Name Games

September 15, 2024 6:26 AM

Part of my lesson plan recently has been singing Willoughby Walliby Woo. I'm trying to brain storm other letters.

I came across bibbity bobbity boo A spider sat on you, bibbity bobbity bee a spider sat on me.

So creative hive mind, any other ideas?

posted by kathrynm to Education (13 answers total)

Could you explain what you’re looking for a little more? I don’t want to go way off in the weeds with my suggestions.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 6:43 AM on September 15

Blibbity blobbity bloo
Clippity cloppity cloo
Diggety doggity doo
Flippity floppity floo
Hippity hoppity hoo
Lillaby lollaby loo
Miffity moffity moo
Riffety raffety roo
Slippity sloppity sloo
Whippity whoppity whoo
Yippity yappity yoo
Zippity zappity zoo
posted by Redstart at 6:44 AM on September 15

Bizzily buzzily boo
Rickety rackity roo
Tickety tackity too
posted by Redstart at 6:47 AM on September 15

I'm guessing that the OP is looking for songs where some letter sound is especially prominent, for teaching phonics to preschoolers (see tags). Not sure if these should be existing songs or just new lyrics?

There's Miss Mary Mack for M, and you could modify the lyrics to include more M sounds. Then again, the "k" might be the most salient there. Hickory Dickory Dock might also be good for "k" (or "ck").

The wheels on the bus go Round and Round (for R)?

Baby Beluga for B.

There do seem to be a lot of songs out there aimed at teaching phonics that do the whole alphabet at once, rather than one song per letter.
posted by trig at 6:53 AM on September 15

Baby Shark for "SH", and maybe also for B (baby), M (mommy), D (daddy), etc. You could really use that song as a framework for adding lots of different letters in a [Something] Shark template, maybe letting kids suggest words and having them point to the letter(s) of the alphabet that make the sound...

(Maybe Matt Farley takes commissions - this seems like an overlooked niche.)
posted by trig at 7:03 AM on September 15

How about The Name Game by Shirley Ellis?
posted by wisekaren at 7:07 AM on September 15

Piggy Pig Pig by Procol Harum - or maybe not. The title's not really in the lyrics and it's not very singable (but the kids would giggle when they heard "streets awash with blood and pus").
posted by Rash at 7:19 AM on September 15

What about the classic Three Stooges Swingin' the Alphabet?
posted by jozxyqk at 7:20 AM on September 15

Bibbity bobbity boo a spider sat on you, bibbity bobbity bee a spider sat on me.

These aren't the same lyrics as the song in Disney's "Cinderella."

Another candidate, but I'm not sure for which letter: Mairzy Doats
posted by Rash at 7:27 AM on September 15

It seems like a straight consonant substitution would yield good results, a bit similar to what Apples & Bananas does with vowels

Willoughby Walliby Woo/Wee

Billoughby Balliby Boo/Bee
…
Filloughby Falliby Foo/Fee
…
Pilloughby Palliby Poo/Pee (The kids will like that one)
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:36 AM on September 15

Perhaps look into some of the older children's performers. Sharon, Lois and Bram. Fred Penner, the wonderful songs from Sesame Street: Ten tiny turtles, etc. Yes, they're about numbers but there's a lot of alliteration, too.
Alligator pie was a big hit in the 1980s.
posted by Enid Lareg at 11:20 AM on September 15

It seems like we're all interpreting the request differently. But since the title of the post is Name Games and the bibbity bobbity boo example is basically just like Willoughby Wallaby Woo, I'm thinking the OP wants more variations on Willoughby Wallaby Woo that begin with different letters.

It starts out:

Willoughby Wallaby Woo
An elephant sat on you
Willoughby Wallaby Wee
An elephant sat on me

Then you insert the names of people in the group:

Willoughy Wallaby Won
An elephant sat on John
Willoughby Wallaby Wolly
An elephant sat on Molly
etc.
posted by Redstart at 1:20 PM on September 15

Redstart has it. It's a Raphi song.

I seriously don't want to sing it for another week, but alas, my plans are written for me. I just wanted to change it up for the kids. I will be supplementing with other songs.
posted by kathrynm at 3:08 PM on September 15