My Peeps

The word "peeps" has several meanings, as you are probably aware. For our purposes here, it can mean friends (as in the slang derivative of "people"), which works out pretty well for lots of occasions. If you want to use the tune for Easter or spring, it's not too much of a stretch to recognize that "peep" is the sound a baby chick makes. And of course, most of us are familiar with the sweet marshmallow candies shaped like chicks and bunnies that tend to be most popular around Easter time. So why not have a song that could be used for any of the above?

The bouncy style is actually triplet based, but should feel easy enough for your young singers. Many early songs for little kids have a similar style, like "Pop Goes The Weasel," or "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." Never knew a kid that didn't grab onto those quickly! The lyrics are also super simple so that it's easy to memorize. Let your kids sing with our kids to learn it at first. Once they know it, teach them to leave out the word "peeps" the second time through. As the music indicates, this would be a good time to hold up a "peep" instead of singing the word. These can be the candies or they can be little stuffed animals, like chicks or bunnies. Other Easter-type animals might include ducklings or piglets, too. If you're using the song as a friendship song, have them point at their friends or put their arms around them during the silent moments. If leaving the word out is too difficult for your youngsters, forget it. Let them sing along joyfully throughout! Especially if you are using this in performance, your audience will appreciate them however they do it.

Note: There are lots of other varieties of the candy called Peeps® besides chicks and bunnies. For example, we saw some Halloween versions recently, and have heard that there are Christmas and Valentine ones, too. Just google "peeps" to find their web site, if you're interested.