Toddler Activities: The Old Grey Cat Activity Song

By: Deborah Pace Rowley

Last week my sister blogged about the fun songs that Anniston loves to sing. This reminded me of the fun songs we used to sing when I taught a two- year-old class at Parent Cooperative Preschool in Salt Lake City. One of the kids favorite songs was "The Old Grey Cat." I have posted a video of a preschool class singing this song below in case you are not familiar with the tune. But we never just sang the song while standing or sitting in place. I think the way that PCP did this song was much more fun. The music leader would divide the class in half. One group would be cats. The other group would be mice. Then the children would act out the song as we sang.

These are the words that I remember. They are slightly different than the song on the video but with the same tune.

The old grey cat is sleeping, sleeping, sleeping. The old grey cat is sleeping in the house. (Cat pretends to sleep.)

The little mouse is creeping, creeping, creeping. The little mouse if creeping in the house. (Mouse sneaks around the sleeping cat.)

The old grey cat is waking, waking, waking. The old grey cat is waking in the house. (Cat stretches and starts to wake up.)

The little mouse is scampering, scampering, scampering. The little mouse is scampering in the house. (Little mouse starts to scamper away from the cat.)

The old grey cat is chasing, chasing, chasing. The old grey cat is chasing in the house. (Cat starts to chase the mouse and the music gets faster and faster.)

The little mouse is hiding, hiding, hiding. The little mouse is hiding in the house. (The mouse finds something to hide behind or under like a table or chair.)

The old grey cat is swiping, swiping, swiping. The old grey cat is swiping in the house. (The cat swipes at the mouse but doesn't actually reach him.)

The little mouse is laughing, laughing, laughing. The little mouse is laughing in the house. (The mouse sticks out his/her tongue and sticks his fingers in his ears to tease the mouse. "You can't get me. You can't get me," the mouse seems to say. Then he blows a raspberry to end the song.)

Then we would start the song all over again with the children changing roles. You can play this game with two children or more children if you have a play group over for the day. You can even play this game with one child if you take the role of the cat or the mouse.

I made some paper ears for Brooklyn and Anniston by attaching some simple cutouts to some headbands that we had laying around the house. The ears were fun but not necessary.

The children in our preschool wanted to sing this song over and over again. It is great for helping children learn to follow instructions as they have to follow the cues in the song to know what to do.

Enjoy having a cat and mouse hunt around your house. Here is the video to give you the tune. It is pretty simple and easy to sing.