"Old MacDonald Had a Farm": A Read-Aloud-Rhyme

Click to see Vol. I, Issue 3 of the newsletter in which this article first appeared.

Listen to the audio of this article!

Parents and teachers can read these rhymes aloud, and encourage little ones to repeat and even memorize them (I did when I was a kid!)

Who doesn't know "Old MacDonald"? (If you don't, listen to the audio!)

Here's the basic idea:

Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!
And on his farm he had a horse, E-I-E-I-O!
With a neigh-neigh here and a neigh-neigh there,
Here a neigh, there a neigh,
Everywhere a neigh-neigh,
Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!

With each verse we sing about a different animal. Here are the animals I used in the audio, in order and with their sounds:

• a horse (neigh-neigh)
• a dog (woof-woof)
• a duck (quack-quack)
• a cow (moo-moo)
• a hen (cluck-cluck)
• a pig (oink-oink)
• a turkey (gobble-gobble)
• a sheep (baa-baa)
• a donkey (hee-haw)

You and your kid can have a lot of fun with this. Here are some ways to crank it up:

• Instead of saying words like "neigh," have your kid try to make the actual horse (and other) sounds.
• While imitating the sound, have your kid imitate some action for each animal. "Toss your head like a horse" or "peck like a hen," etc.
• This is my favorite. (It's kind of like "The Twelve Days of Christmas.") Sing the first verse. In the second verse, after the animal sounds ("with a woof-woof here" etc.) go back and repeat the horse sounds. The second time through should sound like this:

Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!
And on his farm he had a dog, E-I-E-I-O!
With a woof-woof here and a woof-woof there,
Here a woof, there a woof,
Everywhere a woof-woof,
A neigh-neigh here and a neigh-neigh there,
Here a neigh, there a neigh,
Everywhere a neigh-neigh,
Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!

• The final time through should sound like this:

Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!
And on his farm he had a donkey, E-I-E-I-O!
With a hee-haw here and a hee-haw there,
Here a hee-haw, there a hee-haw,
Everywhere a hee-haw hee-haw,
A baa-baa here and a baa-baa there,
Here a baa, there a baa,
Everywhere a baa-baa,
A gobble-gobble here and a gobble-gobble there,
Here a gobble, there a gobble,
Everywhere a gobble-gobble,
An oink-oink here and an oink-oink there,
Here an oink, there an oink,
Everywhere an oink-oink,
A cluck-cluck here and a cluck-cluck there,
Here a cluck, there a cluck,
Everywhere a cluck-cluck,
A moo-moo here and a moo-moo there,
Here a moo, there a moo,
Everywhere a moo-moo,
A quack-quack here and a quack-quack there,
Here a quack, there a quack,
Everywhere a quack-quack,
A woof-woof here and a woof-woof there,
Here a woof, there a woof,
Everywhere a woof-woof,
A neigh-neigh here and a neigh-neigh there,
Here a neigh, there a neigh,
Everywhere a neigh-neigh,
[TAKE A DEEP BREATH AND SLOW DOWN!]
Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!

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ACTIVITIES

Talk with your kid about each animal, using the pictures above or others you've found. What is the animal used for? Can we eat it? Should we eat it? What are its babies called (colt or foal, puppy, etc.)? Is there a difference in what we call the males and females (stallion and mare, bull and cow, etc.)? You may have noticed: that's a rooster in front of the hen!