English Songs for Primary School Students
As an auxiliar de conversación (an assistant language teacher in Spain), I teach English to the first, second, and third grades in an elementary school. Since the school I work at is a bilingual school, I teach English through other academic and extracurricular subjects, including natural and social sciences, physical education, and music. On this page, I’ve compiled the English as a second language (ESL) or English as a foreign language (EFL) songs I’ve used with my students on a variety of subjects.
If you’re looking for English songs for primary school students, especially for the first, second, and third grades, look no farther!
You’ll find these ESL/EFL songs organized below by subject in alphabetical order.
Animal Classification
Animal Classification: The Vertebrates Song - A fun song that classifies vertebrate animals in English. A great song for primary school students of all ages.
Sing Along Song: Carnivores, Herbivores, Omnivores - A fun English sing along song about herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores. Helps students repeat and practice English vocabulary out loud.
Animals - Domesticated vs. Wild Animals
I Have a Pet - An easy song that incorporates names of pets and common English sentences.
Wild Animals for Kids - Here’s a great video for teaching and practicing the names of wild animals. I recommend pausing the video each time it shows the silhouette of a new animal. When the video is paused, you can ask your students if they know the name of the animal in English. In this way, this video can be turned into a guessing game. You can even put students into teams and/or have them play for points!
Body Parts - External
The Skeleton Dance - a silly parts of the body song and dance, great for Halloween, too
Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes - my students already knew this song, but it’s great for practice with the English parts of the body
If You’re Happy and You Know It - fun song to quiz students on English body parts
Body Parts - Internal
Schoolhouse Rock Body Machine - this song is a bit tricky, but you can ask students to raise their hands when they hear an English vocabulary word related to the digestive system
Schoolhouse Rock Do the Circulation - this song is a bit tricky, but you can ask students to raise their hands when they hear an English vocabulary word related to the circulatory system
Cardinal Directions (North, South, East, and West)
The Directions Song - Here’s a song to help teach your students the cardinal directions in English!
Cardinal Directions Song - Why use just one song when you could use two? Here’s another English song that’s great for teaching the cardinal directions to primary school students.
Christmas
Gingerbread Cookie Dance - a super fun song and dance to teach students how to make a gingerbread house in English
Let’s Decorate Our Christmas Tree - a short cartoon song about decorating Christmas trees, great for teaching Christmas vocabulary in English
We Wish You a Merry Christmas - a classic Christmas carol, great for teaching students about Christmas caroling
Cities, Towns, and Villages
Where Are You Going? - a children’s song that mentions several places in a city/town/village
Earth
Four Layers of the Earth - This fairly simple song is great for getting students to speak—or rather sing—aloud the English vocabulary words related to the Earth’s structure.
We Care for the Earth - An English song to teach students about how to take care of the Earth and its environments.
Food and Nutrition
The Food Pyramid Song: This song can be used to review the different food groups and how much of each group are healthy to eat. (BONUS: Repeat the song, pausing after each food group to ask students what nutrient is found in those types of food.)
Fruit Song for Kids - A song that lists different fruits and encourages kids to eat healthy food
Fruits Are Great - Another fun song to get kids excited about eating fruit
Fruit and Veggies ABC’s - A great video for teaching fruits and vegetables as well as the English alphabet
Halloween
The Skeleton Dance - a silly parts of the body song and dance, great for Halloween, too
This is the Way We Carve a Pumpkin - a short song about jack-o-lantern carving that includes parts of the face
Habitats
Habitats - STEAM Song - A simple song with helpful graphics for teaching young primary school students about different habitats and environments in English.
Habitats Song (Hopscotch) - This song is a bit more complicated than the one above, but it’s great for teaching students about different environments and their characteristics. If you’re teaching these concepts in English to older primary school students, you might find this song to be useful.
Hygiene
Wash Your Hands Song - An excellent song made to teach children how to wash their hands well
Plants
Roots, Stem, Leaves, Flower - A song with a catchy chorus and hand movements to teach students the parts of a plant in English.
The Needs of a Plant - A repeat-after-me-style song to teach elementary school students about the things plants need to survive, in English, of course.
Photosynthesis - A song and dance to teach primary school students how photosynthesis works in English.
Parts of a Plant - A great sing-along with a nice tune and simple lyrics to teach students the parts of a plant.
Professions
Who Do You See? - a kids’ song with English names of common professions
Seasons
Learn the Seasons - This fun music video teaches about the seasons and weather in English through a parody of Bruno Mars’s Uptown Funk.
Senses (Sight, Smell, Taste, Touch, Hearing)
The 5 Senses Song - a great song with helpful graphics to reinforce the five senses in English
Thanksgiving
They Were the Pilgrims - a song to help engage students with the story of the first Thanksgiving in English.
The Turkey Pokey - it’s the Hokey Pokey, but you and the students can pretend to be turkeys!
Gobble Gobble - a cute dance about turkeys and Thanksgiving dinner
Valentine’s Day
5 Little Hearts - The Kiboomers Preschool Songs & Nursery Rhymes for Valentine’s Day - A short song to teach a few key English phrases for Valentine’s Day.
L-O-V-E Love! Danny Go! Valentine’s Day Songs - A Valentine’s Day song about love.
Valentine’s Day Song for Kids - Would You Be My Valentine? - A song with a cute cartoon about asking someone to “be my Valentine.”
Valentine’s Day Exercise Dance - A Valentine’s Day dance with a great introduction with lots of English Valentine’s Day vocabulary. A great English song for primary school students.
Weather and Climate
Water Cycle Hip Hop Dance - In my experience, one of the best ways to get students to engage with the material they’re learning is to stand up and move. Here’s an excellent example: a hip hop dance that teaches the phases of the water cycle in English.
Learn the Seasons - This fun music video teaches about the seasons and weather in English through a parody of Bruno Mars’s Uptown Funk.
How’s the Weather? - If you’re looking for an easy song to review basic English weather vocabulary, you might like this one.
The Weather Song - Here’s one more super simple song about English weather concepts!
