Children’s Songs Table of Contents

1. Songs every child should know:
I have my thoughts. Please tell me yours.
Contact me at hope4you (at) centurytel.net.

2. Oral hygiene songs
(Just my thoughts—
talk to your dentist for reliable information).

3. Questions for Older Students

4. “What Happened to You?”

  1. Songs Every Child Should Know
    Mary Had a Little Lamb
    Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star/
    The ABC Song
    Jesus Loves Me
    Amazing Grace
    Itsy Bitsy Spider
    America/My Country ‘Tis of Thee
    Big Rock Candy Mountain (“jellybean trees”)
    BINGO
    She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain
    Do You Know the Muffin Man
    Do Your Ears Hang Low?
    The Farmer in the Dell
    Home on the Range
    Old Macdonald Had a Farm
    Go Tell It on the Mountain
    God Bless America
    Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes
    He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands
    Take Me Out to the Ball Game
    This Land Is Your Land
    Hot Cross Buns
    How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?
    If You’re Happy and You Know It
    I’m a Little Teapot
    The Hokey Pokey
    Michael Row the Boat Ashore
    Row, Row, Row Your Boat
    Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
    School Days
    Skip to My Lou
    The Sound of Music
    Oh What a Beautiful Morning
    Beautiful Wisconsin
    Do, Re, Mi
    Edelweiss
    The Little Brown Church in the Vale
    Sweet Adeline
    Bill Grogan’s Goat
    Lavender’s Green
    This Is My Father’s World
    This Little Light of Mine
    This Old Man
    When Irish Eyes Are Smiling
    When the Saints Go Marching In
    Let Me Call You Sweetheart
    Yankee Doodle
    You Are My Sunshine
    You’re a Grand Old Flag
    The Stars and Stripes Forever
    The Star Spangled Banner
    Happy Birthday
    His Eye Is on the Sparrow
    Just a Closer Walk With Thee
    Down the River
    God Bless the USA
    Yankee Doodle

  2. Oral Hygiene Songs
    (Lyrics by Dan Eumurian; original songs in italics)
    Flossie the Floss Girl (Frosty the Snowman)
    My Teeth Got Run Over by a Toothbrush
    (Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer):
    ”My teeth got run over by a toothbrush
    Right after a party Christmas night.
    People say that Rudolph’s nose was shiny;
    They should see my teeth all shiny white!”

Questions for Older Students

I don’t have any biological children, but I’ve taught thousands of kids as a music teacher or as a sub in other subjects. When my high school students have a bit of free time, I’ll ask them four questions: Do you have a favorite school subject? A sport? A hobby? A career goal? Based on their response, I try to help them expand their thinking or encourage them to do a creative activity.

Questions About Disabilities

Younger children often ask about my crutches. I tell them that we have two kinds of nerves: sensory nerves that send messages to the brain, and motor nerves that send messages to the muscles. I act out a skit in which my leg muscles don’t get the message because the polio virus has burned out the battery in that cell phone, so my brain calls my arm muscles and asks them to pick up my crutches and help me get around. Here’s a poem that was a favorite of my friend Jean Feraca, who used to host a call-in show on Wisconsin Public Radio:

What Happened to You?
Dan Eumurian

Folks are always asking me,
”Did you fall out of a tree?
Did you slip and hurt your leg?
Can you work, or do you beg?”

People don't know what to say--
Offer help or turn away.
If it's not too great a task,
Won't you please feel free to ask?

Children, innocent and true, say,
"What happened, sir, to you?"
I take time my tale to lend;
Oftentimes I make a friend.

Used to be that we were slapped
With a tag called "handicapped."
If you think I must be labeled,
You may say, "Partially disabled."

Part of my motion has been tabled;
My demise, though, is just fabled.
Fault may be mine or lie with none.
Fight the causes, find the fun!

"Crippled," from Old English "creep,"
No more is a term we keep.
You may say it; I won't slam it.
I may do it, not I am it.

I say, "Take me as I am.
Every fruit gets in a jam.
Lass and lad each has a lack.
Watch the way
I happen
Back.

Then I tell the kids I’m going to see if one disability means I’m unable to do anything, or if my fingers might possibly work. I go to the piano, play a bit of the second section of “Overture to William Tell” by Rossini (the section I call “The Alarm Clock Song”), and then rip into the presto section—the famous “Lone Ranger” theme.