Reptiles
Pinewood Elementary

lyrics by the after-school songwriting crew (3rd, 4th, and 5th grade)
at Pinewood Elementary in Tujunga, CA
to the tune of “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean” (Scottish trad.)

You know alligators are reptiles
So are crocodiles, lizards, and snakes
Tortoises, turtles, and terrapins
Geckos and gharials are great

Reptiles, reptiles, reptiles are scaly and really great
Reptiles, reptiles, my favorite class of vertebrate!

Each reptile you’ll meet is cold blooded
So their temperature goes up and down
When the weather is cold they are torpid
They warm up when the sun comes around

Reptiles, reptiles, reptiles are scaly and really great
Reptiles, reptiles, my favorite class of vertebrate!

Reptiles lay eggs for their babies
With a hard or a leathery shell
Some reptiles lay eggs and forget them
But some care for their babies quite well

Reptiles, reptiles, reptiles are scaly and really great
Reptiles, reptiles, my favorite class of vertebrate!

Some reptiles are mostly aquatic
But most of them live on the land
Reptiles are really adapted to be
In the sea or the swamp or the sand

Reptiles, reptiles, reptiles are scaly and really great
Reptiles, reptiles, my favorite class of vertebrate!

I’ve learned many facts about reptiles
I’ve learned far too many to list
It’s such fun for me, I may grow up to be
A herpetologist

Reptiles, reptiles, reptiles are scaly and really great
Reptiles, reptiles, my favorite class of vertebrate!

Notes

This is part of a song cycle about the five different classes of the vertebrate phylum, all of them written by a group of kids in an after-school arts program sponsored by the L.A's BEST foundation. They did a ton of research (books, documentaries, etc.) in the process and learned a lot about zoology. They also had fun writing and performing their songs! BTW the five vertebrate classes are reptiles, mammals, birds, fish, and amphibians.

Here are some academic content standards from the NGSS, Common Core, etc. addressed by this song.

First Grade:
1-LS1-2. Read texts and use media to determine patterns in behavior of parents and offspring that help offspring survive.
LS1.B: Growth and Development of Organisms. Adult plants and animals can have young. In many kinds of animals, parents and the offspring themselves engage in behaviors that help the offspring to survive.

Second Grade:
2-LS4-1. Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.

Third Grade:
LS1.B: Growth and Development of Organisms. Reproduction is essential to the continued existence of every kind of organism. Plants and animals have unique and diverse life cycles.
3-LS3-1. Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms.
LS3.B: Variation of Traits. Different organisms vary in how they look and function because they have different inherited information.
3-LS4-3. Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.

Fourth Grade:
4-LS1-1. Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

All Grades:
-Participate in shared research and writing projects.
-Patterns in the natural and human designed world can be observed and used as evidence.
-Scientific Knowledge is Based on Empirical Evidence; scientists look for patterns and order when making observations about the world.

Chords to play this song: I play it on guitar with E, A, and B7 but any root/4th/5th combo is fine; the 7 on the 5th is optional.