People In The School Song, The

Submitted by Ruthann Hull, Pennsylvania

Idea posted October 21, 2003

I decided to change the characters in the song/game "The Farmer In The Dell" because of gender issues. We use the same melody but simply change our song to "The People In The School." This helps my kindergartners to identify with who works in the school and how important each job is to keep our school running. I replaced the characters in a random order, but this is what I came up with:

Farmer = Principal

Wife = Teacher

Nurse = Nurse

Child = Student

Dog = Secretary

Cat = Lunch Cook

Mouse = Janitor

Cheese = Music Teacher (The student who is the music teacher is left alone in the circle and sings a solo part.)

The people in the school

The people in the school

ABC's and 123's

The people in the school

(The principal picks the teacher, etc.)

The last line is:

The music teacher sings alone

The music teacher sings alone

(solo) La, la, la, la, la, la, la

The music teacher sings alone