Whether you’re a librarian planning story time, a preschool teacher looking for new songs or a parent of a toddler who is tired of the same five songs, here are resources for learning new children’s songs.

The very best resources I know of are:

• Tell Me a Story from the King County Library System – searchable collection of hundreds of videos of children’s librarians singing songs and showing the motions
• Jbrary – two children’s librarians (Lindsey Krabbenhoft and Dana Horrocks) have created a huge collection of videos of children’s songs (with motions) and also have lists of favorite books, ideas for storytime, etc.
• Sing with Our Kids, where Nancy Stewart has created a song library which includes lyrics and .mp3 audio recordings of lots of great traditional kid songs, and a collection of “Books that Sing” – picture books that you can sing aloud.
• Jocelyn Manzanarez’s Circle Time Success on Instagram

And here are resources I have created that you are welcome to use:

• For a preschool, here’s a full year music time curriculum with shaker songs, rhymes, songs, and recommended “books that sing” for 9 monthly themes – include ukulele chords. Here are the books-that-sing that I use.
• my full lesson plan for a year’s worth of Toddler Circle Times. It includes lots more songs and rhymes, gathered around 9 monthly themes.
• collection of favorite toddler songs with links to videos of all the tunes, and a list of books toddlers love with affiliate links to more info on Amazon
• for an infant-wobbler class, here are all the baby songs I do during the year. (here are the same songs with the ukulele chords, and here are 11 x 17 posters of the lyrics to print and use in class)
• collection of fun science themed songs for ages 3 – 6 which reinforce STEM concepts
• tips for parachute play and stretchy band play at group time
• rhythm curriculum – lots of ideas for building a sense of rhythm

And here’s why music time matters: How Music Benefits Early Learning.

Photo by Jelleke Vanooteghem on Unsplash