Maker Camp Singalong

Grab your guitar and gather around the Maker Camp campfire. Or blast your favorite maker sing-along ditties while you build your Maker Camp projects during DIY Music week. We have pulled together our favorite songs for kids of all ages in which you can belt out your love for all things “maker” or celebrate your being the unique, inventive, and imaginative person that brought you to Maker Camp!

Our recommended playlist includes:

• “This Too Shall Pass” by OK Go (while the lyrics aren’t explicitly about making, the sentiment is a useful rule of thumb for makers, and both the original and the Rube Goldberg-inspired versions of the videos are tremendous, as are all their videos! Check out OK Go’s Damian Kulash playing a MaKey MaKey on Monday’s Maker Camp if you missed him.)

• “The Elements” by Tom Lehrer

• The NeverEnding Story theme

• “Knitting Song” by Fraggle Rock’s Doozers

• “Yellow Submarine” by The Beatles (sing while making the boat projects, or any underwater ROVs)

• “Space Oddity” by David Bowie (The version brilliantly recorded by Commander Chris Hadfield of Canada on board the International Space Station is no longer available. He had a one-year deal on the copyright from Bowie, which expired mid-May 2014. Maybe they’ll work something out in the future, but as of early July it lives on only as other parodies or illegal re-posts.)

• “SkyMall”, “Code Monkey”, “Shop Vac,” “I’m Your Moon”, and more by geek rock icon Jonathan Coulton

• The Big Bang Theory theme song and others by The Barenaked Ladies

• Sesame Street classics

• • • “Bein’ Green” as sung by Kermit the Frog

    • “I Am Special” sung by Grover

    • “I Love Trash” sung by Oscar the Grouch

    • “Imagine That” and “Imagination” sung by Ernie

• “Science Is Real,” “Meet the Elements”, “The Bloodmobile,” etc. by They Might Be Giants

• Schoolhouse Rock! classics

  • “Three Is a Magic Number”

  • “Electricity, Electricity”

  • “Mother Necessity”

• Disney classics

  • “Part Of Your World” from The Little Mermaid, Alan Menken & Howard Ashman: (along with aspiring to a new life, Ariel hoards found objects!)

  • “Whistle While You Work” and “Heigh-Ho” from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

  • “The Bare Necessities” from The Jungle Book

• Traditional classics (get these lyrics in our Maker Camp Songbook)

  • “Daisy Bell” (as sung by HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey, it mentions planting, bicycling, and lights)

  • “This Little Light of Mine” (to be sung by the glow of LEDs?)

  • “This Land is Your Land” reminds us that this land was made for you and me!

  • “Hole in My Bucket” runs through different tools and solutions to fixing the hole.

  • “Mama Don’t Allow” features many fun instruments that Mama really should allow!

  • “Scarborough Fair” has herbs, sewing and other industry, and water conversation all in one.

  • “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”: who doesn’t love a train song?

• These three from Adafruit’s longer post (adafruit.com/blog/2009/04/14/songs-for-making-things)

  • “We Built This City” by Jefferson Airplane

  • “If I Had A Hammer” by Peter, Paul and Mary

  • “Electricity” by Elton John

Add your requests to our jukebox by suggesting songs in the comments below!