Exploring Old MacDonald had a farm with babies and toddlers

Exploring Old MacDonald had a farm with babies and toddlers

We are all familiar with this very popular song:

Old MacDonald had a farm
Ee, i, ee, i, oh
And on his farm
He had some cows
Ee, i, ee, i, oh
With a moo, moo here
And a moo, moo there
Here a moo
There a moo
Everywhere a moo, moo
Old MacDonald had a farm
Ee, i, ee, i, oh

Here is a simple way to bring this song to life in your nursery.

Select pictures of farm animals (because of their "real" aspect, pictures are better than drawings or illustrations with very young children) and display then on a wall, at children's eye level.

Sing the song, but replace "MacDonald" with the name of a child in your group. For example, you may sing, "Old Jason had a farm"...

Point to the corresponding animal pictures as you sing. Sing very slowly to give children the chance to associate the lyrics with the correct picture.

With older toddlers, instead of displaying the pictures on a wall, laminate large cards they can manipulate.

If you wish, you could also use farm animal figurines to represent the animals in the song.

Chantal Millette
Early childhood educator