Simply Silly Songbook: Songs About School: Piano/Vocal Book

The pairing of Olson's melodic sensibility with Nesbitt's award-winning humor creates songs that children actually want to sing, not songs adults think children should tolerate. The chord symbols make this accessible whether you're accompanying on piano, guitar, or encouraging young musicians to play along, giving classroom teachers real flexibility in how they use the material.

Pure joy and mischief. These songs bounce with comic timing, featuring lyrics that celebrate the kind of ridiculous scenarios kids find hilarious (sandwiches underwater, homework-eating dogs, mysteriously delicious taquitos). The melodies are sturdy enough to sing without constantly searching for the line, letting singers focus on enjoying the absurdity.

Children's choirs, elementary and middle school music classes, and classroom teachers looking for repertoire that makes singing fun rather than a chore. This works equally well for performance and for everyday music instruction where engagement matters as much as technique.

• Lean into the comedy. These songs work best when singers commit fully to the absurdity in the lyrics rather than treat them as cute novelties.
• Use the chord symbols to involve intermediate pianists or guitarists in the performance, turning the accompaniment into a teaching opportunity rather than a solo responsibility.
• Consider letting different singers or small groups take individual verses to maintain energy and give more students a featured moment.

Perfect for casual performance contexts like classroom showcases, end-of-year celebrations, or informal concerts where the goal is to showcase student energy and personality rather than technical prowess. A single song works as a concert opener or palate cleanser between more formal pieces; several songs strung together could anchor an entire family concert.

• Reading and interpreting lyrics with appropriate inflection and comedic timing
• Maintaining melodic accuracy while engaging emotionally with text
• Sight-reading accessible vocal lines with piano accompaniment
• Understanding chord symbol notation for basic harmonic literacy