Wheels on the Bus Lyrics

Credited to American songwriter Verna Hills in 1939, this action song has become one of the most-performed children's songs in classrooms and cars alike, thanks to its easy-to-mimic verses about a bus and its passengers. It's aimed at toddlers and preschoolers, roughly ages 1-5, an age range where imitating hand motions alongside words is a favorite activity. Each verse adds a new gesture, the wheels going round, the wipers swishing, the doors opening and closing, which gives children repeated practice coordinating movement with rhythm, an early step toward the kind of body control needed for writing and other fine motor tasks later on. Early-childhood educators frequently use its verse-by-verse structure to teach sequencing, since children learn to predict what body part or bus feature comes next. The song's flexible format also means new verses get invented constantly, keeping it fresh across generations of classrooms. For more on how action songs build these physical skills, see this look at movement songs and gross motor development.

The wheels on the bus go round and round,
Round and round, round and round.
The wheels on the bus go round and round,
All through the town.

The wipers on the bus go swish swish swish,
Swish swish swish, swish swish swish.
The wipers on the bus go swish swish swish,
All through the town.

The horn on the bus goes beep beep beep,
Beep beep beep, beep beep beep.
The horn on the bus goes beep beep beep,
All through the town.

The babies on the bus go wah wah wah,
Wah wah wah, wah wah wah.
The babies on the bus go wah wah wah,
All through the town.