10 Easy French Songs For Children

How many traditional French songs for children, do you know? One is very popular (I’m pretty sure you know song n°1), but there are so many more that French kids are taught at school. A lot of traditional songs or nursery rhymes are learned before even going to school (3 years old here) as they are pretty catchy and easy to memorize. How about I give you a tour of 10 of the most famous French songs for children?

If you are more of a reader than a singer, check out these books we recommend for children who want to read French.

French song for children n°1: Frère Jacques

The oh-so-famous Brother John which is actually Brother Jack! It’s exactly the same as in English, aside from the fact that it starts with Brother Jack. It goes “Brother Jack, Brother Jack, Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping? Morning bells are ringing, Morning bells are ringing. Ding, Ding, Dong. Ding, Ding, Dong”.

French song for children n°2: Une souris verte

A green mouse. This song is still used today as a song you sing while washing your hands. And boy, do we wash our hands nowadays!

Fair warning, I find the verses pretty strange as an adult. Kids find it hilarious. Apparently a dark war story is behind it, however let’s keep it light and childish.

The first verse is the most known. It translates as “A green mouse, running in the grass. I catch it by the tail, I show it to these men. These men say: dip it in oil, dip it in water, it will be a hot snail.”

The last verse goes “I put it in a drawer, it says it’s too dark. I put it in my hat, it says it’s too hot. I put it in my underwear, it makes 3 droppings.”

French song for children n°3: Il était un petit homme

Once upon a time there was a little man. The story of a little man (with the added rhyming words of spin and peanut…Oh the mystery of songs) who had a funny house made of cardboard with a paper staircase. The mailman went to that house and broke his nose. He was patched up with golden thread. The thread broke, the nose flew off (this song kind of sounds like a nightmare to be honest) and a jet airplane caught it. End of story.

French song n°4: 1 2 3 nous irons au bois

1 2 3 we will go to the woods. A great song to learn how to count in French, similar to 1, 2 buckle my shoe. But in France, we don’t buckle our shoes or pick up sticks. We go to the woods to pick cherries in a brand new basket. And the cherries will be red (side note: 6 (six) and cerises (cherries) as well as rouge and 12 (douze) do not rhyme all that much…).

French song for kids n°5: A cheval sur mon bidet

Riding my little horse. This one is fun to do with a child sitting on your knees in front of you. You bounce your knees like the child is riding a horse more or less rapidly based on the lyrics. Au pas is walk, au trot is, well, trot and galop is gallop (!) or canter. See when I say French is easy? You already know this!

This translates to “Riding my little horse, When it trots, it’s perfect. Walk, walk, walk. Trot, trot, trot. Gallop Gallop Gallop!”

There is a famous alternative, a bit sillier for children. This time you can say cheval or dada and it goes “Riding my little poney, When he trots he farts. Walk, walk, walk. Trot, trot, trot. Gallop, Gallop, Gallop.” And at the end you pretend there is a farting noise, and you open your knees and your child slides between them a bit.

French song n°6: Ah les crocodiles

Oh the crocodiles. Here I will only present the chorus. The song talks about crocodiles in Egypt going to fight elephants. My children only know and like to repeat the chorus. It says the crocodiles on the Nil are gone, let’s not talk about it anymore.

French songs for kids n°7: Ainsi font font font les petites marionnettes

Here they go, go, go, the little puppets. To be honest, this song goes on a bit more than what I am putting here. However, neither my children nor I have ever heard or learned the other verses. So I will not share them. Just the first verse which translates to “That’s how they go, go, go the little puppets, that’s how they go, go go, 3 turns and go away”. You sing this song while moving/twisting your hands 3 times and then hiding them in your back.

French song for children n°8: Dansons la capucine

Let’s dance the capucine. It’s the story of a danse called la capucine which is, technically, a flower, the nasturtium, that resembles a swirling dress. This translates as “let’s dance the capucine, there is no bread/wine/fire at our place, there is some at the neighbor’s but it’s not for us. The last part is let’s dance the capucine, there is fun at our place, we cry at the neighbor’s, we alway laugh here.”

Note that usually, the children sing the song while dancing in a circle and at the end, on the Youh, they all crouch.

French song for children n°9: Un élephant qui se balançait

An elephant that was swaying. It’s the story of an elephant who is balancing on a spiderweb. He thinks it’s very funny so he calls a second (…and so forth) elephant. And then all of a sudden, crash.

You can add as many elephants as you want (troisième, quatrième, cinquième). I usually stop at 2 to be realistic, two elephants would never balance well on a spiderweb. And it’s the badaboum part that the children like anyway.

French song n°10: L’araignée Gipsy

It’s the Itsy Bitsy Spider, en français but of course.

So, in the end, how many did you know?

Well now you got 10 and you should be singing your lungs out with your kids by now! Have fun!