The term fingerplay in early childhood education incorporates a wide range of different songs and rhymes, from those that are specific to the use of one hand to full body action songs. Often all it takes to turn a song into a fingerplay is to find actions for the lyrics.
Basic signing is a valid way of getting actions into a children's music and turning the song into a fingerplay. Fingerplay songs encourage young children to participate, and in so doing, foster the development of fine and gross motor skills. In addition, the action songs allow toddlers and preschoolers to learn concepts and practice following direction.
Most children's music involves the experience of repetition, sequencing and rhythm. For years, toddler and preschool children have had fun with fingerplay songs and they still do.
Fingerplay Songs for Counting
Many fingerplay songs are conducive to learning numbers and counting. Toddlers and preschool children can sing along with the lyrics and close each finger as the characters in the song are subtracted. A great visual aide for these songs are glove puppets, finger puppets and felt pieces on a flannel board.
Following is a list of some favourite counting fingerplay songs for early childhood education. These song lyrics and tunes can easily be found on many preschool websites and on you tube videos:
- Five Green and Speckled Frogs
- Five Little Monkeys Jumping On the Bed
- Five Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree
- Five Little Ducks Went Swimming One Day
- Five Little Pumpkins Sitting on the Fence
- This Little Piggie
Many of these fingerplay songs can be extended into full action movements, or young children can watch the play on a flannel board or with puppets. A great counting song that involves gross motor development is Ten in the Bed. A child or group of children can lie on the ground, and then roll along when the song is being sung. This song, though, can also be sung with ten fingers as well.
There were ten in the bed and the little one said,
"Roll over, roll over."
So, they all rolled over and one fell out
There were nine in the bed and the little one said...
Continue to the end and the little one said, "good night".
Fingerplay Songs about Animals
Animals are an embraced theme with young children, and many songs in children's music incorporate animals, as already noted in the counting fingerplay list. A beloved fingerplay song is the Eency Weensy Spider( or Itsy Bitsy Spider):
The eency weensy spider went up the water spout (both hands are used to making climbing action)
Down came the rain and washed the spider out (both hands with wiggly fingers make the rain coming down and then take hands in front of body and away )
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain (both hands make a large ball shape over the head)
So the eency weensy spider went up the spout again. (both hands climb back up)
This fingerplay song is fun to sing with the changed lyrics of the great big hairy spider. In addition encourage the children to use a big bellowing voice and extra large actions.
Transportation Action Songs
Just as animals are a favourite theme with toddlers and preschoolers, so are action songs about transportation, like the well known, Wheels on the Bus. Here is a fingerplay song about going to the moon:
Zoom, zoom, zoom (move hands back and forth together in a sliding motion)
We are going to the moon(Make one arm straight, then climb fingers of the other hand up the arm)
Zoom, zoom, zoom
We'll be there very soon
If you want to take a trip
Climb aboard my rocket ship
Zoom, zoom, zoom
We are going to the moon
Five, four, three, two, one (use your fingers to count down)
Blast off! (shoot your hands way up high)
There are so many fingerplay songs to discover and sing. Young children find the action songs they particularly like and toddlers, in particular, will request to sing and hear them repeatedly. For this reason, it is a good idea to find additional props for these songs in children's music.
Christine Moore - Early Childhood Educator, Preschool/Daycare Resources, Online Workshop Instructor, ECE, BGS
Join the Conversation