About the Song
Math skills can be difficult to acquire for some young learners. Not every child is excited about learning how to add or subtract, but what’s true is that most children enjoy a fun song where they can repeat catchy lyrics to a nice rhythm. This love of music can be used as a tool for getting familiarized with numbers and math from an early age. The classic old nursery rhyme “Over in the meadow” gives parents the best opportunity to start teaching numbers in English
to the little ones in a playful way.
Why is it important for your child to learn numbers at a young age? The sooner your little one starts to get acquainted with the numbers, the easier it will be later on to start working on their math skills. Numbers are the basis of basic math, first is counting the numbers, then is adding them, and subtracting them. In order for the little ones to complete more complex exercises, they need to get the basic ones right first.
With this song, the youngest of the house will learn to count the numbers from one to four in a simple way. The lyrics of the song tell the story of several animal families that live in the meadows. First, there’s a mother turtle with its baby, they are digging in the sand, which is an activity that turtles like to do. Then, there’s a crocodile mom with its two baby crocodiles. They are swimming in the water, just like these animals always do. After, there’s a mother chameleon with its three baby chameleons. This colorful family is living in a hole in a tree, doing what they always do: winking! Finally, in a barn, there’s a mother snake with its four baby snakes, all of which are squeaking at the door.
This singing counting game, besides teaching the numbers, is also a good opportunity to learn more about animals in English, especially for the little ones that are learning English as a second language, since it talks about different animal families. To learn more about this, encourage your little one to name the different animals they see after counting them while singing. You can even make questions to help boost listening and attention skills by asking “Where do the snakes live?”, or “What are the colors of the chameleons in the video?”, this way you can take full advantage of this fun song for kids to enhance your little one skills even further.
If your little one finds counting to four really easy, you can try increasing the difficulty by making up your own verses with other animals and adding them to the song, you can count to even numbers like six or ten, or go even higher and count some odd numbers up to fifteen. This way you’ll always have a fresh children’s song to practice!
“Over in the meadow” Lyrics:
Over in the meadow
In the sand in the sun,
lived an old mother turtle
and her baby turtle one.
“Dig!” said the mother,
“I dig!” said the one,
and they dug all day
in the sand in the sun.
Over in the meadow
where the stream runs blue,
lived a mama crocodile
and her crocodiles two.
“Swim!” said the mother,
“We swim!” said the two,
and they swam all day
where the stream runs blue.
Over in the meadow
in a hole in the tree,
lived a mother chameleon
and her chameleons three.
“Wink,” said the mother,
“We wink,” said the three,
and they winked all day
in the hole in the tree.
Over in the meadow
by the big barn door,
lived an old mother snake
and her little snakes four.
“Squeak!” said the mother,
“We squeak!” said the four,
and they squeaked all day
by the big barn door.
