us to use our thumbs to portray little characters in the Thumbkin story rhyme, Mrs. Smith was introducing us to symbolic thinking. When children begin to understand symbols, they are also beginning to understand numbers and letters, which are really just symbols for quantities and concepts. Rhymes, songs and movement are tried-and-true teaching tools for children who are learning to count.

One, two, three four, five, 

Once I caught a fish alive,

Six, seven, eight, nine, ten,

Then I let it go again.

When choosing books to read to your classroom, look for books that have only one rhyme per page. Our infants and toddlers enjoy board books that feature only one rhyme for the entire book. These books enrich the learning experience with visually stimulating illustrations as they introduce children to language that they may not hear at home.

When books aren’t in the hands of your early learners, add props, puppets or daily opportunities to bring these rhymes to life.

One, Two, Buckle My Shoe!              Itsy, Bitsy, Spider                       A Tisket, A Tasket

You will see such looks of pride as the children in your care recite their first memorized verse! If your child or class has mastered “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe!” or “ Itsy, Bitsy Spider,” you already know that the rhythms and tunes of these nursery rhymes can be addictive to toddlers and preschoolers.

Nursery rhymes are also full of numbers, patterns, sequencing and counting forward and backward. Children learn to add as they count forward and subtract as they count backward. Some rhymes add “one more” or “one less” as the rhyme progresses.

Rhymes that involve finger counting do more than develop fine-motor skills. They also teach children that fingers can represent numbers when the children are holding their fingers up and counting on their fingers. These patterns lay the foundation for mathematical predictions and reasoning skills. The practice of fingerplay promotes the development of coordination and fine-motor skills in young children—skills that are critical for tasks such as holding a pencil when children enter elementary school. We also use finger puppets and hand puppets when we work on our nursery rhymes, which help children develop their finger and hand muscles. Fingerplays for toddlers don’t need to be longer than three or four lines. “This Little Piggie” or “Round and Round the Garden” are great choices for our early learners.

As Mem Fox—the award-winning author of more than 40 children’s books and a retired associate professor of literacy studies—notes in her book, Reading Magic (Harcourt, 2001): “If children know eight nursery rhymes by heart by the time they’re four years old, they’re usually among the best readers by the time they’re eight.” 

My former teacher, Mrs. Smith, shared her love of music, math and fine-motor skills during circle time when I was young. I urge you to bring these rhymes back into your classroom and use them when the children in your care are lining up for recess, waiting for their parents or making other transitions during the day.

Play Mrs. Smith’s version of “Where is Thumbkin?”

Interested in using nursery rhymes with your early learners? Take a look at some of my favorite books: 

Mother Goose: Four Classic Board Books by Sylvia Long (Chronicle Books, 2016)

Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes padded board book by Mem Fox (HMH Books for Young Readers, 2010)

Humpty Dumpty and Other Nursery Rhymes by Lucy Cousins (Dutton Juvenile, 1996)

Big Fat Hen by Keith Baker(HMH Books for Young Readers, 1997)

Five Little Ladybugs

Five little Ladybugs climbing up a door

One Flew away then there were four

Four Little ladybugs sitting on a tree

One flew away then there were three

Three little ladybugs landed on a shoe

One flew away and then there were two

Two little ladybugs looking for some fun

One flew away and then there was one

One little ladybug sitting in the sun

She flew away and then there were none

Using one hand – five fingers – you can illustrate the idea that

5 take away 1 equals 4 and 4 take away 1 equals 3, etc.

There are several versions of this song (5 Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Fence, Way up High in the Apple Tree, 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed) that work well and my guess is that you know most of them.

Try putting a small ladybug sticker on each of your fingers or on each of the fingers of your children.  This will help them make the connection that the fingers themselves, represent the ladybugs in the song.  I also like to use a felt board when singing songs such as these. Have one child come up at a time to remove the ladybugs (they are taking away) so they can see that take-away means less or fewer. Each time there is one less ladybug until there are none.