Silly song about a flea and teapot

What floats a preschooler’s boat? Silliness. Here’s one of our favourite silly songs, One Two Three Flea that will have them roaring with laughter and wanting to learn the lyrics. Meanwhile you can give a big tick to ‘rhyming words’ in your literacy  program. Their function in this song is to hook the children into predicting what comes next in each new line.

One Two Three, Flea!

One, two, three,

Mother caught a flea,

Put it in a teapot,

And made a cup of tea,

The flea jumped out,

Mother gave a shout,

“Dad!”

And in came father,

With his shirt hanging out.

Bring in your teapot (and maybe your furry pet!)

When I introduce this pair of silly songs (fast and slow versions), I show them a teapot and talk about putting tea in it and then adding boiling-hot water. The danger element has them fascinated.

Then I bring in the idea of the family dog scratching his flea bites under the kitchen table. If I’m feeling particularly silly myself I might mime that for them by getting on the floor, twitching one leg and snapping into my ‘fur’ chasing fleas.

Next they need to imagine one flea jumping onto the table near the teapot and mother catching it, stuffing it into the teapot, putting on the lid and reaching for the kettle of boiling water. Aaaah! Poor flea!  In my dramatisation the flea escapes through the spout (which incidentally is another rhyme with ‘out’ and ‘shout’ so why not use it?)

Mother (that’s me too) shouts ‘Dad’ and then I slap both my hands hands hard and fast on my legs to make the sound of father running in. They love the fact that his shirt is hanging out so embroider that into the scene. Silly Mum made flea tea. Equally silly Dad, can’t dress himself! Kids hooting with laughter and wanting to sing all the rhymes. Let me know how it goes for you in the comments.

Add in the body percussion for more song and silliness

Once they know the story, show them a body percussion pattern and sing the song slowly at first so they can match the actions and then faster once they know it. It’s exciting, silly and simple enough that they can learn the whole song with those one syllable rhyming words ‘three, flea, tea’ and ‘out, shout and bonus word spout’ leading them on.

Silly songs galore in a lesson plan

This song is part of a preschool music lesson plan called Cooks in the Kitchen available from our webstore with all the activities and music tracks you need for a fun music session where things go absolutely bonkers. There are exploding sausages, a boy with a pumpkin instead of a head, stolen tarts, and a pie made with live blackbirds. It’s ok, they sing and fly away!

Have fun and remember, there’s nothing quite like singing and dramatising to make silly songs seem possible!

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