Lyrics

Learning to Print (2018)

Mrs. Thomas hands out pencils
thick as crayons, thick as thumbs.
They are red with pink erasers.
As she gives them out, she hums.

We are going to learn our letters,
learn our numbers, write our names.
Pencils aren’t at all like crayons;
crayons are for children’s games.

Not today our boxes colours:
burnt sienna, olive green,
sky blue, salmon, chestnut, lemon,
bubblegum and aquamarine.

Oh how carefully we copy,
keeping in between the lines.
Stick our tongues out for good measure,
memorize the magic signs.

E and F and H are ladders.
when you write in upper case.
Try to hold the pencil gently.
Slow down, this is not a race.

A’s a tipi, B’s a bosom,
U’s a horseshoe, so is C.
Some face forward, some face backward,
some have extra bits like G. And D..

Once upon a time, a someone
scratched these symbols on a page.
Learning them’s a rite of passage.
Mrs. Thomas says you can gauge

a persons’ fiber by their printing.
If you’re careful you can get
a prize. And so we clench our magic
wands and cast the alphabet.