Old MacDonald Had a Farm Lyrics: Animal Sounds That Teach Rhyming

What you'll need

• None. Optional: a few soft or plastic farm animals for the "pick your animal" verse.

How to do it

1. 1

   Start with just the chorus and clap the E-I-E-I-O. Sing the one line everybody knows — "Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!" — and clap on each letter sound. The five-beat chant is the anchor of the whole song.

   
2. 2

   Add the cow verse with a big moo. "And on that farm he had a cow, E-I-E-I-O! With a moo-moo here and a moo-moo there, here a moo, there a moo, everywhere a moo-moo." Cup your hands into horns and make the biggest, silliest moo you can. Your toddler will copy the horns before the words — the sound comes next.

   
3. 3

   Let your toddler pick the next animal. Hold up two animal toys and ask, "Who should live on the farm next?" Two-year-olds love being the boss of the song. If they pick a duck, the next verse is the duck verse — follow their lead.

   
4. 4

   Add the movement with the sound. Every animal gets one simple motion: pig — wiggle your nose and oink-oink; duck — flap your arms and quack-quack; sheep — shrug and baa-baa; horse — gallop in place and neigh; dog — clap on woof-woof; cat — stretch tall and meow; hen — peck with fingers and cluck-cluck; rooster — arms wide, crow cock-a-doodle-doo; goat — bend low and maa-maa. Do the motion first, then the sound, then both together.

   
5. 5

   Sing it faster. Once your toddler knows three or four verses, sing the whole thing at double speed — a hilarious jumble, and a secret memory workout.

   
6. 6

   Play the sound-guessing game. Make an animal sound WITHOUT naming the animal — just "quack-quack" — and let your toddler shout the animal. Swap roles; getting it wrong on purpose is the funniest thing in the world at age two.

   
7. 7

   March it as an animal parade. Sing the chorus as the marching beat and parade around the living room — gallop like the horse, waddle like the duck, stomp like the cow.

   
8. 8

   End with the quiet-farm bedtime version. Slow the tempo to a whisper, sing the chorus softly, and make every animal sound tiny — a sleepy little moo, a drowsy little baa. The familiar pattern tells your toddler's body the day is winding down.

   

Other ways to play it

• One-word verse: For very young twos, the verse is just the sound: "With a quack here and a quack there."
• Signed version: Add a simple sign per animal — horns for the cow, flapping hands for the duck.
• The Itsy Bitsy Spider lyrics pair well with Old MacDonald on the same sing-along afternoon — one fingerplay, one full-body song.
• Twinkle Twinkle Little Star lyrics make a calm follow-up when the farm parade winds down.

How it changes by age

• Perfect for ages 2–3. Twos join the chorus and the sounds; threes can lead a verse and play the guessing game both ways. Babies enjoy the bounce, and fours love the speed rounds and the parade.

What they're learning

Rhyming and vowel sounds: The "O" in E-I-E-I-O anchors a predictable rhyme pattern; the vowel chant trains little ears to hear sounds inside words. That same listening skill is the starting point for teaching rhyming to preschoolers when they turn three. Early phonics: Moo, baa, and oink are distinct sound units — playing with them is the same skill as playing with letter sounds later. Short sound games in phonics activities for preschoolers build directly on moo, baa, and oink. Memory through repetition: The unchanging chorus lets toddlers predict what comes next, which is how memory for sequences develops. Rhythm: Clapping the five beats of E-I-E-I-O builds the beat sense that later supports reading fluency. Vocabulary: Each verse bundles a word, a sound, and an action into one package.

Questions parents ask