Ants Go Marching One by One
Lyrics
The Ants Go Marching
The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching one by one,
The little one stops to suck his thumb
And they all go marching down to the ground
To get out of the rain, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The ants go marching two by two, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching two by two, hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching two by two,
The little one stops to tie his shoe
And they all go marching down to the ground
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The ants go marching three by three, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching three by three, hurrah,
hurrah The ants go marching three by three,
The little one stops to climb a tree
And they all go marching down to the ground
To get out of the rain, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The ants go marching four by four, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching four by four, hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching four by four,
The little one stops to shut the door
And they all go marching down to the ground
To get out of the rain, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The ants go marching five by five, hurrah, hurrah The ants go marching five by five, hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching five by five,
The little one stops to take a dive
And they all go marching down to the ground
To get out of the rain, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
feet and get moving. This is great, because the more than young children move around and learn
how their arms, legs, hands, and fingers work, the more that frees up their brains for learning instead
of keeping them from falling over.
But did you know that aside from all the fun marching that will inevitably take place while you and
your child sing, this song is also a wonderful way to work on counting and rhyming? Let’s check out
how!
For this song, while you and your child are marching, try holding up the number of fingers that
matches the lyrics. Start with one finger in the air and by the end, you’ll have five. Make sure to count
those fingers before each new verse. Singing, marching, and focusing on the correct number of
fingers will be an excellent opportunity for your child to exercise different parts of their brain,
creating stronger synaptic connections (aka, making them smarter).
For a sillier counting activity, have your child gather 5 of their stuffed animals or figurines to be their
“ant” friends, and pick up an additional one for each new verse to march with. They’ll have their arms
full of five whole “ants” by the end, just like in the song and will likely find it unbearably funny. Again,
be sure to take the time to count the “ants” at each opportunity because repetition is key for learning.
Or to challenge their knowledge, skip around with the verses and ask them to bring 3 friends, then 2,
then 5 so they actually have to count each time.
It takes a lot of work for a child to be able to connect the word “three” to the shape “3” we use for
writing to the concept of three things. That’s why the more ways we can combine them all together
and practice as much as possible, the more easily children can learn their numbers.
The other fun part about this song is the rhyming component. You’ll notice each verse has rhyming
words – two/shoe, five/dive, etc. After singing and marching, you can extend your child’s learning by
using another fun song.
To the tune of “Skip to My Lou”, plug in rhyming words with these actions:
Two, (extend right hand)
Shoe, (extend left hand)
These words rhyme, (put hands into fists and roll around each other in front of chest)
Repeat 3x
They sound the same at the end (Extend both hands)
Using this song, you can explore the rhymes within “Ants Go Marching” as well as numerous other
rhyming songs, rhyming books, or even your own rhyming pair words. When children can identify the
tiny sounds in words, for example, the difference between “bat” and “pat”, they’ll be more prepared
for learning how to read!
You can watch this and more more on our YouTube Channel.
