Helpful Tips for Parents

• Music reduces anxiety, transitions distress, and meltdown frequency in preschoolers. Transition songs — "five more minutes then we clean up" sung consistently — make stopping easier.

• Children who regularly hear complex music (multi-part harmonies, syncopated rhythms, varied instrumentation) develop more sophisticated musical brains than those exposed only to simple songs.

• Create family singing rituals: a wake-up song, a travel song, a cleanup song, a bedtime song. Rituals anchor music to positive emotional memories and make it non-negotiable.

• Children who learn songs in a second language develop more flexible language processing brains than monolingual peers. Even a few songs in another language is beneficial.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many songs should a preschooler know by age 5?

There's no developmental benchmark for number of songs known at age 5. What matters is that children have a rich musical memory — a repertoire of songs they can sing, chant, and reference. A child who knows 20–30 songs in multiple genres, can keep a basic beat, responds emotionally to music, and participates enthusiastically in musical activities is musically well-developed at age 5. The number of songs is less important than the depth of musical engagement they represent.

Why do preschoolers respond so strongly to music?

Music activates more areas of the brain simultaneously than almost any other stimulus. The auditory cortex, motor areas, limbic system (emotions), and language areas all engage during musical listening and participation. Preschoolers' brains are in an exceptional period of musical sensitivity — they're tuned to pattern, rhythm, and repetition in ways that make music naturally compelling. This is why children's songs are typically repetitive, melodically simple, and rhythmically strong — these are the musical features that match the preschool brain's processing strengths.

Related reading: See also our dance party activities and our vocabulary building guide for more ideas on this topic.

🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 🎵 Musical Intelligence — Active engagement with music — singing, moving, playing — develops the musical intelligence that shapes auditory processing, emotional expression, and the broad cognitive benefits that music education consistently produces.
• 🧠 Memory & Sequencing — Memorizing songs and recalling their sequence builds working memory, sequential memory, and the procedural long-term memory that learning skills — from reading to mathematics — depends on.
• 🤝 Social Connection — Singing together in a group creates social synchrony — a physical experience of togetherness — that builds community, belonging, and the cooperative social bonds that children need for school and friendship.
• 🎤 Confidence & Performance — The experience of using their voice — singing alone or with others — builds vocal confidence and the comfort with performance and self-presentation that presentations, reading aloud, and social interaction require.

Slippery Fish Song

The Slippery Fish song was written and sung by Charlotte Diamond in her CD titled 10 Carrot Diamond . It is one of many great songs on her CD in which preschoolers can sing and dance along. It is the perfect for playgroups, preschools or just spending some silly time at home.

Listen to Slippery Fish **

Slippery Fish Song Interactive Instructions

Have your preschooler stand during the song. During the "gulp, gulp, gulp" part of the song, keep the palms of your hands together and open the fingers of each hand to represent the gulping of a fish. During the "Oh, no! It’s been eaten by a …" part of the song, put your hands on your cheeks. All other movement instructions are in parentheses within the song.

(Put your hands together in a prayer position to resemble a fish and wiggle them together as if swimming)

Slippery fish, slippery fish, sliding through the water,

Slippery fish, slippery fish, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp!

Oh, no! It’s been eaten by an …

(Wave your arms up and down like the flailing arms of an octopus.)

Octopus, octopus, squiggling in the water

Octopus, octopus, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp!

Oh, no! It’s been eaten by a …

(Put your hands together with your figners slightly bent and spread, keeping your palms touching each other. Open and close your hands as you sing.)

Tuna fish, tuna fish, flashing in the water,

Tuna fish, tuna fish, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp!

Oh, no! It’s been eaten by a …

(Place one hand, with fingers straight upwards, on top of your head.)

Great white shark, great white shark, lurking in the water,

Great white shark, great white shark, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp!

Oh, no! It’s been eaten by a …

(Make big upward motions with your arms to resemble the spouting of water by a whale.)

Humongous whale, humongous whale, spouting in the water,

Humongous whale, humongous whale,

Gulp! … Gulp! … Gulp! … BURP!

(Cover your mouth.) Pardon me!

Print the Words to Slippery Fish

Slippery Fish

Slippery fish, slippery fish, sliding through the water,

Slippery fish, slippery fish, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp!

Oh, no! It’s been eaten by an …

Octopus, octopus, squiggling in the water

Octopus, octopus, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp!

Oh, no! It’s been eaten by a …

Tuna fish, tuna fish, flashing in the water,

Tuna fish, tuna fish, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp!

Oh, no! It’s been eaten by a …

Great white shark, great white shark, lurking in the water,

Great white shark, great white shark, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp!

Oh, no! It’s been eaten by a …

Humongous whale, humongous whale, spouting in the water,

Humongous whale, humongous whale,

Gulp! … Gulp! … Gulp! … BURP!

Pardon me!

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