"folk" songs everyone knows

[WireBoy]

checkout Riders in the Sky ! #They have a fabulous catalog going back nearly 30 years with songs of the old west and other general americana songs. #you can't help but smile or weep when the get going !

[bgjunkie]

My son just turned 5 on the 20th. While putting my daughter to bed on the night before (she is also 5 until July 24th) she said she wanted to learn to play Happy Birthday on her fiddle for her brother. I told her I would write it out and leave it on her bedside table so she could pratice it the next morning. She did a wonderful job with it (even though her brother did not show the appreciation she expected). She asked me last night to write out something new for her to work on, so I did Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and left it for her. There are some great songs listed here that I will have to keep in mind for her.

I just have to keep reminding myself that she learns by finger positions - not frets.

[B. T. Walker]

I ran across this site of sing-along songs. Got a copy of "Sweet Baby James" in time to sing along with James Taylor on Prairie Home Companion yesterday. That was lucky. Click here for a whole bunch of toe-tappers.

[hoffmannia2k7]

I just played a kids camp last week.

On Top of Spaghetti was great cause everyone sang.
I started with an Old McDonald cause all the kids get involved and pick an animal and everybody can be very silly.

We did This Land is Your land and they already knew a choreographed dance.

I played there ain't no bugs on me (despite racial undertones) and all the kids perked up and swere screaming (I know that!!!)

[John Flynn]

I noticed that "There Ain't No Bugs on Me" is now being used in a TV commercial for a pet care, flea and tick prevention product. Through a video effect, a cute little dog sings it throughout the spot. So if kids didn't know that that tune before, they do now!

[mandroid]

this one comes to mind:
Fred & Irwin Silber, editors,
Folksinger's Wordbook
(Oak Publications, 1973;
Music Sales Corp., 2000)

a friend wrote up a musical theater show for kids to perform in, based on.

DR SUESS' The Lorax, . it was great fun..

[swampy]

I used to work with special needs kids, and would bring my guitar in and sing with them all the time. Their favorites were:

This Land is Your Land
I've Been Working on the Railroad
Old McDonald
Drunken Sailor
Bingo
Cumberland Gap

There were others as well, but these were the once that were always requested. I found that they just wanted to participate and they loved throwing out suggestions in Old McDonald and things like that.

I've got a few children's songbooks all of them came from yard sales and thrift shops, there must be millions out there.