Song Illustration Book Project

Paper — one sheet per verse of the song

Crayons, markers, or colored pencils

A stapler or tape for binding the pages together

Printed or handwritten song lyrics

Choose a song your child knows well that has clear imagery: "Old MacDonald" (farm animals), "Wheels on the Bus" (bus parts), or "Five Little Ducks" (ducks going out).

Write or print each verse on a separate piece of paper, leaving the bottom two-thirds blank for drawings.

Read the first verse together and ask: "What should we draw for this part?" Let their imagination lead.

Let your child draw their interpretation of each verse. A cow for the cow verse, a bus for the wheels verse.

Move through all the verses, creating one illustrated page per verse.

Staple or tape the pages together to make a book. Add a cover with the song title.

Sing the entire song together while turning the pages of your new illustrated songbook. It's a performance!

Songs with repeating structures work best because each verse is similar enough to be predictable but different enough to draw something new.

This is a reading readiness activity in disguise. Your child is learning that printed words carry meaning and that pages go in order — foundational literacy.

Keep the book and revisit it. Singing from a book your child made is a completely different experience from singing from memory.

For older kids (5-6), they can try writing a word or two from each verse alongside their drawing.

Great songs to illustrate: "Down by the Bay," "Brown Bear Brown Bear" (sung version), "Going on a Bear Hunt."