Really Cute Song for Teaching Opposites!

Cover of Opposites (Concept Sliders)

I came across an adorable song today for reinforcing opposites and just had to share! It’s called “Opposites” and it comes from the Scholastic Professional’s Book “50 Learning Songs Sung to Your Favorite Tunes- Teach & Delight Every Child With Skill-Building Songs That Are Fun to Sing & a Snap to Learn!” by Meish Goldish. That’s a lot of title!

I introduced the song during Circle Time at the start of our school day. The kids weren’t sure what to think the first time through, but after a few times they were having a blast. I would start each sentence, “You say hot (or whatever) and I say _____.” They would shout out the second word and liked trying to beat their siblings to the punch. My 5-year-old still struggles a bit with opposites and my 3-year-old is just learning them, so this was an awesome way to reinforce the concept! I overheard them singing (aka shouting) the song at/ with each other during free play time. Yeah!

Why do we bother teaching opposites? To get technical, teaching opposites is one of the first steps to developing higher level thinking. They help us recognize relationships between words and concepts. Opposites are one of the basic concepts young children need to master in order to grasp reading, writing, listening skills, math, and following directions. Opposites also teach kids lots of new vocabulary words and help them learn to describe their environment. Kids who gain a solid foundation with the basics do better academically later on.

That’s a lot of responsibility for such a simple concept. Here’s the song:

 

Opposites

(sung to “Ten Little Indians”)

You say yes, and I say no,

You say stop, and I say go,

You say fast, and I say slow,

These are opposites!

 

You say day, and I say night,

You say dark, and I say bright,

You say heavy, I say light,

These are opposites!

 

You say big, and I say small,

You say short, and I say tall,

You say none, and I say all,

These are opposites!

 

You say wet, and I say dry,

You say low, and I say high,

You say laugh, and I say cry,

These are opposites!

 

You say hot, and I say cold,

You say bought, and I say sold,

You say young, and I say old,

These are opposites!

 

You say fat, and I say thin,

You say lose, and I say win,

You say out, and I say in,

These are opposites!