Musical party songs

Musical party songs are fab fun for little kids...

...because everyone can get involved, including the grown ups!

Your musical party songs will be much more successful if you and your grown up helpers lead the singing and join in with the actions as well as some of the games. One reason why many of these activities are ideal for younger children is that there is often no competitive element. It's all about joining in and having fun!

Let's get straight down to business with some action-packed musical party songs you might like to include in your celebration:

Musical party action songs

Verse ideas:

• This is the way we wash our face
• This is the way we brush our teeth (or wash in the US?)
• This is the way we comb our hair
• This is the way we walk to school
• This is the way we run back home
• This is the way we go to sleep...

You could of course add a little more movement: this is the way we jump up and down, hop around, run on the spot, raise our arms, sit down and stand up - whatever you think is suitable for your guests.

Old Macdonald had a farm
Prepare pictures of old Macdonald's farm animals before the party: a cow, duck, sheep, dog

Everyone stands in a circle. When you start singing the first verse about Old Macdonald's cow, give the picture of the cow to a child to hold, showing it to the other children. Then when the second verse starts about his ducks - give the next child in the circle a picture of a duck. That way, the kids won't forget which animals to sing about!

If your guests would appreciate a little fun with this game, add a few more exotic animals to Old Macdonald's repertoire: snakes, monkeys, wolves, sharks... in fact, you might end up calling this musical party game Old Macdonald's Zoo instead!

The wheels on the bus
A classic song for tots and little kids. Again, this musical party song game can be played in a circle either sitting or standing. You could arrange the chairs two by two with each pair of kids in front of another, as if they were sitting on a bus. You could follow this song with a game of musical chairs - see my musical party games page for that game as well as other game suggestions for this theme.

The farmer's in the dell
Everyone stands in a circle, holding hands. One child is the farmer, and stands in the middle.

As they sing the first verse, all the kids dance around the farmer. When it's time for the farmer to choose a wife (or, if you like, a husband!) the farmer picks one of the other children to join him in the middle. Then a child will be chosen, then a nurse, and so on.

London Bridge is falling down
What childhood memories this game evokes; we'd play this in my school playground in England during the 1960s... often followed by a Beatles singalong of Yellow Submarine! These days our little sons and daughters have different musical heros - but London Bridge is one musical party game that has never lost its magic.

The old London Bridge itself? You can visit it in the USA! It's now in Lake Havasu Lake, Arizona, having been sold by the British government in 1968.

To use this musical party song: two children stand opposite each other, holding hands and raising them to form the bridge. One of them is "silver", the other "gold." Choose two taller kids for this.

The others dance in a circle and go under the bridge. When they get to "my fair lady" - the bridge comes down and captures one of the children!

The bridges ask: "What will you pay me, silver or gold?"

And the child that has been caught must decide which side of the bridge to stand behind, the silver player or the gold one. And so the game continues, until each child has been caught.

This old man
I think it's the "knick knack paddy whack" words that make this musical party game so much fun!

The children stand or sit in a circle. Each verse talks about a number, so they can hold up the number of fingers for each one, then point to their thumb, shoe, knee and so on, or mime the hive for five and point to heaven for seven.

More ideas for musical party songs for young children on my toddler party games page.