How to Create Engaging Kids Story Songs (Plus Fun Examples)
/It’s so much fun to tell a story through music and movement. One of our favorite ways to share stories with children is through story songs. They are engaging, allow for social and emotional exploration, and are easy to expand to include children’s ideas.
What is a Story Song?
A story song is a song that tells a story. A character takes a journey, and the journey is sung. Either a character goes somewhere, or something happens. You know a story song because there’s a beginning, middle, and end to the journey.
For example, check out our song “The Bird And The Worm.” Simple story: The Bird looks for a worm. The worm dives and hides. The bird flies away. Curtain.
Can You Identify the Story Song?
Here’s a list of four children’s songs. Can you identify which one is a story song?
A) Itsy Bitsy Spider
B) Old MacDonald
C) Happy Birthday
Did you choose A? If you did, you are correct! “Itsy Bitsy Spider” is a whole story in four lines.
Old MacDonald is more of a list; nothing really happens, just a list of animals and noises. But “Itsy Bitsy Spider literally has rising and falling action.
Spider climbing.
Rain falling. Spider falling.
Sun comes out. Everything is dry.
Spider climbs again.
What a saga.
How could your children “play” this song? Using creative movement they could be spiders, then pretend to be falling drops of rain, then the powerful sun sending that rain into the clouds, and finally the spider again.
Adding Movements to Story Songs
Sometimes a story song tell us what movement to make while we sing. Our song “Jump in the Water” does just that:
Let’s break it down.
Beginning: We jump in the water
Middle: We’re all wet.
End: We shake ourselves and now we’re dry.
Simple, and very catchy. Children love the simplicity of the story, the arc of action. In our classes, children from toddlers through elementary ask for this song repeatedly.
How to Extend a Story Song to Include Children’s Ideas
A teacher or parent can extend the journey in a number of ways. Repeating the song, ask children probing questions such as, “How are you feeling about jumping in the water?” “Do you like being all wet or not?” “What about drying off, how can we do it besides shaking?”
Incorporate their ideas… OR, maybe it’s not water. Maybe next time we’re jumping in the ice cream…you’re all sticky!
How to Use Counting Songs as Kids Story Songs
We tell so many stories through song - and children’s counting songs are a great example. There's a group of songs I affectionately call the “Five Littles”: Five Little Ducks, Five Little Fishies, Five Little Apples, Five Little Pumpkins, and Five Green and Speckled Frogs.
You probably know others as well. They are great for acting out!
Need more inspiration?
Here are 5 of Yo Re Mi’s popular original story song videos.
1. Caterpillar, Chrysalis, Butterfly (Kids Yoga Flow)
Who says learning can’t be fun? The story of becoming a butterfly is one of nature’s classics. Be sure to use this song to explore science units like transformation, seasons, and insects!
2. Making A Pizza (Kids Sing-Along)
Yum! The steps of pizza making are perfect story song material. Feel free to adapt this one to a food you know and like.
In collaboration with children in pre-K and kindergarten classrooms I’ve created versions for cookies, burritos, and a sandwich. Try your hand at a new one!
3. Go With The Flow
“Go With The Flow” incorporates Yo Re Mi’s trifecta: music, movement, and mindfulness while encouraging a growth mindset in children. Each verse along our journey brings us a new complication, a new resolution, and a new way to travel.
This song explores important SEL concepts like collaboration, self determination, and flexibility.
4. Surf’s Up (Warrior 2, Sphinx, Locust Flow)
Waiting for your perfect wave takes patience, and balancing on that board sure is tricky!
By including confidence-boosting warrior two pose, sphinx and locust, “Surf’s Up” creates an opportunity to strengthen our bodies with a story song and kids water-themed activity!
5. Grow (Chair Pose and Tree Pose)
Like “The Bird and the Worm” and “Caterpillar, Chrysalis, Butterfly”, this song is a great science and STEM activity. The added wonder of “what will I be?” really resonates with older children in our classrooms.
We love story songs. We’ve been inspired by the greatest writers in the Folk Music and World Music traditions to incorporate story songs into our work with children, and we hope you do too! Here’s some of our favorite inspiration.
Further Listening: Pete Seeger Story Song Classics
Far and away the greatest story song influencer at Yo Re Mi is Pete Seeger.
Perhaps the most famous story song by Pete Seeger is “Abiyoyo” - developed from an African folk tune, expanded to tell the story of a brave boy, his father, and their village which hadn’t seen the big giants for a hundred years…until now.
There are countless ways to incorporate movement!
Another Pete Seeger classic is “Cumberland Mountain Bear Chase,” here recorded wonderfully by Michael Cooney.
This one is particularly interesting because all of the different themes on the banjo become recognizable as the song progresses. Imagine children acting it out - or better yet, have them try it!
There was a terrific animation of Pete Seeger’s “The Foolish Frog” (based on a story his father would tell him) which was released by Scholastic in the 1970’s.
I can’t find a link to an official version of the animation anywhere, but here is the full song recording. Just imagine the ways this one can be expanded to include music and movement! So many great possibilities.
Story Songs are an Essential Part of Every Child’s Development
Maybe there are story songs from different cultures which can help us all understand each other better. The Reggio Emilia approach talks about 100 languages of children - perhaps storytelling through music and movement is uniquely suited to some children you know. Let’s find out. Keep singing!
Share this post on Pinterest!
